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The English it-Cleft : A Constructional Account and a Diachronic Investigation / Amanda Patten.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL] ; 79Publisher: Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter Mouton, [2012]Copyright date: ©2013Description: 1 online resource (269 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9783110277807
  • 9783110279528
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 425 22/ger
LOC classification:
  • PE1261
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Chapter 1. Introduction and background -- Chapter 2. A model of language structure and language change -- Chapter 3. Specificational copular constructions -- Chapter 4. It-clefts as specificational copular sentences -- Chapter 5. Other varieties of it-cleft -- Chapter 6. The it-cleft and earlier periods of English -- Chapter 7. The it-cleft’s development over time -- Chapter 8. The it-cleft and constructional change -- Chapter 9. Conclusions -- Corpora and data sources -- References -- Index
Summary: This book examines the structure and function of the English it-cleft configuration from within the framework of construction grammar. It defends a straightforward extraposition-from-NP analysis (on which the cleft clause is a restrictive relative, modifying the initial it) and claims that all types of it-cleft involve nominal predication. Support for this analysis comes from three main areas: (a) the central role of definiteness in the creation of specificational meaning, (b) the existence and makeup of predicational (and proverbial) it-clefts, and (c) the early, historical it-cleft data. In addition, the book contains a sizeable diachronic component, drawing data from the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English and from the International Corpus of English - Great Britain. This investigation informs and advances what is an otherwise simple account of the English it-cleft, explaining how and why the configuration has developed an assortment of peculiar, construction-specific properties over time.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9783110279528

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Chapter 1. Introduction and background -- Chapter 2. A model of language structure and language change -- Chapter 3. Specificational copular constructions -- Chapter 4. It-clefts as specificational copular sentences -- Chapter 5. Other varieties of it-cleft -- Chapter 6. The it-cleft and earlier periods of English -- Chapter 7. The it-cleft’s development over time -- Chapter 8. The it-cleft and constructional change -- Chapter 9. Conclusions -- Corpora and data sources -- References -- Index

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This book examines the structure and function of the English it-cleft configuration from within the framework of construction grammar. It defends a straightforward extraposition-from-NP analysis (on which the cleft clause is a restrictive relative, modifying the initial it) and claims that all types of it-cleft involve nominal predication. Support for this analysis comes from three main areas: (a) the central role of definiteness in the creation of specificational meaning, (b) the existence and makeup of predicational (and proverbial) it-clefts, and (c) the early, historical it-cleft data. In addition, the book contains a sizeable diachronic component, drawing data from the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English and from the International Corpus of English - Great Britain. This investigation informs and advances what is an otherwise simple account of the English it-cleft, explaining how and why the configuration has developed an assortment of peculiar, construction-specific properties over time.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Feb 2023)