Volume 37, Issue 4

In this paper we take the position that there are many degrees of constituency and that these derive in a direct manner from the frequency with which elements are used together: elements that are frequently found next to each other show a tighter constituent structure than those that collocate less frequently. We use both phonological and functional evidence from conversation to argue that repetition conditions chunking (Haiman 1994), sometimes overriding the syntactic and semantic logic of the organization of utterances. Our study examines the reduction of don't in American English conversation. We find that don't is reduced the most in the contexts in which it occurs the most, that is, after I and before certain verbs, such as know . While a generalized constituent structure may be an emergent property arising from many analogous utterances, specific combinations that are frequently used may diverge from the general pattern because frequency conditions autonomy in storage and renders internal analysis unnecessary. This phenomenon reveals the essential role of repetition in the creation of constituent structure: while semantic and pragmatic factors determine what occurs together in discourse, the actual repetition of stretches of talk triggers the chunking mechanism that binds them into constituents.

This paper explicates the opposition between Ø and -ed as tense–aspect markers of foregrounding and backgrounding respectively in Tobagonian Creole in the transition space between the mesolectal and acrolectal varieties in that system, where -ed replaces basilectal bin and mesolectal did as a remote-past marker. Most consistency of explication can be achieved for these markers via their use as discourse strategies, since Ø has been variously associated with perfectivity, pastness, resultativity, and recency, while bin , the basilectal analogue of -ed , has been contextually analyzed as encompassing the meanings past before past, simple past, and remote or non-relevant past. The foregrounding–backgrounding opposition is defined and illustrated in its consistency through the exponents Ø, bin/did , and -ed in a series of illustrations of oral and written narratives. In the narratives negotiated in the transition area, that is, that area closest to the Standard, there is some loss of the opposition. There, -ed takes up generalized pastitalic meaning for students at an interlingual stage of development in the assumed acquisition of Standard English.

This article investigates the four uses of the particles cai and jiu in Mandarin Chinese: the temporal, restrictive, conditional, and emphatic uses. The major claim is that the various uses of the particles are related by virtue of their common link to an abstract semantic structure. The analysis not only accounts for the semantic similarities of the different uses but also suggests that it is just the scales on which cai and jiu operate that result in the seemingly different meanings of the particles. It is argued that cai and jiu presuppose a change of state of the truth value of a proposition and that this change happens at a different point from where it is expected to happen. For cai , the asserted value of change is located “farther up” on the structure than the expected value, whereas for jiu , the asserted value of change is located “farther down.”

A speech community in the Labovian tradition is characterized by a relatively uniform distribution of linguistic variants across social entities, and an evaluative consensus pertaining to the status of such forms. Explicit debate on the opposite situation, in which variation is marked by sharp contrasts between social groups, which are termed discontinuities, has tended to center on specific social constructs (e.g. social networks), or on specific interactional complexes (e.g. restricted and semirestricted speakers). Discontinuity is often viewed negatively as the absence of uniform variation. In this paper it is argued that discontinuity in speech communities should be viewed as having its own internal structure, a point of view that is developed in the form of a uniformity/discontinuity typology. After a brief exemplification of better-documented cases of discontinuity, detailed attention is given to the spoken Arabic of Maiduguri, Nigeria, as an example of how the typology can be expanded to deal with relatively unfamiliar non-Western urban settings, and which extralinguistic parameters such variation might be associated with.

This paper reports on a “controlled data elicitation” experiment investigating the role of information structure in the use of epistemic modal expression forms in Dutch. Specifically, it investigates the effect of focality versus nonfocality of an epistemic modal evaluation of Dutch speakers' selection of a number of alternative expression types for epistemic modality (adverbs, predicative adjectives, modal auxiliaries, mental-state predicates, and particles). In the experiment, subjects are asked to comment on a number of short cartoon strip stories — the conditions of focality versus nonfocality are created by varying the types of questions asked about the stories.

Veerle van Geenhoven: Semantic Incorporation and Indefinite Descriptions: Semantic and Syntactic Aspects of Noun Incorporation in West Greenlandic. Stanford: CSLI, 1998. 247 pp .

1. Patrick Stevenson, editor: The German Language and the Real World . Oxford: Clarendon, 1995; revised paperback edition 1997. xviii+409 pp. US$ 35.00. ISBN 0-19-823738-3 2. Patrick Stevenson: The German Speaking World. A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues . London: Routledge, 1997. xx+254 pp. £13.99 (paperback). ISBN 0-415-12985-0 3. Stephen Barbour and Patrick Stevenson: Variation im Deutschen. Soziolinguistiche Perspektiven . De Gruyter Studienbuch. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998. xvii+354 pp. DM 48.00 (paperback). ISBN 3-11-014581-2 4. Dieter Herberg, Doris Steffens, and Elke Tellenbach: Schlüsselwörter der Wendezeit. Wörter-Buch zum öffentlichen Sprachgebrauch 1989/90 . Schriften des Instituts für deutsche Sprache 6. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1997. ix+521 pp. DM 228.00 (hard cover). ISBN 3-11-01-5398-X 5. Ulrich Ammon: Ist Deutsch noch internationale Wissenschaftssprache? Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1998. xiv+339 pp. DM 64.00 (paperback). ISBN 3-11-016148-6

Pieter A. M. Seuren: Western Linguistics. An Historical Introduction . Oxford: Balckwell, 1988. 527 pp., Bibliography, Index. (Flip G. Droste) Jacek Fisiak and Marcin Krygier, editors: Advances in English Historical Linguistics . Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 2. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1998. ix+489 pp. ISBN 3-11-016151-6 (cloth). (Manfred Görlach)

01–03 Maärz, Marburg, Deutschland: 22. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS) an der Philipps-Universität Marburg unter dem Rahmenthema “Das Wort — Strukturen und Konzepte.” Kontaktadresse: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Zimmermann, Kennwort: DGfS, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Wilhelm-Röpke-Str. 6, D-35032 Marburg. Tel.: +49 6421 28 13 06. E-mail: zimmerma@mailer.uni-marburg.de. Anmeldung: Annette Heberle, Kennwort: DGfS, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Wilhelm-Röpke-Str. 6, D-35032 Marburg. Tel.: +49 6421 28 13 07. E-mail: heberle@mailer.uni-marburg.de. Fax DGfS: +49 6421 28 57 99. E-mail: DGfS: DGfS2000@mailer.uni-marburg.de.