Overview

Language structure is shaped by communicative needs. This is borne out in Unexpressed Subjects in English: An Empirical Analysis of Narrative and Conversational Discourse, in which Amy M. Lindstrom challenges previous assumptions of what is grammatically possible in English by examining contexts in which speakers omit subjects. It is generally assumed that inflected verbs in English are always accompanied by overt subjects. However, a corpus-based analysis of interactive conversation and monologic narrative reveals that several variables contribute to a rigorous account of subject (un)expression in spoken American English. These include the discourse/pragmatic factors of accessibility and chronological ordering, the prosodic effect of linking, the mechanical effect of priming, and the semantic factor of verb class. Higher degrees of linking, cohesion, and connection lead to higher instantiations of unexpressed subjects. Lindstrom demonstrates that unexpressed subjects in English warrant attention as a deliberate, strategic device in discourse, where patterns of distribution challenge the assumption that subject expression is obligatory as an innate grammatical rule.

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9781793604613

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Reviews

This exciting new book is an important contribution to research on morphosyntax and language variation in particular. Lindstrom's extensive research refutes the widespread assumption that English prohibits subject omission by revealing contexts and motivations underlying null subjects. Through careful analysis of both conversations and narratives, Lindstrom furthers our understanding of the ways in which speakers manipulate grammar to achieve communicative goals. --Naomi Shin, University of New Mexico--Naomi Shin, University of New Mexico This book makes a substantial contribution to our knowledge about subject expression. Such a detailed analysis of subject expression in English allows linguists to see cross-linguistic parallels in the conditioning of subject expression, which the author carefully and clearly highlights for the reader. --Dora LaCasse, University of Montana This book presents a valuable and much needed analysis of how unexpressed subject pronouns in English pattern between the genres of written narrative and conversation. This book presents a valuable and much needed analysis of how unexpressed subject pronouns in English pattern between the genres of written narrative and conversation. Especially interesting is the examination of unexpressed pronouns in written discourses, a genre that has been given very little attention within the field of variationist sociolinguistics, but that, as shown in this study, plays an important role to better understand the mechanisms underlying the grammar of language. This monograph offers an extremely thorough review of the literature and contributes to the field by analyzing a yet to explore genre such as variation in written language. --Carmen Fernandez Florez, Grand Valley State University

This exciting new book is an important contribution to research on morphosyntax and language variation in particular. Lindstrom's extensive research refutes the widespread assumption that English prohibits subject omission by revealing contexts and motivations underlying null subjects. Through careful analysis of both conversations and narratives, Lindstrom furthers our understanding of the ways in which speakers manipulate grammar to achieve communicative goals. --Naomi Shin, University of New Mexico--Naomi Shin, University of New Mexico This book makes a substantial contribution to our knowledge about subject expression. Such a detailed analysis of subject expression in English allows linguists to see cross-linguistic parallels in the conditioning of subject expression, which the author carefully and clearly highlights for the reader. --Dora LaCasse, University of Montana

Author Information

Amy M. Lindstrom is assistant professor of linguistics at Old Dominion University.

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