John Myhill

List of John Benjamins publications for which John Myhill plays a role.

Title

Articles

English and Hebrew use sharply differing systems for categorizing the meanings of words referring to vision. In English, the relevant parameters of meaning relate to whether information has been visually recorded and registered and what type of image was captured (a still picture, a moving picture,… read more
This paper reports the results of a detailed text-based study of the use of Imperative constructions in Biblical Hebrew and English, and shows that the two languages differ significantly in this regard. The use of the English Imperative in the database is conditioned largely by social and… read more
Myhill, John 1997 Viewpoint, sequencing, and pronoun usage in Javanese short storiesTowards a Social Science of Language: Papers in honor of William Labov, Guy, Gregory R., Crawford Feagin, Deborah Schiffrin and John Baugh (eds.), pp. 237 ff. | Article
This paper proposes a model for the analysis of emotions in which each emotion word in each language is made up of a universal component and a language-specific component; the universal component is drawn from a set of universal human emotions which underlie all emotion words in all languages, and… read more
Myhill, John 1996 Can and future meaningFunctions of Language 3:1, pp. 31–68 | Article
Can is traditionally seen as having three general meanings, ability, permission, and possibility (Leech 1987). However, as noted by Coates (1983), in certain cases the function of can is somewhat similar to that of will, e.g. offering to help by saying / can/will help, if you want y asking for help… read more
Myhill, John and Janet Zhiqun Xing 1996 Towards an Operational Definition of Discourse ContrastStudies in Language 20:2, pp. 303–360 | Article
Linguists have often invoked the concept of contrast in attempting to explain the use of certain constructions without explicitly defining this term. The present paper proposes an operational definition of contrast which can be applied to naturally occurring data so as to provide a more precise… read more
Myhill, John and Laura A. Smith 1995 The Discourse and Interactive Functions of Obligation ExpressionsModality in Grammar and Discourse, Bybee, Joan L. and Suzanne Fleischman (eds.), pp. 239 ff. | Article
Myhill, John 1993 Functional Type, Voice, and the Javanese DI-FormStudies in Language 17:2, pp. 371–409 | Article
This paper introduces the concept of functional type, a particular combination of functions which are realized in a single clause, and applies this concept to data on voice from Javanese and English, comparing the English passive and two Javanese constructions with passive-like structural and… read more
Myhill, John 1992 Word order and temporal sequencingPragmatics of Word Order Flexibility, Payne, Doris L. (ed.), pp. 265 ff. | Article
Estival, Dominique and John Myhill 1988 Formal and Functional aspects of the development from passive to ergative systemsPassive and Voice, Shibatani, Masayoshi (ed.), pp. 441 ff. | Article
Myhill, John 1988 Categoriality and ClusteringStudies in Language 12:2, pp. 261–297 | Article
The essential meaning of a clause is typically conveyed by a small subset of the-morphemes in that clause, sometimes by only one or two; the information conveyed by the other morphemes is supplementary or already known. Clauses consist of one or more clusters; a cluster is made up of a nucleus (a… read more
Myhill, John and Junko Hibiya 1988 The discourse function af clause-chainingClause Combining in Grammar and Discourse, Haiman, John and Sandra A. Thompson (eds.), pp. 361 ff. | Article
Ash, Sharon and John Myhill 1986 Linguistic correlates of inter-ethnic contactDiversity and Diachrony, Sankoff, David, pp. 33–44 | Article
Myhill, John and Wendell A. Harris 1986 The use of the verbal -s Inflection in BEVDiversity and Diachrony, Sankoff, David, pp. 25–31 | Article