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Categorization via exemplification: evidence from Italian

  • Maria Cristina Lo Baido EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: July 28, 2018
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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the categorizing function of exemplification in Italian. Based on a corpus study, it will be shown that the strategies used to exemplify are mobilized from a variety of different syntactic levels, ranging from small clauses to lexemes. Though differentiated, exemplifying constructions are all characterized by the same function, that is, to signal that the expressions in their scope are examples and that they have to be processed as triggers of a higher-level category. Exemplifying constructions signal the non-referential status of what is within their scope and presuppose non-exhaustivity, namely, the existence of further alternatives which are contextually associable with the mentioned exemplars. We will first provide a semantic analysis of the constructions under examination (in terms of semantic specificity of examples), and then move on to the distributional features (in terms of the realis/irrealis status of exemplification contexts and the kind of speech act) and textual features (in terms of topic continuity of exemplification). In the conclusions, we will propose the outline of a discourse profile of exemplification as it has emerged from the analysis of corpus data.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Caterina Mauri for crucial discussions on corpus data and their interpretation. I would also like to thank Andrea Sansò and the two anonymous referees for useful comments on a first version of the article.

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Published Online: 2018-07-28
Published in Print: 2018-07-26

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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