Discourse Functional Units

The expression of coherence relations in spoken Spanish

Magdalena Romera
Universitat de les Illes Balears

This study addresses the issue of the definition of Discourse Markers (DMs) in the light of an exclusively functional perspective. The discourse model adopted is based on the notion of coherence relations (Sanders et al., 1992; Hobbs, 1990, 1995). Within this framework, two types of elements are distinguished: Discourse Propositional Units (DPUs) or discourse segments that bear propositional content, and Discourse Functional Units (DFUs) or elements that bear primarily a procedural meaning, transmitting information on how propositional units relate. DFUs are defined on the basis of functional criteria alone, i.e., any expressions whose function is to offer information on how to interpret DPUs is a DFU.

The advantage of this perspective is that it opens up the limits of the category of DMs: many of the forms traditionally considered DMs could now be considered DFUs as well, but also, from a functional perspective, DFUs need not be restricted to pragmatic contexts. This theoretical framework is used to analyze data from natural conversations in Peninsular Spanish. The relations expressed by several Spanish DFUs are studied quantitatively, and the theoretical relevance of the findings for a general theory of DFUs is also discussed.

ISBN 9783895868153. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 41. 180pp. 2004.

Índice

K. V Lámina. Gueorguii Vladímirovich Stepánov
Introducción
El estudio del español de América
El español de América a la luz de las condiciones generales e históricas concretas de la variación lingüística
La estratificación social del español de América y el problema de los tipos de variación
Los americanismos en el sistema del español estandartisado Fonética
Léxico
Formación de palabras

Das Katalanische in der frühen Neuzeit

Untersuchungen zur Grammatikalisierung von Auxiliaren und Kopulae in Selbstzeugnissen der Epoche

Patrick O. Steinkrüger
Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Berlin

Diese Untersuchung stellt eine umfassende Darstellung zur verbalgrammatischen Entwicklung des Katalanischen in der Frühen Neuzeit (16. bis 18. Jahrhundert) dar und befaßt sich in der Hauptsache mit Auxiliarisierungen jenes Zeitraumes, insbesondere der Kopulae ser/estar, der haben-Verben haver/tenir sowie der Bewegungsverben anar ‘gehen’, tornar ‘wiederkehren’ und venir ‘kommen’. Aufgrund ihrer lexikalischen Ausgangsbedeutung sind diese Verben universal gesehen für Auxiliarisierungen prädestiniert. Das hinsichtlich der Textsorte homogene Korpus besteht aus privaten Tagebüchern und Memoiren, die neben Briefen von den Historikern zur Kategorie der Selbstzeugnisse (oder auch Ego-Dokumente) gerechnet werden.

In den Analysen werden (mikro-)typologische Veränderungen im Katalanischen der Frühen Neuzeit untersucht, die dazu beigetragen haben, daß das Katalanische heutzutage - typologisch betrachtet – zusammen mit dem Spanischen und dem Portugiesischen zu den iberoromanischen Sprachen gerechnet werden muß. Hierbei wird die dialektale Ausgliederung des Katalanischen beobachtet, die während der Frühen Neuzeit stattfand und nicht auf prähistorische Substrate zurückzuführen ist. Auch werden hierbei theoretische Fragen und Bereiche der allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft berührt, insbesondere der Grammatikalisierungstheorie (Grammatikalisierung von Verben zu Auxiliaren vor dem Hintergrund kognitiver Theorien) und der Sprachwandelforschung (Quantifizierung und Qualifizierung von Wandelphänomenen über längere Zeiträume). Was den letztgenannten Aspekt anbelangt, so bildet Nichtlinearität keine empirische Ausnahmeerscheinung.

Ein Anhang mit transkribierten Manuskripten, die bisher unpubliziert waren, ein Glossar und ein ausführliches Literatur-verzeichnis zum frühneuzeitlichen Katalanisch vervollständigen den Band.

ISBN 9783895867170. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 43. 330pp. 2004.

Current Issues in Galician Semantics and Pragmatics

Current Issues in Galician Semantics and Pragmatics

Xosé Rosales Sequeiros
University of Greenwich

This book covers a range of topics within Galician semantics and pragmatics. It involves applications and development of semantic and pragmatic theory within Galician linguistics. The main theoretical model used throughout is provided by Relevance theory, as a general approach to verbal communication. In this respect, two of the main objectives in this book are, firstly, to explore applications of this theory to Galician in order to improve and expand the description of the language and, secondly, to investigate possible consequences of these applications for the theory itself.

