English Comparative Correlatives: Diachronic and Synchronic Variation at the Lexicon-Syntax Interface

by Thomas Hoffmann

Overview

One of the most intriguing features of languages is that speakers can produce novel grammatical utterances that they have never heard before. Consequently, most linguists agree that the mental grammars of speakers are complex systems that must be more abstract than the input they are exposed to. Yet, linguists differ as to how general and abstract speakers' mental representations have to be to allow this grammatical creativity. This book addresses this issue by empirically investigating one specific construction, English comparative correlatives (e.g., the more you eat, the fatter you get). Drawing on authentic corpus data from Old English to Present-day English varieties around the world, it shows how input frequency and domain-general cognitive principles affect the complex mental network of constructions that underlies speakers' linguistic behaviour. This pioneering and original study will be of interest to scholars and students of English syntax and English historical linguistics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108756693
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/02/2019
Series:	Studies in English Language
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	14 MB
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About the Author

Thomas Hoffmann is Professor and Chair of English Language and Linguistics at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. He is author of Preposition Placement in English (Cambridge, 2011) and he is currently writing the textbook Construction Grammar: The Structure of English for the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Previous research; 3. The diachronic evolution of English CCs: a constructionist account; 4. Synchronic properties of the standard British and American English CC construction network; 5. A contrastive view: German versus English comparative correlatives; 6. Variation and mental grammars: the view from World Englishes; Conclusion: the role of constructional networks.

Editorial Reviews

‘For any reader who wants the full treatment of the CC, it is all here, and served up in a most palatable form. Hoffmann’s prose is clear and straightforward, a quality which cannot be praised enough in linguistic treatises. The separate chapters can be read as stand-alone units for those who may only be interested in one aspect of the CC and may already have some familiarity with the construction. For those who are not already familiar and require some introduction, the preliminary chapters of the book give an admirable foundation.’ Sheila Dooley, Constructions and Frames

From the Publisher