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Dowty, David – Language, 1991
Argues for the description of thematic roles as two-cluster concepts called Proto-Agent and Proto-Patient, each characterized by a set of verbal entailments. It is asserted that an argument of a verb may bear on either or both proto-roles to varying degrees, according to the number and kind of entailments provided by the verb. (133 references) (JL)
Descriptors: Discourse Analysis, Linguistic Theory, Psycholinguistics, Semantics
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Ward, Gregory L. – Language, 1990
An analysis of a corpus of naturally-occurring data reveals that verb phrase preposing serves two functions in discourse: to affirm a speaker's belief in a salient proposition explicitly evoked in the prior discourse, or to suspend a speaker's belief in such a proposition. (29 references) (JL)
Descriptors: Discourse Analysis, Language Research, Phrase Structure, Speech Communication
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Aissen, Judith – Language, 1999
Suggests that agent-focus verbs in Tzotzil are inverse, in the sense of Algonquian linguistics, and that their distribution is determined by the relative obviation status of agent and patient. Evidence for the analysis comes from syntactic constraints on agent-focus verbs and on their use in discourse. (Author/VWL)
Descriptors: Discourse Analysis, Morphology (Languages), Structural Analysis (Linguistics), Syntax
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Ward, Gregory; Birner, Betty J. – Language, 1997
Argues that Abbott's reservations arise largely from assuming that the term "hearer-new" must be restricted to its original use as defined in Prince (1992). Also argues that if "hearer-new" may be extended to encompass a wider range of "entities" (including events, attributes, etc.) and greater flexibility in its potential applications, then many…
Descriptors: Auditory Stimuli, Discourse Analysis, Form Classes (Languages), Morphology (Languages)
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Fox, Barbara A.; Thompson, Sandra A. – Language, 1990
In communicating, conversationalists constantly make decisions about their interlocutors' state of knowledge and on the basis of these decisions make lexical, grammatical, and intonational choices about how to manage the "flow" of information. This paper focuses on how such decision making affects choices in relative clause constructions…
Descriptors: Discourse Analysis, Grammar, Language Research, North American English
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Arnold, Jennifer E.; Wasow, Thomas; Losongco, Anthony; Ginstrom, Ryan – Language, 2000
Through corpus analysis and experimentation, this article demonstrates that both grammatical complexity (heaviness) and discourse status (newness) simultaneously and independently influence word order in two English constructions. Argues that heavy and new constituents facilitate the processes of planning and production. (Author/VWL)
Descriptors: Cognitive Processes, Computational Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, English
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Jelinek, Eloise; Demers, Richard A. – Language, 1994
Provides an analysis of the syntax of Straits Salish. Main clauses consist of an initial predicate followed by a second position clitic string of inflectional elements, the subject pronoun and tense. Evidence is provided against copular verb analysis as further proof of the lack of the noun/verb distinction at the lexical level. (52 references)…
Descriptors: Contrastive Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Language Variation, Lexicology