Spatial Demonstratives In English And Chinese: Text And Cognition (pragmatics & Beyond New Series)

Annotation As a subject of universal appeal, spatial demonstratives have been studied extensively from a variety of disciplines. What marks the present study as distinct is that it is an English-Chinese comparative study set in a cognitive-linguistic framework and that the methodology features a parallel corpora-based, discourse analysis approach. The framework illuminates the nature of the demonstratives basic and extended meaning and use, the connections between them, and the mechanisms that govern and constrain their trends of extension. The corpora place the English and Chinese demonstratives in comparable discourse contexts and processes, providing an ecological environment for the observation of how their behavior fits into the respective structural and discourse systems of the two languages. The study also illuminates important issues such as the subjectivity of language, language as a representational system and a vehicle of communication, the interface between form and function, and the role of context in discourse comprehension Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 LCC page......Page 5 Dedication page......Page 6 Table of contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 Acknowledgements......Page 14 List of tables......Page 16 Conventions and abbreviations......Page 18 1. Introduction......Page 20 2. The nature of spatial demonstratives......Page 46 3. Spatial demonstratives in real space......Page 78 4. Spatial demonstratives in displaced contexts: Similar trends of extension......Page 96 5. Spatial demonstratives in displaced contexts: Structural constraints on the similar trends of extension......Page 160 Concluding remarks......Page 220 Notes......Page 224 References......Page 230 Appendix......Page 244 Name index......Page 248 Subject index......Page 250 The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series......Page 254