"Adverbial subordination: Introductory overview" (original) (raw)
Related papers
1997
Based on morphological, syntactic and semantic analysis of the complete inventories of adverbial subordinators of some 50 European languages, this monograph presents an account of adverbial subordinators to date. Besides laying the theoretical and methodological foundations for the typological and historical study of adverbial subordinators and related grammatical categories, it takes a stand on, and offers fascinating insights into, issues of central concern to linguists.
R. Oniga, R. Iovino & G. Giusti (eds.) Formal Linguistics and the Teaching of Latin. Theoretical and Applied Perspectives in Comparative Grammar, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 65-84., 2011
The development of typological, generative or functional studies about the complex issue of Word order has advanced considerably over the last few years. This fact, together with the innovating theories behind such advances condition the perspective from which the question of word order Latin Syntax is built and explained. The very concept of word order we must start from can be more complete and real if we include the essential aspects forming part of it from a typological, functional perspective, namely, the structural and the pragmatic ones. Thus, this paper is intended to put forward an approach that brings together —without leading to confusion— the information obtained on this subject by different methodological perspectives. After explaining the concept of word order, this question is developed using the data in the different texts from different periods and, then, considering this diachronic approach, it provides an account of the– eventually interrelated– factors that are particularly explanatory regarding the different word order phenomena. In this sense, the explanation intends to approach, among other things, the influence of the following factors: the differentiation of the relative and absolute positions of elements that are considered basic from the typological point of view (Subject, Object, Verb), the nature of verbal predicates, the type, complexity and hierarchical level of the constituents, the modality of the utterance, the relative position of subordinate clauses in a complex sentence and the pragmatic nature of the different constituents. The explanation provided pays special attention to the exemplification of the different facts. By approaching the different instances of word order this study intends to differentiate two levels, mainly: (i) the clause and (ii) the noun phrase, specifying in the latter the organisation of the constituents in the phrase consisting of an Adjective and a Noun, of a Genitive and a Noun and of a Prepositional Phrase and a Noun. This type of approach, which combines the advantages provided by theoretical research and the results obtained through the analysis of written material, is particularly clarifying and useful, while it adjusts to the reality of the textual facts.
Sentence adverbials: Defining the research object and outlining the research results
Linguistik Online, 2018
The aim of this contribution-functioning as preface to the special issue of Linguistik online entitled Formal and functional perspectives on sentence adverbials in the Romance languages and beyond-is to give a general overview of its research object and agenda. We start by providing a morpho-syntactic definition of the category of adverbials and then present a functional classification of these expressions, paying particular attention to the category of sentence adverbials. After having clarified the research object of this special issue, we present the content of the ten contributions collected, by identifying the lines of analysis which they address .
The syntax and semantics of locating adverbials
Cette étude examine les propriétés des adverbiaux de localisation du français à plusieurs niveaux. La structure syntaxique de ces éléments est décrite de même que les interactions complexes entre position dans la phrase et contribution sémantique. En se focalisant sur la position d'adjoint du syntagme verbal, on montre que le contenu sémantique des marqueurs considérés est mieux saisi par une approche 'relationnelle' que par une approche 'référentielle'. Une sémantique compositionnelle des adverbiaux en position de VP-adjoints est finalement proposée.
