sfl-cause: conf érence Rawoens lundi 16 nov

[Bridget Copley]

Le Groupe de recherche sur la causalité dans le langage et la  
cognition (sfl-cause) a le plaisir d'annoncer un exposé :

"Causality and causative constructions : Evidence from Modern Swedish"

Gudrun RAWOENS
Université de Ghent


Date : lundi 16 nov 2009
Lieu : CNRS Pouchet (59 rue Pouchet, Paris 75016, métro Guy Môquet/ 
Brochant, RER Porte de Clichy, bus 66) salle 124
Heure: 14h30-16h30

Vous pouvez consulter la page du groupe sfl-cause à http://www.umr7023.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article864 
  ou l'agenda du laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage à http://www.umr7023.cnrs.fr/spip.php?rubrique209 
.


résumé :

This paper draws on the major results as presented in Rawoens (2008)  
and addresses
the topic of causality and of the linguistic expressions of causal  
relationships. More
specifically, it zooms in on analytical causative constructions in  
Modern Swedish with
a particular focus on the construction type which is realised by the  
causal predicates
få, komma, ha, förmå and låta followed by an infinitival complement.  
This type of
construction is illustrated by the following example featuring the  
causal predicate få:

Det höga kaffepriset får allt fler brasilianska odlare att plantera  
mer kaffe. (Press95)
’The high coffee price makes more and more Brazilian growers plant  
more coffee.’

The assumption is that the different analytical causative  
constructions express
different types of causation. Following a typology of possible  
causation types, the
constructions mentioned are subjected to an empirical analysis which  
is corpus-based
and based on elicitation data. The data are analyzed both  
quantitatively and
qualitatively.

The quantitative analysis reveals that the verbs få and låta are the  
most
frequent causal predicates in this construction type, whereas the  
verbs komma, ha and
förmå obtain a relatively marginal status. It can also be observed  
that constructions
with låta are distinct from the other constructions in a number of  
ways, both
syntactically and semantically speaking.

The qualitative part of the study tries to account for the frequency
discrepancies between the different causal predicates by analysing the  
semantic
factors that determine the occurrence of one particular verb instead  
of another. The
investigation starts from an analysis of the verbs and their nuclear  
arguments within
the theoretical framework of functional grammar according to Dik  
(1997a, 1997b).
An extension of Dik’s functional model is elaborated to describe the  
semantic
properties of the main participants in these constructions and the  
aktionsarter of the
verbs involved.

The results of the analysis reveal a number of syntactic, semantic and
pragmatic differences between the different causative constructions  
that are
responsible for the actual choice of one causal predicate over another  
in a particular
context. Furthermore, it is shown that the different analytical  
causative constructions
in Swedish indeed express different types of causation, such as  
indirect causation and
involuntary causation.

References:
Dik, Simon C. 1997a. The Theory of Functional Grammar, Part I: The  
Structure of the Clause. Edited
by Kees Hengeveld. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Dik, Simon C. 1997b. The Theory of Functional Grammar, Part II:  
Complex and Derived
Constructions. Edited by Kees Hengeveld. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Rawoens, Gudrun. 2008. Kausativa verbkonstruktioner i svenskan och  
nederländskan. En
korpusbaserad syntaktisk-semantisk undersökning. (Göteborgsstudier i  
nordisk
språkvetenskap 11) Göteborg: Göteborgs universitet. 
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