El párrafo como unidad discursiva : consideraciones de forma y contenido relativas a su demarcación y estructuración

In dealing with linguistics beyond the sentence the paragraph is considered as one of the intermediate units between the sentence and the text. Rather than a purely-orthographic unit, basically delimited by indentation, the paragraph is seen as a structural unit which exhibits certain formal features, largely, but also of content, which help set up its boundaries (cf. , among others, Brown & Yule 1983, Hinds 1977, Ji 2002, Longacre 1979). The study of such features, some of them depending on the specific text type, proves an interesting task in order to justify the importance of the paragraph as discourse unit. This paper intends to contribute to the study of these aspects, on the basis of a corpus of written texts from weekly news magazines in Spanish. From the point of the content of the paragraph but with relevance on its formal expression, a fundamental notion is that of discourse topic. Topic, and its hierarchy, is closely related to the organisation of discourse and affects other notions such as that of theme, thematic progression, topic-shift markers and the notion of episode, as a unit which can integrate various paragraphs. The paragraph is considered as a unit with internal coherence, on the one hand, and an adequate connection with the linguistic context, on the other. Depending on the communicative content of the paragraph, some studies distinguish different types of paragraph (cf. Siepmann et al. 2008) and others refer to an internal structure in the paragraph (cf. Hannay & Mackenzie 2002). In terms of types of paragraph and their characteristics, there are interesting differences in relation to the contrast among languages and text typology. Among the linguistic strategies that the corpus analysis suggests in terms of the paragraph transitions there are the following: a) adverbial expressions and connectors of different type and meaning, b) expressions reflecting the different patterns of thematic progression (cf. Daneš 1974, Fries 1983), c) focus constructions such as cleft and identifying constructions, d) evaluative and evidential expressions and e) the use of rhetorical questions.A la hora de hablar de una lingüística supraoracional se ha considerado el párrafo como una de las unidades intermedias entre oración y texto. Más que una unidad puramente ortográfica, delimitada básicamente por tabulación, el párrafo se entiende como unidad estructural a la que es posible asociar rasgos de forma, principalmente, aunque también de contenido, que ayudan a señalar su demarcación (cf. entre otros, Brown y Yule 1983, Hinds 1977, Ji 2002, Longacre 1979). El estudio de tales rasgos, algunos de ellos dependientes del tipo específico de texto, resulta interesante para ayudar a justificar la importancia del párrafo como unidad discursiva. Esta propuesta pretende contribuir al estudio de tales cuestiones, basándose en un corpus de textos escritos de revistas de noticias de actualidad en español. Desde el punto de vista del contenido del párrafo pero con incidencia en su expresión formal, una noción fundamental es la de tópico del discurso. El tópico, y su jerarquización, está estrechamente relacionado con la organización del discurso e incide sobre otras nociones como las de tema, progresión temática, marcadores de transición del tópico y la noción de episodio, como unidad que puede englobar varios párrafos. El párrafo se considera como una unidad con coherencia interna, por una parte, y con una conexión adecuada con el contexto lingüístico (que sigue y precede), por otra. Dependiendo del contenido comunicativo del párrafo, algunos estudios distinguen tipos de párrafos diferentes (cf. Siepmann et al. 2008) y otros hablan de una posible estructura interna del párrafo (cf. Hannay y Mackenzie 2002). En cuanto a tipos de párrafos y sus características, surgen diferencias interesantes en relación al contraste entre lenguas y a la tipología textual. Entre las estrategias lingüísticas que se observan en la transición de párrafos en los textos analizados destacan: a) el uso de expresiones adverbiales y conectores de distinta naturaleza y significado (solos o combinados con otras estrategias), b) expresiones que reflejan el principio de progresión temática lineal o escalonada o aquellas que reflejan el principio de progresión temática con temas derivados o continuos (cf. Daneš 1974, Fries 1983), c) perífrasis de relativo (oraciones escindidas) y otras construcciones de foco, d) expresiones evaluativas y marcas evidenciales y, finalmente, e) preguntas retóricas

Discourse topic organisation: signalling macro-topic boundaries

In discourse analysis, the notion of topic has proved to be an extremely useful tool as a central organising principle for discourse. The aim of this paper is to investigate structural markers used by English speakers in effecting a change of topic, and more specifically, an opening or closing of a macro topic. In our taxonomy of discourse topic organisation applying to English conversation, Markers are signals used to mark a boundary in the discourse topic, without an explicit reference to or inclusion of the topic. They include words and phrases largely devoid of referential content like well, now, I see, yes, etc. which may occur in differente combinations or clusterings or with other segmentation devices such as pauses, endorsements and repetitions

