Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Colonial lag, colonial innovation or simply language change?
- 2 Compound verbs
- 3 The formation of the preterite and the past participle
- 4 Synthetic and analytic comparatives
- 5 Phonology and grammar
- 6 Prepositions and postpositions
- 7 Argument structure
- 8 Reflexive structures
- 9 Noun phrase modification
- 10 Nominal complements
- 11 Non-finite complements
- 12 The present perfect and the preterite
- 13 The revived subjunctive
- 14 The mandative subjunctive
- 15 The conditional subjunctive
- 16 Tag questions
- 17 The pragmatics of adverbs
- 18 How different are American and British English grammar? And how are they different?
- 19 New departures
- Bibliography
- Index
17 - The pragmatics of adverbs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Colonial lag, colonial innovation or simply language change?
- 2 Compound verbs
- 3 The formation of the preterite and the past participle
- 4 Synthetic and analytic comparatives
- 5 Phonology and grammar
- 6 Prepositions and postpositions
- 7 Argument structure
- 8 Reflexive structures
- 9 Noun phrase modification
- 10 Nominal complements
- 11 Non-finite complements
- 12 The present perfect and the preterite
- 13 The revived subjunctive
- 14 The mandative subjunctive
- 15 The conditional subjunctive
- 16 Tag questions
- 17 The pragmatics of adverbs
- 18 How different are American and British English grammar? And how are they different?
- 19 New departures
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The pragmatic functions of adverbs of certainty have been discussed in BrE rather than AmE. There are many similarities but also differences between the two varieties. The adverb sure with a distinctive pronunciation is, for instance, a characteristic feature of AmE.
Words which have the same or a similar origin but have evolved different functions tend to raise a number of important theoretical issues. To what extent do they develop in the same way and how should we explain the similarities or differences in their meanings? What is the relation between meaning and use or ‘langue’ and ‘parole’? As we pay more attention to discourse and language use we find differences between words that appear to mean the same thing because of their common origin. This is the case with the adverbs surely and sure. A common explanation put forward nowadays by linguists who are interested in ‘rethinking the linguistic relativity hypothesis’ is that the social and cultural context can account for the differences (see Gumperz and Levinson 1996). However, differences must also be seen against the backdrop of universal tendencies and similarities between languages which are systematic and typologically motivated rather than based on usage. In the present chapter I want to look for an explanation of the different developments of sure and surely at the interface between universal tendencies and social and cultural factors.
Etymologically sure and surely are closely related.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- One Language, Two Grammars?Differences between British and American English, pp. 324 - 340Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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