The Grammar of Interactives

Description

This book explores a domain of discourse processing referred to as 'interactive grammar', based on an analysis of grammatical descriptions of over 100 languages spoken across the world. While much previous work has treated interactive grammar as a fairly marginal part of language, Bernd Heine describes it here as a distinct category that contrasts with sentence grammar both in its functions and its structural behavior. He identifies ten types of interactives - i.e. extra-clausal expressions of linguistic discourse: attention signals, directives, discourse markers, evaluatives, ideophones, interjections, response elicitors, response signals, social formulae, and vocatives. The analysis reveals that speakers make use of two contrasting modes for structuring their discourses, both of which are needed for successful communication: one is sentence grammar, which has a propositional format and analytic organization; the other is interactive grammar, which has a holophrastic organization and a focus on social communication. While the argument structure of sentence grammar is shaped by the propositional format of sentences, that of interactive grammar is shaped by the indexical nature of the situation of discourse. This distinction shows interesting correlations both with findings from neurolinguistic studies on differential activity in the two hemispheres of the human brain, and with observations from social psychology on the differences between systems of reasoning and judgment. Cover Titlepage Copyright Contents Acknowledgments List of figures and tables List of abbreviations 1 Interactives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Definition 1.3 Properties 1.3.1 Definitional properties 1.3.2 Further features 1.3.3 Conclusion 1.4 Properties shared by the two domains of grammar 1.5 A classification of interactives 1.6 This volume 2 Argument structure 2.1 Meaning 2.1.1 Paraphrase 2.1.2 Expressive meaning 2.1.3 Interactives as depictions 2.1.4 Discussion 2.1.5 Conclusions 2.2 Identifying arguments 2.2.1 Introduction 2.2.2 The arguments 2.2.3 More on T arguments 2.2.4 More than one argument structure 2.2.5 Adjuncts 2.2.6 How to identify arguments 2.3 Discussion 2.4 Contrasting ways of discourse coding 2.5 Conclusions 3 Types of interactives 3.1 Attention signals 3.1.1 Introduction 3.1.2 Working definition 3.1.3 Grammar 3.1.4 Discussion 3.1.5 The attention signal *hey 3.2 Directives 3.2.1 Introduction 3.2.2 Working definition 3.2.3 Grammar 3.2.4 Discussion 3.2.5 Canonical imperatives 3.2.6 Special domains of usage 3.3 Discourse markers 3.3.1 Introduction 3.3.2 Working definition 3.3.3 Grammar 3.3.4 Fillers 3.3.5 A note on clicks as English discourse markers 3.3.6 Discourse markers in language contact 3.3.7 Grammaticalization 3.3.8 Discussion 3.4 Evaluatives 3.4.1 Introduction 3.4.2 Working definition 3.4.3 Grammar 3.4.4 Discussion 3.5 Ideophones 3.5.1 Introduction 3.5.2 Working definition 3.5.3 Grammar 3.5.4 Ideophones vs. interjections 3.5.5 Grammaticalization 3.5.6 A note on sound symbolism 3.5.7 Are ideophones interactives? 3.5.8 Ideophones as a potentially open-ended class 3.6 Interjections 3.6.1 Introduction 3.6.2 Working definition 3.6.3 Grammar 3.6.4 Sub-types 3.6.5 Discussion 3.7 Response elicitors 3.7.1 Introduction 3.7.2 Working definition 3.7.3 Grammar 3.7.4 Functional space 3.7.5 Other-initiated repair markers 3.8 Response signals 3.8.1 Introduction 3.8.2 Working definition 3.8.3 Grammar 3.8.4 Response signals expressed by clicks 3.8.5 Discussion 3.9 Social formulae 3.9.1 Introduction 3.9.2 Working definition 3.9.3 Grammar 3.9.4 Grammaticalization 3.9.5 The English formula please 3.9.6 How to use social formulae 3.10 Vocatives 3.10.1 Introduction 3.10.2 Working definition 3.10.3 Grammar 3.10.4 Sub-types 3.10.5 Typological variation 3.10.6 Special features of vocatives 3.11 Interaction with animals 3.11.1 Introduction 3.11.2 Working definition 3.11.3 Grammar 3.11.4 Usage and functions 3.11.5 Form 3.11.6 Voiceless sibilants in animal dispersal calls 3.11.7 Discussion 3.11.8 Conclusions 3.12 An overview 3.13 Conclusions 4 Development 4.1 Cooptation: How interactives arise 4.1.1 The mechanism 4.1.2 Cooptation and ideophones 4.1.3 From propositional to expressive meaning 4.1.4 A note on pragmaticalization 4.2 Grammaticalization 4.2.1 Parameters of grammaticalization 4.2.2 Main pathways 4.2.3 A network of grammaticalization 4.2.4 Constructionalization 4.2.5 From interactive grammar to sentence grammar 4.3 Other mechanisms 4.3.1 Expressive reinforcement 4.3.2 Camouflaging 4.4 Grammaticalization of ideophones 4.4.1 A case study 4.4.2 A common pathway: from ideophone to lexical category 4.5 Conclusions 5 Related approaches 5.1 Notions of interactive grammar 5.1.1 Grammar traditions 5.1.2 Inserts 5.1.3 Expressives 5.1.4 Discussion 5.2 Dual-process frameworks 5.2.1 An overview 5.2.2 Microgrammar vs. macrogrammar 5.2.3 Sentence grammar vs. thetical grammar 5.2.4 Propositional structure vs. interactional structure 5.3 Neurolinguistic correlates 5.4 Dualism in social psychology 5.5 Discussion 5.6 Conclusions 6 The status of interactives 6.1 Where are interactives located in grammar and discourse? 6.1.1 They are part of language structure 6.1.2 They are located at the periphery of language structure 6.1.3 They are intermediate between language and something else 6.1.4 They are not part of language 6.1.5 They form a domain of grammar separate from sentence grammar 6.1.6 Conclusion 6.2 Are interactives words? 6.2.1 On terminology 6.2.2 What is a word? 6.2.3 Discussion 6.3 Do interactives form a system? 6.3.1 Is there a set of entities making up the system? 6.3.2 Do the entities interact with one another? 6.3.3 If there is a system, which purpose does it serve? 6.3.4 How is the system set off from other systems or phenomena? 6.4 Are interactives linguistic marginalia? 6.5 Interactives in language contact 6.6 Interactives and language acquisition 6.7 Are interactives fossils of language evolution? 6.8 Conclusions 7 Deciding between two grammars 7.1 Distinguishing features 7.1.1 Conceptual space 7.1.2 Meaning 7.1.3 Mental representation 7.1.4 Form 7.1.5 Speed of processing 7.1.6 Sequence of activation 7.1.7 The locus of semantic-pragmatic anchoring 7.1.8 The role of context 7.1.9 Constraints on usage 7.1.10 Use of gesture 7.2 Types of discourse 7.2.1 Usage of interactive grammar is predominant 7.2.2 Both grammars are equally important 7.2.3 Use of sentence grammar is predominant 7.3 How do the two grammars contribute to discourse processing? 7.3.1 General observations 7.3.2 Interactives in adjacency pairs 7.4 Conclusion 8 Conclusions References Index of Languages Index of Names Index of Subjects