Cover not available
Article published In:
Languages in Contrast
Vol. 20:1 (2020) ► pp.31–57

Domain adverbials in the news

A corpus-based contrastive study of English, German, French, Italian and Spanish

ORCID logo | University of Basel
| University of Basel
| University of Florence
| University of Basel

This article examines the functional category of domain adverbials (DAs), which arose fairly recently in the European languages and is claimed to occur frequently in the written press. In order to better understand this category, we investigate the form, use and meaning of DAs in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish and highlight important intra- and cross-linguistic differences by means of a qualitative and quantitative empirical study based on a corpus of journalistic texts drawn from online daily newspapers. Our results show that cross-linguistically DAs are mainly realized as adverbs formed through a standard word-formation rule. Our results also point to important cross-linguistic differences in the frequency and types of domain adverbs used in the five languages. We explain these differences by taking into account grammatical, sociolinguistic and discourse-related parameters.

Keywords: domain adverbials, Germanic languages, Romance languages, journalistic prose, adverbial formation patterns
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Domain adverbials: Function and form
    • 2.1The function of domain adverbials
    • 2.2Morpho-syntactic realizations of domain adverbials
      • 2.2.1Domain adverbials realized as adverbs
      • 2.2.2Domain adverbials realized as clauses
      • 2.2.3Domain adverbials realized as prepositional phrases
  • 3.Data and methods used to investigate domain adverbials in the news
    • 3.1The CONC corpus
    • 3.2Criteria used to identify domain adverbials in the corpus
  • 4.Domain adverbials in the news: Form and frequency in a cross-linguistic perspective
    • 4.1Quantitative and qualitative results
      • 4.1.1Morpho-syntactic realization of DAs
      • 4.1.2Types of domain adverbs
    • 4.2Discussion
      • 4.2.1Cross-linguistic preference for adverbs (ADV I) over CPs and PPs
      • 4.2.2Cross-linguistic differences between the frequency of domain adverbs in English/German vs Romance languages
      • 4.2.3Cross-linguistic differences between the types of domain adverbs in German vs the other four languages
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.17005.dec
References
Beaulieu-Masson, A.
2006 Cadres et points de vue dans le discours journalistique. Travaux neuchâtelois de linguistique 441: 77–89.Google Scholar
Bischoff, H.
1970 Setzung und Transposition des -MENTE-Adverbs als Ausdruck der Art und Weise im Französischen und Italienischen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Transposition in Adjektive. Zürich: Juris Verlag.Google Scholar
Dalton-Puffer, C. and Plag, I.
2001 Categorywise, some compound-type morphemes seem to be rather suffix-like: on the status of -ful, -type, and -wise in Present Day English. Folia Linguistica XXXIV (3–4 2000): 225–244.Google Scholar
De Cesare, A.-M.
2018 French adverbial cleft sentences: empirical and theoretical issues. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 321: 86–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Cesare, A.-M. and Brianti, G.
2016 Constructions “impersonnelles” (infinitives, participiales etc.) vs propositions “complètes” comme problème de traduction. In Manuel de traductologie, J. Albrecht and R. Métrich (eds), 256–274. Berlin-New York: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Cesare, A.-M., Garassino, D., Agar Marco, R., Albom, A., Cimmino, D.
2016 Sintassi marcata dell’italiano dell’uso medio in prospettiva contrastiva con il francese, lo spagnolo, il tedesco e l’inglese. Uno studio basato sulla scrittura dei quotidiani online. Frankfurt am Main: Lang.Google Scholar
Decroos, N. and Leuschner, T.
2008 Word formation between system and norm: Affixoids in German and Dutch. Sprachwissenschaft 33(1): 1–34.Google Scholar
Diepeveen, J.
2013  Linguistically interesting: Dutch domain adverbials in contrast. JournaLIPP 21: 15–29. [URL] [last accessed May 20, 2017].
Frenguelli, G.
2008 Che cosa c’è di nuovo nella formazione delle parole. In L’italiano di oggi. Fenomeni, problemi, prospettive, M. Dardano and G. Frenguelli (eds), 137–148. Roma: Aracne.Google Scholar
