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Grammaticalization and English Complex Prepositions

A Corpus-based Study

By Sebastian Hoffmann

Published May 12th 2005 by Routledge – 192 pages

Series: Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics

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Description

What is a grammatical unit? How does grammatical structure evolve? How can we best investigate the mental representation of grammar? What is the connection between language use and language structure? This book aims to help answer such questions by presenting a detailed analysis of English complex prepositions (e.g. in spite of or with respect to) on the basis of large amounts of authentic language data dating from the Middle Ages until today.

Contents

1. Introduction 2. Data Collection and Research Methodology 3. Complex Prepositions - Indivisible Units or Free Constructions? 4. Grammaticalization and Complex Prepositions 5. Complex Prepositions - a Diachronic Overview 6. Complex Prepositions in Present-Day English 7. In Terms of - a New Discourse Marker 8. Are Low-Frequency Complex Prepositions Grammaticalized? 9. Conclusion

Author Bio

Sebastian Hoffmann is Lecturer in Linguistics at Zurich University, Switzerland.

Name: Grammaticalization and English Complex Prepositions: A Corpus-based Study (Hardback) – Routledge 
Description: By Sebastian Hoffmann. What is a grammatical unit? How does grammatical structure evolve? How can we best investigate the mental representation of grammar? What is the connection between language use and language structure? This book aims to help answer such questions by...
Categories: Corpus Linguistics, English Language, Grammar