The position of adverbials and the pragmatic organization of the sentence: A comparison of French and Dutch
-
Ilse Magnus
Abstract
This paper presents a comparative study of the positions adverbials can occupy within a declarative sentence in French and Dutch. The theoretical assumption is that sentence constituents can be classified as either focusable or not, and that these concepts can also be applied to the entire sentence. A French sentence contains a non-focusable and a focusable section separated by the position for the negation particle, while in Dutch the whole sentence, with the exception of the two peripheral positions, is focusable. An empirical study with informants brings out that French is characterized by a strong correlation between the focusability of adverbials and the positions they can occupy, but that in Dutch all types of adverbials can occur in all available positions.
Abstract
This paper presents a comparative study of the positions adverbials can occupy within a declarative sentence in French and Dutch. The theoretical assumption is that sentence constituents can be classified as either focusable or not, and that these concepts can also be applied to the entire sentence. A French sentence contains a non-focusable and a focusable section separated by the position for the negation particle, while in Dutch the whole sentence, with the exception of the two peripheral positions, is focusable. An empirical study with informants brings out that French is characterized by a strong correlation between the focusability of adverbials and the positions they can occupy, but that in Dutch all types of adverbials can occur in all available positions.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Introduction xv
-
Part I. Information structure
- Theme zones in contrast: An analysis of their linguistic realization in the communicative act of a non-acceptance 3
- Last things first: An FDG approach to clause-final focus constituents in Spanish and English 33
- Contrastive perspectives on cleft sentences 69
- The position of adverbials and the pragmatic organization of the sentence: A comparison of French and Dutch 89
-
Part II. Lexis in contrast
- Swedish verbs of perception from a typological and contrastive perspective 123
- 'Abroad' and semantically related terms in some European languages and in Akan (Ghana) 173
- The expression of emotion in Italian and English fairy tales 193
- The feminine stereotype in gay characterization: A look at English and Spanish 221
-
Part III. Contrastive perspectives on SLA
- Communicative tasks across languages: Movie narratives in English, in English as a foreign language and in German 247
- Linguistic theory and bilingual systems: Simultaneous and sequential English/Spanish bilingualism 275
- Awareness of orthographic form and morphophonemic learning in EFL 299
- Contrastive intonation and error analysis: Tonality and tonicity in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English 327
- Author index 355
- Index of languages 359
- Index of terms 361
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Introduction xv
-
Part I. Information structure
- Theme zones in contrast: An analysis of their linguistic realization in the communicative act of a non-acceptance 3
- Last things first: An FDG approach to clause-final focus constituents in Spanish and English 33
- Contrastive perspectives on cleft sentences 69
- The position of adverbials and the pragmatic organization of the sentence: A comparison of French and Dutch 89
-
Part II. Lexis in contrast
- Swedish verbs of perception from a typological and contrastive perspective 123
- 'Abroad' and semantically related terms in some European languages and in Akan (Ghana) 173
- The expression of emotion in Italian and English fairy tales 193
- The feminine stereotype in gay characterization: A look at English and Spanish 221
-
Part III. Contrastive perspectives on SLA
- Communicative tasks across languages: Movie narratives in English, in English as a foreign language and in German 247
- Linguistic theory and bilingual systems: Simultaneous and sequential English/Spanish bilingualism 275
- Awareness of orthographic form and morphophonemic learning in EFL 299
- Contrastive intonation and error analysis: Tonality and tonicity in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English 327
- Author index 355
- Index of languages 359
- Index of terms 361
