Discourse Pressure, Genre and Grammatical Alignment — After Du Bois

Elizabeth O'Dowd | University of Colorado

This study adds a genre dimension to the findings of Du Bois (1987) concerning the discourse basis of grammatical patterns. Although Du Bois' and other studies have ascertained that a pressure toward ergative patterning exists even in nominative-accusative languages, I hypothesized that this pressure is a function of narrative discourse, which was the focus of those studies; and that a different genre may motivate a different grammatical alignment as new information is introduced. This study tests the hypothesis in the context of an orally-delivered paramedical training session.

Published online: 01 January 1990
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.14.2.05odo

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Cited by 10 other publications

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