Functions of Language - Volume 31, Issue 3, 2024

Abstract

This paper focuses on the distribution, scope and semantics of UK English evidential -ly adverbs in declarative sentences. It draws on work done on the classification of English evidential adverbs into evidential categories of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), which makes use of a grammatical component made up of a layered hierarchy. The paper presents a qualitative analysis in terms of the meaning, scope, and position of evidential -ly adverbs. The FDG evidential subcategories are Reportative (reportedly), Inferential (presumably), Deduction (clearly) and Event Perception (visibly). Various FDG-related tests reveal more about the behaviour of English evidential adverbs. In order to carry out the tests, examples of the use of evidential adverbs in this paper have been constructed by the author and their acceptability judged by native speakers of South-East England. It becomes evident not only that the meaning of evidential adverbs in declaratives is context-dependent, which makes them chameleon-like, but also that the meaning of evidential -ly adverbs determines their scope, which itself is reflected in their formal behaviour. Furthermore, the paper confirms observations of others that the reportative evidential subcategory acts differently from the three other subcategories — inferential, deductive and event perception.

Abstract

This paper deals with the potential grammaticalization of English (it) could be and (it) might be into epistemic sentence adverbs in analogy to maybe. They can occur in adverb-like positions and functions in informal language use, e.g. (it) could be something good has begun, often with the pronoun it omitted. But, given that no diachronic development is attested, to what extent does their usage indicate innovation or an emerging convention of adverbial could be / might be? How are they differentiated from maybe? Following up on previous corpus-based and experimental research, I present findings from two small experiments. Experiment 1 elicits the morphosyntactic interpretation (clausal vs. adverbial) with ratings of structurally different paraphrases; Experiment 2 aims at the semantic interpretation of epistemic stance. The results provide little evidence of conventionalization of adverbial could be / might be, and also no clear signs of semantic or pragmatic differentiation. I conclude that weak conventions leave room for variability, and propose that these forms have a proclivity to be continuously re-innovated as micro-steps on a grammaticalization path, but this is not enough to drive change beyond existing conventions.

Abstract

Within the framework of Construction Grammar, this study examines constructions with a cleft form containing everything, e.g., that’s everything that’s happened, in spoken British English, using the London-Lund Corpora and the British National Corpora. We trace the development of everything-clefts in recent history and make comparisons with all-clefts since both all and everything express totality. Our aim is to determine the form-meaning properties of everything-clefts, to examine whether everything-clefts too express the smallness and exhaustiveness readings associated with all-clefts, and whether everything-clefts are also dialogically contractive. The frequency per million words of everything-clefts, however, is 3.3, which is lower than for all-clefts. Also, based on the distinction between regular predicational, reverse predicational and reverse specificational everything-clefts, we find that most everything-clefts are predicational and express quality and that only a small number of reverse specificational everything-clefts express exhaustiveness and are dialogically contractive. Moreover, an even smaller number of everything-clefts also express smallness. We argue that exhaustiveness in everything-clefts stems from a metonymic link to the boundary involved in the totality meaning of everything in analogy with reverse all-clefts. The reverse exhaustive specificational everything-clefts are similar to all-clefts and clearly deserve a place in the constructional network of English specificational cleft constructions.

Abstract

Blame is generally considered a social-cognitive act, in which the blamer expresses their negative evaluation and attitude to the ‘blamee’ and their actions. In the act of blame, the blamer takes a stance, presents it, and negotiates this stance with other participants within the discourse. Adopting a Construction Grammar approach, this paper identifies four constructions of blame in Modern Chinese that share a construction-initial sequence ‘np yěshì’. Despite their formal similarity and the general function of expressing blame, the four constructions differ in syntax, detailed semantics, and pragmatic functions. Moreover, our analysis shows that, in interaction with the clauses that follow, construction-initial ‘np yěshì’ marks an evaluative-affective stance, mitigates the effects of blame, and signals a stance shift in the discourse. In terms of discourse organization, it serves to introduce new and relevant information in the forthcoming discourse.

This article reviews Language and characterisation in television series: A corpus-informed approach to the construction of social identity in the media978 90 272 1295 5