26.2714, Diss: English; Cog Sci, Pragmatics, Semantics, Sociolinguistics, Text/Corpus Ling: Jori Lindley: 'A corpus-based cognitive-functional study of the meaning and use of 'always' and 'never'...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-26-2714. Tue Jun 02 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.2714, Diss: English; Cog Sci, Pragmatics, Semantics, Sociolinguistics, Text/Corpus Ling: Jori Lindley: 'A corpus-based cognitive-functional study of the meaning and use of 'always' and 'never'...'

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Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2015 11:05:41
From: Jori Lindley [jori.lindley at gmail.com]
Subject: A corpus-based cognitive-functional study of the meaning and use of 'always' and 'never', and related phenomena, in American English

 Institution: University of California, Los Angeles 
Program: Department of Applied Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2015 

Author: Jori Lindley

Dissertation Title: A corpus-based cognitive-functional study of the meaning and use of 'always' and 'never', and related phenomena, in American English 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
                     Pragmatics
                     Semantics
                     Sociolinguistics
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)

Dissertation Director(s):
Hongyin Tao
Marianne Celce-Murcia
Robert Kirsner

Dissertation Abstract:

This is a multi-faceted corpus study of the adverbs of frequency 'always' and 'never', in which their meanings (exaggerated or literal), tense-aspect preferences, and functions (specifically, the function of 'always' or 'never'
followed by the progressive) across genres are all investigated. I also briefly investigate the maximizers 'utterly', 'completely', 'totally', and 'fully'. Using four corpora and quantitative and qualitative methods, I show that always and never are not as straightforward as they appear. On the contrary, their distribution, meaning, and use are highly dependent on context, both in a larger sense (i.e., genre, pragmatic concerns) and a more specific, local sense (i.e., the immediate linguistic environment, including the verbs, tense-aspect, etc.). For example, I argue that concerns about accountability explain the observed rates of exaggeration across different types of news articles and across academic journals in different fields, and that social concerns involving politeness explain the finding that the
grammatical subject in complaints is more often third person than second person. Throughout, it is shown that a cognitive-functional approach is the most useful for understanding how these very common words are used.



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