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The problem of non-truth-conditional, lower-level modifiers: a Functional Discourse Grammar solution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2019

EVELIEN KEIZER
EVELIEN KEIZER*
Affiliation:
Department of English and American Studies, University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 2-4/Hof 8.3, 1090Vienna, [email protected]
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Abstract

This article discusses two groups of prosodically and linearly integrated modifiers: evaluative (‘subject-oriented’) adverbs (e.g. cleverly, stupidly and recklessly) and non-restrictive prenominal modifiers (e.g. old as in my old mother). What these two groups of elements have in common is the rather puzzling fact that both are (or have been analysed as) relatively low-level modifiers (i.e. as part of the proposition), while at the same time being non-truth-conditional/non-restrictive (suggesting they are non-propositional). In this article it is argued that although there is indeed compelling syntactic evidence that these elements modify a relatively low layer in the clause (proposition or lower), this need not be incompatible with their non-truth-conditional/non-restrictive status. Using the theory of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), an analysis is proposed in which these elements are not part of the proposition expressed by the clause in which they occur, but instead form part of a separate proposition, in which they function as non-verbal predicates taking a specific layer of analysis (e.g. a proposition, State-of-Affairs, entity or property) as their argument. The analysis proposed not only reconciles the specific semantic and syntactic properties of the modifiers in question, but also reveals the similarities between the two groups of modifiers discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 365 - 392
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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Footnotes

Thanks are due to Lachlan Mackenzie and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this article. Any remaining shortcomings are, of course, my own.

References

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