How Grammar Links Concepts: Verb-mediated constructions, attribution, perspectivizing

341 Pages·2017·13.6 MB·English

by  Friedrich Ungerer

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Friedrich Ungerer
John Benjamins Publishing Company
How Grammar Links Concepts
Human Cognitive Processing (HCP)
Cognitive Foundations of Language Structure and Use
issn 1387-6724
This book series is a forum for interdisciplinary research on the grammatical
structure, semantic organization, and communicative function of language(s), and
their anchoring in human cognitive faculties.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/hcp
Editors
Klaus-Uwe Panther Linda L. Thornburg
University of Hamburg
Editorial Board
Bogusław Bierwiaczonek Elżbieta Górska
Jan Dlugosz University, Czestochowa, Poland / University of Warsaw
Higher School of Labour Safety Management, Martin Hilpert
Katowice
University of Neuchâtel
Mario Brdar
Zoltán Kövecses
University of Osijek, Croatia
Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
Barbara Dancygier
Teenie Matlock
University of British Columbia
University of California at Merced
N.J. Enfield
Carita Paradis
University of Sydney
Lund University
Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen
Günter Radden
University of Copenhagen
University of Hamburg
Ad Foolen
Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez
Radboud University Nijmegen
University of La Rioja
Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr.
Doris Schönefeld
University of California at Santa Cruz
University of Leipzig
Rachel Giora
Debra Ziegeler
Tel Aviv University
University of Paris III
Volume 57
How Grammar Links Concepts.
Verb-mediated constructions, attribution, perspectivizing
by Friedrich Ungerer
How Grammar Links Concepts
Verb-mediated constructions, attribution,
perspectivizing
Friedrich Ungerer
University of Rostock
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/hcp.57
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2017003489 (print) / 2017030901 (e-book)
isbn 978 90 272 4673 8 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6578 4 (e-book)
© 2017 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
Table of contents
List of figures xi
List of tables xiii
chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 The present situation 1
1.2 Revived insights of traditional functionalism 2
1.3 The contribution of image schemas 3
1.4 The role of perspectives 4
1.5 A first summary of concept-linking mechanisms 5
1.6 The role of interfaces 6
1.7 Concept linking and language acquisition 7
1.8 The structure of the book 7
1.9 The status of the examples 8
Part I. Basics
chapter 2
Mechanisms of concept linking 13
2.1 Verb-mediated constructions (VMCs) 14
2.1.1 Agent-driven VMCs 14
2.1.2 Other types of VMCs 15
2.2 Attribution 20
2.2.1 Attribution as modifying 20
2.2.2 Attribution as circumstancing 22
2.2.3 Attribution in complex sentences 25
2.3 Perspectivizing and scope phenomena 26
2.3.1 Sentence modes as grammaticalized perspectives 26
2.3.2 Deixis, agreement, and TAM perspectives 27
2.3.3 Negation, perspective, and the grammaticalization of scope 28
2.3.4 Perspectivizing use of adverbs 33
2.4 The inherent meaning of scope and attribution 39
2.5 Evidence for concept linking in spoken language 41
vi How Grammar Links Concepts
2.6 A first overview of concept-linking mechanisms 44
2.7 Postscript on concept linking and image schemas 45
2.7.1 Relationship of path, container, and part-whole to other
image schemas 45
2.7.2 The spatial background of image schemas 47
2.7.3 Neurological claims for image schemas 47
chapter 3
Hierarchy in concept linking 49
3.1 Introductory remarks on grammatical hierarchies 49
3.2 VMC and attribution hierarchies 50
3.2.1 The ‘flatness’ of the VMC hierarchy 50
3.2.2 The hierarchical flexibility of attribution 52
3.3 Hierarchical aspects of perspectivizing and scope 55
3.3.1 Hierarchical levels 55
3.3.2 Scope differentiation for viewpoint and person-oriented adverbs 58
3.3.3 Scope hierarchy vs. scope competition: How time and frequency
adverbs, emphasizers and not-negation function 60
3.3.4 The scope behavior of epistemic and deontic modals 63
3.4 Interlocking hierarchies: An example 67
3.5 Postscript on the notions of clause and complex sentence 67
3.5.1 The notion of clause 68
3.5.2 The notion of complex sentence 68
chapter 4
Restrictions on concept linking 71
4.1 Restrictions on VMCs and attribution contrasted 71
4.2 Restrictions on perspectivizing 74
chapter 5
Signaling concept linking: Word order, morphology, function words 81
5.1 The role of word order in concept linking 81
5.1.1 A preliminary classification 81
5.1.2 Word order as serialization of concept representations 82
5.1.3 Word order as adjacency of concept representations 85
5.1.4 Word order as indication of scope extension and the position
of scope signals 86
5.2 The role of morphology and function words in concept linking 89
5.3 Word order, morphology and function words: An overview 92
Table of contents vii
chapter 6
Concept linking, topic, comment and focusing 95
