Download or read book Reclaiming Control as a Semantic and Pragmatic Phenomenon written by Patrick Duffley and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph is part of a growing research agenda in which semantics and pragmatics not only complement the grammar, but replace it. The analysis is based on the assumption that human language is not primarily about form, but about form-meaning pairings. This runs counter to the autonomous-syntax postulate underlying Landau (2013)’s Control in Generative Grammar that form must be hived off from meaning and studied separately. Duffley shows control to depend on meaning in combination with inferences based on the nature of the events expressed by the matrix and complement, the matrix subject, the semantic relation between matrix and complement, and a number of other factors. The conclusions call for a reconsideration of Ariel (2010)’s distinction in Defining Pragmatics between semantics and pragmatics on the basis of cancelability: many control readings are not cancelable although they are pragmatically inferred. It is proposed that the line be drawn rather between what is linguistically expressed and what is not linguistically expressed but still communicated.

Download or read book Pronouns in Embedded Contexts at the Syntax Semantics Interface written by Pritty Patel-Grosz and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-18 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents studies on pronouns in embedded contexts, and offers fundamental insights into this central area of research. Much of the recent research on pronouns has shown that embedded environments, such as clausal complements of attitude predicates, provide a window into the nature of pronouns. Pronouns in such environments not only exhibit familiar distinctions such as that between bound and referential pronouns; if they refer to the attitude holder, they also participate in a broader range of phenomena, e.g., distinguishing between a de se reading (involving a conscious self-directed belief) and a de re reading (involving an accidental belief about oneself). Topics covered include: the semantics of attitude reports that contain pronominal elements, the semantics of pronominal features and their connection to indexicality, new insights in the connection of pronominal typology and logophoricity or anti-logophoricity, and finally, the localization of embedded pronouns within a bigger picture involving the nature of perspective and the analysis of quasi-pronominal phenomena such as sequence of tense.

Download or read book A Selectional Theory of Adjunct Control written by Idan Landau and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel, systematic theory of adjunct control, explaining how and why adjuncts shift between obligatory and nonobligatory control. Control in adjuncts involves a complex interaction of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, which so far has resisted systematic analysis. In this book, Idan Landau offers the first comprehensive account of adjunct control. Extending the framework developed in his earlier book, A Two-Tiered Theory of Control, Landau analyzes ten different types of adjuncts and shows that they fall into two categories: those displaying strict obligatory control (OC) and those alternating between OC and nonobligatory control (NOC). He explains how and why adjuncts shift between OC and NOC, unifying their syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties. Landau shows that the split between the two types of adjuncts reflects a fundamental distinction in the semantic type of the adjunct: property (OC) or proposition (NOC), a distinction independently detectable by the adjunct's tolerance to a lexical subject. After presenting a fully compositional account of controlled adjuncts, Landau tests and confirms the specific configurational predictions for each type of adjunct. He describes the interplay between OC and NOC in terms of general principles of competition--both within the grammar and outside of it, in the pragmatics and in the processing module--shedding new light on classical puzzles in the acquisition of adjunct control by children. Along the way, he addresses a range of empirical phenomena, including implicit arguments, event control, logophoricity, and topicality.

Download or read book Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16 written by Irene Vogel and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2020-08-15 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chapters in this book represent the theme of “bridges” – bridging research approaches and directions across languages, methodologies and disciplines. Alongside descriptive and theoretical studies, the contributions present experimental studies addressing issues in syntax, phonetics-phonology and sociolinguistics. And alongside investigations of linguistic phenomena in standard Romance language varieties, other investigations address less well-known and studied, minority and endangered varieties (e.g., Quebec French, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Galician, Catalan and Palenquero) from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Romance languages in contact with other languages and bilingualism, now also integral aspects of the field, are reflected in this volume as well, including less well-known cases of contemporary contact of Serbian with Romanian, and earlier contact of African languages with Spanish and Portuguese. This volume thus continues the decades long tradition of the Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages of embracing cutting-edge developments in the field.

Download or read book Linguistic Meaning Meets Linguistic Form written by Patrick Duffley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book steers a middle course between two opposing conceptions that currently dominate the field of semantics, the logical and cognitive approaches. Patrick Duffley brings to light the inadequacies of both of these frameworks, arguing that linguistic semantics must be based on the linguistic sign itself and on the meaning that it conveys across the full range of its uses. The book offers 12 case studies that demonstrate the explanatory power of a sign-based semantics, dealing with topics such as complementation with aspectual and causative verbs, control and raising, wh- words, full-verb inversion, and existential-there constructions. It calls for a radical revision of the semantics/pragmatics interface, proposing that the dividing line be drawn between content that is linguistically encoded and content that is not encoded but still communicated. While traditional linguistic analysis often places meaning at the level of the sentence or construction, this volume argues that meaning belongs at the lower level of linguistic items, where the linguistic sign is stored in a stable, permanent, and direct relation with its meaning outside of any particular context. Building linguistic analysis from the ground up in this way provides it with a more solid foundation and increases its explanatory power.

