Author: María Jesús Pérez Quintero
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900433419X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book presents a detailed corpus-based study of adverbial subordinate clauses in English within the framework of the theory of Functional Grammar. On the basis of an in-depth data analysis, this study shows that there is a systematic correlation between the semantic types of adverbial clauses, on the one hand, and the verb forms by means of which these constructions are expressed in English, on the other. In contrast to most traditional classifications, the criterion used for the semantic classification of adverbial clauses is not simply the basic meaning of the conjunction introducing the subordinate clause. Instead, the present classification is based on the systematic and consistent application of four semantic parameters: Entity Type, Time Dependency, Factuality and Presupposition. The relevance of the application of these parameters is not only that they allow to establish a complete and exhaustive typology of adverbial clauses, but also that they form the basis for four implicational hierarchies that determine the distribution of expression formats along the different semantic types of adverbial clauses. This book also constitutes a contribution to the application of Functional Grammar to the corpus-based analysis of a specific language and, more specifically, to the validation of the hierarchical model of the structure of the clause postulated within this theoretical framework.
Author: Olga Fischer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521768586
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Get Book Here
Book Description
An accessible, up-to-date account of the major changes in English syntax since its beginnings up to the present day.
Author: Bernd Kortmann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110812428
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 452
Get Book Here
Book Description
Research on language universals and research on linguistic typology are not antagonistic, but rather complementary approaches to the same fundamental problem: the relationship between the amazing diversity of languages and the profound unity of language. Only if the true extent of typological divergence is recognized can universal laws be formulated. In recent years it has become more and more evident that a broad range of languages of radically different types must be carefully analyzed before general theories are possible. Typological comparison of this kind is now at the centre of linguistic research. The series empirical approaches to language typology presents a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. The distinctive feature of the series is its markedly empirical orientation. All conclusions to be reached are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. General problems are focused on from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Special emphasis is given to the analysis of phenomena from little known languages, which shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics. The series is open to contributions from different theoretical persuasions. It thus reflects the methodological pluralism that characterizes the present situation. Care is taken that all volumes be accessible to every linguist and, moreover, to every reader specializing in some domain related to human language. A deeper understanding of human language in general, based on a detailed analysis of typological diversity among individual languages, is fundamental for many sciences, not only for linguists. Therefore, this series has proven to be indispensable in every research library, be it public or private, which has a specialization in language and the language sciences. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.
Author: Jean-Christophe Verstraete
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110918196
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Get Book Here
Book Description
This study argues that the domain traditionally covered by 'coordination' and 'subordination' in English can be subdivided into four distinct construction types. The constructions are defined on the basis of differences in their 'interpersonal' structure, i.e. the grammatical encoding of speaker-attitude and speaker-interlocutor interaction. It is shown that the four types constitute syntactically, semantically and pragmatically coherent categories, with differences in interpersonal structure defining and motivating distinct syntactic behaviour, distinct pragmatic functions and distinct semantic classes of clause linkage. The validity of the analysis is demonstrated in three ways. First, it is shown that the analysis can make sense of the wide range of apparently conflicting criteria found in the literature on complex sentences, which can now be explained as reflections of four different construction types rather than as alternative perspectives on one single contrast between coordination and subordination. Second, it is shown how the analysis can deal with two specific problems in the more general area of clause combining, viz. the syntactic basis of the distinction between 'content', 'epistemic' and 'speech act' levels of clause linkage, and the distinct discursive functions associated with initial and final position of adverbial clauses. Finally, it is also shown that the proposed analysis is useful beyond the analysis of English, with parallels in a number of cross-linguistically recurrent phenomena of clause linkage. The book is mainly of interest to linguistics researchers in the areas of syntax, semantics and pragmatics as well as to graduate students with a focus on these fields.
Author: Elena Seoane
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110583577
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book provides a collection of articles on subordination in English framed from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. It covers ample areas of the history of the major subordinated structures of English and their recent development in various native and non-native varieties. Most contributions are based on large electronic databases and corpora of written and spoken texts. The book focuses on the continuum that links subordinated and coordinated structures in a fluid way, shows their permanent state of flux, and sheds light on the whole system's dynamic essence by discussing a large number of explanatory principles at work in shaping it. Many of these are well-known from the grammaticalization and the Construction Grammar theories, such as the concepts of attractor, multi-sourcing, inheritance, categorial incursion, metaphorization or exaptation. This volume represents the latest trends in the field by some of its most prestigious specialists.
Author: Robin Jeffrey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages :
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Sonia Cristofaro
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191554855
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book presents a typology of subordination systems across the world's languages. Traditional definitions of subordination are based on morphosyntactic criteria, such as clausal embedding or non-finiteness. The book shows that these definitions are untenable in a cross-linguistic perspective, and provides a cognitively based definition of subordination. The analysis is based on a representative 80 language sample, and represents the broadest study so far conducted on the cross-linguistic coding of several types of complement, adverbial, and relative sentence. These sentence types display considerable structural variation across languages. However, this variation turns out to be constrained, and appears crucially related to the functional properties of individual sentence types. This work is the first systematic attempt to establish comprehensive implicational hierarchies describing the coding of complement, adverbial and relative sentences at a single stroke. Concepts from typological theory and cognitive linguistics are integrated to account for these hierarchies.
Author: Bernd Kortmann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136122206
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Get Book Here
Book Description
Free adjuncts and absolutes typically function as adverbial clauses which are not overtly specified for any particular adverbial relation. The book is a non-formal, corpus based study of their current use in English. Its particular focus is on a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of their semantic indeterminacy and the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors that help resolve it.
Author: Cecilia E. Ford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521418038
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 187
Get Book Here
Book Description
Cecilia E. Ford explores the question: what work do adverbial clauses do in conversational interaction? Her analysis of this predominating conjunction strategy in English conversation is based on the assumption that grammars reflect recurrent patterns of situated language use, and that a primary site for language is in spontaneous talk. She considers the interactional as well as the informational work of talk and shows how conversationalists use grammar to coordinate their joint language production. The management of the complexities of the sequential development of a conversation, and the social roles of conversational participants, have been extensively examined within the sociological approach of Conversation Analysis. Dr Ford uses Conversation Analysis as a framework for the interpretation of interclausal relations in her database of American English conversations. Her book contributes to a growing body of research on grammar in discourse, which has until recently remained largely focused on monologic rather than dialogic functions of language.
Author: Rainer Vesterinen
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443830712
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 199
Get Book Here
Book Description
The study of adverbial clauses in Portuguese is related to the fact that the Portuguese speaker may chose between three different structures, i.e. the adverbial clause may contain the plain infinitive, the inflected infinitive or a finite verb form. In the field of Portuguese Linguistics, the analysis of these structures has traditionally been conducted from a Generative Grammar perspective postulating abstract rules and transformations in order to explain the variation between these structures. As a result, focus has been put on purely structural aspects, while conceptual differences have been highly neglected. The present book challenges this view of linguistic analysis. Instead of proposing a general semantic content for finite and infinitive adverbial clauses in Portuguese—traditionally based on notions like deep structure and surface structure—the hypothesis put forward is that these clauses evoke different meanings and that the use of one adverbial structure or another can be explained by the context in which it occurs and by the conceptual content it designates. From a Cognitive Grammar perspective of linguistic analysis, it is shown that Portuguese adverbial structures illustrate the iconic nature of language and that their conceptual meaning can be explained by notions such as prominence, mental spaces, control and subjectification.
