Pragmatic Properties of Certain German and English Left Peripheral Constructions
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Werner Frey
Abstract
The article discusses various left peripheral constructions in German and English, which are often considered to be topic constructions. The article demonstrates, however, that only one of the constructions under review obligatorily marks a topic in the “aboutness” sense. It also discusses how the constructions behave with respect to some discourse properties which are often related to topicality: referential linking to the preceding discourse, promotion of a nontopic to a topic, thematic continuity. The article describes which constructions exhibit which discourse properties and shows that quite similar constructions behave rather dierently with respect to these properties. The article's findings also cast serious doubt on certain common assumptions about how left peripheral constructions in the two languages correspond to each other.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction: Language-Specific Conditions for Discourse Linking and Appropriateness
- Elusive Connectives. A Case Study on the Explicitness Dimension of Discourse Coherence
- Interpretation of Leftward-Moved Constituents: Processing Topicalizations in German
- Pragmatic Properties of Certain German and English Left Peripheral Constructions
- Event Types and Discourse Linking in Hungarian
- A Discourse-Based Account of Spanish ser/estar
- Topic-Worthiness in German and English
- Contrast and Information Structure: A Focus-Based Analysis of but
- Notice from the Board of Editors
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction: Language-Specific Conditions for Discourse Linking and Appropriateness
- Elusive Connectives. A Case Study on the Explicitness Dimension of Discourse Coherence
- Interpretation of Leftward-Moved Constituents: Processing Topicalizations in German
- Pragmatic Properties of Certain German and English Left Peripheral Constructions
- Event Types and Discourse Linking in Hungarian
- A Discourse-Based Account of Spanish ser/estar
- Topic-Worthiness in German and English
- Contrast and Information Structure: A Focus-Based Analysis of but
- Notice from the Board of Editors
