Phasal dynamism and the unfolding of meaning as text

Bartlett, Thomas Alexander Marks ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3719-1766 2016. Phasal dynamism and the unfolding of meaning as text. English Text Construction 9 (1) , pp. 143-164. 10.1075/etc.9.1.08bar

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Abstract

In this paper I explore the etic category of textuality and the emic category of Theme arguing that while Theme in English may simultaneously signal the point of departure of a clause with respect to the preceding text and also the ‘aboutness’ of the clause in relation to the method of development of a text, this is not necessarily the case with other languages. In particular I consider the rich textual resources of Scottish Gaelic, a verb-initial language with no morphological marking for Theme, to problematise standard treatments of thematicity in languages other than English. I elaborate on Cloran’s (2010) account of Rhetorical Units to present as a hypothesis for further exploration the idea that, while Gaelic and English ground clauses in both space and time, Gaelic is a process-centred language while English is a Subject-centred language and that these differences in the respective characterology of the two languages have repercussions on the process of textualisation and the method of development in each language.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Gaelic, Theme, Rhetorical Unit, textualisation, textuality
Publisher:	John Benjamins Publishing
ISSN:	1874-8767
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	15 February 2016
Last Modified:	23 Nov 2024 18:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/86898

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