On Understanding Grammar

Givón, Τ.

doi:10.1075/z.213

Cited by 104 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 123 publications

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“…The passive construction, for instance, has its own abstract form which specifies both the types of its components and the order in which they are put together (X be VERB-ed by Y) associated with its own very general meaning, roughly focusing attention on the patient (X) affected by the action described by the verb rather than the agent (Y) who actually carries out the action. The linguistic process through which grammatical structure is created is traditionally called grammaticalisation, and involves a number of changes through which lexical items gradually lose their independence of use and their meanings become more functional (Givón, 1979;Haspelmath, 1998). If we accept the symbolic thesis, then grammaticalisation can be conceptualised simply as a process of a symbol moving towards the grammar end of the lexicon-grammar continuum.…”

Section: The Evolution Of Grammarmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pivotal role of metaphor in the evolution of human language

Smith¹,

Höfler²

2015

Metaphor and Metonymy Across Time and Cultures

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There is broad agreement among evolutionary linguists that the emergence of human language, as opposed to other primate communication systems, is characterised by two key phenomena: the use of symbols, and the use of grammatical structure (Tomasello 2003). In this paper, we show that these two defining aspects of language actually emerge from the same set of underlying cognitive mechanisms within the context of ostensive-inferential communication. We take an avowedly cognitive approach to the role of metaphor in language change, setting out how general capacities such as the recognition of common ground, the inference of meaning from context, and the memorisation of language usage, can together lead to the conventionalisation of metaphors, and thence to systematic changes in language structure, including the development of grammatical linguistic units from formerly meaningful elements through grammaticalisation (Hoefler and Smith 2009). We show that the relevant cognitive competences are general-purpose mechanisms which are crucially not specific to language; they also underpin non-linguistic communication, where the same processes lead to the emergence of apparently arbitrary symbols.

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Section: The Evolution Of Grammarmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pivotal role of metaphor in the evolution of human language

Smith¹,

Höfler²

2015

Metaphor and Metonymy Across Time and Cultures

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“…Há, também, uma forte tendência para o recipiente ser definido e mais tópico, ao passo que o OD tende a ser indefinido e menos tópico (GIVÓN, 1979;THOMPSON, 1990;HASPELMATH, 2015). Nesse sentido, Haspelmath observa que a relação entre R(ecipiente) e T(ema) de uma oração ditransitiva é similar à relação entre A(gente) e P(aciente) de uma oração monotransitiva, em que o A é tipicamente animado, definido e tópico, enquanto o P é tipicamente inanimado e não tópico, além de frequentemente indefinido.…”

Section: Comportamento Semântico E Pragmático Do Oiunclassified

“…Dada a natureza antropocêntrica do discurso, as pessoas tendem a falar mais sobre humanos que são recipientes do que sobre não humanos que são temas (GIVÓN, 1979). Nesse sentido, é mais provável que os eventos e as situações sejam conceitualizados do ponto de vista das pessoas envolvidas do que em termos dos referentes não-humanos por elas afetados.…”

Section: Comportamento Semântico E Pragmático Do Oiunclassified

Motivações semântico-pragmáticas para a ordenação dos argumentos na construção ditransitiva

Cunha

2017

RELIN

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Resumo: O objetivo deste artigo é demonstrar que, embora a construção ditransitiva do PB possa ser instanciada por dois padrões sintáticos que expressam o mesmo conteúdo, eles diferem em termos discursivo-pragmáticos. Nesse sentido, esses padrões constituem diferentes possibilidades de instanciação da mesma construção, e não duas construções distintas. A análise segue os pressupostos teórico-metodológicos da Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso e da Gramática de Construções. Em termos de metodologia, a investigação conjuga elementos quantitativos e qualitativos na investigação da construção ditransitiva. A fonte dos dados é o Corpus Discurso & Gramática. O exame do material empírico comprovou que as alternativas de ordenação dos argumentos da construção ditransitiva do PB sinalizam diferentes perspectivações do evento referencial. Fatores discursivo-pragmáticos, semânticos e gramaticais motivam a preferência pela ordenação do objeto indireto antes do objeto direto nessas orações. Palavras-chave: construção ditransitiva; argumentos; motivações.Abstract: This paper aims at demonstrating that, although the ditransitive construction in Brazilian Portuguese can be instantiated by two syntactic patterns, which express the same content, they differ in discourse-pragmatic terms. In this sense, these patterns are not two different constructions, but

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“…According to Givón (1979) the process of language acquisition is expressed in the progression from the pragmatic pole to the syntactic pole of the target language. Each stage of acquiring a foreign language is an interlanguage.…”

Section: The Difficulty Of Discarding the Influence Of Arabic Mother mentioning

confidence: 99%

Discourse―yes, Grammar―no. Influence of Arabic mother tongue on Arab students' writing in Hebrew

Haskel-Shaham¹,

Klaus²,

tamir³

2018

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

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Learning Hebrew among L1 Arabic speakers in East Jerusalem, Israel, has gained momentum, since being fluent in the language of the majority contributes to socioeconomic mobility and inclusion. One of the main challenges L2 learners face is writing, specifically expository and argumentative composition. Writing products of native speakers of Arabic (L1) in Hebrew (L2) reveal cross-linguistic influences, including language transfer from L1. This L1 interference is strengthened by the strong resemblance of these two Semitic languages, and is manifested in morphology, syntax, vocabulary, semantics, and rhetorical structures. In this study we examine changes in the expository-argumentative writing in Hebrew (L2) of Arabic speaking students who participated in an intensive Hebrew learning program. We used qualitative textual analysis based on 48 writing products [24 pre-, 24 post-tests]. Our research questions were: 1. What are the main characteristics of Arabic speaking students' writing in Hebrew? 2. What types of changes are evident in their writing samples after completing two years of Hebrew study? In order to characterize their writing, study participants completed pre-and post-tests. Our findings suggest: (a) a strong interference of Arabic on writing in Hebrew in different language fields; (b) a noticeable improvement in some aspects of discourse, but much less in grammar, and in the lexicon, yielding mixed results.

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On Understanding Grammar

Cited by 104 publications

References 123 publications

The pivotal role of metaphor in the evolution of human language

The pivotal role of metaphor in the evolution of human language

Motivações semântico-pragmáticas para a ordenação dos argumentos na construção ditransitiva

Discourse―yes, Grammar―no. Influence of Arabic mother tongue on Arab students' writing in Hebrew

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