1887
Volume 13, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1018-2101
  • E-ISSN: 2406-4238

Abstract

In an influential paper, Fox & Thompson (1990) argue that the grammar of relative clauses in spoken American English is affected by interactive and cognitive factors pertaining to the communication situation. Existential sentences containing a relative clause as well as an overt locative expression figure prominently in their analysis. The present paper examines Fox & Thompson’s analysis of such sentences in the light of a wide range of data. It is shown that the generalizations they make on the basis of their limited corpus (25 tokens) rest on false premises. Their analysis fails to take account of some of the most salient properties inherent in existential sentences in all varieties of English; it also disregards relevant cross-linguistic data. An alternative analysis is offered.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/prag.13.2.01bre
2003-01-01
2025-02-10
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abbott, Barbara
    (1997) Definiteness and existentials. Language73: 103-108. doi: 10.2307/416595
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/416595 [Google Scholar]
  2. Anderson, John
    (1971) The grammar of case: Towards a localistic theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Baker, C.L
    (1995) Contrast, discourse prominence, and intensification, with special reference to locally free reflexives in British English. Language71: 63-101. doi: 10.2307/415963
    https://doi.org/10.2307/415963 [Google Scholar]
  4. Biber, Douglas , Stig Johansson , Geoffrey Leech , Susan Conrad , & Edward Finegan
    (1999) Longman grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bloom, Paul , Mary A. Peterson , Lynn Nadel , & Merrill F. Garrett
    (eds.) (1996) Language and space. Cambridge, MA & London: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bolinger, Dwight
    (1977) Meaning and form. London & New York: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Breivik, Leiv Egil
    (1981) On the interpretation of existential there . Language57: 1-25. doi: 10.1353/lan.1981.0048
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.1981.0048 [Google Scholar]
  8. (1990) Existential there: A synchronic and diachronic study. Oslo: Novus.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. (1997a) There in space and time. In Heinrich Ramisch and Kenneth Wynne (eds.), Language in time and space: Studies in honour of Wolfgang Viereck on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 32-45.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. (1997b) On the interrelation of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics: A study of locative/temporal expressions in existential sentences in the LOB Corpus. In Udo Fries , Viviane Müller , & Peter Schneider (eds.), From Ælfric to the New York Times: Studies in English corpus linguistics. (Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics, 19.) Amsterdam & Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, pp. 1-10.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. (1999) On the pragmatic function of relative clauses and locative expressions in existential sentences in the LOB Corpus. In Hilde Hasselgård & Signe Oksefjell (eds.), Out of corpora: Studies in honour of Stig Johansson. (Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics, 26.) Amsterdam & Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, pp. 121-135.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Brown, Gillian , and George Yule
    (1983) Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511805226
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805226 [Google Scholar]
  13. Chafe, Wallace
    (1987) Cognitive constraints on information flow. In Russel S. Tomlin (ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 21-51. doi: 10.1075/tsl.11.03cha
    https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.11.03cha [Google Scholar]
  14. (1994) Discourse, consciousness, and time: The flow and displacement of conscious experience in speaking and writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Dillon, George L. , Linda Coleman , Jeanne Fahnestock , & Michael Agar
    (1985) Review article on Brown & Yule (1983), Leech(1983), and Levinson (1983). Language61: 446-460. doi: 10.2307/414152
    https://doi.org/10.2307/414152 [Google Scholar]
  16. Downing, Pamela , & Michael Noonan
    (1995) Word order in discourse. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/tsl.30
    https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.30 [Google Scholar]
  17. Ebeling, Jarle
    (1999) Presentative constructions in English and Norwegian: A corpus-based contrastive study. Doctoral dissertation. (Acta Humaniora, 68.) Oslo: Department of British and American Studies, University of Oslo.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Erdmann, Peter
    (1976) There sentences in English: A relational study based on a corpus of written texts. (Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften, 6.) Munich: Tuduv.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Fauconnier, Gilles
    (1985) Mental spaces. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Firbas, Jan
    (1992) Functional sentence perspective in written and spoken communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511597817
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597817 [Google Scholar]
  21. Fox, Barbara A. , & Sandra A. Thompson
    (1990) A discourse explanation of the grammar of relative clauses in English conversation. Language66: 297-316. doi: 10.2307/414888
    https://doi.org/10.2307/414888 [Google Scholar]
  22. Frawley, William
    (1992) Linguistic semantics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Geis, Michael L
