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Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 1998
Corpus Pragmatics, 2023
This paper investigates so-called pleonastic conditionals (PCs) in Present Day English, e.g. If you have to, you have to or When duty calls, duty calls. PCs are rhetorical statements in which the antecedent and the consequent are formally and semantically identical. The construction is characterized by stylistic reduplication and semantic redundancy. It is exactly this tautological nature which has a considerable effect on the discourse-pragmatic functions of the construction. The paper analyzes the construction's frequency, form and functions by looking at data from three BYU corpora: the Movie Corpus (Davies, 2019), the TV Corpus (Davies, 2019), the Corpus of American Soap Operas (Davies, 2011). 2151 examples of if-and when-PCs are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. It is argued that PCs are functionally too different to be classified as default conditionals in the strict sense simply because they do not express a condition or inference. PCs are constructions used to express acceptance, indifference or certainty of the proposition. On top of that, they also code prototypicality which is a function completely overlooked in the literature so far. A Logistic Regression Model is fitted to predict the choice of the connector if or when. The statistical analysis confirms that the two types have different constructional profiles. With regards to theoretical modeling, the paper analyzes PCs from a usage-based, cognitive, construction grammar point of view and sketches the constructions' form-meaning parings as well as their horizontal and vertical connections in the constructicon.
The Canadian Journal of Linguistics/La revue …, 2012
Linguaculture, 2012
The paper looks at the nonstandard, so called ‘plupluperfect’, construction If [Subject] had have [past particple]. Based on inquiries in WebCorp and the BNC and COCA, the paper shows the relative incidence of this construction in the available corpora. The investigation concludes that the construction is more likely to be found in Internet texts and communications. This prompts a brief discussion on the general nature of Internet language and its main characteristics. Moreover, taking into consideration the morpho-syntactic make-up of the construction, certain theories about its occurrence are presented. It is also noted that the construction is by no means new, having been attested centuries ago. Thus, the paper tries to tie in history with present-day trends in language and linguistics.
Review of European Studies, 2014
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Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Science and Biotechnology, 2013
Bioremediation and Biotechnology
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2022
www.LeilaSadeghi.com, 2012
Cell Calcium, 2007
Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dentistry, 2021
Generation Journal, 2020
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 2002
Nursing for Women's Health, 2018
Journal of global sport management, 2018