scholarly journals Conjuncts in nineteenth-century English: diachronic development and genre diversity

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER J. GRUND ◽  
ERIK SMITTERBERG
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Science Writing ◽  
General Level ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
Drastic Increase ◽  
Semantic Types ◽  
English Syntax ◽  
Diachronic Development

This article explores the use of connective adverbials orconjuncts(e.g.therefore,on the other hand,firstly) in nineteenth-century English. Drawing onA Corpus of Nineteenth-Century English(CONCE), the study focuses on charting change over time and variation among different genres, and considers the distribution of various semantic types (e.g. contrastive, resultive) as well as individual conjuncts and author styles. We show that nineteenth-century English displays considerable genre differentiation in the use of conjuncts, both in terms of frequency and semantic types of conjuncts employed. Within these larger trends, patterns are also evident for individual conjuncts (e.g.now,therefore,so) and individual authors (e.g. in Letters). Science writing, in particular, reveals a drastic increase in conjuncts (in nearly all semantic types), which sets it apart from other genres. This suggests that the conjunct-heavy style of academic writing that has been attested in studies of Present-Day English was established in the nineteenth century. On a more general level, this result underlines the importance of considering formal genres when charting language change, as they may be in the forefront of the formation of new linguistic patterns that are unique to written texts. The article also contributes to our growing understanding of Late Modern English syntax.

Outlining a grammaticalization path for the Spanish formula en plan (de): A contribution to crosslinguistic pragmatics

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1543-1579
Author(s):  
Paula Rodríguez-Abruñeiras
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
The Early 21St Century

AbstractThis article discusses the diachronic development of the Spanish multifunctional formula en plan (with its variant en plan de, literally ‘in plan (of)’ but usually equivalent to English like). The article has two main aims: firstly, to describe the changes that the formula has undergone since its earliest occurrences as a marker in the nineteenth century up to the early 21st century. The diachronic study evinces a process of grammaticalization in three steps: from noun to clause adverbial and then to discourse marker. Secondly, to conduct a contrastive analysis between en plan (de) and the English markers like and kind of/kinda so as to shed new light on the potential existence of a universal pathway of grammaticalization in the emergence of discourse markers.

scholarly journals How long was the nineteenth century?

2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (spe) ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
David LIGHTFOOT
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Learning Procedure ◽  
The Way

This paper reviews the problems of the deterministic and predictive view of language change initiated by nineteenth century linguists and shows that such a view is still present in many analyses proposed by twentieth century linguists. As an alternative to such a view, the paper discusses an approach along the lines of Niyogi and Berwick (1997), which takes the explanation for long-term tendencies to be a function of the architecture of UG and the learning procedure and of the way in which populations of speakers behave.

scholarly journals Analogy-driven change: the emergence and development of mirative end up constructions in American English

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-121
Author(s):  
MARIO SERRANO-LOSADA
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
American English ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Pragmatic Enrichment ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Diachronic Development

This article explores the diachronic development of mirative end up in American English, which emerged in the late nineteenth century and which seems to be, at present, in the process of becoming a parenthetical element. The rise of the various mirative end up constructions is argued to be the result of both pragmatic enrichment and paradigmatic analogy, motivated by a series of semantically and formally related expressions, most prominently by mirative turn out. Moreover, the article delves into the process of cooptation to explain the emergence of parenthetical instances in the present-day language. Cooptation is understood as an intrinsically analogical-driven mechanism when it entails the eventual grammaticalization of formulaic parenthetical constructions. Data for the present study were taken from a variety of diachronic and synchronic sources, which include COHA, COCA and NOW, among others.

The Fools of the Leisure Class. Honor, Ridicule, and the Emergence of Animal Protection Legislation in England, 1740–1840

2006 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Bargheer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Animal Protection ◽  
Leisure Class ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Drastic Increase ◽  
Protection Legislation ◽  
The Way

The article analyzes the emergence of moral concern for animals in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century England. This concern was fuelled by a developing aristocratic discourse on civility that was accompanied by a drastic increase in the factual visibility of violence inflicted on animals in the growing cities. In opposition to interpretations based on the concepts of discipline and distinction, the article elaborates the way in which the emergence of moral concern for animals was class-structured without being class-interested.

scholarly journals A long birth

Diachronica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 514-539
Author(s):  
Tore Nesset
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Birth Process ◽  
Cascading Effect ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
S Curve ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
Gender Specific

Abstract This article investigates the diachronic development of Russian numeral constructions consisting of a paucal numeral (dva “two”, tri “three”, četyre “four”) followed by an adjective and a noun. Based on statistical analysis of more than 6,000 corpus examples, it is shown that a split took place in the second half of the twentieth century when feminine nouns developed a different agreement pattern from that of masculine and neuter nouns. This split is argued to represent the final step in a long “birth process” of gender-specific paucal constructions that started with the loss of the dual in the Middle Ages. It is suggested that we are witnessing a cascading effect, whereby the feminine pattern develops when the pattern for masculine and neuter nouns is approaching stabilization. The article furthermore includes a discussion of the hypothesis that “S-curves” represent a template for language change. While the documented changes resemble S-curves, the proposed analysis also addresses some general problems with testing the S-curve hypothesis empirically.

