The discourse function of inversion in English

Bibliographic Information

The discourse function of inversion in English

Betty J. Birner

(A Garland series)(Outstanding dissertations in linguistics)

Garland, 1996

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-181) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

First published in 1997. This dissertation presents a discourse-functional account of English inversion, based on an empirical study of natural language data. The central finding is that inversion is subject to a pragmatic constraint on the information status of its constituents; specifically, the information represented by the preposed constituent must be at least as familiar within the discourse as is that represented by the postposed constituent.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter 1 Introduction
  • Chapter 2 Definition and Preliminary Taxonomy
  • Chapter 3 Previous Analyses
  • Chapter 4 The Function of Inversion
  • Chapter 5 Verbs and Related Issues
  • Chapter 6 Summary and Conclusions

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