Download or read book Changing Structures written by Mark Kaunisto and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of eleven research articles which altogether serve as a contribution to the study of verb complementation and other constructions, an area of investigation which bridges observations on the spectrum of lexico-grammar, syntax, and semantics. In terms of methodological approaches and the types of linguistic patterns examined, the chapters cast light on the subject from a variety of perspectives, and the volume is structured in a way that groups the various perspectives under three main themes according to their main focus and/or methodological approaches, namely: the semantic and functional descriptions of constructions; the investigation into the distribution of complementation patterns; and the study of innovative patterns in ESL contexts and languages other than English. All chapters in this volume employ data from large electronic corpora where possible – the BNC, COCA, COHA, GloWbE, NOW, and newly compiled corpora representing regional varieties of English.

Download or read book Corpus Based Studies on Non Finite Complements in Recent English written by Paul Rickman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-02-19 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book showcases fresh research into the underexplored territory of complementation through a detailed analysis of gerunds and ‘to’ infinitives involving control in English. Drawing on large electronic corpora of recent English, it examines subject control in adjectival predicate constructions with ‘scared’, ‘terrified’ and ‘afraid’, moving on to a study of object control with the verbal predicate ‘warn’. In each chapter a case study is presented of a matrix adjective that selects both infinitival and gerundial complements, and a central theme is the application of the Choice Principle as a novel factor bearing on complement selection. The authors argue that it is helpful to view the patterns in question as constructions, as combinations of form and meaning, within the system of English predicate complementation, and convincingly demonstrate how a new gerundial pattern has emerged and spread in the course of the last two centuries. This book will appeal to scholars of semantics, corpus linguistics, and historical linguistics as well as those with an interest in variation and change in recent English more generally.

Download or read book The Present day English Gerund System written by Charlotte Maekelberghe and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study offers a first comprehensive synchronic account of the Present-day English gerundial system. Most synchronic studies of gerunds have hitherto focused on the verbal gerund, scrutinizing its categorial status or comparing it with other non-finite clausal structures. A systematic comparison with its nominal counterpart, however, is lacking. Based on a detailed empirical analysis of lexico-grammar and semantics, this study develops an innovative cognitive-constructionist model of the English gerund system which depicts the usage profiles of nominal and verbal gerunds in terms of probabilistic trends rather than by means of categorical labels. It is shown that a better understanding of the functioning of the English gerund system requires a description that operates on multiple levels, accounting for both the abstract construal gerunds can impose on an event as well as the token-level constraints on variation between the two gerund types. This multifaceted approach, it is argued, not only offers a new perspective on the configuration of ing-forms in Present-day English, it can also be of relevance to the description of other complex grammatical structures.

Download or read book Categoriality in Language Change written by Lauren Fonteyn and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-25 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the first serious attempt to set out a functional-semantic definition of diachronic transcategorial shift between the major classes noun/nominal and verb/clause. In English, speakers have different options to refer to an event, ranging from that-clauses (That he had guessed her size) over infinitives (For him to guess her size) and verbal gerunds (Him guessing her size) to nominal gerunds (His guessing of her size) and deverbal nouns (His guess of her size). Interestingly, not only do these strategies each resemble "prototypical" nominals to varying extents, but also some of these strategies increasingly resemble clauses and decreasingly resemble prototypical nominals over time, as if they are gradually shifting categories. Thus far, the literature that has dealt with such cases of diachronic categorial shift has mainly described the processes by focusing on form, leaving us with a clear picture of what and how changes have occurred. Yet, the question of why these formal changes have occurred is still shrouded in mystery. In this book, Lauren Fonteyn tackles this mystery by showing that the diachronic processes of nominalization and verbalization can also involve functional-semantic changes in two steps. First, building on functionalist and cognitive models of grammar, she offers a theoretical model of categoriality that allows us to study diachronic nominalization and verbalization not just as morphosyntactic but also as functional-semantic processes. Second, she offers more concrete, "workable" definitions of the abstract functional-semantic properties of the nominal and verbal/clausal class, which are subsequently applied to one of the most intriguing deverbal nominalization systems in the history of English: the English gerund.

Download or read book Infinitival vs Gerundial Complementation with Afraid Accustomed and Prone written by Juho Ruohonen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the concept of complementation in the adjectival domain of English grammar. Alternation between non-finite complements, especially to infinitives and gerundial complements, has been investigated intensively on the basis of large corpora in the last few years. With very few exceptions, however, such work has hitherto been based on univariate analysis methods. Using multivariate analysis, the authors present methodologically innovative case studies examining a large array of explanatory factors potentially impacting complement choice in cases of alternation. This approach yields more precise information on the impact of each factor on complement choice as well as on interactions between different explanatory factors. The book thus presents a methodologically new perspective on the study of the system of non-finite complementation in recent English and variation within that system, and will be relevant to academics and students with an interest in English grammar, predicate complementation, and statistical approaches to language.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of English Grammar written by Bas Aarts and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-08-11 with total page 854 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook provides an authoritative, critical survey of current research and knowledge in the grammar of the English language. Following an introduction from the editors, the volume's expert contributors explore a range of core topics in English grammar, beginning with issues in grammar writing and methodology. Chapters in part II then examine the various theoretical approaches to grammar, such as cognitive, constructional, and generative approaches, followed by the chapters in part III, which comprehensively cover the different subdomains of grammar, including compounds, phrase structure, clause types, tense and aspect, and information structure. Part IV offers coverage of the relationship between grammar and other fields - lexis, phonology, meaning, and discourse - while the concluding part of the book investigates grammatical change over time, regional variation, and genre and literary variation. The handbook's wide-ranging coverage will appeal to researchers and students of English language and linguistics from undergraduate level upwards.

