Transitivity And Discourse Continuity In Chamorro Narratives

Author : Ann M. Cooreman
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3110851016
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Transitivity and Discourse Continuity in Chamorro Narratives written by Ann M. Cooreman and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-07-13 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Talmy Givón
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027229171
Total Pages : 411 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Voice and Inversion written by Talmy Givón and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1994 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection aims first to establish a structure-independent, language-independent definition of pragmatic voice, and more specifically then a universal functional definition of “inverse”. The grammar and pragmatic function of the four major voice constructions — direct-active, inverse, passive, antipassive — are surveyed using narrative texts from 14 languages: Koyukon (Athabascan), Plains Cree (Algonquian), Chepang (Tibeto-Burman), Squamish and Bella Coola (Salish), Sahaptin (Sahaptian), Kutenai (isolate), Surinam Carib (Carib), Spanish and Greek (Indo-European), Korean, Maasai (Nilotic), Cebuano and Karao (Philippine). The comparative quantified study of pragmatic voice functions tests the validity of a universal functional definition of voice and in particular of “inverse”. The cross-language comparison of grammatical structures that code the various voice functions then lays down the foundation for a non-trivial cross-language typology of “inverse”.

Author : Talmy Givón
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 902722580X
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Syntax written by Talmy Givón and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition of "Syntax: A functional-typological introduction" is at many points radically revised. In the previous edition (1984) the author deliberately chose to de-emphasize the more formal aspects of syntactic structure, in favor of a more comprehensive treatment of the semantic and pragmatic correlates of syntactic structure. With hindsight the author now finds the de-emphasis of the formal properties a somewhat regrettable choice, since it creates the false impression that one could somehow be a functionalist without being at the same time a structuralist. To redress the balance, explicit treatment is given to the core formal properties of syntactic constructions, such as constituency and hierarchy (phrase structure), grammatical relations and relational control, clause union, finiteness and governed constructions. At the same time, the cognitive and communicative underpinning of grammatical universals are further elucidated and underscored, and the interplay between grammar, cognition and neurology is outlined. Also the relevant typological database is expanded, now exploring in greater precision the bounds of syntactic diversity. Lastly, Syntax treats synchronic-typological diversity more explicitly as the dynamic by-product of diachronic development or grammaticalization. In so doing a parallel is drawn between linguistic diversity and diachrony on the one hand and biological diversity and evolution on the other. It is then suggested that as in biology synchronic universals of grammar are exercised and instantiated primarily as constraints on development, and are thus merely the apparent by-products of universal constraints on grammaticalization.

Author : Doris L. Payne
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027229058
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility written by Doris L. Payne and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For some time the assumption has been widely held that for a majority of the world's languages, one can identify a "basic" order of subject and object relative to the verb, and that when combined with other facts of the language, the "basic" order constitutes a useful way of typologizing languages. New debate has arisen over varying definitions of "basic," with investigators encountering languages where branding a particular order of grammatical relations as basic yielded no particular insightfulness. This work asserts that explanatory factors behind word order variation go beyond the syntactic and are to be found in studies of how the mind grammaticizes forms, processes information, and speech act theory considerations of speakers' attempts to get their hearers to build one, rather than another, mental representation of incoming information. Thus three domains must be distinguished in understanding order variation: syntactic, cognitive and pragmatic. The works in this volume explore various aspects of this assertion.

Author : Petra Campe
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027282048
Total Pages : 655 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Case, Semantic Roles, and Grammatical Relations written by Petra Campe and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1994-07-01 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first of a series of 6 books dealing with case phenomena in different languages, both Indo- and non-Indo-European, resulting from work by a team of 20 specialists at the University of Leuven. It is the first time such a large-scale investigation into case has been undertaken, and a remarkable feature of the project is the use of computer corpora of authentic material. This bibliography presents the many dimensions involved in research into case and case-related phenomena. This includes not only morphological case markers, but also the crossconstituent (semantic and grammatical) relations expressed by morphological case or by its various counterparts; morpho-syntactic processes such as transitivity and passivization; and pragmatic and textual considerations. In addition, the bibliography reflects the implications of case research for other disciplines, such as foreign language teaching and artificial intelligence. More than 6000 publications are listed. An extensive Subject Index provides easy access to all the topics and major concepts covered. A Language Index and a Guide to Languages/Language Families conclude the book. The other volumes in the series include The Dative (2 vols), The Genitive, The Nominative and Accusative, and Non-nuclear Cases.

