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- Volume 3, Issue, 1996
Functions of Language - Volume 3, Issue 1, 1996
Volume 3, Issue 1, 1996
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Arguments for the category of verb phrase
Author(s): William B. McGregorpp.: 1–30 (30)More LessThe category VP has since the late 1950s attracted a considerable amount of interest in both formally and functionally oriented linguistics, though in the latter to a lesser extent. There is a substantial amount of disagreement amongst linguists as to the status of this category, and as to its nature and extent amongst those who adopt it. Unfortunately, however, the literature contains few if any convincing arguments either for or against the category, most linguists apparently being content to accept, reject or ignore it as their intuitions or theoretical percepts guide them, and on the basis of quite flimsy evidence. In this paper I attempt to present some evidence in support of the category. It is impossible, of course, to do this in a theory-neutral way; the challenge in developing arguments is to deploy theoretical constructs as little as possible.
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Can and future meaning
Author(s): John Myhillpp.: 31–68 (38)More LessCan is traditionally seen as having three general meanings, ability, permission, and possibility (Leech 1987). However, as noted by Coates (1983), in certain cases the function of can is somewhat similar to that of will, e.g. offering to help by saying / can/will help, if you want y asking for help by saying Can/will you pass the salt please?, etc. Using a database of 119 naturally-occurring tokens of can followed by a main verb with future time reference (Trudeau 1984), the present paper posits 17 distinct functions of can, of which 7 show a semantic affinity with will. Those functions having a semantic affinity with will generally have a number of distinctive characteristics: they are associated with possibility rather than ability or permission, they are characterized by interactive or syntactic rather than semantic properties, and analysis of early 19th century texts shows that they have only developed in the language relatively recently. This suggests that, to a large extent, the possibility function of can represents a recent encroachment into the functional territory of future tense marking.
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Experience, certainty and control, and the direct evidential in Wanka Quechua questions
Author(s): Rick Floydpp.: 69–93 (25)More LessEvidentiality is traditionally discussed in terms of information source and its relation to the degree of commitment a speaker has with respect to a proposition. Furthermore, it is a notion that is usually thought to apply principally to assertions. A consideration of the full range of uses of the Wanka Quechua direct evidential shows that while these concepts are generally sufficient for the description of prototypical usage, understanding other uses requires explanation along different lines. Certain non-prototypical uses exemplify a type of subjectification, a process of semantic change that has been observed cross-linguistically (cf. Traugott 1989, Langacker 1990). The use of the direct evidential as a grammaticalized marker of content (WH) questions is particularly anomalous from a traditional perspective. However, it can be shown to be a well-motivated extension from other uses within the semantic network.
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Learning about learning: Construing semiosis in the pre-school years
Author(s): Clare Painterpp.: 95–125 (31)More LessSystemic-functional linguistics (SFL) is used as a framework within which a child's 'cognitive' development can be seen in linguistic terms as the building of a meaning potential which gains realisation in texts. Data are then presented from a diary study of one child's speech between the ages of two and a half and five years, focussing on the child's use of 'mental' and 'verbal' clauses (such as I think or she said) in order to reveal the child's understandings about information exchange, which constitutes the basis of learning. The naturalistic data display various developments in the child's construals of semiotic exchange, including exploration of 'false' information and the status of perceptual evidence. A general pattern emerges whereby the child moves out from representing and exploring the 'I-you-now' of the ongoing interaction, to a later construal of the world beyond this 'deictic centre', suggesting an intersubjective rather than an 'egocentric' starting point to development.
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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 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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