An account of insubordinated adverbial clauses in Brazilian Portuguese: Chapter 7. Illocution as a unit of reference for spontaneous speech

Bossaglia, Giulia; Mello, Heliana; Raso, Tommaso

doi:10.1075/scl.94.07bos

In:In Search of Basic Units of Spoken Language: A corpus-driven approach
Edited by Shlomo Izre'el, Heliana Mello, Alessandro Panunzi and Tommaso Raso
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 94] 2020
► pp. 221–256

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Chapter 7
Illocution as a unit of reference for spontaneous speech

An account of insubordinated adverbial clauses in Brazilian Portuguese

Giulia Bossaglia | Federal University of Minas Gerais | FAPEMIG | CNPq

Heliana Mello | Federal University of Minas Gerais | FAPEMIG | CNPq

Tommaso Raso | Federal University of Minas Gerais | FAPEMIG | CNPq

Published online: 18 June 2020

https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.94.07bos

Abstract

In this paper we propose a synchronic, corpus-based account of insubordination, through the analysis of adverbial clauses in Brazilian Portuguese spontaneous speech at the syntax/prosody interface. The segmentation of the speech flow through prosodic cues is crucial to analyse linguistic and, specifically, syntactic relations in spoken language. Besides, it is through prosody that illocutionary and informational values are conveyed in speech. Our claim is that insubordination can be studied without assuming the existence of a grammaticalization path or main clause ellipsis processes, given that through specific illocutionary prosodic profiles, syntactically dependent clauses are assigned pragmatic autonomy.

Keywords: spontaneous speech, speech segmentation, illocution, syntax/prosody interface, insubordination, adverbial clauses, Brazilian Portuguese

Article outline

1.Introduction
2.Subordination and insubordination
3.The analysis of spontaneous speech
- 3.1The segmentation of speech
- 3.2Speech segmentation and illocution
- 3.3Speech segmentation and information units (IUs)
4.The corpus
5.Data analysis
- 5.1Types of adverbial conjunctions
- 5.2Non-canonical characteristics of adverbial clauses in spoken bp
  - 5.2.1Apparent adverbial subordinators
- 5.3Distribution of adverbial subordinators/adverbial clauses
  - 5.3.1Adverbial clause in the same IU of the main clause
  - 5.3.2Adverbial clause in a dedicated IU
    - 5.3.2.1Topic/Comment pattern, Multiple Comments, and Bound Comments
  - 5.3.3Adverbial clauses in a dedicated utterance: Insubordination
    - 5.3.3.1“Semi”-insubordinated versus fully insubordinated adverbial clauses
6.Final remarks
Acknowledgements
Notes
Glossary
References

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