Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Grammar, syntax, linguistic structure
|
Buy Now
True to Form - Rising and Falling Declaratives as Questions in English (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,694
Discovery Miles 16 940
|
|
True to Form - Rising and Falling Declaratives as Questions in English (Paperback)
Series: Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
|
Donate to Against Period Poverty
Total price: R1,714
Discovery Miles: 17 140
|
This book is concerned with the meaning and use of two kinds of
declarative sentences: 1) It's raining? 2) It's raining. The
difference between (1) and (2) is intonational: (1) has a final
rise--indicated by the question mark--while (2) ends with a fall.
Christine Gunlogson's central claim is that the meaning and use of
both kinds of sentences must be understood in terms of the meaning
of their defining formal elements, namely declarative sentence type
and rising versus falling intonation. Gunlogson supports that claim
through an investigation of the use of declaratives as questions.
On one hand, Gunlogson demonstrates that rising and falling
declaratives share an aspect of conventional meaning attributable
to their declarative form, distinguishing them both from the
corresponding polar interrogative (Is it raining?) and constraining
their use as questions. On the other hand, since (1) and (2)
constitute a minimal pair, differing only in intonation, systematic
differences in character and function between them--in particular,
the relative "naturalness" of (1) as a question compared to (2)
--must be located in the contrast between the fall and the rise. To
account for these two sets of differences, Gunlogson gives a
compositional account of rising and falling declaratives under
which declarative form expresses commitment to the propositional
content of the declarative. Rising versus falling intonation on
declaratives is responsible for attribution of the commitment to
the Addressee versus the Speaker, respectively. The result is an
inherent contextual "bias" associated with declaratives, which
constitutes the crucial point of difference with interrogatives.
The compositional analysis is implemented in the framework of
context update semantics (Heim 1982 and others), using an
articulated version of the Common Ground (Stalnaker 1978) that
distinguishes the commitments of the individual discourse
participants. Restrictions on the use of declaratives as questions,
as well as differences between rising and falling declaratives as
questions, are shown to follow from this account. Gunlogson argues
that neither rising nor falling declaratives are inherently
questioning--rather, the questioning function of declaratives
arises through the interaction of sentence type, intonation, and
context.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.