Buch, Englisch, Band 4, 222 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 245 mm, Gewicht: 580 g
The role of processing constraints on the choice between synthetic and analytic comparative forms
Buch, Englisch, Band 4, 222 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 245 mm, Gewicht: 580 g
Reihe: Studies in Language Variation
ISBN: 978-90-272-3484-1
Verlag: John Benjamins Publishing Company
This book provides the most comprehensive account so far of novel and hitherto unexplained factors operative in the choice between synthetic (prouder) and analytic (more proud ) comparatives. It argues that the underlying motivation in using the analytic variant is to mitigate processing demands – a compensatory strategy referred to as more -support. The analytic variant is claimed to be better suited to environments of increased processing complexity – presumably owing to its ability to facilitate early phrase structure recognition, the more transparent one-to-one relation between form and function and possibly because the degree marker more can serve as a structural signal foreshadowing cognitive complexity. A bird’s eye view of 24 determinants reveals that the processing effort which triggers the analytic comparative emanates from structures that are phonologically, morphologically, syntactically, lexically, semantically or pragmatically complex. By bridging the gap between corpus-based variation research and psycholinguistic and typological approaches, the book breaks new ground in uncovering the functional motivation behind the continued variability of synthetic-analytic contrasts.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Theoretical preliminaries
Chapter 3 Methodological preliminaries
Chapter 4 More-support in phonology
Chapter 5 More-support in morphology
Chapter 6 More-support in the lexicon
Chapter 7 More-support in syntax
Chapter 8 More-support in semantics
Chapter 9 More-support in pragmatics/iconicity
Chapter 10 The emergence of more-support in diachrony
Chapter 11 More-support in British and American English
Chapter 12 Conclusion
Chapter 13 Theoretical implications and outlook
References
Author index
Subject index
