LINGUIST List 9.579

Thu Apr 16 1998

Books: Grammaticalization

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Christoph Eyrich, New Book: Grammaticalization/English grammar

			 Axel Huebler

		 THE EXPRESSIVITY OF GRAMMAR
	 Grammatical Devices Expressing Emotion across Time

 1998. 23 x 15,5 cm. VII, 253 pages
		 Cloth DM 158,-/approx. US$ 99.00
			 ISBN 3-11-015780-2
		 Topics in English Linguistics 25

 Mouton de Gruyter * Berlin * New York


On the most elementary level, expressivity has been recognized as a
basic communicative function of language. However, on the advanced
level of today's linguistic theorizing, with its focus on the
expression of propositions, this fact remains unexplored up to today.

Modifying and correcting this undue emphasis of `objectivist'
linguistics on the intellectual dimension of language, this volume
presents a `subjectivist' reinterpretation of central grammatical
categories and constructions in emotive, non-propositional terms.
Moreover, instead of analysing explicit forms of expressing emotion
through identifying and describing them, this volume concentrates on
forms of expressivity implicit in grammatical devices, such as, e.g.,
the get-passive, the present perfect and the progressive. This way,
the author tackles six well-known, and partly notorious, phenomena of
English grammar, examines their use in specific periods of English
and, where possible, compares it with present-day English.

The analysis is based on a wealth of material, including data that
objectivists have worked with before. In several instances,
instructive in-depth applications of this new approach to texts from
Old, Middle, and Early Modern English are provided.

This volume presents not only a ground-breaking contribution to the
field of grammaticalization research but also to ongoing research in
the development of expressivity/subjectivity as a cultural/historical
phenomenon.

_______________________________________________________________________

Mouton de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter, Inc. 
Postfach 30 34 21 200 Saw Mill River Road 
D-10728 Berlin Hawthorne, NY 10532 
Germany USA 
Fax: +49 (0)30 26005-351 Fax: +1 914 747-1326 
email: moutondegruyter.de

This and further publications can also be ordered via World Wide Web:
 http://www.deGruyter.de

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1998 Contributors