Rong Chen: English Inversion. A Ground-before-Figure Construction (2003)

[Julia Ulrich]

New from Mouton de Gruyter!

>From the Series
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS RESEARCH

Series Editors: René Dirven, Ronald W. Langacker, and John R. Taylor

Rong Chen

ENGLISH INVERSION
A Ground-before-Figure Construction


2003. xi, 333 pages. Cloth.
Euro 78.00 / sFr 125.00 / approx. US$ 86.00
ISBN 3-11-017810-9
(Cognitive Linguistics Research 25)


The author provides an account of English inversion, a construction that displays perplexing idiosyncrasies at the level of semantics, phonology, syntax, and pragmatics. Basing his central argument on the claim that inversion is a linguistic representation of a Ground-before-Figure model, the author develops an elegant solution to a hitherto unsolved multidimensional linguistic puzzle and, in the process, supports the theoretical position that a cognitive approach best suits the multidimensionality of language itself. Engagingly written, the book appeals to linguists of all persuasions and to any reader curious about the relationship between language and cognition.
Rong Chen is Professor at California State University, San Bernardino, USA.


FROM THE CONTENTS:

Chapter 1: Preliminaries
1. Issues of inversion
2. Previous research
3. Relevant tenets of cognitive linguistics
4. Other issues

Chapter 2: Inversion as GbF instantiation
1. The GbF model
2. LOC BE: The prototype
3. PATH Vm: From existence to motion
4. NSPAT BE: From spatiality to nonspatiality
5. A radial classification
6. The phonology of inversion: A matter of focus
7. GbF and information packaging: A comparison

Chapter 3: Syntactic constraints
1. Polarity
2. Transitivity
3. Embeddedness
4. Auxiliaries
5. Weight
6. Summary

Chapter 4: Inversion in discourse
1. Discourse types: A tripartite
2. Inversion in description
3. Inversion in narration
4. Inversion in exposition
5. Summary
6. Inversion in parody

Chapter 5: Conclusion
1. Summary
2. GbF representation in other languages

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