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Title:
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Perfect in Dialogue: Form and functional potential of the vera búinn að + inf. construction in contemporary Icelandic
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Author:
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Camilla Wide
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://www.helsinki.fi/nordica/personal/wide/index.htm
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Helsinki
, Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literature
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Degree Date:
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2003
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Semantics
Syntax
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Subject Language(s):
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Icelandic
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Director(s):
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Anne-Marie Londen
Hannu Tommola
Mirja Saari
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Abstract:
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This study is an exploration of a grammatical construction in contemporary Icelandic (vera búinn að + infinitive, lit. ‘be finished/done to’), which has not yet been fully grammaticalized as a perfect. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the (synchronic) communicative and syntactic-semantic diversity in the use of this construction in authentic recorded conversations and hence contribute to the understanding of how grammatical constructions, particularly tense-aspect constructions, are used in spoken language in real-life settings. Theoretically the study relates to two different frameworks. The overall framework is a functionalist and dialogic outlook on language and communication. The other framework brought up is that of grammaticalization, particularly the so-called Bybee and Dahl approach to tense-aspect constructions.
Three empirical investigations were conducted using primarily qualitative methods: a) a sequential analysis of the búinn construction in communicative contexts, b) a frequency study of the construction in different genres of texts, and c) an analysis of the construction in syntactic-semantic contexts.
One of the main results of the study is that the use of the construction vera búinn að + inf. can be explained in terms of a functional potential. On a more general level, the study demonstrates the importance of taking into consideration the communicative aspects of grammatical constructions, especially in studies of tense and aspect.
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