Spatial Demonstratives in English and Chinese
Text and Cognition
Yi’an Wu吴一安
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 126
2004. xviii, 236 pp.
As a subject of universal appeal, spatial demonstratives have been studied extensively from a variety of disciplines. What marks the present study as distinct is that it is an English-Chinese comparative study set in a cognitive-linguistic framework and that the methodology features a parallel corpora-based, discourse analysis approach. The framework illuminates the nature of the demonstratives’ basic and extended meaning and use, the connections between them, and the mechanisms that govern and constrain their trends of extension. The corpora place the English and Chinese demonstratives in comparable discourse contexts and processes, providing an “ecological” environment for the observation of how their behavior fits into the respective structural and discourse systems of the two languages. The study also illuminates important issues such as the subjectivity of language, language as a representational system and a vehicle of communication, the interface between form and function, and the role of context in discourse comprehension.
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=P%26bns%20126
Table of contents
Preface ix
Introduction xi
Acknowledgements xiii
List of tables xv
The figure xvi
Conventions and abbreviations xvii
1. Introduction 1
2. The nature of the spatial demonstratives 27
3. Spatial demonstratives in real space 59
4. Spatial demonstratives in displaced contexts: Similar trends of
extension 77
5. Spatial demonstratives in displaced contexts: Strutural constraints on
the similar trends of extension 141
Concluding remarks 201
Notes 205
References 211
Appendix 225
Index 229
Text and Cognition
Yi’an Wu吴一安
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 126
2004. xviii, 236 pp.
As a subject of universal appeal, spatial demonstratives have been studied extensively from a variety of disciplines. What marks the present study as distinct is that it is an English-Chinese comparative study set in a cognitive-linguistic framework and that the methodology features a parallel corpora-based, discourse analysis approach. The framework illuminates the nature of the demonstratives’ basic and extended meaning and use, the connections between them, and the mechanisms that govern and constrain their trends of extension. The corpora place the English and Chinese demonstratives in comparable discourse contexts and processes, providing an “ecological” environment for the observation of how their behavior fits into the respective structural and discourse systems of the two languages. The study also illuminates important issues such as the subjectivity of language, language as a representational system and a vehicle of communication, the interface between form and function, and the role of context in discourse comprehension.
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=P%26bns%20126
Table of contents
Preface ix
Introduction xi
Acknowledgements xiii
List of tables xv
The figure xvi
Conventions and abbreviations xvii
1. Introduction 1
2. The nature of the spatial demonstratives 27
3. Spatial demonstratives in real space 59
4. Spatial demonstratives in displaced contexts: Similar trends of
extension 77
5. Spatial demonstratives in displaced contexts: Strutural constraints on
the similar trends of extension 141
Concluding remarks 201
Notes 205
References 211
Appendix 225
Index 229
