The forms and discourse functions of fronting in spoken English as a lingua franca
Helenius, Teemu (2024)
2024
Englannin kielen ja kirjallisuuden maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in English Language and Literature
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-05-13
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202404234151
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202404234151
Tiivistelmä
This Master’s thesis studies the English non-canonical word order phenomenon known as fronting in comparison with equivalent constructions in speech produced in an English as a lingua franca (ELF) context. These pragmasyntactic phenomena were qualitatively analysed in data consisting of eleven speech event transcripts in the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE). The word order phenomena analysed are: fronting without inversion, fronting with subject-verb inversion, left dislocation, passivization and clefting. Clause-initial placement of adverbials was also analysed in comparison.
The purpose of the thesis is to analyse the ways ELF speakers utilise fronting and equivalent forms for different discourse functions, such as cohesion, emphasis and contrast, as well as their success in using these forms in communication. The use of the forms is compared to existing theoretical frameworks on English information structure and intercultural pragmatics.The research questions are:
1) What forms do fronting and comparable information-structural syntactic phenomena take in the analysed ELF discourse?
2) What discourse functions are served by the use of these forms?
3) How does the use of these forms by L1 English speakers in the same discourse data differ from the L2 speakers?
4) Does the use of fronting, especially non-normative fronting (if found), disrupt the discourse or is it used successfully from a communicative standpoint?
The results of the analysis show that the forms of fronting which most radically deviate from the canonical word order were rare in these speakers’ speech. Passivization, left dislocation and clefting were more common. The constructions were sometimes idiosyncratic in their form and function. However, their use did not disrupt the discourse except in some rare cases. The ELF speakers used a variety of structures to communicate information status and information structure in a way that was predominantly consistent with English convention. L1 English speakers did not produce enough of these forms to validate comparison.
Prior research and information structure theory did not always explain the forms and functions found. Cohesion in structuring speech according to the information status of its elements sometimes gave way to cognitive salience effects not based on cooperation. This did not appear to affect the succesfulness of communication.
The purpose of the thesis is to analyse the ways ELF speakers utilise fronting and equivalent forms for different discourse functions, such as cohesion, emphasis and contrast, as well as their success in using these forms in communication. The use of the forms is compared to existing theoretical frameworks on English information structure and intercultural pragmatics.The research questions are:
1) What forms do fronting and comparable information-structural syntactic phenomena take in the analysed ELF discourse?
2) What discourse functions are served by the use of these forms?
3) How does the use of these forms by L1 English speakers in the same discourse data differ from the L2 speakers?
4) Does the use of fronting, especially non-normative fronting (if found), disrupt the discourse or is it used successfully from a communicative standpoint?
The results of the analysis show that the forms of fronting which most radically deviate from the canonical word order were rare in these speakers’ speech. Passivization, left dislocation and clefting were more common. The constructions were sometimes idiosyncratic in their form and function. However, their use did not disrupt the discourse except in some rare cases. The ELF speakers used a variety of structures to communicate information status and information structure in a way that was predominantly consistent with English convention. L1 English speakers did not produce enough of these forms to validate comparison.
Prior research and information structure theory did not always explain the forms and functions found. Cohesion in structuring speech according to the information status of its elements sometimes gave way to cognitive salience effects not based on cooperation. This did not appear to affect the succesfulness of communication.