The case of focus
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Georg Maier
Abstract
This article investigates the distribution of pronoun case forms (PCFs) in it-clefts and it BE-sentences in British and American English. Its particular interest is the occurrence of subject PCFs in these two constructions. Functional and pragmatic factors exerting an influence on the distribution are identified, such as first vs. third person, singular vs plural. All these factors are operationalized and quantified in the datasets. The findings confirm the hypothesis that subject PCFs have been re-functionalised as Focus markers in the two varieties examined. As the explanation of this refunctionalization, markedness reversal is put forward.
Abstract
This article investigates the distribution of pronoun case forms (PCFs) in it-clefts and it BE-sentences in British and American English. Its particular interest is the occurrence of subject PCFs in these two constructions. Functional and pragmatic factors exerting an influence on the distribution are identified, such as first vs. third person, singular vs plural. All these factors are operationalized and quantified in the datasets. The findings confirm the hypothesis that subject PCFs have been re-functionalised as Focus markers in the two varieties examined. As the explanation of this refunctionalization, markedness reversal is put forward.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Interrogating corpora to describe grammatical patterns 1
-
Part 1. Patterns in the verb phrase
- Light verb constructions in the history of English 15
- What happened to the English prefix, and could it stage a comeback? 35
- The pattern to be a-hunting from Middle to Late Modern English 57
- The present perfect and the preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English 81
- can and be able to in nineteenth-century Irish English 105
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Part 2. Patterns in the noun phrase
- Syntactic constraints on the use of dual form intensifiers in Modern English 131
- Ma daddy wis dead chuffed 151
- The case of focus 173
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Part 3. Patterns in complementation structures
- Null objects and sentential complements, with evidence from the Corpus of Historical American English 209
- A new angle on infinitival and of - ing complements of afraid , with evidence from the TIME Corpus 223
- Active and passive infinitive, ambiguity and non-canonical subject with ready 239
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Part 4. Patterns of clause combining
- The diffusion of English absolutes 265
- It-clefts in English L1 and L2 academic writing 295
- The speech functions of tag questions and their properties. A comparison of their distribution in COLT and LLC 321
- Author index 351
- Subject index 355
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Interrogating corpora to describe grammatical patterns 1
-
Part 1. Patterns in the verb phrase
- Light verb constructions in the history of English 15
- What happened to the English prefix, and could it stage a comeback? 35
- The pattern to be a-hunting from Middle to Late Modern English 57
- The present perfect and the preterite in Late Modern and Contemporary English 81
- can and be able to in nineteenth-century Irish English 105
-
Part 2. Patterns in the noun phrase
- Syntactic constraints on the use of dual form intensifiers in Modern English 131
- Ma daddy wis dead chuffed 151
- The case of focus 173
-
Part 3. Patterns in complementation structures
- Null objects and sentential complements, with evidence from the Corpus of Historical American English 209
- A new angle on infinitival and of - ing complements of afraid , with evidence from the TIME Corpus 223
- Active and passive infinitive, ambiguity and non-canonical subject with ready 239
-
Part 4. Patterns of clause combining
- The diffusion of English absolutes 265
- It-clefts in English L1 and L2 academic writing 295
- The speech functions of tag questions and their properties. A comparison of their distribution in COLT and LLC 321
- Author index 351
- Subject index 355
