Postmodifying Attributive Adjectives in English
Postmodifying Attributive Adjectives in English

Author: Lars M. Blöhdorn

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9783631583876

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This study investigates three different postmodifying adjective constructions in the English language. While English adjectives generally precede the entities they modify, they may also occur in postmodifying position. This study assumes that the different postmodifying constructions are a positional variation of attributive premodification. The support for this claim is derived from a detailed analysis of the general syntax and semantics of adjectives as well as a cross-check of previous theories with a wide range of actual language examples taken from computerized corpora. An approach from the Prague School 'Functional Sentence Perspective' enables this study to accomplish an integrated view of adjectival postmodification.

Information Structure and Syntactic Change in the History of English
Information Structure and Syntactic Change in the History of English

Author: Anneli Meurman-Solin

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-08-02

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0199860211

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The unifying topic of this volume is the role of information structure, broadly conceived, as it interacts with the other levels of linguistic description, syntax, morphology, prosody, semantics and pragmatics.

Postmodifying Clauses in the English Noun Phrase
Postmodifying Clauses in the English Noun Phrase

Author: Pieter de Haan

Publisher: Rodopi

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9789051831238

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This book reports on the results of a project whose aim was to give a detailed description of a number of syntactic properties of postmodifying clauses in the English NP, and study the way in which some of these properties are related to each other in a variety of text tyoes. The study is based on an examination of the Nijmegen Corpus, which consists of slightly over 130,000 words of running text. The structure of the NP is described basically in terms of four constituents: DeterminerPremodifierHeadPostmodifier No fewer than 2,430 occurrences of postmodifying clauses in NPs were analysed. A numerical coding scheme was designed, in which 26 different variable features were encoded, describing the properties the postmodifying clauses. These were processed and statistically analysed. The book discusses the methodology adopted and the results of the statistical analyses. Among the properties described are the function of NPs with postmodifying clauses, the structure of these NPs, the realisation and reference of the heads of these NPs, the specific types of postmodifying clause, the actual link words used, the clause patterns occurring in the postmodifying clauses, and the verb phrases in the postmodifying clauses.

The Integration of MILLION Into the English System of Number Words
The Integration of MILLION Into the English System of Number Words

Author: Donald Sims MacQueen

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9783631601563

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This corpus study traces the history of MILLION in English. It focuses on the shift in word class/function from noun/noun-phrase head (three millions of dollars) to determinative/determiner (three million dollars). A chapter on morphosyntax/semantics probes the natural word class and function of number words and their historical categorization. A composite international diachronic corpus is used to map a broad taxonomy of MILLION phrases, and very-large-scale digital American and British newspaper archives are used to show when and where the syntactic shift took place. The tens of billions of datable words in these sources yield such robust results that key phases in the shift can be traced in unprecedented detail, uncovering surprising patterns in American/British differences and an avoidance strategy in the use of numeral and number-word expressions. Retarding and accelerating factors are treated in separate chapters.

A Student's Advanced Grammar of English (SAGE)
A Student's Advanced Grammar of English (SAGE)

Author: Peter Fenn

Publisher: UTB

Published: 2022-06-13

Total Pages: 622

ISBN-13: 382528784X

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Whatever kind of high-level language user you are – college or university student, serving language teacher, or advanced school learner – A Student’s Advanced Grammar of English (SAGE) offers you support, information, and further training. SAGE is a reference work as well as a programmed refresher course with exercises on the accompanying website, and a structured teaching aid. It serves as a spot-check in specific cases of uncertainty. But it also answers broader queries and provides comprehensive insights into the major structural areas of English. Its concern is not simply grammar, but above all usage. SAGE is easy to comprehend and non-specialist in method. All grammatical terminology is explained in a simple and straightforward manner. On the other hand, SAGE takes account of current research in language studies. In catering especially for the user with a native German background, SAGE treats many areas of English from a contrastive point of view, highlighting those phenomena which cause typical problems in a German-based learning context. The second edition has been thoroughly revised.

Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar
Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar

Author: M.A.K. Halliday

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-11

Total Pages: 808

ISBN-13: 1135983410

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Fully updated and revised, this fourth edition of Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar explains the principles of systemic functional grammar, enabling the reader to understand and apply them in any context. Halliday's innovative approach of engaging with grammar through discourse has become a worldwide phenomenon in linguistics. Updates to the new edition include: Recent uses of systemic functional linguistics to provide further guidance for students, scholars and researchers More on the ecology of grammar, illustrating how each major system serves to realise a semantic system A systematic indexing and classification of examples More from corpora, thus allowing for easy access to data Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar, Fourth Edition, is the standard reference text for systemic functional linguistics and an ideal introduction for students and scholars interested in the relation between grammar, meaning and discourse.

The Growth and Maintenance of Linguistic Complexity
The Growth and Maintenance of Linguistic Complexity

Author: Östen Dahl

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2004-08-31

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 9027295255

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This book studies linguistic complexity and the processes by which it arises and is maintained, focusing not so much on what one can say in a language as how it is said. Complexity is not seen as synonymous with “difficulty” but as an objective property of a system – a measure of the amount of information needed to describe or reconstruct it. Grammatical complexity is the result of historical processes often subsumed under the rubric of grammaticalization and involves what can be called mature linguistic phenomena, that is, features that take time to develop. The nature and characteristics of such processes are discussed in detail, as well as the external and internal factors that favor or disfavor stability and change in language.

Adverbs
Adverbs

Author: Karin Pittner

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2015-09-15

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 9027268126

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Adverbs as a word class are notoriously difficult to define. The volume deals with the delimitation of this category, its internal structure, the morphological make-up of adverbs and their positions in syntactic structures. A closer look at diachronic developments sheds light on the characteristics of adverbial word-formation. Taking into account adverbs in German, English, Dutch, French and Italian, the contributions to this volume provide new insights into the characteristics of this heterogeneous and multi-faceted category and will be of interest to linguists working in the fields of morphology, syntax and language change.

Grammatical Complexity in Academic English
Grammatical Complexity in Academic English

Author: Douglas Biber

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-05-26

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 110700926X

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Using corpus-based analyses, the book challenges widely held beliefs about grammatical complexity, academic writing, and linguistic change in written English.