Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:02:35.519Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Narrative when in English1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2016

CARL BACHE*
Affiliation:
Department of Language & Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M, [email protected]

Abstract

This article examines the so-called ‘narrative when’ construction in English. No one has come up with an entirely satisfactory description of this construction which accounts appropriately for both its syntax and content. The descriptive challenge is to explain the unusual balance between the main clause and the when clause: unlike an ordinary temporal when clause (which offers circumstantial information in relation to the main clause), a narrative when clause expresses the primary situation while the main clause merely has a supporting textual function. This article suggests a simple framework for the description of all when clauses within which narrative when clauses are very comfortably accommodated as one of the metaphorical extensions of the basic meaning and syntax of when.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

My sincere thanks to Alexandra Holsting and Nina Nørgaard, two anonymous ELL reviewers, ELL editor Bernd Kortmann, as well as colleagues and friends more generally in the Danish national grammar network and in the Danish Functional Linguistics network, for critical comments and suggestions.

References

Aelbrecht, Lobke, Haegeman, Liliane & Nye, Rachel (eds.). 2012. Main clause phenomena: New horizons. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Bache, Carl. 1982. Aspect and Aktionsart: Towards a semantic distinction. Journal of Linguistics 18, 5772.Google Scholar
Bache, Carl. 1986. Tense and aspect in fiction. Journal of Literary Semantics 15, 8297.Google Scholar
Bache, Carl. 1997. The study of aspect, tense and action: Towards a theory of the semantics of grammatical categories, 2nd revised edition. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Bache, Carl. 2008. English tense and aspect in Halliday's systemic functional grammar. London and Oakville: Equinox.Google Scholar
Bache, Carl. 2013. Grammatical choice and communicative motivation: a radical systemic approach. In Fontaine, Lise, Bartlett, Tom & O'Grady, Gerard (eds.), Systemic functional linguistics: Exploring choice, 7294. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bache, Carl. 2015. The narrative ‘when’ enigma. In Schatz-Jakobsen, Claus, Simonsen, Peter & Pettitt, Tom (eds.), The book out of bounds, 922. Odense: Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark.Google Scholar
Bache, Carl & Nielsen, Niels Davidsen. 1997. Mastering English grammar: An advanced grammar for non-native and native speakers. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bache, Carl & Jakobsen, Leif Kvistgaard. 1980. On the distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses in modern English. Lingua 52, 243–67.Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 1988. On the temporal interpretation of postponed when-clauses in narrative discourse. In Matthews, Richard & Schmole-Rostosky, Joachim (eds.), Papers on language and mediaeval studies presented to Alfred Schopf, 353–72. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 1989a. On the markedness of ‘narrative temporal clauses’. In Tomic, Olga Miseska (ed.), Markedness in synchrony and diachrony, 359–72. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 1989b. Foregrounding and temporal relations in narrative discourse. In Schopf, Alfred (ed.), Essays on tensing in English, vol. II: Time, text and modality, 730. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Cristofaro, Sonia. 2003. Subordination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Declerck, Renaat. 1997. When-clauses and temporal structure. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Frey, Werner. 2012. On two types of adverbial clauses allowing root-phenomena. In Aelbrecht, Haegeman & Nye (eds.), 405–28.Google Scholar
Green, Georgia M. 1976. Main clause phenomena in subordinate clauses. Language 52 (2), 382–97.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 2004. The syntax of adverbial clauses and its consequences for topicalisation. In Coene, Martine, De Cuyper, Greet & D'Hulst, Yves (eds.), Current studies in comparative romance linguistics, 6191. Antwerp: University of Antwerp.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 2009. Parenthetical adverbials: The radical orphanage approach. In Shaer, Benjamin, Cook, Philippa, Frey, Werner & Maienborn, Claudia (eds.), Dislocated elements in discourse: Syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic perspectives, 331–65. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1994. An introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd edition. London, New York: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M.. 1999. Construing experience through meaning: A language-based approach to cognition. London and New York: Cassell.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M.. 2004. An introduction to Functional Grammar, 3rd edition, rev. Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hooper, Joan B. & Thompson, Sandra A.. 1973. On the applicability of root transformations. Linguistic Inquiry 4, 465–97.Google Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney & Pullum, Geoffrey K.. 2002. The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1991. Concept, image, and symbol: The cognitive basis of grammar. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William & Waletzky, Joshua. 1967. Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In Helm, June (ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts, 1244. Seattle and London: American Ethnological Society.Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. & Thompson, Sandra A.. 1988. The structure of discourse and ‘subordination’. In Haiman, John & Thompson, Sandra A. (eds.), Clause combining in grammar and discourse, 275329. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Meinunger, André. 2006. On the discourse impact of subordinate clauses. In Molnar, Valeria & Winkler, Susanne (eds.) The architecture of focus: Studies in generative grammar, 313487. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Moens, Marc & Steedman, Mark. 1988. Temporal ontology and temporal reference, Computational Linguistics 14 (2), 1528.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan. 1972. A grammar of contemporary English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan. 1985. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
de Vries, Mark. 2012. Parenthetical main clauses – or not. In Aelbrecht, Haegeman & Nye (eds.), 177-201.Google Scholar