Australian Journal of Linguistics

Vol. 22, no. 2 (2002)

Articles

'Yeah-no he's a good kid': A discourse analysis of yeah-no in Australian English	Kate Burridge & Margaret Florey	149-171
Grounding in text structure	Esam N. Khalil	173-190
The use of different cases with Russian verbs of similar meaning	Marika Kalyuga	191-205
Lexical variation among Western Australian primary school children	Rhonda Oliver, Graham McKay & Judith Rochecouste	207-229
Grammaticalized restrictives on adverbials and secondary predicates: Evidence from Australian languages	Eva Schultze-Berndt	231-264

Book reviews

Fixed expressions and idioms in English: A corpus-based approach (Rosamund Moon)	Koenraad Kuiper	265-272
Syntax: Structure, meaning and function (Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. & Randy J. LaPolla)	Cynthia Allen	272-277
Feature distribution in Swedish noun phrases (Kersti Börjars)	Alan R. Libert	277-280

Abstracts

'Yeah-no he's a good kid': A discourse analysis of yeah-no in Australian English

Kate Burridge & Margaret Florey

Abstract: Yeah-no in Australian English is a relatively new marker which serves a number of functions, including discourse cohesion, the pragmatic functions of hedging and face-saving, and assent and dissent. Drawing on a corpus of approximately 30 hours of both informal conversation and interviews, we analyse the interaction between intonation and turn-taking, and the use of yeah-no by topic, conversational genre, and age and gender of speaker. The results indicate that the peak of yeah-no production occurs among speakers aged 35-49 years, and gender differences are not apparent in this preliminary analysis.

Grounding in text structure

Esam N. Khalil

Abstract: The last three decades have witnessed a burgeoning interest in the phenomenon of grounding, or the foreground-background structure in text. The vast literature on this phenomenon has nevertheless shown a great deal of theoretical confusion: definitions have been imprecise and various levels of description conflated. This paper explains the phenomenon of grounding and shows its place among several other text structures. It posits that grounding is a semantic property of text, distinct from other semantic properties such as coherence and from the cognitive, non-textual level of information. In addition, the paper distinguishes the foreground-background structure from its manifestations on other levels such as discursive and syntactic, thus distinguishing grounding from the more or less prominent ways in which it is signalled. In this regard, the paper examines the influence of grounding on text (hierarchical) structure exemplified by the occurrence of foregrounding and backgrounding operations and by the occasional inclusion of textual propositions that are not (directly) related to what has preceded.

The use of different cases with Russian verbs of similar meanings

Marika Kalyuga

Abstract: This paper looks at verbs that convey a similar meaning but govern different cases. The study is based on a sample of verbs and word combinations that have the semantic component 'to teach'. The sue of cases with such verbs is explained through the mataphorical conceptualization of teaching in Russian. The cases governed by the verbs with this component depend on the understanding of teaching as either giving, guiding, forming, filling, feeding, or lighting. Different metaphorical concepts cause differences in the syntactic properties of verbs with the 'teach' component.

Lexical variation among Western Australian primary school children

Rhonda Oliver, Graham McKay & Judith Rochecouste

Abstract: This paper investigates the use of Australianisms by Western Australian primary school students. A selected set of lexical items from Bryant (1989) were used in the study. Results showed less use of some items deemed to be indicative of Western Australia by Bryant and some infiltration of terms from the eastern states, clearly caused by internal migration. Other changes could be attributed to changes in Australian lifestyles generally and American television.

Grammaticalized restrictives on adverbial and secondary predicates: Evidence from Australian languages

Eva Schultze-Berndt

Abstract: In many Australian languages, particles or clitics which may be glossed as 'still' or 'only' are particularly frequent on secondary predicates and certain adverbials. This paper presents a detailed account of the multifunctional clitic =(C)ung in Jaminjung, and compares this with functionally similar clitics in a number of other Australian languages. It is argued that these clitics are best analyzed as non-scalar restrictive markers, possibly originating from markers of emphatic assertion of identity, and that their use on adverbials and secondary predicates is a consequence of grammaticalization.

Last update: 8 December 2002
Comments to Tim Curnow