Maschler2018a
Maschler2018a | |
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BibType | ARTICLE |
Key | Maschler2018a |
Author(s) | Yael Maschler |
Title | The on-line emergence of Hebrew insubordinate she- (‘that/which/who’) clauses
A usage-based perspective on so-called ‘subordination’ |
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Tag(s) | EMCA, Interactional linguistics, Insubordination, Grammar, Online syntax, Emergent grammar, Projection, Hebrew |
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Year | 2018 |
Language | English |
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Journal | Studies in Language |
Volume | 42 |
Number | 3 |
Pages | 669-707 |
URL | Link |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.17065.mas |
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Abstract
This study examines the on-line emergence of insubordinate clauses in Hebrew conversation as constrained by local interactional contingencies, questioning traditional notions of grammatical ‘subordination’ and contributing to conceptions of grammar as a locally sensitive, temporally unfolding resource for social interaction. The clauses examined are syntactically unintegrated (unembedded in any matrix clause), or loosely-integrated (cannot be viewed unambiguously as constituting a relative, complement, or adverbial clause), yet they all begin with she- – the general ‘subordinating conjunction’ in traditional Modern Hebrew grammar. All 102 insubordinate she- clauses found throughout a 5.5 hour audio-recorded corpus were classified according to their discourse function: modal, elaborative, or evaluative/epistemic. Leaving aside the modal type, the remaining insubordinate she- clauses (N = 70, 69%) are shown to emerge on-line while speakers are busy performing a variety of tasks and responding to local interactional contingencies. In all of these cases she- functions as a generic ‘wildcard’ tying back to immediately prior discourse and projecting an elaboration/evaluation of it, in either same- or other-speaker talk. The findings concerning insubordinate clauses suggest a usage-based perspective also on canonical subordinate clauses, positioning canonical and syntactically unintegrated clauses at two ends of a continuum.
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