The areas covered range from aspects of semantic content, the pragmatic interpretation of various linguistic phenomena, through to non-declarative sentences and discourse markers. The unifying force behind these various topics is three-fold: (a) most of the areas explored are seen as instantiations of language use; (b) they are, consequently, seen as falling under the common remit of verbal communication; and, therefore, (c) they are studied together within a single unified theoretical model. The diversifying factor lies in the range of areas of theoretical application examined. In this respect, one of the main contributions of this book lies precisely in the application of Relevance theory to a diverse, yet theoretically coherent, set of communicative phenomena. These applications, in turn, provide further evidence for the validity of the theory used, particularly through its deployment to a wider set of linguistic data and languages.

ISBN 9783895867958. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 45. 132pp. 2005.

Appunti grammaticali sull'enunciazione mistilingue

Riccardo Regis
Università degli Studi di Lecce
Il presente lavoro è dedicato al code-switching intrafrasale (o enunciazione mistilingue); più precisamente, il fenomeno è stato studiato partendo da un corpus di materiali spontanei italiano/piemontese. Affrontate nel primo capitolo alcune questioni di ordine terminologico, nella seconda sezione si passa ad indagare il funzionamento, relativamente al corpus in esame, delle principali restrizioni morfosintattiche e norme predittive proposte in letteratura (si va dalle protorestrizioni di L.A. Timm all'approccio minimalista di J. MacSwan, dalle equivalence e free morphemeconstraints di S. Poplack al Matrix Language Frame Model di C. Myers-Scotton).

Alla prospettiva grammaticale viene poi affiancato, nel terzo capitolo, un approccio percezionale: ad alcuni informatori dialettofoni (12 in totale) è stata chiesto di giudicare l'accettabilità di una serie di frasi miste italiano/piemontese, costruite sulla base di ciò che le regole illustrate nella sezione precedente vietano o consentono.

Il quarto capitolo combina i risultati conseguiti nell'analisi grammaticale con quelli ottenuti nell'indagine percezionale; da questo confronto emerge una straordinaria unità di prospettive: nel contatto italiano/piemontese, tanto per il linguista quanto per il parlante, l'avvicendamento tra codici non sembra conoscere limitazioni, a meno che non si violino le regole di una delle lingue coinvolte.

ISBN 9783895864605. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 46. 260pp. 2005.

La Singlosia germánico-románica desde el subsistema léxico-semántico

Miguel Ayerbe Linares
UPV/EHU

El origen y posterior desarrollo de innovaciones estructurales entre lenguas próximas entre sí geográficamente ha suscitado en numerosas ocasiones el interés de muchos lingüistas. El resultado del análisis de dichas innovaciones ha dado lugar en diferentes ocasiones a la constatación de Sprachbünde o Áreas lingüísticas.

Las innovaciones estructurales, también denominadas “rasgos comunes”, se han analizado en los subsistemas fonético-fonológico, morfológico y sintáctico. Muestras de ello son los Sprachbünde de los Balcanes, Báltico, Sudeste Asiático, etc. Con todo, no deja de llamar la atención que en ninguno de estos Sprachbünde se haya incluido el subsistema léxico-semántico. A nivel teórico existen también posturas que manifiestan reservas a la hora de considerar este subsistema como un ámbito en el que, desde el punto de vista de la Lingüística Areal, se puedan constatar rasgos comunes de un Sprachbund. Según la opinión más generalizada, lo que este subsistema puede aportar son pruebas de contacto lingüístico, expresadas en forma de préstamos y calcos. Ahora bien, que en un subsistema se constaten numerosos préstamos y calcos no debería ser impedimento para hallar también innovaciones estructurales comunes, como de hecho ocurre en los demás subsistemas.

En el presente trabajo se ofrecen algunos indicios de que también el subsistema léxico-semántico puede aportar rasgos comunes que contribuyan a la constatación de un Sprachbund. Esta vez, el ámbito lingüístico en el que se lleva a cabo el análisis comprende lenguas germánicas y románicas occidentales. Previamente se exponen de forma detallada los fundamentos teóricos del fenómeno Sprachbund, que en lengua castellana ha recibo, por el momento, la denominación Singlosia.

ISBN 9783895869884. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 47. 450 pp. 2006.

