MARKED CONSTRUCTIONS

Grammar

 

◈ MARKED CONSTRUCTIONS 

■ WH-CLEFTS 

Kim (1992) did an extensive analysis of wh-clefts (also known as pseudo-lefts) in English conversation. He concluded that their general or overarching function is to mark a disjunction by the speaker concerning the preceding discourse – a disjunction that allows the speaker to go back to some previous utterance and address it. Within this general view of wh-clefts, Kim distinguished those wh-clefts that are informational and mark the gist of the talk (i.e., that restate, sum up, or refocus the topic) from those that are interactional and respond to a problem (a challenge from the interlocutor or a perceived misunderstanding/miscommunication). 



■ EXISTENTIAL "THERE" 

- The logical subjects tend to express new information and persist as the topics of subsequent clauses. 
- The logical subjects tend to be entailed (i.e., they are related to something previously mentioned) and do not usually begin episodes. 
- The postmodifying elements that follow and modify the logical subject have high topic continuity, i.e., their referents have previously been mentioned.