El párrafo como unidad discursiva: consideraciones de forma y contenido relativas a su demarcación y estructuración

In dealing with linguistics beyond the sentence, the paragraph is considered as one of the intermediate units between the sentence and the text. Rather than a purelyorthographic unit, basically delimited by indentation, the paragraph is seen as a structural unit which mainly exhibits certain formal features, but also of content, which help set up its boundaries (cf., among others, Brown & Yule 1983, Hinds 1977, Ji 2002, Longacre 1979). The study of such features, some of them depending on the specific text type, proves an interesting task in order to justify the importance of the paragraph as discourse unit. This paper intends to contribute to the study of these aspects, on the basis of a corpus of written texts from weekly news magazines in Spanish. From the point of view of the content of the paragraph but with relevance on its formal expression, a fundamental notion is that of discourse topic. Topic, and its hierarchy, is closely related to the organisation of discourse and affects other notions such as that of theme, thematic progression, topic-shift markers and the notion of episode, as a unit which can integrate various paragraphs. The paragraph is considered as a unit with internal coherence, on the one hand, and an adequate connection with the linguistic context, on the other. Depending on the communicative content of the paragraph, some studies distinguish different types of paragraph (cf. Siepmann et al. 2008) and others refer to an internal structure in the paragraph (cf. Hannay & Mackenzie 2009). In terms of the types of paragraph and their characteristics, there are interesting cross-linguistic and typological differences. Among the linguistic strategies that corpus analysis suggests in terms of paragraph transitions there are the following: a) adverbial expressions and connectors of different type and meaning, b) expressions reflecting the different patterns of thematic progression (cf. Daneš 1974, Fries 1983), c) focus constructions such as cleft and identifying constructions, d) evaluative and evidential expressions and e) the use of rhetorical questions.A la hora de hablar de una lingüística supraoracional se ha considerado el párrafo como una de las unidades intermedias entre oración y texto. Más que una unidad puramente ortográfica, delimitada básicamente por tabulación, el párrafo se entiende como unidad estructural a la que es posible asociar rasgos de forma, principalmente, aunque también de contenido, que ayudan a señalar su demarcación (cf. entre otros, Brown y Yule 1983, Hinds 1977, Ji 2002, Longacre 1979). El estudio de tales rasgos, algunos de ellos dependientes del tipo específico de texto, resulta interesante para ayudar a justificar la importancia del párrafo como unidad discursiva. Esta propuesta pretende contribuir al estudio de tales cuestiones, basándose en un corpus de textos escritos de revistas de noticias de actualidad en español. Desde el punto de vista del contenido del párrafo pero con incidencia en su expresión formal, una noción fundamental es la de tópico del discurso. El tópico, y su jerarquización, está estrechamente relacionado con la organización del discurso e incide sobre otras nociones como las de tema, progresión temática, marcadores de transición del tópico y la noción de episodio, como unidad que puede englobar varios párrafos. El párrafo se considera como una unidad con coherencia interna, por una parte, y con una conexión adecuada con el contexto lingüístico (que sigue y precede), por otra. Dependiendo del contenido comunicativo del párrafo, algunos estudios distinguen tipos de párrafos diferentes (cf. Siepmann et al. 2008) y otros hablan de una posible estructura interna del párrafo (cf. Hannay y Mackenzie 2009). En cuanto a tipos de párrafos y sus características, surgen diferencias interesantes en relación al contraste entre lenguas y a la tipología textual. Entre las estrategias lingüísticas que se observan en la transición de párrafos en los textos analizados destacan: a) el uso de expresiones adverbiales y conectores de distinta naturaleza y significado (solos o combinados con otras estrategias), b) expresiones que reflejan el principio de progresión temática lineal o escalonada o aquellas que reflejan el principio de progresión temática con temas derivados o continuos (cf. Daneš 1974, Fries 1983), c) perífrasis de relativo (oraciones escindidas) y otras construcciones de foco, d) expresiones evaluativas y marcas evidenciales y, finalmente, e) preguntas retóricas