Small Clauses in Spanish

The Semantics of Transitivity

Jiyoung Yoon
University of North Texas

The present semantic-functional study analyzes small clauses in Spanish in terms of the semantics of main verbs, small clause predicates, direct objects, and subjects, taking Hopper & Thompson's (1980) Transitivity Hypothesis as a theoretical basis. The author argues that the licensing of the small clauses in adjunct position is not dependent solely on one factor as is believed by many linguists. Rather, it depends on the interaction among the semantic properties of the elements of a sentence, i.e., verbs, adjunct predicates, subjects, and objects. These elements interact in such a way that they, as a whole, confer higher or lower Transitivity to a given sentence, which in turn allows or disallows adjunct predicates. If those elements are higher on the Transitivity hierarchy, adjunct predicates receive a felicitous interpretation in a given sentence. If, however, the adjunct is lower on the hierarchy, that is, if it is an individual-level adjunct, it is ill-formed.

Moreover, Yoon argues that the licensing of small clauses in complement position can also be accounted for by the Transitivity Hypothesis. More specifically, applying to small clause complements the distinction between individual-level vs. stage-level elements, the author argues that a felicitous interpretation of a small-clause complement depends crucially on whether the stage-level (higher in Transitivity) or individual-level (lower in Transitivity) property of a given verb co-varies with the stage-level or individual-level property of its corresponding small-clause complement.

The study thus supports the view that the licensing of small clauses is better understood in terms of the compatibility of interacting semantic properties among sentential elements rather than in terms of discrete features that do not interact.

ISBN 9783895869891. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 48. 183pp. 2007.

Table of Contents:

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. PREVIOUS APPROACHES TO SMALL CLAUSES
1. Introduction
2. Debate Between Small Clause Theory and Predication Theory
2.1 SC Theory
2.2 Predication Theory
3. Classification/Range of Small Clauses
3.1 Evolution of the Concept of Small Clauses
3.2 Classification of SCs for Spanish
3.2.3 Summary
3.3 Syntactic Tests to Distinguish Complement SCs from Adjunct SCs
4. Conclusion

CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1. Introduction
2. Lexical Aspects and Vendler’s Categories
3. Stage-Level Versus Individual-Level Predicates
4. The Functionalist Approach and Prototypes
5. The Transitivity Hypothesis

CHAPTER 3. ADJUNCT PREDICATES AND SEMANTIC CONSTRAINTS
1. Introduction
1.1 The Theta Criterion and Adjunct Predicates
1.2 Structural Differences between Subject-Oriented and Object- Oriented Adjunct Predicates
1.3 Lexical Aspects and Adjunct Predicates
2. New Analysis: Semantic Interactions in a Sentence as a Whole
2.1 Stage-Level Predicates/Verbs vs. Individual-Level Predicates/Verbs
2.2 Animacy and Volitionality of Subjects
2.3 Affected and Non-Affected Objects
2.4 Definiteness of Object
2.5 Transitivity Hypothesis and Adjunct Predicates
3. Conclusion

CHAPTER 4. SMALL CLAUSES IN COMPLEMENT POSITION
1. Introduction
2. The Distinction between Considerar-Class Verbs, Perception Verbs, and Causatives
2.1 Difference between Consider-Class Verbs and Perception Verbs
2.2 Difference between Causatives and Perception verbs
3. The Individual vs. Stage-Level Distinction in Small Clause Predicates in Complement Position
3.1 Proposition-Taking Verbs and the SL-IL Distinction
3.2 Practition-Taking Verbs and the SL-IL Distinction
3.3 Perception Verbs and the SL-IL Distinction
3.4 Causatives and Small Clauses
4. Transitivity Hypothesis and Small Clauses in Complement Position
5 Conclusion

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION

REFERENCES
INDEX

ISBN 9783895869891. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 48. 184pp. 2007.

Non-Truth-Conditional Semantics in Spanish

Conceptual and Procedural Meaning

Xosé Rosales Sequeiros
University of Greenwich

This book explores current semantic theory applied to Spanish, focussing on a number of key aspects within non-truth-conditional semantics. It involves applications of this branch of semantics to various areas of Spanish language. In doing so, it critically considers earlier approaches to the study of semantic meaning, such as truth-conditional semantics, Speech Act theory, and Gricean conventional implicatures. The book argues that those earlier approaches to linguistic semantics do not stand up to closer scrutiny and thus are subject to a number of counterexamples. In particular, there are various arguments which show that those approaches are not sufficient, and often not even necessary, for the development of a comprehensive and unified account of linguistic semantics involving non-truth-conditional meaning.

An alternative approach is then discussed based on recent developments in the field which shows that it is possible to provide a unified account of linguistic semantics by making two fundamental new distinctions: on the one hand, a distinction between conceptual and procedural meaning; and, on the other, a distinction between explicit and implicit communication. These two distinctions combined with the various levels of representation available in linguistic communication allow us to capture the variety of linguistic meaning encountered in language.

