{"id":990,"date":"2010-10-25T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=990"},"modified":"2010-08-05T10:04:01","modified_gmt":"2010-08-05T08:04:01","slug":"structural-functional-studies-in-english-grammar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=990","title":{"rendered":"Structural-functional studies in English grammar"},"content":{"rendered":"
Structural-functional studies in English gramma<\/strong>r: In honour of Lachlan Mackenzie. Ed. by Mike Hannay<\/strong> and Gerard J. Steen<\/strong>. (Studies in language companion series 83.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007. Pp. vi, 393. ISBN 9789027230935<\/a>. $188 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Ahmad M. Saidat<\/strong><\/a>, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan<\/em><\/p>\n

Mike Hannay and Gerard J. Steen present this collection of studies on the lexico-grammar of English. The contributors, who focus on current functional-theoretical concerns, put forward functional, functional discourse, systemic functional, role and reference, cognitive, and construction models of grammar.<\/p>\n

Part 1 focuses on \u2018Corpus-based studies\u2019. Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018No<\/em> doubt<\/em> and related expressions: A functional account\u2019 concludes that the relationship between the meaning and the pragmatic use of such expressions should be rhetorically exploited. In \u2018On certainly<\/em> and zeker<\/em>\u2019, Pieter Byloo<\/strong>, Richard Kastein<\/strong>, and Jan Nuyts<\/strong> explain the flexible use of British certainly<\/em> and Dutch zeker<\/em> using data from the well-known Harry Potter <\/em>books (New York: Arthur A. Levine)<\/a>. Evelien Keizer<\/strong>, \u2018Prenominal possessives in English: Function and use\u2019, investigates the circumstances that favor the use of pronominal possessives over postnominal possessives in English. She proposes a cognitive-pragmatic principle to account for their distribution. Anna Siewierska<\/strong> and Willem<\/strong> Hollmann<\/strong> analyze \u2018Ditransitive clauses in English with special reference to Lancashire dialect\u2019. They show that the order of the theme and the recipient can be pragmatically determined.<\/p>\n

In \u2018\u201cIt was you that told me that, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d It-<\/em>clefts revisited in discourse\u2019, Mar\u00eda de los \u00c1ngeles G\u00f3mez-Gonz\u00e1lez<\/strong> discusses the use of it<\/em>-clefts. Dik<\/strong> Bakker<\/strong> and Anna Siewierska, \u2018Another take on the notion subject\u2019, explain that the choice of the subject is pragmatically and semantically determined. They claim that the subject is never a free choice of the speaker. In \u2018The modal auxiliaries of English, \u03c0-operators in functional grammar and \u201cgrounding\u201d\u2019, Louis Goossens<\/strong> argues that there are compelling motivations to semantically discriminate between modal auxiliaries with respect to grammaticalization. Casper de Groot<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018The king is on huntunge<\/em>: On the relation between progressive and absentive in Old and Early Modern English\u2019 shows that the transition from Old English to Middle English was marked by a construction that had the properties of the absentive.<\/p>\n

Part 2, \u2018The architecture of functional models\u2019, begins with John H. Connolly<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018Mental context and the expression of terms within the English clause: An approach based on functional discourse grammar\u2019, <\/strong>which argues that including a contextual level within the functional discourse grammar (FDG) framework should resolve some problems of linguistic description. In \u2018Adverbial conjunctions in functional discourse grammar\u2019, Kees Hengeveld<\/strong> and Gerry Wanders<\/strong> explore adverbial conjunctions in FDG, focusing on the units joined in the underlying structure. Matthew Anstey<\/strong>, \u2018Tree tigers<\/em> and tree elephants<\/em>: A constructional account of English nominal compounds\u2019, discusses English nominal compounds from the reader and the listener\u2019s perspectives. He concludes that the use of an extended construction grammar approach is necessary. In \u2018English constructions from a Dutch perspective: Where are the differences?\u2019, Arie Verhagen<\/strong> shows that languages involve lower and higher levels of generality. Christopher S. Butler<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018Notes towards an incremental implementation of the role and reference grammar semantics-to-syntax linking algorithm for English\u2019 paves the way for further research in the field. In \u2018Grammar, flow and procedural knowledge: Structure and function at the interface between grammar and discourse\u2019, Peter Harder<\/strong> argues for distinguishing between the cognitive representation of grammar and discourse. Michael Fortescue<\/strong>, \u2018The non-linearity of speech production\u2019, proposes that most speech processing must be nonlinear. Finally, in \u2018A speaker\/hearer-based grammar: The case of possessives and compounds\u2019, Theo Janssen<\/strong> argues for a set of procedures and elements that clarify how interlocutors communicate.<\/p>\n

The editors have collected an informative set of papers that enrich the field of functional grammar. This volume will be an invaluable resource for students interested in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Structural-functional studies in English grammar: In honour of Lachlan Mackenzie. Ed. by Mike Hannay and Gerard J. Steen. (Studies in language companion series 83.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007. Pp. vi, 393. ISBN 9789027230935. $188 (Hb). Reviewed by Ahmad M. Saidat, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan Mike Hannay and Gerard J. Steen present this collection of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}