Th-clefts in English: Form and Function

This paper investigates the so-called th-cleft construction illustrated by sentences such as "The thing that he loved most of all in the whole world was the sea". Following Collins (1991), such constructions are considered a type of pseudo-cleft construction because of their formal and functional similarity with the ‘canonical’ pseudo-cleft with a fused relative clause introduced by a wh-interrogative. The main aim of this study is to examine th-cleft constructions in Modern English, focusing on the thing(s)- and the one(s)-clefts, both basic and reversed, and to look at their formal features and main informative and communicative functions in discourse. As the evidence presented from the BNC and LLC corpora suggests, th-clefts are a recognisable type of construction in English, although clearly associated with other types of pseudo-clefts. One of the main motivations that the speaker has for selecting a th-cleft rather than a wh-cleft is that the former, but not the latter, allows for expansion of the same kind as is found in other NPs occurring in other kinds of clauses, making the th-cleft a very versatile construction

Book review: Pragmática del Orden de Palabras, Xose A. Padilla García, Publicaciones Universidad de Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, 2005, 234 pages, EUR 20

Versión postprintDepto. de Estudios Ingleses: Lingüística y LiteraturaFac. de FilologíaTRUEpu

Evidentiality and the verbal expression of belief and hearsay

One of the areas of discussion within the study of evidentiality refers to how the speaker obtains knowledge, i.e. to the source of his/her information. Chafe (1986) distinguishes four ‘modes of knowing’ or different ways in which knowledge is acquired: belief, induction, hearsay and deduction. The present contribution investigates the correlation between evidentiality and the use of verbs denoting two of these forms of indirect evidence: knowledge steming from belief or opinion and knowledge having been acquired through language. This study specifically focuses on the use of verbs denoting mental cognitive and verbal processes as evidential markers in a corpus of newspaper discourse comprising press editorials and news reports in English and Spanish

Organización de la información y sintaxis: principios discursivos en la construcción de la oración inglesa: implicaciones para la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera

Depto. de Estudios Ingleses: Lingüística y LiteraturaFac. de FilologíaFALSEunpu

Constituent order in Spanish: a Functional Grammar perspective

In typological terms, it seems clear that Spanish should be classified as a language with a dominant SVO order (see for instance Siewierska 1997:551). Despite this general assumption, constituent order in Spanish also admits considerable variation in the position of its sentence constituents, for which the language has acquired a reputation of having a fairly flexible constituent order. In this paper, I refer to the linearisation patterns which occur in Spanish as alternatives to the dominant SVO order and consider them in the light of the Functional Grammar model (as in Dik 1997), particularly in the area of special sentence positions, functional patterns and pragmatic functions. The scope of this study is the declarative main clause. Although the study of Spanish constituent order has been approached by scholars working in different linguistic frameworks, there are, to the best of my knowledge, no studies on Spanish constituent order from a Functional Grammar approach in line with those for other languages (e.g. Hannay 1991, Siewierska 1998, Stanchev 1997 and Vismans 1997)

Variación sintáctica en español como expresión pragmática de foco

Este trabajo tiene la finalidad de demostrar que la relativa libertad o flexibilidad del orden de constituyentes en el español peninsular está en gran medida motivada por consideraciones de tipo pragmático y discursivo. Para ello, se ha escogido un modelo lingüístico teórico que dedicara merecida atención a las cuestiones pragmáticas y del orden de constituyentes con el fin de poder aplicarlo a un corpus de lengua hablada espontánea del español. El propósito de llevar a cabo una investigación de carácter empírico basada en corpus es el de trabajar con lengua hablada auténtica, frente a la utilización de ejemplos aislados e inventados que serían de poca utilidad, a mi parecer, en un estudio basado en gran medida en el contexto, y, por otra parte, evitar ideas preconcebidas acerca del fenómeno que se estudia

The Verbal Expression of Belief and Hearsay in English and Spanish: Evidence from Newspaper Discourse

One of the areas of discussion within the study of evidentiality refers to how the speaker obtains knowledge, i.e. to the source of his/her information. Chafe (1986) distinguishes four ‘modes of knowing’ or different ways in which knowledge is acquired: belief, induction, hearsay and deduction. The present contribution investigates the correlation between evidentiality and the use of verbs denoting two of these forms of indirect evidence: knowledge steming from belief or opinion and knowledge having been acquired through language. This study specifically focuses on the use of verbs denoting mental cognitive and verbal processes as evidential markers in a corpus of newspaper discourse comprising press editorials and news reports in English and Spanish