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Chapter 6. A corpus-based comparative study of concessive connectives in English, German and Spanish

The distribution of although, obwohl and aunque in the Europarl corpus
  • Volker Gast
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Empirical Studies of the Construction of Discourse
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Empirical Studies of the Construction of Discourse

Abstract

This contribution presents a comparative, corpus-based study of the arguably most common concessive connectives of English, German and Spanish, i.e., although, obwohl and aunque. Concessive connectives cover a broad range of contexts and the question arises to what extent prima facie equivalents such as the three connectives under analysis in this study differ with respect to parameters of concessivity identified in the relevant literature. The study shows that obwohl differs significantly from aunque and although in exhibiting a strong bias towards ‘canonical’ concessivity, while the latter connectives (aunque to a greater extent than although) are also commonly used in non-canonical, specifically ‘relativizing’ concessives. Some further distributional differences are identified (with respect to the level of linking, the givenness status and the topic-comment structure of the concessive), but they are largely consequences of the asymmetries in the ‘basic’ type of semantic relation (canonical, relativizing, adversative). As far as structural properties of the concessive clauses are concerned, obwohl-clauses differ from although- and aunque-clauses in that they rarely precede the main clause. This tendency cannot be explained in terms of length, or the functional parameters under investigation, and is thus regarded as a property of the connectives themselves.

Abstract

This contribution presents a comparative, corpus-based study of the arguably most common concessive connectives of English, German and Spanish, i.e., although, obwohl and aunque. Concessive connectives cover a broad range of contexts and the question arises to what extent prima facie equivalents such as the three connectives under analysis in this study differ with respect to parameters of concessivity identified in the relevant literature. The study shows that obwohl differs significantly from aunque and although in exhibiting a strong bias towards ‘canonical’ concessivity, while the latter connectives (aunque to a greater extent than although) are also commonly used in non-canonical, specifically ‘relativizing’ concessives. Some further distributional differences are identified (with respect to the level of linking, the givenness status and the topic-comment structure of the concessive), but they are largely consequences of the asymmetries in the ‘basic’ type of semantic relation (canonical, relativizing, adversative). As far as structural properties of the concessive clauses are concerned, obwohl-clauses differ from although- and aunque-clauses in that they rarely precede the main clause. This tendency cannot be explained in terms of length, or the functional parameters under investigation, and is thus regarded as a property of the connectives themselves.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Corpus-based studies
  5. Chapter 1. Challenges in the contrastive study of discourse markers 17
  6. Chapter 2. Local vs. global scope of discourse markers 43
  7. Chapter 3. Prosodic versatility, hierarchical rank and pragmatic function in conversational markers 61
  8. Chapter 4. A preliminary typology of interactional figures based on a tool for visualizing conversational structure 93
  9. Chapter 5. Causal relations between discourse and grammar 131
  10. Chapter 6. A corpus-based comparative study of concessive connectives in English, German and Spanish 151
  11. Part II. Experiment-based studies
  12. Chapter 7. Processing patterns of focusing in Spanish 195
  13. Chapter 8. Expectation changes over time 229
  14. Chapter 9. Processing implicit and explicit causality in Spanish 253
  15. Part III. Combined approaches
  16. Chapter 10. Subjectivity and Causality in discourse and cognition 273
  17. Chapter 11. Subjectivity of English connectives 299
  18. Index 319
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.305.06gas

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Corpus-based studies
  5. Chapter 1. Challenges in the contrastive study of discourse markers 17
  6. Chapter 2. Local vs. global scope of discourse markers 43
  7. Chapter 3. Prosodic versatility, hierarchical rank and pragmatic function in conversational markers 61
  8. Chapter 4. A preliminary typology of interactional figures based on a tool for visualizing conversational structure 93
  9. Chapter 5. Causal relations between discourse and grammar 131
  10. Chapter 6. A corpus-based comparative study of concessive connectives in English, German and Spanish 151
  11. Part II. Experiment-based studies
  12. Chapter 7. Processing patterns of focusing in Spanish 195
  13. Chapter 8. Expectation changes over time 229
  14. Chapter 9. Processing implicit and explicit causality in Spanish 253
  15. Part III. Combined approaches
  16. Chapter 10. Subjectivity and Causality in discourse and cognition 273
  17. Chapter 11. Subjectivity of English connectives 299
  18. Index 319
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Heruntergeladen am 19.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/pbns.305.06gas/html
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