Syntactic Gradience: The Nature of Grammatical Indeterminacy (Oxford Linguistics)

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Extensions are interpretable as added constituents of antecedent structures in context, while matches are interpretable as alternative constituents of antecedent structures. These antecedents may be uttered by either the same speaker or another speaker. We show how fragments fulfil a wide range of discourse functions and contribute to discourse cohesion. We use authentic corpus examples, rarely considered in ellipsis debates, to show that such an account is untenable. Profiling the English Verb Phrase over Time: Modal Patterns - Aarts, Wallis and Bowie. Introduction in Aarts, Close, Leech and Wallis eds.

Using corpora for English language teaching and learning. This is a draft version of the chapter entitled 'Syntactic argumentation', which is to appear in Oxford Handbook of English Grammar. Syntactic argumentation for Oxford Handbook of English Grammar.

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Remember me on this computer. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Click here to sign up. Help Center Find new research papers in: The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition Edited by Julia Herschensohn and Martha Young-Scholten The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition "covers cutting edge and emerging areas of enquiry not treated elsewhere in a single handbook, including third language acquisition, electronic communication, incomplete first language acquisition, alphabetic literacy and SLA, affect and the brain, discourse and identity.

Whereas scholars working in a formalist framework tend to even deny the existence of such a phenomenon by assigning it an epiphenomenal status, within the functionalist school, categorical fuzziness plays a prominent role not only as a phenomenon but more importantly as a theoretical concept. An interesting parallel to this debate can be found in the disputed status of grammaticalization in both frameworks, which has drawn some attention to itself recently, see e.

Newmeyer , , Campbell , Hawkins , Bisang et al. Against this background, the author's motivation for writing this book ''grew out of a feeling of discomfort with not only the views of Thus, the aim of this book lies in studying the phenomenon of syntactic gradience, conceived of as ''categorical indeterminacy'', in close detail and on the empirical basis of English. Among the problems investigated are: What exactly is gradience?

Are there ''diagnostics'' for establishing the existence of gradience? Is gradience a grammatical phenomenon, or merely a by-product of performance, as has recently been argued? Put most generally, the author's concern is to show that ''some sort of compromise between the two positions is possible'' ibid. However, while acknowledging the status of gradience as ''an undeniable property of grammar'' it is nonetheless ''incumbent on linguists to eliminate gradience where it comes about as a result of sloppy description'' ibid.

Thus, the author's stance is to argue for a weak form of gradience which might be called ''constrained indeterminacy''. The reason for this lies in the fact that ''the well-motivated setting-up of discrete categories of form classes is logically prior to claiming that gradience obtains between them'' p. The book is divided into three parts and comprises eight chapters: The first part, consisting of the chapters 2—4, lays out the theoretical background by discussing gradience in a broader linguistic and philosophical background.

Chapters 2 and 3 give an overview of the historical background of concepts such as categorization or gradience in linguistics and philosophy.

The Nature of Grammatical Indeterminacy

The two types of gradience pursued in this book are presented. Chapter 4 is devoted to setting apart gradience as laid out in the present context i.

The second part, consisting of chapters 5—7, assesses the two types of gradience, ''subsective gradience'' SG and ''intersective gradience'' IG , which can apply to different types of grammatical form classes: The third part, which solely includes chapter 8, presents a formal model of categorical gradience as conceived of by Aarts as well as some of its applications.

The classical problem in this respect is Eubulides of Megara's Paradox of the Sorites or Heap , which basically deals with the question at which point we can call a collection of grains a heap. Whereas the Aristotelian view holds that the categories which we use to class the phenomena in the world around us are hard and inviolable, other opinions emphasize that we have to recognize fluidity between taxonomic constructs. Within linguistics, this debate can be translated as follows: By studying the phenomenon of gradience, this book tries to find some sort of compromise between the two positions.

Syntactic Gradience - Paperback - Bas Aarts - Oxford University Press

While the author shares with formal syntacticians ''a belief that syntax is autonomous'' p. At the same time, he notes, the views of linguists who regard continuous phenomena in language as given are often equally unsatisfactory. The position to be argued for, then, is the following: Even if some alleged cases of gradience can be dispensed with since they are merely the result of sloppy description, gradience in the weak form, i. Generally, two types of category fluidity need to be distinguished: Although IG is not as widespread as often claimed e.

In its most general sense, categorization can be seen as a process of systematization of acquired knowledge. As far as contemporary linguistics is concerned, no grammatical framework can do without categories - in the sense of, e. From antiquity onwards, categorization in the sense of setting up an adequate system of parts of speech, has been a central concern of grammar writing. Basically, the notion ''category'' Gr. Associated with this view is the all-or-none principle or the Law of the Excluded Middle, i.

This is what can be called the classical, scholastic or Aristotelian theory of categorization, which has been of eminent influence to linguistics. Within the realm of classical philosophy linguistics as a part of it Aristotle's position falls within the realm of the analogists, which stresses the regularities in language and its propensity for order and systematicity. The other position is that of the anomalists, which points to the ''messiness'' of language. Through the intermediation of the Greek and Roman grammarians e.

Thrax, Dyscolus, Donatus, Priscian as well as Renaissance scholars like Petrus Ramus, the problem of categorization was taken up by the emerging language sciences, where it soon took on different shapes, like e. In the 20th century, the debate between analogists and anomalists was rekindled: On the one hand, there are various Generative grammars including unification-based modes such as Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar or Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar and its predecessor, American structuralism, advocating a rather strict or ''all-or-none'' view of category membership, while on the other hand, varying degrees of categorical fuzziness are admitted by a rather divergent anomalist party.

The latter group, divergent as it is, comprises e. Generative Semantics, Cognitive Linguistics, functional-typological and discourse typological linguistics. This is followed by a broad discussion of linguistic mainly syntactic approaches to gradience, ranging from American and European Structuralism post-Bloomfieldians, Prague School to the positions of Transformational Grammar and Generative Semantics, Descriptive grammar, functional-typological and discourse-typological linguistics, Optimality Theory, and Probability Theory. The chapter is concluded by a preliminary definition of the two types of gradience, i.

The most important ones are serial relationship, syntactic mixing mergers , multiple analysis and reanalysis, gradience and prototype theory, gradience and markedness theory. Serial relationship, a term coined by Quirk , refers to constructional frames in which grammatical categories e.

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Its relationship to gradience, however, is at best superficial, despite the fact that in the mentioned paper, Quirk talks about ''overlapping gradience'' with respect to the different constructions a lexical element can enter. Syntactic mixing mergers can be seen as the process of amalgamation of phrases, constructions, and clauses, e.

It's not the actual story, or even the people, that attract me to write about something. It's not the actual story, or even the people, that attract me.

Aarts, Bas 1961-

It's not the actual story, or even the people, that persuade me to write about something. Structures like 1 are referred to by Aarts as ''syntactic mergers'' p. The differences between these types are discussed in more detail in chapter 7 under the heading ''constructional gradience''. Suffice it to say that mergers are part of a ''cline of syntactic integration, with fusions positioned at the highly integrated end of the gradient Blends and mergers are positioned roughly half-way along the gradient'' p.

Although they clearly bear some resemblances to constructional gradience, by having ''the potential to become 'recognized constructions' of the language'' p. Multiple analysis is a case of what might also be called syntactic ambiguity, i.

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