Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T14:58:16.964Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

24 - Speech Acts, Discourse, and Clause Type

from Part Five - Semantics and Pragmatics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2022

By
Alice Corr  and
Nicola Munaro
Edited by
Adam Ledgeway  and
Martin Maiden
Adam Ledgeway
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Martin Maiden
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

This chapter considers how the Romance languages can contribute to our understanding of the encoding of discourse-oriented meaning, both structurally, at the level of the sentence, and, interpretatively, at the level of the utterance; more precisely, it focuses on the discourse-oriented meaning that interfaces between the wider extra-sentential discourse context on the one hand, and the propositional core of the utterance and the sentence-internal discourse context on the other. We present an overview of the contribution of Romance languages to a number of the key issues associated with theories of discourse at the level of the sentence/utterance, such as the grammatical expression of clause type, the codification of illocutionary force, and the mapping between form and function in the realization of speech acts, which are the communicative actions effected through the production of an utterance; in particular, we distinguish the morphosyntactic notion of clause type, meant as the formal or grammatical structure of a sentence codified through the lexicalization of dedicated functional slots within the left periphery of the clause, from that of illocutionary force, a pragmatic notion which refers to the communicative function attached to that expression.

Keywords

discourseclause typeillocutionary forcespeech actsutterancesleft peripheryform-function mappinggrammar-discourse interface
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics , pp. 728 - 762
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Selected References

Beyssade, C. and Marandin, J.-M. (2006b). ‘The speech act assignment problem revisited: disentangling speaker’s commitment from speaker’s call on addressee’. In Bonami, O. and Cabredo-Hofherr, P. (eds), Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 6. Paris: CSSP, 37–68.Google Scholar
Coniglio, M. and Zegrean, I. (2012). ‘Splitting up force’. In Haegeman, L., Aelbrecht, L., and Nye, R. (eds), Main Clause Phenomena: New Horizons. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 190–229.Google Scholar
Corr, A. (2017). Ibero-Romance and the Syntax of the Utterance. Doctoral thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Giorgi, A. (2010). About the Speaker: Towards a Syntax of Indexicality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Giurgea, I. and Remberger, E.M. (2016). ‘Illocutionary force’. In Ledgeway, A. and Maiden, M. (eds), The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 863–78.Google Scholar
Haegeman, L. and Hill, V. (2013). ‘The syntactization of discourse’. In Folli, R., Sevdali, C., and Truswell, R. (eds), Syntax and Its Limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 370–90.Google Scholar
Martins, A. M. (2014). ‘How much syntax is there in metalinguistic negation?’, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 32(2): 635–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moro, A. (2003). ‘Notes on vocative case: a case study in clause structure’. In Quer, J., Schroten, Scorretti, M., Sleeman, P., and Verheugd, E. (eds), Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 247–61.Google Scholar
Munaro, N. (2010). ‘Towards a hierarchy of clause types’. In Benincà, P. and Munaro, N. (eds), Mapping the Left Periphery. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 125–62.Google Scholar
Rizzi, L. (1997). ‘The fine structure of the left periphery’. In Haegeman, L. (ed.), Elements of Grammar. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 281–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadock, J. and Zwicky, A. (1985). ‘Speech act distinctions in syntax’. In Shopen, T. (ed.), Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 155–96.Google Scholar
Speas, P. and Tenny, C. (2003). ‘Configurational properties of point of view roles’. In Di Sciullo, A. M. (ed.), Asymmetry in Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 315–45.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×