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- Volume 16, Issue, 2015
Journal of Historical Pragmatics - Volume 16, Issue 2, 2015
Volume 16, Issue 2, 2015
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Discourse functions of subject left dislocation in Old Occitan
Author(s): Bryan Donaldsonpp.: 159–186 (28)More LessThis paper reports an empirical study of the discourse-pragmatic functions of subject left dislocation (LD) in Old Occitan. Data come from the complete troubadour biographies, in which the most common manifestation of subject LD is a nominal subject + sentence adverb si + verb, as in “Bertrans de Born si fo uns castellans” [Bertran de Born was a nobleman]. Whereas previous accounts fail to integrate syntax with discourse-pragmatic function, these results reveal the importance of both in explaining the occurrence of subject LD. Using recent approaches to the clausal left periphery (e.g., Benincà 2006), I distinguish LD subjects from conventional (i.e., non-dislocated) pre-verbal subjects. Next, following Fleischman’s (1991) analysis of si in Old French, I illustrate how subject LD structures the flow of information in discourse. In particular, subject LD marks a constituent as a discourse topic and can also introduce a new referent into the discourse and thereby mark it as topical.
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Parenthetical “I say (you)” in Late Medieval Greek vernacular: A message-structuring discourse marker rather than a message-conveying verb
Author(s): Jorie Solticpp.: 187–217 (31)More LessIn this paper, I argue that the first-person singular of the “ordinary” verb λέγω/λαλῶ (‘I say’) in the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century political verse narratives Chronicle of Morea and War of Troy does not always carry its “normal”, representational content (‘I inform/assure [you]’). Frequently, λέγω/λαλῶ structures the discourse rather than conveying conceptual meaning and, thus, has procedural meaning. In this respect, the verb can be compared to modern discourse markers (i.e., semantically reduced items which abound in spoken language). An important − yet not decisive − criterion to distinguish the conceptual from the procedural use is the position of λέγω/λαλῶ: all “DM-like” examples are parenthetical. As for their precise pragmatic function, these forms are used, in particular, to signal a clarification towards the listener (“I mean”) or, more generally, to grab the attention of the audience. Applied to the modern binary distinction between interpersonal and textual discourse markers, they thus belong to the former category. Finally, I tentatively relate the observation that the procedural parenthetical examples show a marked preference for pre-caesural position to the concept of “filled pauses”, which makes sense given the adopted oral style of the Late Medieval Greek political verse narratives.
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“Factive” parenthetical clauses?: A synchronic and diachronic account of I regret (to say)
Author(s): Caroline Gentenspp.: 218–249 (32)More LessRegrethas traditionally been regarded as a “true factive” predicate that always presupposes the truth of its complement and cannot occur in parenthetical clauses (Hooper 1975). In the light of earlier observations that I regret and I regret to say have acquired non-factive uses (Heyvaert and Cuyckens 2010), this paper presents a synchronic analysis of the discourse contexts in which I regret and I regret to say occur as parenthetical clauses, and co-occur not with factive complements, but with reported utterances. From a diachronic point of view, the article describes how regret-clauses came to function as illocution modifiers to a reported utterance after the emergence of various types of to-infinitival complements following the predicate. The article deviates from the traditional view that factive complements are limited to presupposed true complements as expressed in gerunds or that-clauses. Instead, it broadens the concept of factivity to include presupposed non-epistemic complements and complements realized as to-infinitives.
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The rise of demonstrative-based first/second-person markers in the history of Japanese: A speaker subjectivity account
Author(s): Toshiko Yamaguchipp.: 250–276 (27)More LessThis paper explores the rise of demonstrative-based person markers in the history of Japanese and takes Ishiyama’s spatial semantic approach as its point of departure. Despite the claim that demonstrative-based person markers remained functionally demonstrative, I argue that they began to manifest the category of person from an early stage of their development; that is to say, thanks to speaker innovation, demonstratives underwent semantic re-analysis to become markers representing the speaker’s ego in the reality of discourse. This paper also pinpoints that two notions, distancing and dissimilarity, are not spelled out in Ishiyama’s framework. In conclusion, the substitution of the first-person marker for the second-person marker is analysed tentatively using Keller’s theory of linguistic signs.
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“I hope you will write”: The function of projection structures in a corpus of nineteenth-century Irish emigrant correspondence
Author(s): Emma Moretonpp.: 277–303 (27)More LessThis paper examines the use of the pattern Pronoun + Verb + Pronoun (as in I hope you, you think I and she knows he) in a corpus of nineteenth-century Irish emigrant correspondence. The corpus contains 88 letters by four sisters (the Lough sisters), who emigrated from Ireland to America in the 1870s and 1880s. The study aims to investigate how these clauses — described as projection structures — function and how they contribute to the interactive nature of letters, helping to strengthen and maintain familial bonds over time and distance. Corpus methods are used first to identify and extract these patterns. A more qualitative investigation then examines the function of projection structures and how they construct and reflect author/recipient relationships.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 25 (2024)
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Volume 24 (2023)
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Volume 23 (2022)
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Volume 22 (2021)
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Volume 21 (2020)
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Volume 20 (2019)
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Volume 19 (2018)
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Volume 18 (2017)
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Volume 17 (2016)
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Volume 16 (2015)
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Volume 15 (2014)
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Volume 14 (2013)
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Volume 13 (2012)
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Volume 12 (2011)
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Volume 11 (2010)
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Volume 10 (2009)
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Volume 9 (2008)
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Volume 8 (2007)
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Volume 7 (2006)
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Volume 6 (2005)
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Volume 5 (2004)
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Volume 4 (2003)
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Volume 3 (2002)
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Volume 2 (2001)
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Volume 1 (2000)
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