Pragmatics, word order and cross-reference
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Svilen B. Stanchev
Abstract
There is an apparent ambivalence in the lexico-grammatical status of pronominal clitics in Bulgarian. They have the features of pronominal forms on the one hand and grammaticalized markers on the other. The present analysis builds on my previous publications in the field of Bulgarian clitics, sentence pragmatics and word order, but it also takes into account other recent publications on the subject. I adopt the view that Bulgarian pronominal clitics have grammaticalized to a degree where they function as cross-reference markers of the object, identical with verbal inflexions which cross-reference the subject. This approach makes it possible to account for the use of clitics both in their object-reduplicating function and as separate short pronominal forms. In correlation with prosody and special sentence positions, clitics play an important role in the pragmatic organization of the expression as markers of object topicalization. Basing my pragmatic analysis on the general schema of pragmatic positions in the Bulgarian sentence (cf. Stanchev 1997), in this article I present an outline of the major patterns of Topic and Focus assignment involving constructions with reduplicating clitics (CRCs).
Abstract
There is an apparent ambivalence in the lexico-grammatical status of pronominal clitics in Bulgarian. They have the features of pronominal forms on the one hand and grammaticalized markers on the other. The present analysis builds on my previous publications in the field of Bulgarian clitics, sentence pragmatics and word order, but it also takes into account other recent publications on the subject. I adopt the view that Bulgarian pronominal clitics have grammaticalized to a degree where they function as cross-reference markers of the object, identical with verbal inflexions which cross-reference the subject. This approach makes it possible to account for the use of clitics both in their object-reduplicating function and as separate short pronominal forms. In correlation with prosody and special sentence positions, clitics play an important role in the pragmatic organization of the expression as markers of object topicalization. Basing my pragmatic analysis on the general schema of pragmatic positions in the Bulgarian sentence (cf. Stanchev 1997), in this article I present an outline of the major patterns of Topic and Focus assignment involving constructions with reduplicating clitics (CRCs).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors ix
- Editorial introduction xvii
- Publications of Angela Downing xxvii
- Grammar as an adaptive evolutionary product 1
- Towards a cognitive-functional model of text comprehension 41
- Towards an integrational approach in linguistics 81
- Expressing past habit in English and Swedish 97
- Do cognate and circumstantial complements of intransitive verbs form one ‘Range’? 129
- The unconscious, irresponsible construction in Modern Icelandic 149
- Modelling ‘selection’ between referents in the English nominal group 165
- Problems in NP structure 205
- Double-possessive nominalizations in English 217
- Pragmatics, word order and cross-reference 233
- Patterns of multiple theme and their role in developing English writing skills 257
- Interactive solution-problems 279
- The English Contrastive Discourse Marker instead 301
- Global and local attention in task-oriented conversation 313
- Metadiscursive and interpersonal values of pronominal topics in spoken Spanish 327
- Phatic communion and small talk in fictional dialogues 349
- Mister so-called X 359
- ‘Sorry to muddy the waters’ 395
- The discourse functionality of adjectival and adverbial epistemic expressions 419
- Modality across World Englishes 447
- Name index 469
- Subject index 473
- Language index 481
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors ix
- Editorial introduction xvii
- Publications of Angela Downing xxvii
- Grammar as an adaptive evolutionary product 1
- Towards a cognitive-functional model of text comprehension 41
- Towards an integrational approach in linguistics 81
- Expressing past habit in English and Swedish 97
- Do cognate and circumstantial complements of intransitive verbs form one ‘Range’? 129
- The unconscious, irresponsible construction in Modern Icelandic 149
- Modelling ‘selection’ between referents in the English nominal group 165
- Problems in NP structure 205
- Double-possessive nominalizations in English 217
- Pragmatics, word order and cross-reference 233
- Patterns of multiple theme and their role in developing English writing skills 257
- Interactive solution-problems 279
- The English Contrastive Discourse Marker instead 301
- Global and local attention in task-oriented conversation 313
- Metadiscursive and interpersonal values of pronominal topics in spoken Spanish 327
- Phatic communion and small talk in fictional dialogues 349
- Mister so-called X 359
- ‘Sorry to muddy the waters’ 395
- The discourse functionality of adjectival and adverbial epistemic expressions 419
- Modality across World Englishes 447
- Name index 469
- Subject index 473
- Language index 481