English Language and Linguistics, 2013
Reviewed by Bernd Kortmann, University of Freiburg "Adverbials may be regarded as a ragbag category in the linguistics system." It is hard to think of anyone who might want to take issue with the opening statement of the monograph under review. In fact, it is hard to think of any domain of grammar (not only English grammar) which is messier than the one of adverbials. For this reason alone anyone who volunteers to tackle the Herculean task of writing a(nother) comprehensive book on the by far largest subgroup of adverbials, namely adjuncts, must be admired for their courage and stamina. It must be someone who has explored the territory for a long time and acquired intimate knowledge, which is indeed the case for Hilda Hasselgård, who in 1996 published a first monograph on the two largest semantic classes of adverbials, more exactly on Where and When: Positional and Functional Conventions for Sequences of Time and Space Adverbials in Present-Day English (see references). Hasselgård's new book stands in the tradition of Greenbaum's seminal Studies in English Adverbial Usage (1969) and its successor publications (in Quirk et al. 1972 and 1985, with the relevant chapters in both pillars of English reference grammars having been authored by Sidney Greenbaum, and in Biber et al. 1999) and truly complements Greenbaum's 1969 classic by focussing on adjuncts. While Greenbaum was solely concerned with linking adverbs, i.e. conjuncts and disjuncts, Hasselgård restricts her study to adjuncts, including under this heading, following Biber et al. 1999, "all time and degree adverbials along with focus and viewpoint adverbials" (p. 23), i.e. adverbials classified as subjuncts in Quirk et al. (1985). The overall approach Hasselgård adopts is one that is descriptive, broadly functional and more (but not too) narrowly Hallidayan, which is reflected among other things by her usage-in-text/discourse perspective on adjuncts (notably their use on the textual and interpersonal levels of communication). This perspective is also prominently stated in the cover blurb, where, besides pointing to usage differences of adverbials across text types, the reader is informed as follows: "In using real texts, Hasselgård identifies a challenge for the classification of adjuncts, and also highlights the fact that some adjuncts have uses that extend into the textual and interpersonal domains, obscuring the traditional divisions between adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts." The volume comprises almost exactly 300 text pages and is organized into four parts with altogether 13 chapters. Part I (3-63) outlines the overall framework for Hasselgård's take on the field of adverbials, in general, and adjuncts, in particular. It offers the expectable background information concerning the major research questions, materials and methods, and organisation of the book (Chapter 1) and an overview of the classifications of adverbials as discussed in the literature (Chapter 2). In Chapter 3 the focus is on the syntactic positions of adverbials in clauses and sentences (essentially, initial, medial, end position) and the semantics, especially the semantic scope, of adverbials (in general and depending on their position). Part II (67-183) is concerned with the positions of adverbials. It consists of five chapters, the first three of which address adverbials in initial, medial and end position respectively (Chapters 4-6). Chapter 7 is exclusively concerned with (it-) cleft focus position of adjuncts and Chapter 8 with the combination of adjuncts and, especially, combination of their positions. The overarching topic of Part III (187-256) is semantics, more exactly subtypes, frequencies and usage of different semantic types of adjuncts (adjuncts of time and space in Chapter 9, of manner and contingency in Chapter 10, and of respect, focus, degree, etc. in Chapter 11). The synoptic Part IV (259-305) draws together the major findings from
"Constituent Order in Constructions with Praedicativum in Latin"
A. M. Martín R. (ed.), Linguisticae Dissertationes. Current Perspectives on Latin Grammar, Lexicon and Pragmatics, Madrid, Ediciones Clásicas, 2021: 505-518. , 2021
In previous studies, the difficulty in distinguishing the functions of Subject Complement (SubjC) and Praedicativum (P) has been discussed; the question continues to raise difficulties. In addition to qualify its (no)mandatory presence from the syntactic-semantic and pragmatic points of view, in Cabrillana (2019b) it was proposed an additional way of differentiation which referred to different ordering of constituents in both structures (with SubjC and P): preferential orders SubjC-Verb / Verb-P. In this paper, the scant number of examples did not allow the establishment of clear conclusions and the analysis was restricted to the verb sto. The purpose of this contribution is (i) to verify and clarify the scope of this proposal of differentiation through a significant expansion of the corpus, as well as through the study of the construction with the verbs maneo, permaneo and remaneo, and (ii) to try to identify and illustrate the main causal factors of the trends observed. Among these causes, reasons of diverse nature are considered: the coding of the P constituent, the existence of more and less generalized trends of constituent order in Latin, the pragmatic relevance by the set of V and P, or the occasional influence of ordering trends of related constructions to the structures with P. Therefore, factors belonging to different linguistic levels and assumptions from diverse methodological perspectives are applied.