TY - THES A1 - Horsch, Jakob T1 - The comparative correlative construction in World Englishes BT - a usage-based construction grammar approach N2 - Employing a two-pronged approach to analyzing language, this study uses evidence obtained from a large-scale corpus study and psycholinguistic experiments to investigate the Comparative Correlative (CC) construction (e.g. The more we get together, the happier we’ll be) across twenty varieties of English. More than 10,000 tokens from three of the largest corpora of English (COCA, BNC, GloWbE) and experimental data from almost 600 participants from four locations (Texas, South Africa, Singapore, and Kenya) are analyzed using advanced statistical methods, providing striking evidence for a high degree of parataxis between the subclauses of the construction and massive redundancy regarding cross-clausal associations which, it is argued, are best explained with a Usage-based Construction Grammar (CxG) approach that posits the existence of an elaborate network of interconnected mesoconstructions. Addressing more general questions about the nature of human language, it is argued that this ‘bottom-up’ approach to language can account for one of the most fundamental riddles that the discipline of linguistics is striving to solve: Accounting for the potential of infinite creativity of language based on a finite set of rules. Furthermore, it is claimed that as an inclusive approach to language, CxG is better at accounting for construction-specific features that Mainstream Generative Grammar (MGG)-based approaches have struggled with. As it turns out, the evidence suggests that the English CC construction is anything but ‘peripheral’. Additionally, this study examines the CC construction from a World Englishes perspective, addressing a significant gap in research: Schneider, for example, has noted that “[o]nly rarely have New Englishes been employed as test cases for general questions of language theory” (2003: 237), and Hundt writes of the challenge of “bring[ing] intricate, quantitative modelling of usage data to bear on theoretical modelling” (2021: 298). Accordingly, this study provides evidence for the predictive power of Schneider’s Dynamic Model (DM) (2003, 2007), which posits that there is a correlation between evolutionary stages of World Englishes and linguistic features. In this context, it is also shown how principles of cognitive approaches to language can explain both generalizations across varieties as well as variety- and DM stage-specific effects. Furthermore, this study provides strong evidence to support Kortmann’s claim of a continuum ranging from Pidgins and Creoles as “deleters” to L1 varieties as “preservers” (2014: 9) of grammatical formatives, contra Mesthrie and Bhatt’s claim of a geographical dichotomy between African and Asian varieties. KW - Englisch KW - Relativsatz KW - Vergleichssatz KW - Sprachvariante KW - comparative correlative KW - construction grammar KW - dynamic model KW - meso-constructional network KW - cross-clausal association KW - World Englishes Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:824-opus4-8335 ER - TY - THES A1 - Aseh, Fidelis Musi T1 - Outer and inner circle rhetoric specificity in political discourse : a corpus-based study N2 - This study explores the distinctive patterns of language use in political discourse across selected outer circle (Cameroon and Ghana) and inner circle (US and South Africa) varieties, using a corpus-based approach. More specifically, the research sets out to investigate the use of two types of linguistic features, namely, personal pronouns and kinship metaphors. In a first analysis, I adopt an alternative approach to investigating the use of personal pronouns in political discourse. The approach essentially draws from the cognitive linguistic concept of ‘frames’ as articulated by the theory of frame semantics (Fillmore, 1976, 1977a, 1982, 1985, 2008; Fillmore & Baker, 2010). I use an automatic frame semantic parsing tool, the SEMAFOR parser (Das et al, 2014), to identify the different types of (semantic) frames and frame roles with which specific personal pronouns are instantiated across the four varieties. I then compare the findings to illustrate instances of universality and variation. In a second analysis, I examine the types of metaphorical conceptualizations which are made using kinship terms across the varieties. Working top-down from conceptual schemas to linguistic instantiation, I identify and compare the frequencies of metaphors from the kinship field and also describe the types of cross-domain mappings typically involved in each of the varieties. My analysis is mostly informed by mainstream cognitive approaches to the study of metaphors, more especially cultural variations in the use of conceptual metaphors (Kövecses, 2002, 2005). I demonstrate that although there is empirical evidence for the use of a kinship conceptual schema across all four varieties, there are however significant variances in the specific metaphorical mappings used to instantiate this high-level conceptual structure. Both analyses make a case for the fact that in the field of political discourse especially, language use may be structured and constrained by conceptual schemas which themselves are culturally determined. N2 - Diese korpusbasierte Studie untersucht und vergleicht charakteristische Muster des Sprachgebrauchs im politischen Diskurs ausgewählter Englisch-Varietäten aus dem Outer Circle (Kamerun und Ghana) und dem Inner Circle (USA und Südafrika). Konkret untersucht die Studie den Gebrauch zweier Arten von Sprachmerkmalen, nämlich Personalpronomen und Verwandtschaftsmetaphern. In einer ersten Analyse verwende ich einen alternativen Ansatz zur Untersuchung von Personalpronomen im politischen Diskurs. Dieser Ansatz beruht auf dem kognitiv-linguistischen ‘Frames’-Konzept nach der Frame-Semantik-Theorie (Fillmore, 1976, 1977a, 1982, 1985, 2008; Fillmore & Baker, 2010). Ich verwende ein automatisiertes Parsing-Tool, den SEMAFOR-Parser (Das et al., 2014), um unterschiedliche Arten von (semantischen) Frames und Frame-Rollen, mit denen spezifische Personalpronomen in den vier Englisch-Varietäten realisiert werden, zu ermitteln. Im Anschluss vergleiche ich meine Ergebnisse, um Fälle von Universalität und Variation zu veranschaulichen. In einer zweiten Analyse untersuche ich die Arten von metaphorischen Konzeptualisierungen, die in den verschiedenen Varietäten mit Verwandtschaftsmetaphern realisiert werden. Ich gehe im Top-Down-Verfahren vor, von der Ebene konzeptueller Schemata bis hin zu sprachlichen Instanziierungen. Dabei ermittle ich die Frequenzen von Metaphern aus dem Bereich der Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen und beschreibe die Arten von domänenübergreifenden Zuordnungen, die in den einzelnen Varietäten jeweils typisch vorkommt. Meine Analyse basiert größtenteils auf allgemeinen kognitiven Ansätzen zur Untersuchung von Metaphern, insbesondere kultureller Variation beim Gebrauch konzeptueller Metaphern (Kövecses, 2002, 2005). Ich zeige, dass es trotz empirischer Beweise für den Gebrauch eines auf Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen basierenden Schemas in allen vier Varietäten auch signifikante Unterschiede bei spezifischen metaphorischen Zuordnungen gibt, die diese sich auf einer höheren Ebene befindliche konzeptuelle Struktur bedingen. Beide Analysen liefern Argumente für die Tatsache, dass besonders im Bereich des politischen Diskurses der Sprachgebrauch strukturiert sein kann und von konzeptuellen Schemata begrenzt wird, die wiederum kulturell bedingt sind. KW - Afrika KW - Englisch KW - Sprachvariante KW - Politische Sprache KW - Politischer Diskurs KW - Kulturelle Variation KW - Konzeptuelle Metapher KW - Political discourse KW - Cultural variation KW - Conceptual metaphor KW - World Englishes Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:824-opus4-6025 ER -