In applying and developing these concepts, a number of areas are covered within Spanish. Firstly, the current framework is applied to sentence adverbials and parentheticals. Secondly, discourse and pragmatic connectives will be discussed in the light of the new developments. Thirdly, the new framework is applied to discourse particles and interjections. Finally, a number of mood indicators are considered, including imperative and interrogative forms, where a third distinction between descriptive and interpretive propositional attitudes is used to develop an alternative account.

ISBN 9783895868795. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 49. 186pp. 2007.

Pragmatics and Relevance in Spanish

Utterance Interpretation and Communication

Xosé Rosales Sequeiros
University of Hertfordshire

This book explores current pragmatic theory applied to Spanish, focussing on a number of key aspects within utterance interpretation, communication and cognition. It involves applications of pragmatic theory to various areas of Spanish language mentioned below. In doing so, it critically considers earlier approaches to the study of pragmatic interpretation, including, particularly, the Gricean approach to linguistic communication.

The book argues that this earlier approach to pragmatics does not measure up to critical analysis and is thus subject to a number of counterexamples. In particular, the evidence shows that Gricean pragmatics doesn’t provide either a sufficient or necessary basis for a comprehensive and unified account of utterance interpretation.

An alternative approach is then discussed based on the notion of relevance, as developed within Relevance Theory, which integrates the role of context and cognition within linguistic communication. This alternative view shows that it is possible to provide a unified account of pragmatics by taking into account two fundamental aspects about human cognition: processing effort and cognitive effects. The interaction between these aspects and communicative cognition provides the basis for a comprehensive account of utterance interpretation, which resolves many of the problems encountered by earlier approaches. In applying and developing these pragmatic concepts, a number of areas are covered within Spanish. Firstly, the current framework is considered as a general approach to Spanish pragmatics. Secondly, the distinction between explicit and implicit meaning is applied to a range of constructions in Spanish. Thirdly, there is a discussion on the role of pragmatics in disambiguation processes in Spanish. Finally, the new approach is applied to irony and metaphor in Spanish, including a discussion on the new research area of lexical pragmatics.

ISBN 9783895868801. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 50. 302pp. 2010.

Morfofonología histórica del español

Estudio de las alternancias /jé/ - /e/, /wé/ - /o/ y /θ/ - /g/
Rosa Ana Martín Vegas
Universidad de Salamanca

Este trabajo es un estudio exhaustivo de la historia de dos alternancias morfofonológicas del español: la alternancia causada por la diptongación de las vocales medias breves del latín en sílaba tónica (/jé/ - /e/, /wé/ - /o/) y la alternancia causada por la palatalización y la sonización de /K/ latina (/θ/ - /g/). La minuciosidad del estudio es posible gracias al análisis de un gran corpus capaz de justificar la opacidad diacrónica de las alternancias, es decir, todos los cambios morfoléxicos que han determinado la nivelación o la extensión de las alternancias.

El modelo teórico adoptado para la explicación de la historia de la morfofonología se basa en los principios de la teoría natural, el modelo dinámico de organización morfológica y léxica de Bybee, las recientes investigaciones psicolingüísticas y las teorías cognitivistas que priorizan el uso de la lengua y el reconocimiento de unidades lingüísticas por parte del hablante/oyente. De este modo, en este análisis se tienen en cuenta los parámetros semióticos, las conexiones formales y semánticas entre palabras o partes de palabras, la frecuencia de uso de las formas y el número de formas con la misma alternancia, la categoría morfológica, y las fechas de los cambios morfoléxicos y de contraste con otros procesos paralelos.

Las dos alternancias estudiadas, muy diferentes por el número de palabras a las que afectan, representan perfectamente los diferentes grados de disfuncionalidad de la morfofonología patrimonial del español:

1) la alternancia diptongo - vocal media es la más significativa del español porque tiene un rendimiento altísimo, tanto en la flexión como en la derivación; por tanto, representa la morfofonolgía con una alta frecuencia de tipo;

2) la alternancia /θ/ - /g/ afecta a pocas palabras, pero a formas de mucho uso; de este modo, representa la morfofonología con una alta frecuencia de uso.

Las conclusiones del estudio de la historia de estas alternancias evidencian la lexicalización de la morfofonología, su falta de verdadera productividad y la importancia de la frecuencia en la estabilidad o difusión de las alternancias, siempre léxicamente determinadas.

ISBN 9783895863790 (Hardbound). LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 51. 189pp. 2006.