Women writers in the 18th century
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Nuria Calvo Cortés
Abstract
The present study analyses perfect auxiliaries combined with a set of verbs that semantically encode an idea of motion, either physical or metaphorical (arrived, become, come, departed, entered, fallen, gone, got, grown, passed, returned and run) in a corpus of eight novels written by four women in the 18th century, Burney, Inchbald, Radcliffe and Wollstonecraft. The focus is on whether the semantics of the components of motion situations conditioned their choice of auxiliary, and on whether there are differences within the texts depending on where the perfect structures appear, in the narration or in the dialogue. The conclusion indicates that the semantics of motion situations, particularly the different types of figure and ground, may have conditioned their choices.
Abstract
The present study analyses perfect auxiliaries combined with a set of verbs that semantically encode an idea of motion, either physical or metaphorical (arrived, become, come, departed, entered, fallen, gone, got, grown, passed, returned and run) in a corpus of eight novels written by four women in the 18th century, Burney, Inchbald, Radcliffe and Wollstonecraft. The focus is on whether the semantics of the components of motion situations conditioned their choice of auxiliary, and on whether there are differences within the texts depending on where the perfect structures appear, in the narration or in the dialogue. The conclusion indicates that the semantics of motion situations, particularly the different types of figure and ground, may have conditioned their choices.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonology
- “A received pronunciation” 21
- The interplay of internal and external factors in varieties of English 43
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Part II. Morphosyntax
- The myth of American English gotten as a historical retention 67
- Changes affecting relative clauses in Late Modern English 91
- Diffusion of do 117
- A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray 143
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Part III. Orthography, vocabulary and semantics
- In search of “the lexicographic stamp” 167
- “Divided by a common language”? 185
- Women writers in the 18th century 203
- Eighteenth-century French cuisine terms and their semantic integration in English 219
- Spelling normalisation of Late Modern English 243
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Part IV. Pragmatics and discourse
- A far from simple matter revisited 271
- What it means to describe speech 295
- Being Wilde 315
- “I am desired (…) to desire” 333
- Index 357
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonology
- “A received pronunciation” 21
- The interplay of internal and external factors in varieties of English 43
-
Part II. Morphosyntax
- The myth of American English gotten as a historical retention 67
- Changes affecting relative clauses in Late Modern English 91
- Diffusion of do 117
- A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray 143
-
Part III. Orthography, vocabulary and semantics
- In search of “the lexicographic stamp” 167
- “Divided by a common language”? 185
- Women writers in the 18th century 203
- Eighteenth-century French cuisine terms and their semantic integration in English 219
- Spelling normalisation of Late Modern English 243
-
Part IV. Pragmatics and discourse
- A far from simple matter revisited 271
- What it means to describe speech 295
- Being Wilde 315
- “I am desired (…) to desire” 333
- Index 357
