Grammar and inference in conversation : identifying clause structure in spoken Javanese

Author(s)

    • Ewing, Michael C.

Bibliographic Information

Grammar and inference in conversation : identifying clause structure in spoken Javanese

Michael C. Ewing

(Studies in discourse and grammar / editors, Sandra A. Thompson, Paul J. Hopper, v. 18)

John Benjamins, c2005

  • : hb

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Note

In English with examples in Javanese

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Santa Barbara

Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-265) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This study analyzes how morphosyntactic structures and information flow characteristics are used by interlocutors in producing and understanding clauses in conversational Javanese, focusing on the Cirebon variety of the language. While some clauses display grammatical mechanisms used to code their structure explicitly and redundantly, many other clauses include few if any of these grammatical resources. These extremes mark a cline between the morphosyntactic and paratactic expression of clauses. The situation is thrown into relief by the frequency of unexpressed referents and conversationalists' heavy reliance on shared experience and cultural knowledge. In all cases, pragmatic inference grounded in the interactional context is essential for establishing not only the discourse functions, but indeed also the very structure of clauses in conversational Javanese. This study contributes to our understanding of transitivity, emergent constituency, prosodic organization and the co-construction of meaning and structure by conversational interlocutors.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Acknowledgements
  • 2. 1. Introduction
  • 3. 2. The Morphology of Predicates
  • 4. 3. The Morphology of Nominal Expressions
  • 5. 4. Information Flow
  • 6. 5. Constituents and Constituent Order
  • 7. 6. Clauses and Interaction
  • 8. 7. Conclusion
  • 9. Notes
  • 10. References
  • 11. Appendix
  • 12. Author index
  • 13. Subject index

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