Absolute Clauses in English from the Systemic Functional Perspective

A Corpus-Based Study
2015
ISBN: 978-3-662-46366-6
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 178 Seiten, HC runder Rücken kaschiert, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 4624 g

Reihe: The M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series

This book focuses on the structural diversity, semantic variability, case choice, stylistic characteristics and diachronic distribution of English absolute clauses. The syntactic roles assumed by absolute clauses in the traditional sense can be categorized into clausal adjuncts, attendant circumstances and appositives. These three types of function correspond to the three hypotactic expansions in the relation system of clause complexes in Systemic Functional Linguistics, i.e., elaboration, extension and enhancement. This research, therefore, redefines absolute clauses in the framework of SFL and proposes four syntactic types of absolute clauses: absolute paratactic clauses (elaboration), absolute hypotactic clauses (extension and enhancement), absolute projected clauses (fact and act) and absolute embedded clauses (subject). Based on the Brown family corpora, BNC and COHA, this research finds that different function types of absolute clauses differ in terms of their stylistic and diachronic distributions, and both nominative and accusative cases are acceptable.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Yang, Bingjun

He, Qingshun

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Grammatik, Syntax, Morphologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften Theoretische Linguistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction.- Absolute Clauses in the Literature .- Approaching Absolute Clauses from the SFL Perspective.- Research Design.- Relationships Realized by Absolute Clauses.- Absolute Clauses Distributed in Three Corpora.- Discussions.- Conclusion.