Word order variation and foregrounding of complement clauses: Exploring the meaning of sentence adverbials as signals of word order

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Abstract

Through mixed models analyses of complement clauses in a corpus of spoken Danish we examine the role of sentence adverbials in relation to a word order distinction in Scandinavian signalled by the relative position of sentence adverbials and finite verb (V>Adv vs. Adv>V). The type of sentence adverbial was the third-most important factor in explaining the word order variation: Sentence adverbials categorized as ‘dialogic’ are significantly associated with V>Adv word order. We argue that the results are readily interpretable in the light of the semantico-pragmatic hypothesis that V>Adv signals foregrounded information, and exploit the random intercepts assigned to the individual adverbials for further exploring the functions of sentence adverbials that behave unexpectedly based on the predictions of the model.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLanguage variation - European Perspectives : Selected papers from the Seventh International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 7), Trondheim, June 2013
EditorsEivin Thorgersen, Stian Hårstad, Brit Mæhlum, Unn Røyneland
Number of pages18
VolumeV
Place of PublicationAmsterdam/Philadelphia
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Publication date2015
Pages69–86
ISBN (Print)9789027234971
ISBN (Electronic)9789027268815
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015
Event7th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe - Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag - HiST, Trondheim, Norway
Duration: 26 Jun 201328 Jun 2013
Conference number: 7

Conference

Conference7th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe
Number7
LocationHøgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag - HiST
Country/TerritoryNorway
CityTrondheim
Period26/06/201328/06/2013
SeriesStudies in Language Variation
ISSN1872-9592

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • word order
  • sentence adverbials
  • foregrounding
  • random intercepts

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