Grammaticalization and English Complex Prepositions: A Corpus-based Study

by Sebastian Hoffmann

Overview

What is a grammatical unit? How does grammatical structure evolve? How can we best investigate the mental representation of grammar? What is the connection between language use and language structure? This book aims to help answer such questions by presenting a detailed analysis of English complex prepositions (e.g. in spite of or with respect to) on the basis of large amounts of authentic language data dating from the Middle Ages until today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415360494
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/12/2005
Series:	Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics , #7
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sebastian Hoffmann is Lecturer in Linguistics at Zurich University, Switzerland.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Data Collection and Research Methodology 3. Complex Prepositions - Indivisible Units or Free Constructions? 4. Grammaticalization and Complex Prepositions 5. Complex Prepositions - a Diachronic Overview 6. Complex Prepositions in Present-Day English 7. In Terms of - a New Discourse Marker 8. Are Low-Frequency Complex Prepositions Grammaticalized? 9. Conclusion