A corpus-based study of concessive conjunctions in three L1-varieties of English
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Ole Schützler
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of the concessive conjunctions although, though and even though in three varieties of English from different world regions: British, Canadian and New Zealand English. The analysis, which is based on the International Corpus of English, reveals that although and though are typically used to mark concessives of the semantic type referred to as speech-act concessive, while even though prefers another type, defined as content concessive. Notably, these semantic properties of conjunctions are very similar not only in the three varieties under investigation, but also in speech and writing. The paper thus highlights underexplored semantic characteristics of different concessive conjunctions and demonstrates their inter- and intra-varietal stability.
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of the concessive conjunctions although, though and even though in three varieties of English from different world regions: British, Canadian and New Zealand English. The analysis, which is based on the International Corpus of English, reveals that although and though are typically used to mark concessives of the semantic type referred to as speech-act concessive, while even though prefers another type, defined as content concessive. Notably, these semantic properties of conjunctions are very similar not only in the three varieties under investigation, but also in speech and writing. The paper thus highlights underexplored semantic characteristics of different concessive conjunctions and demonstrates their inter- and intra-varietal stability.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
-
Plenaries
- Analytic and synthetic 3
- A case for clustering speakers and linguistic variables 23
- Dynamics, variation and the brain 47
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Individual chapters
- Aggregate analysis of lexical variation in Galician 71
- Inter-individual variation among young children growing up in a bidialectal community 85
- The unruly dialect variant [a] 99
- Vowel raising and vowel deletion as sociolinguistic variables in Northern Greek 113
- Between local and standard varieties 125
- Syntactic doubling and variation 141
- Variation in style 157
- A corpus-based study of concessive conjunctions in three L1-varieties of English 173
- Variation in the structure of conjunctions in Luxembourgish German in the 19th century 185
- Geolinguistic documentation of multilingual areas 199
- Variation in Croatian 215
- Index 233
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
-
Plenaries
- Analytic and synthetic 3
- A case for clustering speakers and linguistic variables 23
- Dynamics, variation and the brain 47
-
Individual chapters
- Aggregate analysis of lexical variation in Galician 71
- Inter-individual variation among young children growing up in a bidialectal community 85
- The unruly dialect variant [a] 99
- Vowel raising and vowel deletion as sociolinguistic variables in Northern Greek 113
- Between local and standard varieties 125
- Syntactic doubling and variation 141
- Variation in style 157
- A corpus-based study of concessive conjunctions in three L1-varieties of English 173
- Variation in the structure of conjunctions in Luxembourgish German in the 19th century 185
- Geolinguistic documentation of multilingual areas 199
- Variation in Croatian 215
- Index 233
