Heidrun Dorgeloh

• Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

This paper presents evidence for an effect of genre on the use of discourse connectives in argumentation. Drawing from discourse processing research on reasoning based structures, we use fill-mask computation to measure genre-induced expectations of argument realisation, and beta regression to model the probabilities of these realisations against a...

Discourse Syntax is the study of syntax that requires an understanding of the surrounding text and the overall discourse situation, including considerations of genre and modality. Using corpus data and insights from current research, this book is a comprehensive guide to this fast-developing field. It takes the reader 'beyond the sentence' to study...

Chapter 5 of Discourse Syntax (Special Endings) deals with two constructions that place sentence elements in the final, end-focus position. Discussing the extraposition of subject clauses (it-extraposition) and the cleft construction (it-clefting), the chapter shows that both constructions serve the distribution of given before new information in t...

Chapter 7 of Discourse Syntax (Pronouns and Ellipsis) deals with pronouns and ellipsis as another area of grammatical cohesion and of the grammar of discourse. It introduces reference and coreference and the different classes of pronouns. The discussion is based on the distinction between endophoric and exophoric reference, co-referential ties and...

Chapter 1 of Discourse Syntax introduces the concept of discourse syntax and connects this topic to what students likely already know from a basic introduction to English syntax, like parts of speech, basic principles of canonical word order in English and basic patterns of grammatical variation, such as syntactic movement. It emphasizes that patte...

Chapter 4 of Discourse Syntax (Variation in the Middle) introduces students to syntactic patterns that lead to sentences with non-canonical subjects or variation in the way the verb’s arguments are realized, including the object position. After discussing principles of canonical argument realization, including facts from language acquisition and in...

Discourse Syntax is the study of syntax that requires an understanding of the surrounding text and the overall discourse situation, including considerations of genre and modality. Using corpus data and insights from current research, this book is a comprehensive guide to this fast-developing field. It takes the reader 'beyond the sentence' to study...

Chapter 2 of Discourse Syntax (Concepts, Data, and Methods) further clarifies the need for studying patterns of syntactic use and variation in English with emphasis on the surrounding text (co-text), which is itself embedded in a specific discourse situation (context). It also differentiates between sentences and utterances and introduces the notio...

Chapter 9 of Discourse Syntax (Grammar and Genre) deals with patterns of English grammar as tied to the situational settings of a register or the conventions of a genre. It notes that a feature of grammar, such as the passive voice in academic discourse, may either be pervasive in some as compared to other registers, or that it can be typical, like...

Chapter 8 of Discourse Syntax (Discourse Markers) deals with elements within discourse which do not belong to the core clause but are either placed at the sentence periphery or within it as insertions. The chapter shows that discourse markers mainly serve the needs of spoken, interactive discourse, and that they are placed in variable sentence posi...

Discourse Syntax is the study of syntax that requires an understanding of the surrounding text and the overall discourse situation, including considerations of genre and modality. Using corpus data and insights from current research, this book is a comprehensive guide to this fast-developing field. It takes the reader 'beyond the sentence' to study...

Chapter 6 of Discourse Syntax (Connectives) deals with connectives as one aspect of grammatical cohesion and the grammar of discourse. It introduces the various syntactic elements that function as discourse connectives (coordinators, connective adjuncts), contrasts the overt and the covert expression of additive conjunction, and then turns to other...

Chapter 3 of Discourse Syntax (Non-Canonical Beginnings) introduces students to sentences with non-canonical beginnings, which we define as the non-canonical placement of a core element of the clause to the left of the subject. Students learn to differentiate between topicalization, left-dislocation, and sentence-initial adjuncts, as well as differ...

This handbook provides an authoritative, critical survey of current research and knowledge in the grammar of the English language. Following an introduction from the editors, the volume’s expert contributors explore a range of core topics in English grammar, beginning with issues in grammar writing and methodology. Chapters in part II then examine...

This handbook provides an authoritative, critical survey of current research and knowledge in the grammar of the English language. Following an introduction from the editors, the volume’s expert contributors explore a range of core topics in English grammar, beginning with issues in grammar writing and methodology. Chapters in part II then examine...

English non-locative inversion is a semantic subtype of full inversion in which the fronted constituent is an adjective phrase (most disturbing is…) or an ascriptive noun phrase (an exception to this rule is…). In the history of English, this type of inversion has emerged relatively late and is subject to specific constraints and discourse function...

This article explores the occurrence and some special patterns of conditional usage in medical discourse produced by doctors and patients. Findings are based on the Journal of the American Medical Association with its section 'Clinical Crossroads', which was founded to further the co-operation of patients with medical professionals. The analysis ce...

This volume explores the interplay of syntactic variation and genre. How do genres emerge and what is the role of syntax in constituting them? Why do certain constructions appear in certain types of text? The book takes the concept of genre as a reference-point for the description and analysis of morpho-syntactic variation and change. It includes b...

This book is the second of the two-volume collection of papers on formulaic language. The collection is among the first in the field. The authors of the papers in this volume represent a diverse group of international scholars in linguistics and psychology. The language data analyzed come from a variety of languages, including Arabic, Japanese, Pol...

This volume presents a variety of pragmatic and discourse analytical approaches to a wide range of linguistic data and historical texts, including data from English, French, Irish, Latin, and Spanish. This diversity of research questions and methods is a feature of the field of historical pragmatics, which by its very nature has to take into accoun...

The paper deals with the usage of sentence-initial and in Modern as compared to Early Modern English written language. It is argued (1) that the function of discourse marker which and has in interactive discourse applies to connecting written sentences as well, and (2) that the reluctance with which it is used today in most written registers has no...