Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 13:2 (2003) ► pp.211–230

On relative clauses and locative expressions in English existential sentences

In an influential paper, Fox & Thompson (1990) argue that the grammar of relative clauses in spoken American English is affected by interactive and cognitive factors pertaining to the communication situation. Existential sentences containing a relative clause as well as an overt locative expression figure prominently in their analysis. The present paper examines Fox & Thompson’s analysis of such sentences in the light of a wide range of data. It is shown that the generalizations they make on the basis of their limited corpus (25 tokens) rest on false premises. Their analysis fails to take account of some of the most salient properties inherent in existential sentences in all varieties of English; it also disregards relevant cross-linguistic data. An alternative analysis is offered.
Keywords: Relative clauses, Existential there, Existential sentences, Locative space, Information flow, Grounding, English, Discursive space
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 1 June 2003
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.13.2.01bre
References (52)
Abbott, Barbara (1997) Definiteness and existentials. Language 731: 103-108. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Anderson, John (1971) The grammar of case: Towards a localistic theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, C.L. (1995) Contrast, discourse prominence, and intensification, with special reference to locally free reflexives in British English. Language 711: 63-101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, & Edward Finegan (1999) Longman grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bloom, Paul, Mary A. Peterson, Lynn Nadel, & Merrill F. Garrett (eds.) (1996) Language and space. Cambridge, MA & London: MIT Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight (1977) Meaning and form. London & New York: Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Breivik, Leiv Egil (1981) On the interpretation of existential there . Language 571: 1-25. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
(1990) Existential there: A synchronic and diachronic study. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
(1997a) There in space and time. In Heinrich Ramisch and Kenneth Wynne (eds.), Language in time and space: Studies in honour of Wolfgang Viereck on the occasion of his 60th birthday.Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 32-45.Google Scholar
(1997b) On the interrelation of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics: A study of locative/temporal expressions in existential sentences in the LOB Corpus. In Udo Fries, Viviane Müller, & Peter Schneider (eds.), From Ælfric to the New York Times: Studies in English corpus linguistics. (Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics, 19.) Amsterdam & Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, pp. 1-10.Google Scholar
(1999) On the pragmatic function of relative clauses and locative expressions in existential sentences in the LOB Corpus. In Hilde Hasselgård & Signe Oksefjell (eds.), Out of corpora: Studies in honour of Stig Johansson. (Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics, 26.)Amsterdam & Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, pp. 121-135.Google Scholar
Brown, Gillian, and George Yule (1983) Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Chafe, Wallace (1987) Cognitive constraints on information flow. In Russel S. Tomlin (ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 21-51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1994) Discourse, consciousness, and time: The flow and displacement of conscious experience in speaking and writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Dillon, George L., Linda Coleman, Jeanne Fahnestock, & Michael Agar (1985) Review article on Brown & Yule (1983), Leech(1983), and Levinson (1983). Language 611: 446-460. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Downing, Pamela, & Michael Noonan (1995) Word order in discourse. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ebeling, Jarle (1999) Presentative constructions in English and Norwegian: A corpus-based contrastive study. Doctoral dissertation. (Acta Humaniora, 68.) Oslo: Department of British and American Studies, University of Oslo.
Erdmann, Peter (1976) There sentences in English: A relational study based on a corpus of written texts. (Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften, 6.) Munich: Tuduv.Google Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles (1985) Mental spaces. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Firbas, Jan (1992) Functional sentence perspective in written and spoken communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Fox, Barbara A., & Sandra A. Thompson (1990) A discourse explanation of the grammar of relative clauses in English conversation. Language 661: 297-316. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frawley, William (1992) Linguistic semantics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Geis, Michael L. (1995) Speech acts and conversational interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geisler, Christer (1995) Relative infinitives in English. (Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia, 91.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy (1976) Topic, pronoun and grammatical agreement. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and topic. New York & London: Academic Press, pp. 149-188.Google Scholar
(1984) Syntax: A functional-typological introduction, vol. 11. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1990) Syntax: A functional-typological introduction, vol. 21. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(ed.) (1994) Voice and inversion. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gundel, Jeanette K. (1998) Review of Downing & Noonan 1995. Language 741: 185-189. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gundel, Jeanette K., Nancy Hedberg, & Ron Zacharski (1993) Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language 691: 274-307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hannay, Michael (1985) English existentials in functional grammar. (Functional Grammar Series, 3.) Dordrecht: Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin (1997) Temporal adverbials in the world’s languages. (LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics, 3.) Munich & Newcastle: LINCOM EUROPA.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J., & Sandra A. Thompson (1980) Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language 561: 251- 299. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Huck, Geoffrey J., & Younghee Na (1990) Extraposition and focus. Language 661: 51-77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney, & Geoffrey K. Pullum (2002) The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johansson, Christine (1995) The relativizers whose and of which in present-day English. (Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia, 90.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Kiss, Katalin É. (1998) Identificational focus versus information focus. Language 741: 245-273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuno, Susumu (1971) The position of locatives in existential sentences. Linguistic Inquiry 21: 333-378.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George (1987) Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey N. (1983) Principles of pragmatics. London & New York: Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  BoP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lumsden, Michael (1988) Existential sentences: Their structure and meaning. London, New York, & Sydney: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Lyons, John (1967) A note on possessive, existential and locative sentences. Foundations of Language 31: 390–396.Google Scholar
(1968) Introduction to theoretical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1975) Deixis as the source of reference. In Edward L. Keenan (ed.), Formal semantics of natural language. London & New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61-83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1977). Semantics, vols. 1-21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
McNally, Louise (1997) A semantics for the English existential construction. New York & London: Garland.Google Scholar
Milsark, Gary Lee (1974) Existential sentences in English. MIT dissertation. [Published in the series Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics, New York & London: Garland, 1979.]
Prince, Ellen (1981) Toward a typology of given-new information. In Peter Cole (ed.), Radical pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, pp. 223-255.Google Scholar
(1988) The discourse functions of Yiddish expletive + subject-postposing. IPrA Papers in Pragmatics 21: 176-194.  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1992) The ZPG letter: Subjects, definiteness, and information status. In William C. Mann & Sandra A. Thompson (eds.), Discourse description: Diverse analyses of a fundraising text.Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 295-325. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, & Jan Svartvik (1985) A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London & New York: Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Garachana Camarero, Mar & Axel Hernández Díaz
2020. From semantics to grammar. In Changes in Meaning and Function [IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature, 25], ► pp. 78 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 july 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.