LINGUIST List 14.1442

Tue May 20 2003

Books: Syntax/Semantics/Text Linguistics: Pit

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

Directory

1. E.van.Broekhuizen, How to express yourself with a causal connective: Pit

Title: How to express yourself with a causal connective.
Subtitle: Subjectivity and causal connectives in Dutch, German and
	 French.
Series Title: Utrecht Studies in Language and Communication Vol. 17
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Rodopi 
 http://www.rodopi.nl/			
 
Author: Mirna Pit				

Paperback: ISBN: 9042008563, Pages: 360, Price: EURO 80.-/$95.-
			
Abstract:

The Dutch, German and French languages display a variety of regularly
used connectives all of which introduce causes, arguments or reasons,
such as Dutch omdat, want and aangezien, German weil, denn and da, and
French parce que, car and puisque. Why should languages have different
connectives to express the notion of backward causality? The central
argument developed in this book is that different connectives express
different degrees of subjectivity. In a series of corpus analyses it
is shown that the degree of subjectivity of the main participant
involved in the causal relation strongly predicts the occurrence of
one or another connective. Hence, language users have at their
disposal connectives of varying degrees of subjectivity. In an
analysis of judiciary sentences, it is revealed that speakers are
actually sensitive of this semantic distinction, and sometimes even
exploit it for their communicative purposes: in order to conceal their
subjective involvement, judges prefer objective over subjective
connectives.

This volume makes a contribution to the study of language in use, by
applying empirical methods to authentic language data. It will be of
interest to anyone concerned with discourse coherence, perspective and
subjectivity, corpus linguistics and cross-linguistic analyses.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Causal connectives: different perspectives
Chapter 3 Subjectivity
Chapter 4 Subjectivity and Dutch backward causal connectives
Chapter 5 A crosslinguistic study
Chapter 6 Connectives and meanings
References
Index of names
Appendices

Lingfield(s): Semantics
		Syntax
		Text/Corpus Linguistics
			 
Subject Language(s): Dutch (Language code: DUT)
			French (Language code: FRN)
 			German, Standard (Language code: GER)

Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)


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