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Discourse Phenomena in Typological Perspective
Edited by Alessandra Barotto and Simone Mattiola
[Studies in Language Companion Series 227] 2023
► pp. 403–432

Chapter 14
A typological study of tail-head linkage constructions

| University of California, Santa Barbara,
This paper explores tail-head linkage constructions in a convenience sample of 58 languages. Special attention is paid to recapitulative constructions in which reported speech clauses are omitted and only the quotative verb is recapitulated and summary constructions composed of a light verb accompanied by a deictic and dependency marker. These strategies are more frequent in East Tucanoan languages in the sample. Interestingly, neighboring languages not genetically related to East Tucanoan have both strategies. It is proposed that the most obvious explanation seems to be language contact. This is because: (1) the languages are spoken in the same region, (2) they are not genetically related, and (3) the probability of chance resemblance is low given the rarity of the strategies.
Keywords: tail-head linkage, discourse, language contact, linguistic typology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The sample and comparative concept
  • 3.Tail-head linkage constructions: Some brief remarks
    • 3.1A phenomenon of spoken discourse
    • 3.2Text genre
    • 3.3Function(s) of tail-head linkage constructions
    • 3.4Forms of the tail-head linkage construction
    • 3.5Semantic relations between discourse segments
  • 4.Recapitulative tail-head linkage constructions
  • 5.Summary tail-head linkage constructions
  • 6.Final remarks
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 1 March 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.227.14olg
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