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- Volume 1, Issue, 1994
Functions of Language - Volume 1, Issue 1, 1994
Volume 1, Issue 1, 1994
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Extraposition in English
Author(s): Peter Collinspp.: 7–24 (18)More LessThis paper, which is based on a corpus of contemporary Australian English, investigates the structural and communicative properties of extraposed clause constructions. Such constructions will often be superficially similar to right-dislocated constructions, but are generally distinguishable from these on structural, communicative and prosodie grounds. If there are no grammatical factors impeding extraposition (such as a matrix predicate containing a subordinate clause or an identified complement), then finite and infinitival clauses may be freely extraposed. Present-participials, which are more highly nominalised, extrapose less freely. The matrix predicate, which typically expresses an 'objectified epistemic or moral judgement, exhibits a variety of structural patterns. Dominant among these is the 'Subject~Predicator~Predicative Complement' pattern, with the complement most commonly realised as an adjectival phrase.Three communicative factors which influence extraposition may be identified: 'weight*, information, and theme. The data suggest that there is strong pressure in English to avoid sentences with a clause as subject in initial position and a comparatively light matrix predicate in final position. Non-extraposed sentences with a clausal subject in fact require special rhetorical and/or cohesive motivation, their infrequent occurrence reflecting the preferred 'given - before -new' ordering found in English. Just as important as the end-positioning of material in extraposition is the initialisation of an expression of the speaker's angle, enabling it to serve as the theme.
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Complex sentence constructions in Nyulnyul, Western Australia
Author(s): William B. McGregorpp.: 25–66 (42)More LessThis paper investigates complex sentence constructions in Nyulnyul (Kimberley, Western Australia). Three primary types of inter-clausal relationships — embedding (part-whole), dependence (part-part) and scope (whole-whole) — permit an initial typology of complex sentence types. This paper focuses on embedding and dependence, ignoring scope. It is argued that non-finite clauses must be embedded in a finite clause, whereas finite clauses cannot be, and may only be related to another finite clause by dependence. Dependence relations can be classified (following Halliday 1985) according to two independent emically significant parameters: parataxis vs. hypotaxis; and extension vs. elaboration vs. enhancement. The contrast between parataxis and hypotaxis is examined, and it is argued that hypotaxis involves the reduction in status of the dependent clause; consequences of this are discussed. Embedding involves nominalisation, and with this the 'entitisation' of an event, and the consequent unchallangeability of the clause.
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Possessives and topicality
Author(s): John R. Taylorpp.: 67–94 (28)More LessThis paper deals with certain aspects of prenominal possessives (i.e. expressions of the kind John's wife, the city's destruction) in English. Consideration of the discourse function of the construction leads to the prediction that the possessor nominal will be high in topicality, whilst the possessee nominal will generally denote a highly non-topical entity. A number of text-based studies of the possessive confirm these predictions. It is then argued that the distribution of topicality within the construction offers a unified explanation of a range of grammaticality judgements.
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Developing an educational linguistics for English language teaching: A systemic functional linguistic perspective
Author(s): Frances Christiepp.: 95–127 (33)More LessThe relevance of linguistic studies to educational practices has been an issue hotly debated for some time among specialists in English language education. Many such specialists have questioned the value of any linguistic insights, preferring to rely on various pedagogical theories, most of them not informed by any rigorous examination of language, its nature and functions, or its role in learning. This paper argues the importance of developing an educational linguistics, the better to inform curriculum planning and pedagogical practices in schools. In particular the paper argues the importance of the contributions of systemic functional linguistic perspectives to the development of a model of language and literacy of a kind which can usefully underpin curriculum planning and learning theory. Such a model, while drawing extensively upon other related contemporary social theories, will nonetheless place a functional grammar firmly at the heart of its concerns.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 31 (2024)
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Volume 30 (2023)
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Volume 29 (2022)
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Volume 28 (2021)
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Volume 27 (2020)
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Volume 26 (2019)
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Volume 25 (2018)
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Volume 24 (2017)
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Volume 23 (2016)
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Volume 22 (2015)
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Volume 21 (2014)
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Volume 20 (2013)
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Volume 19 (2012)
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Volume 18 (2011)
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Volume 17 (2010)
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Volume 16 (2009)
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Volume 15 (2008)
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Volume 14 (2007)
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Volume 13 (2006)
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Volume 12 (2005)
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Volume 11 (2004)
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Volume 10 (2003)
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Volume 9 (2002)
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Volume 8 (2001)
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Volume 7 (2000)
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Volume 6 (1999)
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Volume 5 (1998)
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Volume 4 (1997)
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Volume 3 (1996)
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Volume 2 (1995)
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Volume 1 (1994)
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Language patterns and ATTITUDE
Author(s): Monika Bednarek
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