Benjamins title: Butler et al: Functional Perspectives on Grammar and Discourse

[Paul Peranteau]

Functional Perspectives on Grammar and Discourse
In honour of Angela Downing

Edited by Christopher S. Butler, Raquel Hidalgo Downing and Julia Lavid
University of Wales, Swansea / Universidad Complutense, Madrid

Studies in Language Companion Series 85

2007. xxx, 481 pp.

Hardbound
978 90 272 3095 9 / EUR 125.00 / USD 188.00

This book, a tribute to Angela Downing, consists of twenty papers 
taking a broadly functional perspective on language, with topics 
ranging from the general (grammar as an evolutionary product, text 
comprehension, integrative linguistics) to particular aspects of the 
grammars of languages (Bulgarian, English, Icelandic, Spanish, 
Swedish). The more specific papers are sequenced according to 
Halliday's division into ideational, textual and interpersonal 
aspects of the grammar, and cover a wide range of areas, including 
aspect, argument structure, noun phrase/nominal group structure and 
nominalisations, pronominal clitics, theme in relation to writing 
skills, discourse structures and markers, the role of attention in 
conversation, the functions of topic, phatic communion, 
subjectification, formulaic language and modality. A recurrent theme 
in the volume is the use of corpus materials in order to base 
functional descriptions on authentic productions. Overall, the volume 
constitutes a panoramic but nevertheless detailed view of some 
important current trends in functional linguistics.


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Table of contents

Contributors  ix–xiv
Editorial introduction
Christopher S. Butler, Raquel Hidalgo Downing and Julia Lavid xvii–xxv
Publications of Angela Downing  xxvii–xxx
Grammar as an adaptive evolutionary product
T. Givón 1–40
Towards a cognitive-functional model of text comprehension
Christopher S. Butler 41–80
Towards an integrational approach in linguistics
Andrei Stoevsky 81–96
Expressing past habit in English and Swedish: A corpus-based contrastive study
Bengt Altenberg 97–128
Do cognate and circumstantial complements of intransitive verbs form 
one 'Range'? A corpus-based discussion
Kathleen Rymen and Kristin Davidse 129–148
The unconscious, irresponsible construction in Modern Icelandic
Enrique Bernárdez 149–164
Modelling 'selection' between referents in the English nominal group: 
An essay in scientific inquiry in linguistics
Robin P. Fawcett 165–204
Problems in NP structure: An example from British tabloid journalism
Eirian C. Davies 205–216
Double-possessive nominalizations in English
J. Lachlan Mackenzie 217–232
Pragmatics, word order and cross-reference: Some issues with 
pronominal clitics in Bulgarian
Svilen B. Stanchev 233–256
Patterns of multiple theme and their role in developing English writing skills
Mike Hannay 257–278
Interactive solution-problems: A set of structures in general and 
scientific writing
Michael P. Jordan 279–300
The English Contrastive Discourse Marker instead
Bruce Fraser 301–312
Global and local attention in task-oriented conversation: An 
empirical investigation
Julia Lavid 313–326
Metadiscursive and interpersonal values of pronominal topics in spoken Spanish
Raquel Hidalgo Downing and Laura Hidalgo Downing 327–348
Phatic communion and small talk in fictional dialogues
Ludmila Urbanova 349–358
Mister so-called X: Discourse functions and subjectification of so-called
Lieven Vandelanotte 359–394
'Sorry to muddy the waters': Accounting for speech act formulae and 
formulaic variation in a systemic functional model of language
Gordon Tucker 395–418
The discourse functionality of adjectival and adverbial epistemic 
expressions: Evidence from present-day English
Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen and Karin Aijmer 419–446
Modality across World Englishes: The modals and semi-modals of 
prediction and volition
Peter C. Collins 447–468
Name index  469–472
Subject index  473–480
Language index  481

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