Götze, L.
1976 Mehrdeutigkeit und pragmatische Implikationen von Satzadverbien. Zielsprache Deutsch 11: 21–26.Google Scholar
Greenbaum, S.
2000 The Oxford Reference Grammar. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Gries, S. T.
2014 Frequency tables, effect sizes, and explorations. In Corpus Methods for Semantics: Quantitative Studies in Polysemy and Synonymy, D. Glynn and J. Robinson (eds), 365–389. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grossmann, M.
1999 Gli aggettivi denominali come basi di derivazione in italiano. In Fonologia e morfologia dell’italiano e dei dialetti d’Italia. Atti del XXXI Congresso internazionale della Società di linguistica italiana (Padova 25–27.91997), P. Benincà, A. Mioni and L. Vanelli (eds), 401–422. Roma: Bulzoni.Google Scholar
Grübl, K.
2018 On the rise of domain adverbials in Italian: the history of the -mente parlando construction. In Formal and Functional Perspectives on Sentence Adverbials in the Romance Languages and Beyond, A.-M. De Cesare, A. Albom, D. Cimmino and M. Lupica Spagnolo (eds), Linguistik online 92: 5. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guimier, C.
2001 Les adverbes de domaine en -wise de l’anglais moderne. Cahiers de praxématique 371: 147–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hermoso Mellado-Damas, A.
2015 Les adverbes de domaine et l’expression de la modalité assertive, Anales de Filología Francesa 231: 109–123.Google Scholar
Huddleston, R. D. and Pullum, G. K.
2002 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Inghult, G.
1975 Die semantische Struktur desubstantivischer Bildungen auf -mässig: eine synchronisch-diachronische Studie. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Klump, A.
2007 Zur Funktion und Verwendung der gemeinromanischen Adverbialbestimmung vom Typ économiquement parlant am Beispiel des Französischen und Spanischen. Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 123(2): 204–212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kühnhold, I., Putzer, O. and Wellmann, H.
1978 Das Adjektiv. Düsseldorf: Schwann. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lenker, U.
2002 Is it, stylewise or otherwise, wise to use -wise? In English Historical Syntax and Morphology, T. Fanego (ed), 157–180. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lindquist, H.
2007 Viewpoint -wise: The spread and development of a new type of adverb in American and British English. Journal of English Linguistics 32(2): 132–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Molinier, C.
1984 Remarques sur les adverbes de point de vue. Cahiers de grammaire 71: 55–75.Google Scholar
Molinier, C. and Lévrier, F.
2000 Grammaire des adverbes. Description des formes en -ment. Genève-Paris: Droz.Google Scholar
Nøjgaard, M.
1993 Les adverbes français. Essai de description fonctionnelle. Historisk-filosfiske Meddelelser 661, vol. 21. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Nølke, H.
1990 Les adverbes contextuels: problèmes de classification. Langue Française 881: 12–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pittner, K.
2015 Between inflection and derivation. Adverbial suffixes in English and German. In Adverbs. Functional and Diachronic Aspects, K. Pittner, D. Elsner and F. Barteld (eds), 133–156. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J.
1972 A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Ricca, D.
2004 Derivazione avverbiale. In La formazione delle parole in italiano, M. Grossmann and F. Rainer (eds), 472–489. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Ramalle, T. M.
2009 Sobre la estructura discursiva de la oración y su proyección sintáctica: el caso de los adverbios oracionales y otros constituyentes de la periferia oracional. ELUA 231: 265–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ruge, N.
2004 Das Suffixoid “-technisch” in der Wortbildung der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Muttersprache 114(1): 29–41.Google Scholar
Van Raemdonck, D.
1999 L’adverbe de domaine-point de vue est-il un adverbe de phrase? In Orbis Linguarum 111: 101–112.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Taylor, Charlotte & Dario del Fante*
2020. Comparing across languages in corpus and discourse analysis: some issues and approaches. Meta 65:1 ► pp. 29 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.