Modelling stance adverbs in grammatical theory: tackling heterogeneity with Functional Discourse Grammar

Publication date: Available online 14 February 2020Source: Language SciencesAuthor(s): Evelien KeizerAbstractIn many linguistic approaches and theories, a distinction is made between adverbs that are propositional (representational, ideational, referential), and adverbs that are non-propositional (interpersonal, (inter)subjective, evaluative, parenthetical); i.e. between what is said (the proposition expressed) and a speaker’s stance on what is said (e.g. the speaker’s attitude towards, evaluation of, or commitment to the message conveyed). As is well-known, however, the latter group, including such diverse adverbs as briefly, frankly, sadly, allegedly, hopefully, probably, obviously and cleverly, differ substantially in terms of their discourse-pragmatic or semantic function, truth-conditionality and syntactic and prosodic behaviour. This paper addresses the question of whether, given this functional and formal heterogeneity, it is helpful, or even possible, to recognize a category of stance adverbs. It is argued that our understanding of these adverbs will benefit from a stricter application of very specific functional and formal criteria, allowing for the distinction of a number of well-defined subclasses of adverbs with partly overlapping, but nevertheless defining functional and formal properties. Subsequently, it is demonstrated how the theory of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), a theory characterized by a “form-oriented, function-to-form” approach (Hengeveld...
Source: Language Sciences - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research