6.1 Introductory remarks on the influence of conceptual salience
and informational prominence 95
6.2 Topic and comment in concept-linking 96
6.2.1 The narrow interpretation challenged: Topic and comment only
as subject and predicate? 96
6.2.2 The wide interpretation: Topic and comment in attribution
and perspectivizing 98
6.3 Introducing focusing 100
6.4 Positional focusing 101
6.4.1 Positional focusing and the focus potential of VMCs 101
6.4.2 Positional focusing, scene-setting and circumstancing 104
6.4.3 Complex focusing and scene-setting constructions
(cleft sentences) 105
6.5 Perspectival focusing 111
6.5.1 Focusing adverbs, perspectival and positional focusing 111
6.5.2 Perspectival focusing vs. scope 114
6.5.3 Focus dominance vs. scope dominance in perspectivizing 117
6.5.4 Scope and focus of connective adverbs 120
6.5.5 Scope and focus of not-negation 125
6.5.6 Scope and focus of TAM phenomena and sentence modes 128
6.6 Postscript on the role of given and new 131
Part II. Interfaces
chapter 7
Introductory remarks on interfaces in concept linking 135
chapter 8
Interfaces of verb-mediated constructions and attribution 139
8.1 Interfaces of VMCs and modifying 139
8.1.1 The copula/modifier interface 139
8.1.2 Extended copula/modifier interfaces and adjective
complements 144
8.1.3 Other types of interface between VMCs and modifying 149
8.2 Interfaces of VMCs and circumstancing 150
8.2.1 Circumstancing, VMC integration and interfaces 150
8.2.2 Locative interfaces between circumstancing and VMCs 153
8.2.3 Interfaces for direction, source, course and goal 155
8.2.4 time when and time duration in concept linking 159
viii How Grammar Links Concepts
8.2.5 time frequency in concept linking 164
8.2.6 Interfaces for agent, instrument, method and plain
manner concepts 167
8.2.7 Participant/circumstance interfaces: An overview 170
8.3 Participant/circumstance interfaces, prepositional verbs
and phrasal verbs 170
8.3.1 Constructions with prepositional verbs as interfaces 171
8.3.2 Constructions with phrasal verbs 174
chapter 9
Interfaces of perspectivizing and attribution (adverb interfaces) 177
9.1 Interfaces of perspectivizing and circumstancing 177
9.1.1 Clause-final manner adverbs as interfaces 177
9.1.2 Clause-final position of frequency and viewpoint adverbs:
Interface or afterthought? 179
9.2 Adjectival adverbs 181
9.2.1 Adjectival adverbs as interface phenomenon 181
9.2.2 Adjectival adverbs and elementary adjectives 184
9.3 Perspectivizing, modifying and interfaces to express degree 186
9.3.1 ly-adverbs of degree as perspectivizers 187
9.3.2 Adjectival adverbs of degree as modifiers 189
9.3.3 measure-based degree adverbs 190
9.3.4 Sort of and kind of as degree adverbs 193
9.3.5 Adverbs expressing degree: An overview 194
chapter 10
Non-finite constructions as interfaces of VMCs, attribution
and perspectivizing 197
10.1 Introduction 197
10.2 Outline of the concept-linking analysis of non-finite constructions 198
10.2.1 Plain non-finite constructions as interfaces 198
10.2.2 Notional subjects of non-finite constructions
as attributed referents 203
10.2.3 ‘Object+infinitive’ and related constructions as interfaces 207
10.3 Selected phenomena of non-finite interfaces 212
10.3.1 Non-finite interfaces introduced by for and other prepositions 212
10.3.2 Subject-related and speaker-related participles
as circumstances 216
10.3.3 Absolute participles and with-constructions 219
10.4 Postscript on the terminology of gerund and participles 222
Table of contents ix
chapter 11
Interfaces and the grammaticalization of perspectivizers 225
11.1 Interfaces and cross-mechanism grammaticalization 225
11.2 From verb+infinitive to complex predicates with modal
perspectivizers 225
11.3 From two VMCs to viewpoint perspectivizer+VMC 229
11.3.1 Statements introduced by I think 229
11.3.2 Questions introduced by (what) do you think 232
11.4 Final overview of interfaces 234
Part III. Language acquisition
chapter 12
Introductory remarks on concept linking in language acquisition 237
chapter 13
Temporal priority of attribution in early language acquisition 241
13.1 Early attribution and the pilot corpus 241
13.2 Non-verbal two-word-plus items as attribution 244
13.2.1 Early attribution links (EALs) 244
13.2.2 Pivot structures 246
13.2.3 Attribution and caregiver speech (CDS) 248
13.3 Verb-containing two-word-plus items as attribution 250
chapter 14
The emergence of VMCs and copula/modifier interfaces 255
14.1 The role of the subject participant in acquiring VMCs 256
14.2 The put-construction as acquisition model 257
14.3 The want-construction as acquisition model 263
14.4 From deictic attribution to copula/modifier interfaces 266
chapter 15
The development of perspectivizing mechanisms 271
15.1 Concept-linking and the notion of partial achievement 271
15.2 The perspectivizing of negation 272
15.3 Interrogative perspectivizing 279
15.3.1 Questions introduced by what 279
15.3.2 Questions introduced by where and by other interrogatives 282
15.3.3 Yes/no-questions 285
15.4 The perspectivizing of TAM modality 286