Chapter published in:
Usage-based and Typological Approaches to Linguistic UnitsEdited by Tsuyoshi Ono, Ritva Laury and Ryoko Suzuki
[Benjamins Current Topics 114] 2021
► pp. 123–160
Questioning the clause as a crosslinguistic unit in grammar and interaction
Ritva Laury | University of Helsinki
Tsuyoshi Ono | University of Alberta
Ryoko Suzuki | Keio University
This paper focuses on ‘clause’, a celebrated structural unit in linguistics, by comparing Finnish and Japanese,
two languages which are genetically, typologically, and areally distinct from each other and from English, the language on the
basis of which this structural unit has been most typically discussed. We first examine how structural units including the clause
have been discussed in the literature on Finnish and Japanese. We will then examine the reality of the clause in everyday talk in
these languages quantitatively and qualitatively; in our qualitative analysis, we focus in particular on what units are oriented
to by conversational participants. The current study suggests that the degree of grammaticization of the clause varies
cross-linguistically and questions the central theoretical status accorded to this structural unit.
Keywords: clause, unit, grammar, everyday talk, conversation, interaction, participant orientation, interactional linguistics, Finnish, Japanese, English
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Understandings of similar units in standard references in Finnish and Japanese
- 2.1Finnish
- 2.2Japanese
- 3.Clauses and predicates as units in interaction
- 3.1The clause as a unit in Finnish conversation
- 3.2The predicate as a unit in Japanese conversation
- 4.Summary and conclusions
-
Acknowledgements -
Notes -
References
Published online: 21 April 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.114.06lau
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.114.06lau
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