Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic and pragmatic variation in conditional constructions in English and Spanish parliamentary discourse
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Cristina Lastres-López
Abstract
This chapter explores conditional constructions introduced by if and si in British English and European Spanish parliamentary discourse, with data drawn from the Hansard Corpus of the British parliament and the Diario de Sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados of the Spanish parliament. I propose a categorisation of conditionals according to the metafunctions set out by Halliday and Matthiessen (2014), in order to encompass prototypical and less prototypical uses of these constructions. Corpus findings indicate that in addition to their prototypical use in expressing cause–consequence relations, conditionals in parliamentary discourse also function, to a lesser extent, as interpersonal and textual devices, especially in Spanish. Results also suggest a correlation between pragmatic and morphosyntactic variation in some of these constructions.
Abstract
This chapter explores conditional constructions introduced by if and si in British English and European Spanish parliamentary discourse, with data drawn from the Hansard Corpus of the British parliament and the Diario de Sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados of the Spanish parliament. I propose a categorisation of conditionals according to the metafunctions set out by Halliday and Matthiessen (2014), in order to encompass prototypical and less prototypical uses of these constructions. Corpus findings indicate that in addition to their prototypical use in expressing cause–consequence relations, conditionals in parliamentary discourse also function, to a lesser extent, as interpersonal and textual devices, especially in Spanish. Results also suggest a correlation between pragmatic and morphosyntactic variation in some of these constructions.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Perspectives on parliamentary discourse 1
- Chapter 1. Speech in the British Hansard 17
- Chapter 2. Salient differences between Australian oral parliamentary discourse and its official written records 54
- Chapter 3. Hansard at Huddersfield 89
- Chapter 4. Empire, migration and race in the British parliament (1803–2005) 118
- Chapter 5. Leaving the EU out of the ingroup 142
- Chapter 6. From masters and servants to employers and employees 166
- Chapter 7. From criminal lunacy to mental disorder 194
- Chapter 8. “The job requires considerable expertise” 227
- Chapter 9. Processing and prescriptivism as constraints on language variation and change 250
- Chapter 10. Language variation in parliamentary speech in Suriname 277
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic and pragmatic variation in conditional constructions in English and Spanish parliamentary discourse 308
- Chapter 12. Colloquialisation, compression and democratisation in British parliamentary debates 336
- Index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Perspectives on parliamentary discourse 1
- Chapter 1. Speech in the British Hansard 17
- Chapter 2. Salient differences between Australian oral parliamentary discourse and its official written records 54
- Chapter 3. Hansard at Huddersfield 89
- Chapter 4. Empire, migration and race in the British parliament (1803–2005) 118
- Chapter 5. Leaving the EU out of the ingroup 142
- Chapter 6. From masters and servants to employers and employees 166
- Chapter 7. From criminal lunacy to mental disorder 194
- Chapter 8. “The job requires considerable expertise” 227
- Chapter 9. Processing and prescriptivism as constraints on language variation and change 250
- Chapter 10. Language variation in parliamentary speech in Suriname 277
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic and pragmatic variation in conditional constructions in English and Spanish parliamentary discourse 308
- Chapter 12. Colloquialisation, compression and democratisation in British parliamentary debates 336
- Index 373
