This study explores the connections between -ing supplementive clauses and narrative discourse foregrounding. Subordinate and, very particularly, non-finite clauses are prototypically associated to narrative background. Using a corpus of extracts from contemporary novels in English, this study, however, shows that this type of subordination displays a predominance of grammatically highlighting features, namely assertive modality, active transitivity processes, and the foregrounded focalizer as most frequent implicit subject. This fact may prove of relevance to both linguistics and literature, as it not only provides a discourse-based cognitive explanation for the apparent incorrecteness of non-co-referential implicit subjects, as in "Leaving the forest, the scent of the trees surrounded them" (Biber et al., 2010: 829), but also suggests that -ing supplementives might intervene in narrative foregrounding, syntactically realizing some of the highlighting devices mentioned in cognitive approaches to the study of language at large (Brisard, 2002;Cristofaro, 2005;Kita, 2008;Talmy, 2000a;Talmy, 2000b), and literary discourse in particular (Tsur, 2009). KEYWORDS:Mental scenarios, foregrounding, narrative discourse, subordination, reference. RESUMENEste estudio explora la relación entre las oraciones adverbiales de gerundio --ing supplementives-, y el primer plano perceptual en discurso narrativo. La subordinación sintáctica y, más en concreto, las oraciones subordinadas no personales, se asocian prototípicamente al fondo narrativo. El análisis de un corpus de extractos de narrativa de ficción contemporánea en lengua inglesa muestra, sin embargo, que en las oraciones suplementivas en -ing predominan elementos gramaticales relacionados con la prominencia, como son la modalidad asertiva, los procesos activos de transitividad, y la presencia del personaje focalizador como frecuente sujeto implícito. Esta relación puede ser relevante en estudios tanto lingüísticos como literarios, pues no solo proporciona una explicación cognitiva y discursiva para la aparente incorrección de los sujetos implícitos no-coreferenciales, como, por ejemplo, "Leaving the forest, the scent of the trees surrounded them" (Biber et al., 2010: 829), sino que también sugiere que las oraciones suplementivas en -ing podrían intervenir en la puesta de relieve en discurso narrativo, al dar realización gramatical a algunos de los mecanismos de prominencia lingüística que se mencionan en la investigación cognitiva del estudio del lenguaje en general (Brisard, 2002;Cristofaro, 2005;Kita, 2008;Talmy, 2000a;Talmy, 2000b), y del discurso literario en particular (Tsur, 2009). PALABRAS CLAVE:Representaciones mentales, primer plano perceptual, discurso narrativo, subordinación, referencia. INTRODUCTIONSentence grammar defines -ing supplementive clauses as a type of non-finite constructions functioning as circumstance adjuncts or adverbials (Biber et al., 2010: 201, 820; Greenbaum & Quirk, 2007: 328; Huddleston & Pullum, 2007: 207-209). These "loosely in...
ABSTRACT. This study explores the role of -ing supplementive clauses as markers of discourse prominence in literary journalism. These apparently minor linguistic units -"Using them as cups, they sip the filthy water" (Time,14 January 2013: 18) -stubbornly resist sentence-level syntactic and semantic description (Hengenveld 1997;Greenbaum and Quirk 2007; Huddleston and Pullum 2007: 207; Biber et al. 2010: 829). However, suprasentential studies within a cognitive-functional paradigm suggest that phenomena such as profiling (Verhaert 2006) (Hengenveld 1997;Greenbaum and Quirk 2007; Huddleston and Pullum 2007: 207; Biber et al. 2010: 829 Palabras clave: Construcciones de gerundio no-perifrástico, puesta de relieve, periodismo literario, discurso narrativo, oraciones no personales.
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