1st Edition
Independent Wh-Exclamative Constructions in the History of English
This book offers the first book-length treatment of the diachronic study of English exclamatives, tracing their development from 1500 through to the 21st century.
The volume shines a light on independent wh-exclamatives in the history of English. These will be analyzed with reference to insubordination, with insubordination understood as the phenomenon of sentences displaying formal features of subordinate clauses, such as through subordinated word order or the use of conjunctions. In particular, Schröder calls attention to the development of three prototypical wh-exclamatives as observed in three newly created genre-balance corpora comprising prose fiction, dialogues and personal correspondence, uncovering new insights into the differences in their evolution. In its analysis of English exclamatives over time and broader exploration of the impact of genre on constructional productivity, the book raises key questions about existing claims in scholarship on Diachronic Construction Grammar and outlines ways forward for new areas of inquiry.
This volume will appeal to scholars interested in diachronic linguistics, historical syntax, language variation and change, and the history of English.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
1.1 The syntax and semantics of exclamatives
1.1.1 The semantics of exclamatives
1.1.2 The syntax of exclamatives
1.2 How-exclamatives
1.3 What a-exclamatives
1.4 Independent wh-exclamatives
1.5 Structure of the work
Reference list
2. Exclamatives as constructions
2.1 Construction Grammar
2.1.1 Defining the Exclamative construction
2.1.2 Schemas
2.1.3 The construction network - constructicon
2.1.4 Construction Grammar is usage-based
2.1.5 Productivity
2.2 Diachronic Construction Grammar
2.2.1 Diachronic productivity
2.2.2 The diachronic path of Independent Wh-Exclamatives
2.3 Chapter Summary
Reference list
3. Exclamatives in diachrony
3.1. What a-exclamatives
3.2. How-exclamatives
3.3 Independent wh-exclamatives in diachrony
3.4 Independent Wh-Exclamatives – A constructional proposal
3.5 Chapter summary
Reference list
4. Methodology
4.1 Genre
4.1.1 Personal Letters
4.1.2 Prose Fiction
4.1.3 Dialogues
4.2 Data basis
4.3 Operationalization of Independent Wh-Exclamatives
4.4 Corpus search
4.5 Semantic classification: Roget’s Thesaurus of English words and phrases
4.6 Measuring productivity
4.6.1 Type and token frequency
4.6.2 Type-token ratio
4.6.3 Collostructional analysis – Simple Collexeme Analysis
4.6.4 Hapax legomena
4.7 Chapter Summary
Reference list
5. Results: Changes in Productivity
5.1 General overview
5.2 Genre
5.3 Productivity
5.3.1 How + Adjective-Exclamative
5.3.2 How + Personal Pronoun-Exclamative
5.3.3 What a-Exclamative
5.4 Chapter Summary
Reference list
6. Theoretical implications
6.1 The indexical meaning of Independent Wh-Exclamatives and genre specifics
6.2 The relationship between the slots
6.3 The role of skewed frequencies
6.4 Is there an Abstract Exclamative construction?
6.5 Chapter Summary
Reference list
7. Conclusion and Outlook
7.1. Summary of the main results
7.2 Outlook
Reference list
Appendices
Index
Biography
Daniela Schröder received her PhD in English linguistics in 2020 after gaining her MA in American Studies, Sociology, and German Linguistics in 2013. She worked as a research associate at the University of Hamburg from 2013 to 2020 and as an English language instructor at the English Seminar of the University of Münster from 2021–2023. She is currently a fellow manager at the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study.
