LINGUIST List 13.3184

Wed Dec 4 2002

Books: Discourse Analysis: Scheibman

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. paul, Point of View and Grammar: Scheibman

		
Title: Point of View and Grammar
Subtitle: Structural patterns of subjectivity in American English
	 conversation
Series Title: Studies in Discourse and Grammar 11
			
Publication Year: 2002
Publisher: John Benjamins
 http://www.benjamins.com/
			
Book URL:
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=SiDaG_11
			
Author: Joanne Scheibman 
				
Hardback: ISBN: 1588112322, Pages: xiv, 188 pp., Price: USD 60.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9027226210, Pages: xiv, 188 pp., Price: EUR 67.00
			
Abstract:
			
This book proposes that subjective expression shapes grammatical and
lexical patterning in American English conversation. Analyses of
structural and functional properties of English conversational
utterances indicate that the most frequent combinations of subject,
tense, and verb type are those that are used by speakers to
personalize their contributions, not to present unmediated
descriptions of the world. These findings are informed by current
research and practices in linguistics which argue that the emergence,
or conventionalization, of linguistic structure is related to the
frequency with which speakers use expressions in discourse. The use of
conversational data in grammatical analysis illustrates the local and
contingent nature of grammar in use and also raises theoretical
questions concerning the coherence of linguistic categories, the
viability of maintaining a distinction between semantic and pragmatic
meaning in analytical practice, and the structural and social
interplay of speaker point of view and participant interaction in
discourse.

Table of Contents

List of tables xi 
Chapter 1. Linguistic subjectivity and usage-based linguistics 1 
Chapter 2. Classification and coding of conversational data 17 
Chapter 3. Patterns of subjectivity in person and predicate 61 
Chapter 4. The evaluative character of relational clauses 119 
Chapter 5. Summaries and conclusions 161 
Appendix A: Transcription symbols 173 
Appendix B: Intermediate function verbs in the database 175 
References 177 
Index 183
			
Lingfield(s): Discourse Analysis, 
		Linguistic Theories,
			 
Subject Language(s): English (Language Code: ENG)
 
Language Family(ies): English ,
			Germanic ,

Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)