Bridging constructions

Valérie Guérin (ed)

Synopsis

Many descriptive grammars report the use of a linguistic pattern at the interface between discourse and syntax which is known generally as tail-head linkage. This volume takes an unprecedented look at this type of linkage across languages and shows that there exist three distinct variants, all subsumed under the hypernym bridging constructions. The chapters highlight the defining features of these constructions in the grammar and their functional properties in discourse. The volume reveals that:

  • Bridging constructions consist of two clauses: a reference clause and a bridging clause. Across languages, bridging clauses can be subordinated clauses, reduced main clauses, or main clauses with continuation prosody.
  • Bridging constructions have three variants: recapitulative linkage, summary linkage and mixed linkage. They differ in the formal makeup of the bridging clause.
  • In discourse, the functions that bridging constructions fulfil depend on the text genres in which they appear and their position in the text.
  • If a language uses more than one type of bridging construction, then each type has a distinct discourse function.
  • Bridging constructions can be optional and purely stylistic or mandatory and serve a grammatical purpose.
  • Although the difference between bridging constructions and clause repetition can be subtle, they maintain their own distinctive characteristics.

Chapters

  • Bridging constructions in typological perspective
    Valérie Guérin, Grant Aiton
    Chapter 1
  • The poetics of recapitulative linkage in Matsigenka and mixed Matsigenka-Spanish myth narrations
    Nicholas Q. Emlen
    Chapter 2
  • Short, finite and one-sided bridges in Logoori
    Hannah Sarvasy
    Chapter 3
  • Bridging constructions in Tsezic languages
    Diana Forker, Felix Anker
    Chapter 4
  • Bridging constructions in narrative texts in White Hmong (Hmong-Mien)
    Nerida Jarkey
    Chapter 5
  • The form and function of bridging constructions in Eibela discourse
    Grant Aiton
    Chapter 6
  • Online and offline bridging constructions in Korowai
    Lourens de Vries
    Chapter 7
  • Recapitulative linkage in Mavea
    Valérie Guérin
    Chapter 8
  • Clause repetition as a tying technique in Greek conversation
    Angeliki Alvanoudi
    Chapter 9

Statistics

Bridging constructions

Author Biography

Valérie Guérin

Valérie Guérin obtained a PhD from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa for her work on Mavea, a moribund language of Vanuatu (grammar published by the University of Hawai’i Press in 2011). She currently works on describing Tayatuk, a language spoken in the YUS conservation area, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. In 2013–2016, she was a postdoctoral research associate at the Language and Culture Research Centre, James Cook University, under the Australian Laureate Fellowship awarded to Professor Aikhenvald. She is currently affiliated with the Language and Culture Research Centre as an adjunct fellow researcher.

Downloads

PDF
Bibliography
Buy from Amazon.de
Buy from Amazon.com
Buy from Amazon.co.uk
Collaborative reading on PaperHive

Published

October 15, 2018
LaTeX source on GitHub

Series

Studies in Diversity Linguistics

Print ISSN

2363-5568
Cite as
Guérin, Valérie (ed.). 2018. Bridging constructions. (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 24). Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2563698
Copyright (c) 2018 Language Science Press

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Details about the available publication format: PDF

PDF

ISBN-13 (15)

978-3-96110-141-2

Publication date (01)

2019-03-14

doi

10.5281/zenodo.2563698

Details about the available publication format: Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN-13 (15)

978-3-96110-142-9