Author : T. Givón
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027273995
Total Pages : 504 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Functionalism and Grammar written by T. Givón and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1995-06-01 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is Prof. Givón's long-awaited critical examination of the fundamental theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the functionalist approach to grammar. It challenges functionalists to take their own medicine and establish non-circular empirical definitions of both 'function' and 'structure'. Ideological hand-waving, however fervent and right-thinking, is seldom an adequate substitute for analytic rigor and empirical responsibility. If the reductionist extremism of the various structuralist schools is to be challenged on solid intellectual grounds, the challenge cannot itself be equally extreme in its reductionism. The book is divided into nine chapters: 1. Prospectus, somewhat jaundiced (overview) 2. Markedness as meta-iconicity: Distributional and cognitive correlates of syntactic structure 3. The functional basis of grammatical typology 4. Modal prototypes of truth and action 5. Taking structure seriously: Constituency and the VP node 6. Taking structure seriously II: Grammatical relations and clause union 7. The distribution of grammar in text: On interpreting conditional associations 8. Coming to terms with cognition: Coherence in text vs. coherence in mind 9. On the co-evolution of language, mind and brain.

Author : Fernando Zúñiga
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 902729304X
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Deixis and Alignment written by Fernando Zúñiga and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2006-11-29 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proposes a notion of inverse that differs from two widespread positions found in descriptive and typological studies (one of them restrictive and structure-oriented, the other broad and function-centered). This third stance put forward here takes both grammar and pragmatic functions into account, but it also relates the opposition between direct and inverse verbs and clauses to an opposition between deictic values, thereby achieving two advantageous goals: it meaningfully circumvents one of the usual analytic dilemmas, namely whether a given construction is passive or inverse, and it refines our understanding of the cross-linguistic typology of inversion. This framework is applied to the description of the morphosyntax of eleven Amerindian languages (Algonquian: Plains Cree, Miami-Illinois, Ojibwa; Kutenai; Sahaptian: Sahaptin, Nez Perce; Kiowa-Tanoan: Arizona Tewa, Picurís, Southern Tiwa, Kiowa; Mapudungun).

Author : Esam N. Khalil
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9789027251015
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Grounding in English and Arabic News Discourse written by Esam N. Khalil and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grounding in English and Arabic News Discourse explores the discourse notion of grounding (viz. the foreground-background structure), and examines it in the various structures that occur in short news texts. A text-level approach to grounding and the differentiation between several core concepts relating to the various textual and non-textual structures, distinguish the book from other approaches in the field. A corpus-based analysis focuses on sentence-initial expressions and examines the grounding-signalling function of several markers in both English and Arabic. The analysis captures constraints on the occurrence of particular markers, and the extensive illustrative examples explain the strategies that writers employ to cope with problems of recasting grounding-values in news texts. The author also shows how the failure to signal appropriate grounding-values is likewise associated with the failure to deliver the appropriate type of text. Grounding is a relatively unexplored area of investigation in Arabic (text)linguistics, and the study identifies a series of previously unrecognized language features, highlighting the discourse pragmatic function that syntax serves. The book will be invaluable to researchers and students of discourse, pragmatics, contrastive rhetoric, and communication. It will also be of interest to all those involved in translation and intercultural studies.

Author : T. Givón
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9027266468
Total Pages : 414 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Story of Zero written by T. Givón and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2017-01-19 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The zero coding of referents or other clausal constituents is one of the most natural, communicatively and cognitively-transparent grammatical devices in human language. Together with its functional equivalent, obligatory pronominal agreement, zero is both extremely widespread cross-linguistically and highly frequent in natural text. In the domain of reference, zero represents, somewhat paradoxically, either anaphorically-governed high continuity or cataphorically-governed low topicality. And whether in conjoined/chained or syntactically-subordinate clauses, zero is extremely well-governed, at a level approaching 100% in natural text. The naturalness, cross-language ubiquity and well-governedness of zero have been largely obscured by an approach that, for 30-odd years, has considered it a typological exotica, the so-called "pro-drop" associated with a dubious "non-configurational" language type. The main aim of this book is to reaffirm the naturalness, universality and well-governedness of zero by studying it from four closely related perspectives: (i) cognitive and communicative function; (ii) natural-text distribution; (iii) cross-language typological distribution; and (iv) the diachronic rise of referent coding devices. The latter is particularly central to our understanding the functional interplay between zero anaphora, pronominal agreement and related referent-coding devices.

Author : J. Toyota
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230594654
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Diachronic Change in the English Passive written by J. Toyota and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-11-05 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this coherent historical development of the passive voice in English, the main argument deals not only with the passive per se, but also with its related constructions, which can play vital parts in identifying both functional and structural motivations for creating the passive.