Abstract
This article presents the results of quantitative-corpus parameterization of reference properties of English detached nonfinite constructions with an explicit subject, carried out from the perspective of the cognitive-quantitative approach to language study. Through the prism of cognitive-constructive grammar, the syntactic patterns under scrutiny are recognized as grammatical constructions, i.e. complex semiotic units, non-compositional cognitively motivated pairings of form and conceptual meaning/ function, stored as holistic, conceptually connected, and interacting structures. Corpus-quantitative parameterization of referential properties of the given constructions presupposes the analysis of the linguistic means of expressing coreference between five micro-constructions and a corresponding matrix clause, reflected by the factors “Coreference” (COREF) and “Absence of coreference” (ØCOREF) of the parameter “Reference relations” (REFREL). Quantitative verification of the data involves a three-stage quantitative procedure incorporating 1) a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), 2) a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and 3) Tukey’s multiple comparison test performed with a computer statistical data analysis software R. The obtained results prove that the non-augmented constructions show a stronger semantic integration into a matrix clause, compensating lack of syntactic connection by closer reference relations, manifested by explicitly expressed full or partial coreference. The use of augmentors facilitates the identification of with-, without-, despite- and what_with- augmented constructions as syntactic patterns, thus balancing the absence of coreference and ensuring adequate cognitive processing of constructions.
Highlights
The study of complex syntactic patterns and their components belongs to the most topical issues of contemporary grammar, given the significant changes taking place in linguistics under the influence of the recent theoretical frameworks and a tendency to master novel tools and methods of analysis
The clauses are of a fixed binary structure [NP XP], where NP represents a secondary subject (Subj), different from the subject of the matrix clause SBJM, and (XP) is a secondary predicate (Pred), expressed by a nonfinite verb form (NF) (participle I (PI), participle II (PII), infinitive) or non-verbal part of speech (VL) (noun phrase (NP), adjective phrase (AdjP), adverbial phrase (AdvP) or prepositional phrase (PP)), and connected with a matrix clause through augmentors or asyndetically
Corpus-quantitative parameterization of referential properties of the detached nonfinte with explicit subject (DNFES)-constructions entails the analysis of the linguistic means of expressing coreference relations between the micro-constructions and a matrix clause, reflected by the factors “Coreference” (COREF) and “Absence of coreference” (ØCOREF) of the parameter “Reference relations” (REFREL)
Summary
Viktoriia Zhukovska Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor, Zhytomyr State Ivan Franko. Summary This article presents the results of quantitative-corpus parameterization of reference properties of English detached nonfinite constructions with an explicit subject, carried out from the perspective of the cognitive-quantitative approach to language study. Through the prism of cognitive-constructive grammar, the syntactic patterns under scrutiny are recognized as grammatical constructions, i.e. complex semiotic units, non-compositional cognitively motivated pairings of form and conceptual meaning/ function, stored as holistic, conceptually connected, and interacting structures. Corpus-quantitative parameterization of referential properties of the given constructions presupposes the analysis of the linguistic means of expressing coreference between five micro-constructions and a corresponding matrix clause, reflected by the factors “Coreference” (COREF) and “Absence of coreference” (ØCOREF) of the parameter “Reference relations” (REFREL). The obtained results prove that the non-augmented constructions show a stronger semantic integration into a matrix clause, compensating lack of syntactic connection by closer reference relations, manifested by explicitly expressed full or partial coreference.
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