Adjustment and Motivation
ISSN: 0211-5913
Ano de publicación: 2001
Título do exemplar: Challenges and developments in functional grammar
Número: 42
Páxinas: 167-186
Tipo: Artigo
Outras publicacións en: Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses
Resumo
This paper bears on formal and semantic adjustment as devised by Dik (1989, 1997) and puts forward a proposal of motivation of derived constructions based on the notions of semantic prototypicality and syntactic markedness. After revising the topics of cross-domain generalization, computation and monostratal representation, the Principle of Literal Linking is formulated, which stipulates that the lower the impact of metaphor on the linking between semantics and syntax, the more iconic syntax is. The conclusion is reached that quantitatively or qualitatively non-iconic syntax provides the functional motivation of adjustment. As regards the cognitive motivation of adjustment, it is very tentatively suggested that it lies in the general cognitive abilities of inclusion and correspondence.