Eds: Vogeleer Svetlana, Brisard Frank, De Brabanter Philippe, Dendale Patrick, Le Bruyn Bert
Annemie Demol & Els Tobback
This paper deals with the influence of information structure on the use of the French personal pronoun IL and the demonstrative pronoun CE in copular sentences. On the basis of a corpus study, it shows that IL is likely to mark topic continuity in the vast majority (88%) of the examples. The results for CE appear to be less clear-cut as CE is used in a wider variety of constellations (it can be used with or without concrete antecedent, it appears quite often in dislocated structures). However, overall, the different results converge and show that CE is often likely to function as a topic shift marker.
Astrid De Wit & Frank Brisard
In this paper, we propose a unified account of the semantic polyfunctionality of the present progressive in English (involving temporal, aspectual, and modal usage types) in terms of epistemic contingency or non-necessity. More specifically, by means of a corpus-based study of spoken American English we show how the observed modal usage types can be derived, directly or indirectly, from this construction’s most schematic meaning, which we argue is modal as well. This analysis is carried out within the framework of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1991), which provides both the conceptual analytical tools and the theoretical assumptions underlying the analysis.
Tatiana Milliaressi
Verbal aspect is a universal category which manifests itself differently across languages. Its function is to express the delimitation of the duration of a situation in time by means of regular verbal forms. Telicity is not a property inherent in the delimited situation but one of the characteristics of the Russian perfective aspect. The choice of the perfective aspect is not determined by telicity but by the nature of the temporal delimitation of the situation. In French, telicity cannot be expressed by grammatical forms. That is why delimitation of the duration of a situation occurs in time. The nature of temporal delimitation of situations is different in Russian and in French.
Koen Plevoets
Deze paper bestudeert de verspreiding van de zogenaamde Vlaamse tussentaal, ook nog het ‘Verkavelingsvlaams’ genoemd, vanuit sociale optiek. Meer bepaald worden van verschillende beroepsgroepen, opleidingsgraden en sekses de onderlinge linguïstische afstanden bepaald op basis van zevenendertig taalvariabelen en aan de hand van de profielgebaseerde uniformiteitsmetriek. Het corpus waarvan er voor de berekeningen gebruik gemaakt wordt is het Corpus Gesproken Nederlands. De analyses geven dan aan dat tussentaal het kenmerk is de meer gegoede lagen in de Vlaamse samenleving. De standaardtaal moge uit de resultaten nog blijken als een indicator voor de mate van opleiding, tussentaal komt naar voren als de ‘hypocorrecte’ variëteit van de groepen die zich na de Tweede Wereldoorlog door de stijging van de welvaart en levensstandaard maatschappelijk hebben weten te emanciperen. Tussentaal laat zich zo lezen als de ‘conspicuous leisure’ van een gearriveerde bovenkaste, die een zodanig niveau van welstand heeft vergaard dat ze zich zorgeloos enige flexibiliteit ten opzichte van omgangscodes en –normen kan permitteren zonder daarvoor aan status in te boeten. Tussentaal is dan ook niet zozeer het taaltje van hen ‘die wel Standaardnederlands kúnnen maar het niet wíllen spreken’; het is vooral het distinctiemiddel van hen die het niet meer hoeven te spreken.
Guido Vanden Wyngaerd
This paper examines different types of approaches to semantic shifts. Taking stative-dynamic shifts as a case in point, it is argued that they provide evidence for an approach to the phenomenon of semantic shift which is, at least in part, syntactic. At the same time, the approach defended leaves room for a degree of lexical vagueness. This is a second important contributing factor which needs to be taken into account in analyzing the phenomenon of semantic shifts.
Willy Vandeweghe
Sentence negation is expressed in modern standard Dutch with one single negation marker per sentence: Ik heb haar niet gezien [‘I didn’t see her’], Niemand is meer veilig [‘Nobody is safe anymore’], Ik heb niets verklapt [‘I didn’t tell anything’]. Other vernaculars need more than one marker, expressing one single negation, as in French or South African: FR Je ne l’ai pas vu [‘I didn’t see him’], S-Afr Je moe nie huil nie [‘You don’t need to cry’]. Middle Dutch also exhibited double negation marking: Ic en sie hem niet [‘I don’t see him’]. After going into the phenomenon of multiple negation and the so-called Jespersen cycle, this paper will deal with multiplication of NEG marking in Flemish dialects. In my native West-Flemish dialect (Wingene H119), multiplication with no less than seven markers is possible, especially when quantifier negation is brought into consideration.