In:Language Variation - European Perspectives VI: Selected papers from the Eighth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 8), Leipzig, May 2015
Edited by Isabelle Buchstaller and Beat Siebenhaar
[Studies in Language Variation 19] 2017
► pp. 173–184
A corpus-based study of concessive conjunctions in three L1-varieties of English
Published online: 26 July 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.19.11sch
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.19.11sch
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of the concessive conjunctions although, though and even though in three varieties of English from different world regions: British, Canadian and New Zealand English. The analysis, which is based on the International Corpus of English, reveals that although and though are typically used to mark concessives of the semantic type referred to as speech-act concessive, while even though prefers another type, defined as content concessive. Notably, these semantic properties of conjunctions are very similar not only in the three varieties under investigation, but also in speech and writing. The paper thus highlights underexplored semantic characteristics of different concessive conjunctions and demonstrates their inter- and intra-varietal stability.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Three semantic types of concessives
- 3.Previous quantitative approaches and research questions
- 4.Data and methodology
- 5.Results
- 6.Summary and conclusion
Notes References
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Gast, Volker
2019. A corpus-based comparative study of concessive connectives in
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Schützler, Ole
2018. Concessive conjunctions in written American English. In Diachronic Corpora, Genre, and Language Change [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 85], ► pp. 195 ff.
Schützler, Ole
2019. Variation and change at the interface of syntax and semantics. In Developments in English Historical Morpho-syntax [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 346], ► pp. 247 ff.
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