Patten The English it-Cleft

A Constructional Account and a Diachronic Investigation
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-3-11-027952-8
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 274 Seiten

Reihe: ISSN

This book examines the structure and function of the English it-cleft configuration from within the framework of construction grammar. It defends a straightforward extraposition-from-NP analysis (on which the cleft clause is a restrictive relative, modifying the initial it) and claims that all types of it-cleft involve nominal predication. Support for this analysis comes from three main areas: (a) the central role of definiteness in the creation of specificational meaning, (b) the existence and makeup of predicational (and proverbial) it-clefts, and (c) the early, historical it-cleft data. In addition, the book contains a sizeable diachronic component, drawing data from the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English and from the International Corpus of English - Great Britain. This investigation informs and advances what is an otherwise simple account of the English it-cleft, explaining how and why the configuration has developed an assortment of peculiar, construction-specific properties over time.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Patten, Amanda

Patten, Amanda L.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Textlinguistik, Diskursanalyse, Stilistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Semantik & Pragmatik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Acknowledgements;5
2;Contents;7
3;Chapter 1 Introduction and background;11
3.1;1. An outline of the project;11
3.2;2. An overview of the literature on cleft sentences;15
3.2.1;2.1. The expletive approach;15
3.2.2;2.2. The extraposition approach;17
3.3;3. A constructional approach to it-clefts;19
3.4;4. A diachronic approach to it-clefts;22
3.5;5. Methodology;24
4;Chapter 2 A model of language structure and language change;26
4.1;1. Some basic assumptions;26
4.2;2. A constructional model of language structure;27
4.3;3. A constructional model of language change;31
4.4;4. The application to it-clefts and copular constructions;35
5;Chapter 3 Specificational copular constructions;37
5.1;1. Different and competing analyses;37
5.1.1;1.1. The equative approach;38
5.1.2;1.2. The inverse approach;40
5.1.3;1.3. A less formal approach;42
5.2;2. Specification as (the inverse of) nominal predication;44
5.2.1;2.1. Specification and definite NP predicates;44
5.2.2;2.2. Specification and inversion;48
5.2.3;2.3. Capturing this account in cognitive and constructional frameworks;52
5.3;3. Accounting for the behaviour of indefinite NPs;57
5.3.1;3.1. Specification and indefinite NP predicates;58
5.3.2;3.2. An account based on discourse requirements;59
5.3.3;3.3. An account based on definiteness;61
5.4;4. Summarizing and extending the account;66
5.4.1;4.1. An overview of specificational NP be NP sentences;66
5.4.2;4.2. Positioning this account in relation to the literature;68
5.4.3;4.3. Other specificational copular constructions;72
5.4.3.1;4.3.1. Th-clefts as specificational copular sentences;73
5.4.3.2;4.3.2. Wh-clefts as specificational copular sentences;74
5.4.3.3;4.3.3. All-clefts as specificational copular sentences;78
5.4.3.4;4.3.4. A family of specificational copular sentences;79
6;Chapter 4 It-clefts as specificational copular sentences;81
6.1;1. The English it-cleft;81
6.1.1;1.1. A “discontinuous constituent“ account of it-clefts;82
6.1.2;1.2. Explaining the it-cleft’s pragmatic properties;88
6.1.2.1;1.2.1. Focus;89
6.1.2.2;1.2.2. Presupposition;90
6.1.2.3;1.2.3. Exhaustiveness;92
6.1.2.4;1.2.4. Contrast;95
6.1.3;1.3. Explaining the it-cleft’s structural properties;97
6.1.3.1;1.3.1. The behaviour of the cleft clause;98
6.1.3.2;1.3.2. The evidence for VP constituency;103
6.1.3.3;1.3.3. The evidence from agreement;106
6.1.4;1.4. Interim summary;111
6.2;2. A comparison with expletive accounts of it-clefts;112
6.3;3. A comparison with other extraposition accounts of it-clefts;117
6.3.1;3.1. The early extraposition accounts of the 1970s;117
6.3.2;3.2. The more recent discontinuous constituent accounts;120
6.3.3;3.3. A different extraposition account?;124
6.4;4. A comparison with other constructional accounts of it-clefts;125
7;Chapter 5 Other varieties of it-cleft;130
7.1;1. Beyond the archetypal it-cleft;130
7.2;2. Predicational (and proverbial) it-clefts;132
7.2.1;2.1. An expletive approach to predicational it-clefts;133
7.2.2;2.2. Predicational it-clefts and the inverse approach;137
7.2.3;2.3. Predicational it-clefts and the equative approach;141
7.3;3. It-clefts with non-nominal foci;144
7.4;4. Informative-presupposition (IP) it-clefts;150
7.5;5. Summary;156
8;Chapter 6 The it-cleft and earlier periods of English;158
8.1;1. Beyond the present-day language system;158
8.2;2. The early history of the English it-cleft;159
8.3;3. A restrictively modified pronoun?;162
8.4;4. An obligatorily extraposed relative clause?;167
8.5;5. An unusual pattern of agreement?;172
8.6;6. The evidence from Old English gender agreement;180
8.7;7. The it-cleft as a relic from an earlier time;187
8.8;8. Summary;193
9;Chapter 7 The it-cleft’s development over time;194
9.1;1. A diachronic investigation;194
9.2;2. The corpora, the search and the selection process;194
9.2.1;2.1. OE presentational/impersonal sentences;196
9.2.2;2.2. Existential sentences with it;200
9.2.3;2.3. The pattern I it am;201
9.2.4;2.4. Other constructions mistaken for clefts;202
9.2.5;2.5. Interim summary;203
9.3;3. Frequency information;204
9.4;4. Changes to the clefted constituent;206
9.5;5. Changes to the cleft clause;214
9.6;6. Summary;221
10;Chapter 8 The it-cleft and constructional change;222
10.1;1. The two kinds of constructional change;222
10.2;2. A grammatical constructionalization account;223
10.3;3. Some alternative explanations;228
10.3.1;3.1. An impersonal account;229
10.3.2;3.2. A Celtic account;231
10.3.3;3.3. A word order account;232
10.3.4;3.4. Interim summary;234
10.4;4. Why do it-clefts undergo a construction-specific development?;235
10.4.1;4.1. Why do it-clefts develop a construction-specific range of foci?;235
10.4.2;4.2. Why do it-clefts develop construction-specific discourse functions?;242
10.4.3;4.3. Summary;251
11;Chapter 9 Conclusions;253
12;Corpora and data sources;258
13;References;259
14;Index;276

Über Autor(innen)

Patten, Amanda
Amanda Patten, Northumbria University, UK.