Chapter published in:
Grammar and Cognition: Dualistic models of language structure and language processing
Edited by Alexander Haselow and Gunther Kaltenböck
[Human Cognitive Processing 70] 2020
► pp. 191–231

The semantics, syntax and prosody of adverbs in English

An FDG perspective

| University of Vienna
In the extensive literature on parenthetical (non-propositional, disjunctive) adverbs, it is often assumed that, on the basis of their semantic, syntactic and prosodic properties, a binary distinction can be made between integrated (non-parenthetical) and non-integrated (parenthetical) adverbs. This paper aims to demonstrate that such a dualistic view is oversimplified, since semantic, syntactic and prosodic (non-)integration need not coincide. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the adverbs frankly (as an illocutionary and manner adverb) and cleverly, stupidly etc. (as subject-oriented and manner adverbs), it is argued that the distinctive features of Functional Discourse Grammar make it possible to capture both the differences and the interaction between these three dimensions of (non-)integration in an insightful and consistent manner.
Keywords: parentheticals, truth-conditionality, prosodic integration, English adverbs, levels of analysis, Functional Discourse Grammar
Published online: 12 November 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.70.06kei
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