Download or read book Variation in Non finite Constructions in English written by Mark Kaunisto and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-05-29 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sheds new light on the nature of gerunds in English, utilizing data from very large electronic corpora in order to compare pairs of patterns viewed as constructions. It serves as a contribution to the study of complementation, an under-researched area of investigation which bridges observations at the intersection of lexico-grammar, syntax and semantics. As a result, the reader develops their understanding of the meaning and use of each pattern within the system of English predicate complementation as it has evolved in recent times. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of English linguistics, especially English grammar.

Download or read book Word and Its Ways in English written by Walter Hirtle and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Words are the foundation, the building blocks of language. While an obvious and irreplaceable concept in the minds of non-linguists, the entry "word" does not figure in the indexes of some books on linguistics. Why is there this neglect of the word among many contemporary linguists? Inspired by the work of the French linguist Gustave Guillaume and the last in a series of books, The Word and Its Ways in English is a study of the way the word is configured in English, and an attempt to discern its nature. Walter Hirtle presents the word as the smallest element of meaning in the brain. He also explores how thoughts in the mind of a speaker become a succession of spoken words that are translated back into meaning in the mind of a listener. He examines different categories of words and how grammatical components such as person, case, and gender contribute to a word’s meaning and are intimately linked to the mind. A thought-provoking account of the workings of grammar and the semantic notions that underlie grammatical distinctions, The Word and Its Ways in English is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the link between language, meaning, and words.

Download or read book Journal of Linguistics written by and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 952 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Defining Pragmatics written by Mira Ariel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-24 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although there is no shortage of definitions for pragmatics the received wisdom is that 'pragmatics' simply cannot be coherently defined. In this groundbreaking book Mira Ariel challenges the prominent definitions of pragmatics, as well as the widely-held assumption that specific topics – implicatures, deixis, speech acts, politeness – naturally and uniformly belong on the pragmatics turf. She reconstitutes the field, defining grammar as a set of conventional codes, and pragmatics as a set of inferences, rationally derived. The book applies this division of labor between codes and inferences to many classical pragmatic phenomena, and even to phenomena considered 'beyond pragmatics'. Surprisingly, although some of these turn out pragmatic, others actually turn out grammatical. Additional intriguing questions addressed in the book include: why is it sometimes difficult to distinguish grammar from pragmatics? Why is there no grand design behind grammar nor behind pragmatics? Are all extragrammatical phenomena pragmatic?

Download or read book Linguistic Meaning Meets Linguistic Form written by Patrick Duffley and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book steers a middle course between two opposing conceptions that currently dominate the field of semantics, the logical and cognitive approaches. Patrick Duffley brings to light the inadequacies of both of these frameworks, arguing that linguistic semantics must be based on the linguistic sign itself and on the meaning that it conveys across the full range of its uses. The book offers 12 case studies that demonstrate the explanatory power of a sign-based semantics, dealing with topics such as complementation with aspectual and causative verbs, control and raising, wh- words, full-verb inversion, and existential-there constructions. It calls for a radical revision of the semantics/pragmatics interface, proposing that the dividing line be drawn between content that is linguistically encoded and content that is not encoded but still communicated. While traditional linguistic analysis often places meaning at the level of the sentence or construction, this volume argues that meaning belongs at the lower level of linguistic items, where the linguistic sign is stored in a stable, permanent, and direct relation with its meaning outside of any particular context. Building linguistic analysis from the ground up in this way provides it with a more solid foundation and increases its explanatory power.

Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics written by Keith Allan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pragmatics is the study of human communication: the choices speakers make to express their intended meaning and the kinds of inferences that hearers draw from an utterance in the context of its use. This Handbook surveys pragmatics from different perspectives, presenting the main theories in pragmatic research, incorporating seminal research as well as cutting-edge solutions. It addresses questions of rational and empirical research methods, what counts as an adequate and successful pragmatic theory, and how to go about answering problems raised in pragmatic theory. In the fast-developing field of pragmatics, this Handbook fills the gap in the market for a one-stop resource to the wide scope of today's research and the intricacy of the many theoretical debates. It is an authoritative guide for graduate students and researchers with its focus on the areas and theories that will mark progress in pragmatic research in the future.