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Author: Talmy Givón
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027228671
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 499
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Book Description
The functional notion of topic or topicality has suffered, traditionally, from two distinct drawbacks. First, it has remained largely ill defined or intuitively defined. And second, quite often its definition boiled down to structure-dependent circularity. This volume represents a major departure from past practices, without rejecting both their intuitive appeal and the many good results yielded by them. First, topic and topicality are re-analyzed as a scalar property, rather than as an either/or discrete prime. Second, the graded property of topicality is firmly connected with sensible cognitive notions culled from gestalt psychology, such as predictability or continuity. Third, we develop and utilize precise measures and quantified methods by which the property of topicality of clausal arguments can be studied in connected discourse, and thus be properly hinged in its rightful context, that of topic identification, maintenance and recoverability in discourse. Fourth, we show that many grammatical phenomena which used to be studied by linguists in isolation, all partake in one functional domain of grammar, that of topic identification. Finally, we demonstrate the validity of this new approach to the study of topic and topicality by applying the same text-based quantifying method to a number of typologically-diverse languages, in studying actual texts. Languages studied here are: Written and spoken English, spoken Spanish, Biblical Hebrew, Amharic, Hausa, Japanese, Chamorro and Ute.
Author: Talmy Givón
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027228671
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 499
Get Book Here
Book Description
The functional notion of topic or topicality has suffered, traditionally, from two distinct drawbacks. First, it has remained largely ill defined or intuitively defined. And second, quite often its definition boiled down to structure-dependent circularity. This volume represents a major departure from past practices, without rejecting both their intuitive appeal and the many good results yielded by them. First, topic and topicality are re-analyzed as a scalar property, rather than as an either/or discrete prime. Second, the graded property of topicality is firmly connected with sensible cognitive notions culled from gestalt psychology, such as predictability or continuity. Third, we develop and utilize precise measures and quantified methods by which the property of topicality of clausal arguments can be studied in connected discourse, and thus be properly hinged in its rightful context, that of topic identification, maintenance and recoverability in discourse. Fourth, we show that many grammatical phenomena which used to be studied by linguists in isolation, all partake in one functional domain of grammar, that of topic identification. Finally, we demonstrate the validity of this new approach to the study of topic and topicality by applying the same text-based quantifying method to a number of typologically-diverse languages, in studying actual texts. Languages studied here are: Written and spoken English, spoken Spanish, Biblical Hebrew, Amharic, Hausa, Japanese, Chamorro and Ute.
Author: T. Givón
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : es
Pages : 492
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Book Description
Author: Talmy Givón
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9789027228635
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 492
Get Book Here
Book Description
The functional notion of “topic” or “topicality” has suffered, traditionally, from two distinct drawbacks. First, it has remained largely ill defined or intuitively defined. And second, quite often its definition boiled down to structure-dependent circularity. This volume represents a major departure from past practices, without rejecting both their intuitive appeal and the many good results yielded by them. First, “topic” and “topicality” are re-analyzed as a scalar property, rather than as an either/or discrete prime. Second, the graded property of “topicality” is firmly connected with sensible cognitive notions culled from gestalt psychology, such as “predictability” or “continuity”. Third, we develop and utilize precise measures and quantified methods by which the property of “topicality” of clausal arguments can be studied in connected discourse, and thus be properly hinged in its rightful context, that of topic identification, maintenance and recoverability in discourse. Fourth, we show that many grammatical phenomena which used to be studied by linguists in isolation, all partake in one functional domain of grammar, that of topic identification. Finally, we demonstrate the validity of this new approach to the study of “topic” and “topicality” by applying the same text-based quantifying method to a number of typologically-diverse languages, in studying actual texts. Languages studied here are: Written and spoken English, spoken Spanish, Biblical Hebrew, Amharic, Hausa, Japanese, Chamorro and Ute.
Author: T. Givón
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : es
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: Sarah E. Blackwell
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9781588112798
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 326
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Book Description
"Implicatures in Discourse" examines Spanish conversations and oral narratives in order to seek support for a pragmatic theory of anaphora. Blackwell argues that the use of anaphoric expressions may be considered conversational implicatures that give rise to inferences of coreference and non-coreference. Her analysis shows how speakers abide by Levinson's 'neo-Gricean' principles of Quantity, Informativeness, and Manner, but that grammatical, semantic, cognitive, and pragmatic constraints interact with the neo-Gricean principles, influencing anaphora use and interpretation. The study also reveals how mutual knowledge, including familiarity with Spanish social and cultural norms, enables interlocutors to use and comprehend minimal referring expressions, which cultural outsiders may not be able to interpret. While drawing on earlier work on anaphora and reference, this book offers a fresh look at discourse anaphora, and sheds light on the ways in which speakers felicitously use and interpret anaphoric expressions in a variety of communicative contexts.
Author: Angela Downing Rothwell
Publisher: Univ de Castilla La Mancha
ISBN: 9788484270867
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
This book reviews some current theories about the internal organization of written and oral discourse. The articles range from the theoretical to the highly practical, from the cognitive frameworks which make coherence in oral conversation to the structural and linguistic devices which create textuality in written language. Contextual issues such as ideology, topicality and topic management, thematicity and academic discourse are explored via a contemporary and authentic sample of written fragments and oral corpora. This accesible book will be useful to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students and to teachers interested in Language and Linguistics.
Author: Ann M. Cooreman
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110851016
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.
Author: Kazuko Matsumoto
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027230751
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
This book explores how speakers of Japanese organize their messages into coherent units as they jointly and interactively construct conversational discourse. Specifically, it investigates the syntactic, informational, and functional structures of intonation units (IUs) as basic units of discourse production and information flow in spoken communication. It addresses various research topics: clause vs. phrase centrality, relationship between IUs and clauses, functions of independent NPs, preferred argument/clause structure and transitivity, interrelationship among functional components, and the role of new and interactional information in the shaping of IU syntax. Overall, it tries to elucidate not only the preferred IU structures that are typical of the way Japanese speakers talk in connected discourse, but also possible relationships between the structures and their implications. Besides three main chapters discussing the results of quantitative and qualitative analyses, it also includes an introductory chapter comprehensively covering key issues in research on information flow in spoken discourse in general. Thus the book will be useful to all students and researchers of functional linguistics and discourse analysis.
Author: Richard Watson Todd
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027266220
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 332
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Book Description
Discourse topics are a frequently mentioned but rarely operationalised concept in linguistics. Taking a text linguistic approach and defining discourse topics as clusterings of concepts, this book examines and compares methods for investigating topic boundaries, topic identification and topic development. The first book to be devoted to topics in extended discourse, Discourse Topics examines topics in several genres and generates new insights into the nature of discourse topics that challenge the status quo. It is essential reading for researchers in linguistics, discourse analysis, natural language processing and psychology whose work concerns topics.
