Date: 19-Aug-2009 From: Elyse Turr <elyse.turroup.com> Subject: The Semantics of Clause-Linking: Dixon, Aikhenvald (Eds) E-mail this message to a friend
Title: The Semantics of Clause-Linking
Subtitle: A Cross-Linguistic Typology
Series Title: Explorations in Linguistic Typology
Published: 2009
Publisher: Oxford University Press
http://www.oup.com/us
Editor: R.M.W. Dixon
Editor: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Hardback: ISBN: 0199567220 9780199567225 Pages: 432 Price: U.S. $ 120.00
Abstract:
This book is a cross-linguistic examination of the different grammatical means languages employ to represent a general set of semantic relations between clauses. The investigations focus on ways of combining clauses other than through relative and complement clause constructions. These span a number of types of semantic linking. Three, for example, describe varieties of consequence -cause, result, and purpose - which may be illustrated in English by, respectively: "Because John has been studying German for years, he speaks it well; John has been studying German for years, thus he speaks it well; and John has been studying German for years, in order that he should speak it well." Syntactic descriptions of languages provide a grammatical analysis of clause types. The chapters in this book add the further dimension of semantics, generally in the form of focal and supporting clauses, the former referring to the central activity of the state of the bi-clausal linking; and the latter to the clause attached to it. The supporting clause may set out the temporal milieu for the focal clause of specify a condition or presupposition for it or a preliminary statement of it, as in "Although John has been studying German for years (the supporting clause), he does not speak it well (the focal clause). Professor Dixon's extensive opening discussion is followed by fourteen case studies of languages ranging from Korean and Kham to Iquito and Ojibwe. The book's concluding synthesis is provided by Professor Aikhenvald.
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