Covert Patterns of Modality
Covert Patterns of Modality

Author: Werner Abraham

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2012-11-15

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 1443842915

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This typological overview compares the degree to which different languages have means to give expression to modality (possibility, necessity) without lexical and direct inflectional means. The criterial patterns derive from a variety of languages such as German, English, Chinese, French, Scandinavian, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Polish, and Gothic as well as Old High German. They encompass mainly the auxiliaries HAVE and BE, together with either an infinitival embedding of a full verb linked by the infinitival preposition TO, or other aspectual means. It is demonstrated that what appears as typical covert modal expressions in the Germanic languages, and the Indo-European ones in a wider sense, cannot be seen as a recurrent pattern in non-Indo-European languages. Yet, there are recurrent and plausible forms that allow for generalizations.

The polyfunctionality of 'still' expressions
The polyfunctionality of 'still' expressions

Author: Bastian Persohn

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published: 2024-06-28

Total Pages: 783

ISBN-13: 3961104751

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Expressions from the semasiological domain of phasal polarity (ʻstillʼ, ʻalreadyʼ, etc.) tend to be highly polyfunctional, with their various uses often extending into a wide range of other linguistic domains, both time-related and non-temporal. Yet these patterns have hitherto been investigated mostly for individual languages or smaller groups. This volume presents the first ever larger-scale survey of the numerous functions of expressions whose meanings include the notion of ʻstill’, making use of a global sample of 76 varieties from 45 distinct phyla. It is aimed at semanticists, typologists and descriptive grammarians alike.

Contrast
Contrast

Author: Elisabeth Rudolph

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-05-02

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13: 3110815850

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The Semantics of Coordination
The Semantics of Coordination

Author: Ewald Lang

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1984-01-01

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 9027230080

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This study is an attempt to explain coordinate conjoining as a rule-governed process of establishing specific semantic relations within and between sentences. Coordination is thus conceived of both as a basic device of linguistic complex formation and as a rather fundamental principle underlying the creation of the text. From the point of view of achieving coherence, coordinate conjoining is described in this monograph as an integrative process. Described are the conditions governing this process, the rules according to which take place, in short: the complex interaction of various linguistically identifiable features displayed by coordinate structures. Coordinate conjoining is regarded here as the result of the interplay of three factors which belong to distinct levels of semantic description: the meaning of the conjuncts, the relation between the meaning of the conjuncts and the meaning of the connectors. The step-by-step explication of the interaction of these levels in determining the semantic interpretation of coordinate structures forms the core of the present study.

Pragmatics at its Interfaces
Pragmatics at its Interfaces

Author: Stavros Assimakopoulos

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-02-20

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1501505084

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All of the papers included in this volume offer some novel and/or updated perspective on issues of central importance in pragmatics, suggesting original ways in which research in the particular areas they adhere to could advance. Apart from the obvious aim of motivating further discussion on the topics it touches on, a central objective of this volume is to underline that research in pragmatics can and does substantially inform research in numerous other fields of enquiry, namely philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics and conversation analysis, revealing in this way the truly interdisciplinary nature of pragmatics theorizing. In this respect, and given that most of the contributions in this volume are from leading scholars in their respective fields, it is clearly expected that the ideas put forth in this volume will have a profound and long-lasting impact for future research in the area.

Intensifiers in English and German
Intensifiers in English and German

Author: Peter Siemund

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1134604491

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This book deals with expressions like English myself, yourself, himself and so on, and German selbst from a perspective of language comparison. It is the first book-length study of intensifiers ever written. The study investigates the syntax and semantics of these expressions and provides a thorough account of a much neglected grammatical domain. Given that the approach is both descriptive and analytic, the book will be of interest to linguists, grammar writers and teachers of English and German alike.