The semantic field of modal certainty : a corpus-based study of English adverbs / by Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen, Karin Aijmer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Simon-Vandenbergen, A. M.

Contributor:

Aijmer, Karin.

Series:

Topics in English linguistics ; 56.

Topics in English linguistics ; 56

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Adverb.

English language.

English language--Modality.

English language--Semantics.

Field theory (Linguistics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (408 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In spite of the vast literature on modality in English, very little research has been done on modal adverbs as a group. While there are studies of individual adverbs, the semantic and pragmatic relations between them have been left largely unexplored. This book takes a close look at the whole field of modal certainty as expressed by adverbs in English. On the basis of corpus data the most frequent adverbs of certainty, including certainly, indeed, and no doubt, are examined from the point of view of their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics. The corpus used is the International Corpus of English - Great Britain, supplemented by data from other present-day English corpora, and questionnaires testing native speakers' intuitions on fine-grained similarities and differences between closely related adverbs. The methodology also includes the study of cross-linguistic equivalents as indicators of semantic-pragmatic relations between adverbs. Translation corpora yield correspondences in Swedish, Dutch, French and German. A detailed study of those correspondences adds useful information for setting up a semantic-pragmatic profile of each adverb, showing where their meanings overlap and where the boundaries are. The concept of semantic maps is relied on for plotting these relations. The book not only provides a thorough empirical study of English adverbs expressing certainty, it also contributes to a better theoretical understanding of the complexity of modal certainty, how it is related to speakers' goals and to other semantic areas. It is the first in-depth study of this kind, combining rich information on English as well as opening up perspectives for further empirical and theoretical research into modality.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of contents

Chapter 1. Aims, methodology and data

Chapter 2. Establishing meaning relations: Problems and solutions

Chapter 3. The linguistic categories of modality and evidentiality

Chapter 4. An integrated model for describing adverbs of certainty

Chapter 5. Classification of adverbs of certainty

Chapter 6. The epistemic certainty adverbs certainly, definitely, indeed: Syntagmatic and paradigmatic dimensions

Chapter 7. The epistemic certainty adverbs no doubt, surely: Syntagmatic and paradigmatic dimensions

Chapter 8. Evidential, expectation and speech act adverbs: Syntagmatic and paradigmatic dimensions

Chapter 9. Adverbs of certainty and the wider context: Text types and genres

Chapter 10. Semantic-pragmatic relations: Networks and maps

Chapter 11. Semantic-pragmatic relations: Parameters and features

Chapter 12. Conclusions

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-386) and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612194634

9781282194632

1282194631

9783110198928

3110198924

OCLC:

437233381