    (1995) Speech acts and conversational interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511554452
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511554452 [Google Scholar]
  24. Geisler, Christer
    (1995) Relative infinitives in English. (Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia, 91.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Givón, Talmy
    (1976) Topic, pronoun and grammatical agreement. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and topic. New York & London: Academic Press, pp. 149-188.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. (1984) Syntax: A functional-typological introduction, vol. 1. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1017/s0022226700010434
    https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226700010434 [Google Scholar]
  27. (1990) Syntax: A functional-typological introduction, vol. 2. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1017/s0022226700010434
    https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226700010434 [Google Scholar]
  28. (ed.) (1994) Voice and inversion. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/tsl.28
    https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.28 [Google Scholar]
  29. Gundel, Jeanette K
    (1998) Review of Downing & Noonan 1995. Language74: 185-189. doi: 10.2307/417584
    https://doi.org/10.2307/417584 [Google Scholar]
  30. Gundel, Jeanette K. , Nancy Hedberg , & Ron Zacharski
    (1993) Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language69: 274-307. doi: 10.2307/416535
    https://doi.org/10.2307/416535 [Google Scholar]
  31. Hannay, Michael
    (1985) English existentials in functional grammar. (Functional Grammar Series, 3.) Dordrecht: Foris.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Haspelmath, Martin
    (1997) Temporal adverbials in the world’s languages. (LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics, 3.) Munich & Newcastle: LINCOM EUROPA.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Hopper, Paul J. , & Sandra A. Thompson
    (1980) Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language56: 251- 299. doi: 10.1353/lan.1980.0017
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.1980.0017 [Google Scholar]
  34. Huck, Geoffrey J. , & Younghee Na
    (1990) Extraposition and focus. Language66: 51-77. doi: 10.1353/lan.1990.0023
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1990.0023 [Google Scholar]
  35. Huddleston, Rodney , & Geoffrey K. Pullum
    (2002) The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Johansson, Christine
    (1995) The relativizers whose and of which in present-day English. (Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia, 90.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Kiss, Katalin É
    (1998) Identificational focus versus information focus. Language74: 245-273. doi: 10.1353/lan.1998.0211
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1998.0211 [Google Scholar]
  38. Kuno, Susumu
    (1971) The position of locatives in existential sentences. Linguistic Inquiry2: 333-378.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Lakoff, George
    (1987) Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press. doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  40. Leech, Geoffrey N
    (1983) Principles of pragmatics. London & New York: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Levinson, Stephen C
    (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Lumsden, Michael
    (1988) Existential sentences: Their structure and meaning. London, New York, & Sydney: Croom Helm.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Lyons, John
    (1967) A note on possessive, existential and locative sentences. Foundations of Language3: 390–396.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. (1968) Introduction to theoretical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139165570
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139165570 [Google Scholar]
  45. (1975) Deixis as the source of reference. In Edward L. Keenan (ed.), Formal semantics of natural language. London & New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61-83. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511897696.007
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511897696.007 [Google Scholar]
  46. (1977) Semantics, vols. 1-2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. McNally, Louise
    (1997) A semantics for the English existential construction. New York & London: Garland.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Milsark, Gary Lee
    (1974) Existential sentences in English. MIT dissertation. [Published in the series Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics, New York & London: Garland 1979.]
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Prince, Ellen
    (1981) Toward a typology of given-new information. In Peter Cole (ed.), Radical pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, pp. 223-255.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. (1988) The discourse functions of Yiddish expletive + subject-postposing. IPrA Papers in Pragmatics2: 176-194.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. (1992) The ZPG letter: Subjects, definiteness, and information status. In William C. Mann & Sandra A. Thompson (eds.), Discourse description: Diverse analyses of a fundraising text. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 295-325. doi: 10.1075/pbns.16.12pri
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.16.12pri [Google Scholar]
  52. Quirk, Randolph , Sidney Greenbaum , Geoffrey Leech , & Jan Svartvik
    (1985) A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London & New York: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.13.2.01bre
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error