clause-combining; hypothetical manner clauses; insubordination; prosody; subordination; Language and Linguistics; Linguistics and Language
Abstract :
[en] This study examines hypothetical manner (HM) clauses in spoken English and Dutch. In both languages, HM clauses can assume different levels of grammatical and discursive (in)dependence, and different semantic-pragmatic functions. This study examines whether the grammatical-discursive configurations that English and Dutch allow for are associated with different prosodic profiles. To this end, the study investigates not just prosodic integration of the clause in the same intonation unit as the main/previous clause, but also potential pitch resets (or downsteps) at the start of the clause, average amount of pausing before the clause, and the pitch contour with which the clause is uttered. The study finds that, while syntactic status and semantic-pragmatic function interact, syntactic status is generally the better predictor of the prosodic realisation of the clause. Among syntactically independent clauses, few differences are found between discursively independent clauses ('stand-alone insubordinates') and discursively dependent ones ('dependency shifts'). We argue, therefore, that these two clause types are similar from a communicative viewpoint, both marking 'fresh starts' in the discourse. Finally, the many observed similarities between English and Dutch indicate that meaningful generalisations can be made about the interactions between grammatical, discursive and prosodic profiles, at least for the two languages under investigation.
Disciplines :
Languages & linguistics
Author, co-author :
Van Praet, Wout; UCLouvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Van Linden, An ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de langues modernes : linguistique, littérature et traduction > Linguistique synchronique anglaise
Language :
English
Title :
As if grammar, discourse and prosody don't interact: A comparative study of hypothetical manner clauses in English and Dutch
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