The diachronic development of the verbal bracket construction in German

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-176
Author(s):  
Elena Smirnova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
General Level ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Functional Value ◽  
First Results ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Diachronic Development

Abstract This work-in-progress paper reports the first results of a study dedicated to the investigation of the cognitive status of the sentence bracket construction in German. The project aims at a comprehensive corpus analysis of diachronic data from the Early New High German period (ENHG, 1350–1650). The study focuses on the syntactic structures of German main clauses and is guided by two general research questions. First, on the conceptual level, it addresses the question of whether the sentence bracket construction can be considered a construction in its own right. Second, the paper deals with the issue of the diachronic source(s) of the sentence bracket construction. Based on ENHG corpus data, it examines the role of grammaticalization of verbal auxiliaries in the development of the bracket construction. On a more general level, the objective of the paper is to encourage the discussion on the cognitive status of syntactic phenomena which often escape a straightforward modelling in cognitive and constructionist terms, as they do not seem to bear a particular dedicated semantic and/or functional value.

Does Clio Have a Place in Technical Writing? Considering Patents in a History of Technical Communication

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. John Brockmann
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Science Writing ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Writing Standards

Technical writers need a historical perspective in order to distinguish between enduring and transitory writing standards, to understand the variety of past styles in building future styles, and to give the profession a better sense of self-identity. To overcome the problems in developing a historical perspective, such as a dearth of artifacts to examine and the peculiarities in rhetorical time and place which undercut attempts to generalize on historical information, the 200 year-old federal collection of patents is offered as a solution. This collection of patents is also very often the only remaining written work of the ordinary mechanic of the nineteenth century, and this collection truly reflects technical not legal, business, or science writing.

Significance of New Harmony, Indiana, USA, to nineteenth-century paleontological investigations of North America: Progressive education through arts and sciences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
North America ◽  
Spatial Reasoning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Science Writing ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Natural Scientists ◽  
New Harmony

ABSTRACT William Maclure, Father of North American Geology, partnered with Robert Owen in 1825 to establish an experimental socialistic community focusing on equitable reform in New Harmony, Indiana, USA. Artists, educators, and natural scientists recruited from Philadelphia arrived on a keel boat named Philanthropist in January 1826. Upon their arrival, Maclure established the New Harmony schools using a modified Pestalozzian educational approach under the guidance of Madame Fretageot. The New Harmony schools focused on practical education through direct observation of nature as well as a curriculum involving drawing, music, science, writing, and trade skills such as carpentry, engraving, and printing. Furthermore, the integration of arts and sciences with hands-on experiences led to a productive community of natural scientists who published significant works on the conchology, geology, ichthyology, and paleontology of North America. In the mid-nineteenth century, hand-drawn illustrations were reproduced through engravings, etchings, or lithography prior to the invention of the daguerreotype process in 1839, collodion wet plate process in 1851, and flexible celluloid film in 1888. In particular, the published works of David Dale Owen demonstrate the increasing importance of evolving reproduction techniques to paleontological illustration as well as the significance of hand-drawn artistic renderings. Interestingly, the modified Pestalozzian educational approach introduced by Maclure in New Harmony has several implications for the modern classroom. For instance, recent studies suggest that drawing improves spatial reasoning skills and increases comprehension of complex scientific principles. Likewise, engaging students in the drawing of fossils delivers a meaningful learning experience in the paleontology classroom.

Nation as Laboratory

2020 ◽  
pp. 62-77
Author(s):  
María del Pilar Blanco
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Science Writing ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Global Science ◽  
Popular Science Writing ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Science Magazine

This chapter offers a new reading of popular science publications from the period of the República Restaurada (1868–76) in Mexico, namely José Joaquín Arriaga’s La Ciencia Recreativa (1871–74), a set of science primers for children and articles from Santiago Sierra’s popular-science magazine, El Mundo Científico (1877–78). Situating these publications within this period of political, cultural, and social stabilization, Blanco explores the uses of popular science writing as modes for perceiving the Mexican landscape in the throes of modernization. Employing Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar’s concept of the laboratory as a space of and for inscription, Blanco argues that these Mexican science writers in effect conceived the nation’s landscape as a kind of open laboratory in which natural phenomena were continuously recorded and measured. These inscriptions, in turn, were a way of integrating the Mexican nation into the practices of global science in the late nineteenth century.

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