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Description:
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This doctoral dissertation consists of six chapters which together seek to
accomplish a threefold aim.
The first aim is to devise a typology of linguistic expressions of
causality in Swedish and Dutch comprising both verbal and non-verbal
realisation patterns. The verbal construction types contain synthetic and
analytical causative constructions while non-verbal expressions of
causality comprise a variety of other constructions such as those with
conjunctions and prepositions.
The second aim is to present a quantitative and qualitative analysis of
analytical causative constructions with an infinitival complement in
Swedish. The qualitative analysis departs from an analysis of the central
verbs (the causal predicate and the result predicate) and of the central
arguments (CAUSER, CAUSEE and AFFECTEE). The underlying hypothesis is that
the different analytical causative constructions involving the causal
predicates få, komma, ha, förmå and låta express different types of
causation. Central parameters in discerning the different causation types
are animateness, intention and control of the participants. The analysis is
conducted within the theoretical framework of Functional Grammar according
to Dik (1997a, 1997b) and is based on both the Språkbanken corpora and on
elicitated data. The analysis confirms the hypothesis that the different
analytical causative constructions in Swedish express different types of
causation (examples being indirect causation and involuntary causation).
The third aim is to analyse contrastively analytical causative
constructions in Dutch and Swedish based on a parallel corpus. An overview
of the translation patterns is given, e.g. the Swedish translations of the
Dutch causatives doen and laten and the Dutch translations of the Swedish
causatives få, komma, ha, förmå and låta. Special attention is paid to the
influence of language-specific features and translation strategies on the
basis of a bidrectional approach. One finding of this investigation is that
the relation between the analytical causative constructions and their
translations is asymmetrical. Moreover, synthetic causatives appear to be
more common in Swedish whereas Dutch uses more analytical causative and
non-verbal causal constructions.
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