.XXXIV Aedean Conference (Almería 2010)

PANEL: SYNTAX (Coordinator: Amaya Mendikoetxea Pelayo)

SESSION 1

Aspects of the Grammar of Close Apposition: a Heterogeneous Class
Vanesa Gil Vilacoba (University of Santiago de Compostela)

Discontinuity and Displacement in a Functional Theory of Grammar
Daniel García Velasco (University of Oviedo)

SYNTAX
ABSTRACTS

Aspects of the Grammar of Close Apposition: a Heterogeneous Class
Vanesa Gil Vilacoba (University of Santiago de Compostela)

Apposition is the great unknown. From Hocket (1955) to Burton-Roberts (1975) and Acuña-Fariña (1996), until the most recent works by Keizer (2007) and Acuña-Fariña (2009), this construction has been the subject of countless analyses. In general terms, this is the history of apposition both close and loose, but whereas the latter has received considerable attention (see for instance Burton-Roberts 1975; Acuña-Fariña 1999; Hannay & Keizer 2004, 2005), the former has even lost its name. Indeed, the concept of close apposition has been erased from the map of grammatical construction. The reason for this –I suggest- lies in the internal heterogeneity of a grammatical concept which has traditionally been exemplified via a rather large number of sub-constructions (the word ‘gravitas’; Burns the poet; we women; a friend John who’s in linguistics). Here I intend to argue that close apposition is internally more heterogeneous as an object than has been assumed. I focus on just two specific types, the horse Bucephalus and my sister Cath/ my sister the dancer, which in spite of the fact that they are made up by the same linguistic elements (det + common noun + proper noun) show different internal links and structure.
Keywords: apposition, close, noun phrase, constituency, construction, type.

Discontinuity and Displacement in a Functional Theory of Grammar
Daniel García Velasco (University of Oviedo)

This paper deals with the notions of discontinuity and displacement in Functional Grammar and Functional Discourse Grammar. In the first part of the talk I will provide an operational characterization of both displacement and discontinuity. The conclusion will be that although displacement is an observable fact in languages, discontinuity is a theory-internal concept which crucially depends on how theories characterize the notion of constituent. It will be shown that classical Functional Grammar (as presented in Dik 1997) makes vague assumptions about discontinuity phenomena due to a poor conception of the notion of syntactic domain. This problem is to some extent solved in Hengeveld and Mackenzie’s (2008) Functional Discourse Grammar, as the notion of discontinuity is proved to be of little relevance given the organization of the model. The present paper is thus a small contribution to the study of the internal architecture of a functional theory of language.
Keywords: Syntax, discontinuity, displacement, Functional Grammar, Functional Discourse Grammar.