Article published in:
Inquiries in Hispanic Linguistics: From theory to empirical evidence
Edited by Alejandro Cuza, Lori Czerwionka and Daniel Olson
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 12] 2016
► pp. 73–94

Exploring the syntax-semantics-prosody interface

Complement clauses in conversation

| The Pennsylvania State University
This variationist study examines finite clausal complementation with respect to the prosodic integration of matrix clauses (MC) and complement clauses (CC). In both Spanish and English conversational data, MCs and CCs are found to occur in a single prosodic unit, or Intonation Unit (IU), over two-thirds of the time. The presence of syntactic material (e.g., adverbs) intervening between MC verb and CC (and complementizer that, in English) favors CC occurrence in a different IU. A contrary effect, favoring CC occurrence on the same IU, is that of first person MC subjects, which may form part of formulaic expressions. These discourse-cognitive constraints provide cross-linguistic evidence for the interaction of syntax with prosody in speech.
Keywords: Complement clauses, Corpus linguistics, Prosody and syntax, Variation
Published online: 01 November 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.12.05ste
References

References

Chafe, W.
(1987) Cognitive constraints on information flow. In R.S. Tomlin (Ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse (pp. 1–52). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Croft, W.
(1995) Intonation units and grammatical structure. Linguistics, 33(5), 839–882. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2007) Intonation units and grammatical structure in Wardaman and in cross-linguistic perspective. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 27(1), 1–39. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, J.W., S. Schuetze-Coburn, S., Cumming, S., & Paolino, D.
(1993) Outline of discourse transcription. In J. Edwards & M. Lampert (Eds.), Talking data: Transcription and coding in discourse (pp. 45–89). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Du Bois, J.W., Chafe, W.L., Meyer, C., Thompson, S.A., Englebretson, R., & Martey, N.
(2000-2005) Santa Barbara corpus of spoken American English (Files 1–30). Philadelphia, PA: Linguistic Data Consortium.Google Scholar
Givón, T.
(1983) Topic continuity in discourse: A quantitative cross-language study (Vol. 3). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2001) Verbal complements and clause union. In Syntax. An introduction (Vol. 2, pp. 39–89). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W.
(1972) Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
(1987) Quantitative analysis of linguistic variation. In U. Ammon, N. Dittmar, K. Mattheier, & P. Trudgill (Eds.), Sociolinguistics: An international handbook of the science of language and society (pp. 6–21). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Myhill, J.
(2005) Quantitative methods of discourse analysis. In R. Kohler, G. Altmann, & R.G. Piotrowski (Eds.), Quantitative linguistics: An international handbook (pp. 471–497). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Noonan, M.
(2007) Complementation. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language typology and syntactic description (2nd ed.; pp. 53–150). Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ono, T., & Thompson, S.A.
(1995) What can conversation tell us about syntax? In P.W. Davis (Ed.), Alternative linguistics: Descriptive and theoretical modes (pp. 213–271). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pešková, A.
(2013) Experimenting with pro-drop in Spanish. SKY Journal of Linguistics, 26, 117–149.Google Scholar
Poplack, S., & Tagliamonte, S.A.
(2001) African American English in the diaspora: tense and aspect. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sánchez-Ayala, I.
(2001) Prosodic integration in Spanish complement constructions. In A.J. Cienki, B.J. Luka, & M.B. Smith (Eds.), Conceptual and discourse factors in linguistic structure (pp. 201–213). Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Sankoff, D.
(1988) Sociolinguistics and syntactic variation. In F.J. Newmeyer (Ed.), Linguistics: The Cambridge survey (Vol. 4: pp. 140–161). Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sankoff, D., Tagliamonte, S.A., & Smith, E.
(2005) Goldvarb X: A variable rule application for Macintosh and Windows. Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Thompson, S.
(2002) ‘Object complements’ and conversation: Towards a realistic account. Studies in Language, 26(1), 125–164. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Torres Cacoullos, R., & Walker, J.A.
(2009) On the persistence of grammar in discourse formulas: A variationist study of that. Linguistics, 47(1), 1–43. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2011) Collocations in grammaticalization and variation. In H. Narrog & B. Heine (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization (pp. 225–238). Oxford: OUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Travis, C.E.
(2005) Discourse markers in Colombian Spanish: A study in polysemy. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Travis, C.E., & Torres Cacoullos, R.
(2012) 30 Discourse syntax. In J.I. Hualde, A. Olarrera & E. O’Rourke (Eds.), The handbook of Hispanic linguistics (pp. 653–672). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2014) Stress on I: Debunking unitary contrast accounts. Studies in Language, 38(2), 360–392. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
van der Houwen, F.
(1998) Organizing discourse. Direct and indirect speech in Mexican Spanish. Linguistics in the Netherlands, 15, 123–134. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Yoon, J., & Wulff, S.
to appear). A Corpus-based Study of Infinitival and Sentential Complement Constructions in Spanish. In J. Yoon & S.T. Gries (Eds.) Corpus-based approaches to Construction Grammar pp. 145 164 Amsterdam John Benjamins
Cited by

Cited by other publications

Beatty-Martínez, Anne L., Christian A. Navarro-Torres & Paola E. Dussias
2020. Codeswitching: A Bilingual Toolkit for Opportunistic Speech Planning. Frontiers in Psychology 11 Crossref logo
Steuck, Jonathan & Rena Torres Cacoullos
2019.  In Language Variation - European Perspectives VII [Studies in Language Variation, 22], ► pp. 218 ff. Crossref logo
Torres Cacoullos, Rena
2020. Code-Switching Strategies: Prosody and Syntax. Frontiers in Psychology 11 Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 december 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.