Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen

The Semantic Field of Modal Certainty: A Corpus-Based Study of English Adverbs

This book provides a detailed account of the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of modal adverbs of certainty in present-day English. Methodologically it relies on three types of data: monolingual corpora, translation corpora and informant testing. It is the first study in which the semantic field of certainty as realised by English adverbs is explored.

Image-Building Through Modality: The Case of Political Interviews

This paper looks at the way in which politicians use radio interviews to present an image of themselves as fully committed to their cause. In previous research the focus has been on strategies of evasion which are developed by interviewees in response to face-threatening questions. In this article I aim to complement the picture of the hedging politician by concentrating on the equally important linguistic devices employed for conveying intellectual power. The desirable image is created through the use of expressions emphasizing cognitive certainty as well as emotional and social commitment. The investigation is based on a corpus of radio interviews with British politicians recorded between 1985 and 1990.

Introduction: Grammaticalization and (inter)subjectification of discourse markers

In spite of the by now vast literature on the rise of discourse markers and the impressive amount of empirical information available on the history of individual markers in different languages, linguists still do not agree on the applicability of the term grammaticalization to the processes which have led to the emergence of the words which are generally labeled discourse markers, discourse particles or pragmatic markers. While there is consensus that the concept of (inter)subjectification does indeed characterize the changes that such words undergo in their historical development (cf. Traugott and Dasher 2002, Athanasiadou et al. 2006), it is less obvious and less generally accepted that we can always speak of grammaticalization. Some authors claim that “pragmaticalization” is a more applicable concept (Erman and Kotsinas 1993, Dostie 2004). Obviously, the crux of the matter is how one defines the terms and which criteria one considers relevant, essential or optional as defining features. Although these issues have already been discussed by linguists central to the field, notably Brinton and Traugott (2005), it appears that disagreement and confusion persist in the field, about the best terminology, about which words to include in the class of discourse markers, as well as about the best possible theoretical account for their development and functioning (see e.g., the contributions in Fischer [2006]). In this issue we wanted to have a clear focus. We decided to bring together contributions by scholars who have all written extensively on discourse markers in different languages (the contributions deal with English, French, German and Dutch), and to collect their views and reflections on the issue of grammaticalization from their empirical investigations and their theoretical angles. The contributors to this volume were therefore asked to address at least one of the following questions in their articles:

“Those Are Only Slogans” A Linguistic Analysis of Argumentation in Debates With Extremist Political Speakers

This article examines a newspaper and a television debate between a philosopher and two politicians of the extreme rightwing party the Flemish Bloc (Vlaams Blok) in Flanders (Belgium). The debates took place in the summer and autumn of 2004, respectively, after the party had been condemned for racism by the Belgian court. The debates center around the fundamental question asked by the philosopher to what extent and in what way the party has abandoned the views which led to the verdict. The research questions are the following: (a) What tactics are used in this situation, which creates a conflict between the partys ideology and legality? (b) Are implicit meanings uncover-able beneath the surface tactics which give an answer to the philosophers question? (c) Is the political debating style of the speakers as politicians belonging to an extremist party the same as or different from that of mainstream politicians?

Semantic and pragmatic motivations for constructional preferences: a corpus-based study of provide, supply, and present

A select group of transfer verbs can enter into four different constructions: the ditransitive construction (He provided John the money), the prepositional-dative construction (He provided the money to John), a construction with a prepositional theme (He provided John with the money), and a construction with a recipient realized by a for-phrase (He provided the money for John). In this article, the authors take a close look at three such verbs: provide, supply, and present. Corpus analysis shows that these three verbs display different structural preferences with respect to the for-, to-, and with-patterns. To explain these preferences, the study investigates pragmatic principles (following Mukherjee on provide) and the role played by semantic factors. An examination of the semantics of the verbs and the lexically motivated constructional semantics of the to, for, and with-patterns shows (a) that the three constructions are not interchangeable and (b) that the preferential differences among the three verbs find an explanation in the compatibility between lexical and constructional semantics. The description is mainly based on data from the British National Corpus.

Language in epistemic access: mobilising multilingualism and literacy development for more equitable education in South Africa

This article is the guest editors’ introduction to the special issue ‘Language in Epistemic Access: Mobilising Multilingualism and Literacy Development for More Equitable Education in South Africa’. The issue offers complementary perspectives on improving epistemic access for all learners but especially those whose home language does not match the language of learning. Plüddemann examines the complex configurations of ideological and structural factors in South African language policy processes and the diverse positions taken up by teachers in response. Makalela argues that a methodology that encourages translanguaging can overcome historical separations between groups and promote transformative pedagogies. Probyn points to the importance of principled ‘pedagogical translanguaging’ in the mediation of secondary school science knowledge. Kerfoot and Van Heerden illustrate the substantial benefits of Systemic Functional Linguistic genre-based pedagogies for second or additional language writing in the middle years. White, Mammone and Caldwell in Australia offer evidence that similar benefits were maintained over six years for learners who faced both socio-economic and linguistic disadvantage in schools. Finally, Cummins and Heugh offer expansive perspectives on the issue. The editors argue that dynamic plurilingual pedagogies can be allied with the explicit scaffolding of genre-based pedagogies to help redress asymmetries in epistemic access.

“Positive Appraisal” as a Core Meaning of well: A Corpus-Based Analysis in Middle and Early Modern English Data

This article unravels the complexity of the historical development of the pragmatic marker well. Using data from three historical corpora (Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, Corpus of Early English Correspondence and Corpus of English Dialogues) a detailed description is provided of the contextualised semantic-pragmatic meanings of well in different periods. The study shows how the use of well in specific contexts allowed the form to gradually adopt increasingly pragmatic meanings from the Middle English period onwards. A detailed overview provides evidence for the thesis that interpersonal and textual functions were intertwined from the beginning and hence that the linear view of an evolution from propositional over textual to interpersonal meanings oversimplifies reality.