1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456254703321

Titolo

Syntactic variation and genre [[electronic resource] /] / edited by Heidrun Dorgeloh, Anja Wanner

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; New York, : De Gruyter Mouton, 2010

ISBN

1-283-16512-0

9786613165121

3-11-022648-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (372 p.)

Collana

Topics in English linguistics, , 1434-3452 ; ; 70

Classificazione

HF 290

Altri autori (Persone)

DorgelohHeidrun

WannerAnja

Disciplina

415

Soggetti

Grammar, Comparative and general - Syntax

Language and languages - Variation

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

pt. 1. Genre: form, constitution, and change -- pt. 2. Syntactic variation based on genre.

Sommario/riassunto

This volume explores the interplay of syntactic variation and genre. How do genres emerge and what is the role of syntax in constituting them? Why do certain constructions appear in certain types of text? The book takes the concept of genre as a reference-point for the description and analysis of morpho-syntactic variation and change. It includes both overviews of theoretical approaches to the concept of genre and text type in linguistics and studies of specific syntactic phenomena in English, German, and selected Romance languages. Contributions to the volume make use of insights from attempts for text classification and rhetorical views on genre and reach from quantitative, corpus-based methodology to qualitative, text-based analyses. The types of texts investigated cover spoken, highly interactive, and written forms of communication, including selected genres of computer-mediated communication. Corpus data come from both synchronic and diachronic linguistic corpora, such as LOB, Brown, FLOB, Frown, ARCHER, and ICE-Jamaica. This spectrum both in



approaches and data is meant to provide a theoretical foundation as well as a realistic view of the inherent complexity of form-function relationships in syntax. At the same time, genre is treated as a category relevant beyond discourse studies, consisting of forms and conventions at all levels of linguistic analysis, including syntax. The book is therefore of interest to linguists and graduate students in the area of syntax, discourse analysis, and pragmatics, as well as to sociolinguists and corpus linguists working on register variation.