Post-head compression in noun phrase referring expressions
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Rahel Oppliger
Abstract
In communication, language users frequently produce referring expressions with noun phrases at their centre (NP REs). Over the course of a communicative interaction, interlocutors’ use of NP REs tends to change: previous research has attested to speakers’ tendency to converge on linguistic forms – establishing routines (e.g. Pickering & Garrod 2004, 2005) – and to shorten their NP REs in the process (e.g. Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs 1986; Brennan & Clark 1996; Castillo et al. 2019). The present chapter investigates this shortening process and observes the structural changes in NP REs that accompany it. The study is based on data from an experimentally elicited corpus of spoken English consisting of conversational dyads producing repeated references to visual stimuli in a referential communication task. Interlocutors are indeed shown to shorten their NP REs over the course of the elicited dialogues: particularly, a decrease in longer clausal post-head elements is observed, while the use of only premodified NP REs and shorter phrasal postmodification shows a relative increase. These changes are indicative of shifts in the type of structural modification the NP REs contain: initially, speakers produce more clausal elements, which are associated with structural elaboration; later in the interaction, a decrease in clausal and relative increase in phrasal modification reveals structural compression (cf. Biber & Clark 2002).
Abstract
In communication, language users frequently produce referring expressions with noun phrases at their centre (NP REs). Over the course of a communicative interaction, interlocutors’ use of NP REs tends to change: previous research has attested to speakers’ tendency to converge on linguistic forms – establishing routines (e.g. Pickering & Garrod 2004, 2005) – and to shorten their NP REs in the process (e.g. Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs 1986; Brennan & Clark 1996; Castillo et al. 2019). The present chapter investigates this shortening process and observes the structural changes in NP REs that accompany it. The study is based on data from an experimentally elicited corpus of spoken English consisting of conversational dyads producing repeated references to visual stimuli in a referential communication task. Interlocutors are indeed shown to shorten their NP REs over the course of the elicited dialogues: particularly, a decrease in longer clausal post-head elements is observed, while the use of only premodified NP REs and shorter phrasal postmodification shows a relative increase. These changes are indicative of shifts in the type of structural modification the NP REs contain: initially, speakers produce more clausal elements, which are associated with structural elaboration; later in the interaction, a decrease in clausal and relative increase in phrasal modification reveals structural compression (cf. Biber & Clark 2002).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Major trends in research on the English NP 1
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Determination, modification & complementation
- Refining and re-defining secondary determiners in relation to primary determiners 27
- The rivalry between definiteness and specificity 79
- Post-head compression in noun phrase referring expressions 107
- From noun to verb 135
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Shell nouns & the X-is construction
- Shell nouns as epistemic stance devices in English 171
- Constructional variation and change in N-is focaliser constructions 205
- Premodification in X-is constructions 235
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Binominal constructions
- From an icy hell of a night to a hell of a fine story 279
- Time-measurement constructions in English 311
- Day to day and night after night 363
- Coordinated phrases as dvandvas 395
- Index 429
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Major trends in research on the English NP 1
-
Determination, modification & complementation
- Refining and re-defining secondary determiners in relation to primary determiners 27
- The rivalry between definiteness and specificity 79
- Post-head compression in noun phrase referring expressions 107
- From noun to verb 135
-
Shell nouns & the X-is construction
- Shell nouns as epistemic stance devices in English 171
- Constructional variation and change in N-is focaliser constructions 205
- Premodification in X-is constructions 235
-
Binominal constructions
- From an icy hell of a night to a hell of a fine story 279
- Time-measurement constructions in English 311
- Day to day and night after night 363
- Coordinated phrases as dvandvas 395
- Index 429
