LINGUIST List 19.755
Thu Mar 06 2008
Diss: Disc Analysis/Syntax: Calude: 'Demonstrative Clefts in Spoken...'
Editor for this issue: Evelyn Richter
<evelynlinguistlist.org>
1. Andreea
Calude,
Demonstrative Clefts in Spoken English
Message 1: Demonstrative Clefts in Spoken English
Date: 06-Mar-2008
From: Andreea Calude <acaludegmail.com>
Subject: Demonstrative Clefts in Spoken English
E-mail this message to a friend
Institution: University of Auckland
Program: The Linguistics Programme
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2008
Author: Andreea Simona Calude
Dissertation Title: Demonstrative Clefts in Spoken English
Dissertation URL: http://www.calude.net/andreea/thesis_final.pdf
Linguistic Field(s):
Discourse Analysis
Syntax
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Jim Miller
Frank Lichtenberk
Dissertation Abstract:
The research focuses on the organisation of syntax in spoken New ZealandEnglish. Work over the past twenty five years has demonstrated that thesyntax of spoken language, especially unplanned speech, differs greatlyfrom the syntax of written language. More specifically, while someconstructions are only/mainly found in writing, others are mostly found inspeech. Among the latter, we find examples such as (a) 'That's what I hadin mind' and (b) 'That's what I thought'. These types of clefts are muchmore frequent in spontaneous spoken English than other cleft types: twicemore frequent than IT-clefts, three times more common than basic WH-clefts,and over ten times more widely used than reversed WH-clefts.
Despite the fact that the construction exemplified in (a) and (b) has notbeen investigated in great detail, its existence and frequency in spokenlanguage has been noted in the literature and various suggestions have beenput forward regarding its classification. Some researchers consider it tobe a reversed WH-cleft (Collins 2004, Hedberg 1988, Lambrecht 2001, Weinertand Miller 1996), while others regard it as an IT-cleft (Huddleston andPullum 2002), and others still (Biber et al 1999) treat it as separatecleft type altogether. An earlier paper by Ball (1977) introduced the labelTH-cleft, as a cover term for examples similar (though not identical instructure or function) to those given above, e.g., (c) 'Those are mycigarettes you are smoking!', which she argues should be classified asIT-clefts.
The current work investigates the two types of clefts exemplified in(a)-(c) in terms of 23 different properties, relating to their structureand syntax on the one hand, and their function in discourse on the other.These properties have been identified by consulting existing literature onclefts and data from the Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English(approx. 200,000 words of spontaneous conversation). The clefts arecontrasted and compared with IT-clefts, WH-clefts and reversed WH-cleftsfound in the same portion of the data.
One of the most problematic features investigated concerns the fact thatclefts are often 'un-integrated' or loosely integrated inside thesyntactic structure which they are part of, while still being tightlyconnected within the discourse portion in which they are found. Examplesinclude: 'That's what you have to do is rest', and 'That is what he thoughtabout all day his work'. Previous studies suggest that in spoken languagethe distinction between the syntax of clauses and the overall organisationof a piece of discourse is not clear; clauses that do not appear to besyntactically subordinate may nonetheless be subordinate in terms of thediscourse. This is problematic for existing syntactic theories which relyon tightly integrated structures.
The research contributes to existing knowledge of the grammaticalconstructions used by speakers of New Zealand English and Englishworldwide. Given the significant differences between the grammar of spokenlanguage and the grammar of written language, this work adds to ourunderstanding of the barriers that have to be crossed in the teaching andlearning of spoken language, as well as those which arise for secondlanguage learners.
|