Allostructions and stancetaking: a corpus study of the German discourse management constructions Wo/wenn wir gerade/schon dabei sind
The paper reconciles the sociolinguistic concept of stance and stancetaking and Construction Grammar (CxG); it shows that overlapping allostructions may differ in terms of the stances they convey. Drawing on a corpus study of Wikipedia Talk pages, the paper presents a case study of German discourse...
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De Gruyter
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Cognitive Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2020-0117 |
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| author | Gillmann Melitta |
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| author_sort | Gillmann Melitta |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The paper reconciles the sociolinguistic concept of stance and stancetaking and Construction Grammar (CxG); it shows that overlapping allostructions may differ in terms of the stances they convey. Drawing on a corpus study of Wikipedia Talk pages, the paper presents a case study of German discourse management markers such as wo wir gerade dabei sind ‘speaking of which’ or wenn wir schon dabei sind ‘while we’re at it’. By statistically comparing the observed frequencies of the filler items with the expected ones (using Hierarchical Configural Frequency Analysis and Distinctive Collexeme Analysis), I will argue that there are two different collocational types, namely wo wir/ich gerade bei NP sind/bin ‘as we are/I am just at NP’ and wenn wir/du schon bei NP sind/bist ‘as we/you are already at NP’. Both serve as discourse management markers, topic orientation markers in particular, whose purpose it is to shift the topic. They involve the same fixed pattern, combining the same categorical slots. However, they diverge in collocational preferences. I will argue that these collocational preferences are indicative of the stances the allostructions conventionally convey: While the allostruction wo wir/ich gerade PP sind/bin seems to be neutral in terms of stance (face-less stance), wenn wir/du schon PP sind/bist is often used to express negative evaluation of a previous utterance made by an interlocutor, thus marking disalignment. The expression of disalignment seems to be related to the construction’s propensity to reference utterances made by an interlocutor. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8d8e0a6aa88343f39da9fb1f0a13db76 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0936-5907 1613-3641 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cognitive Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj-art-8d8e0a6aa88343f39da9fb1f0a13db762025-08-25T06:10:17ZengDe GruyterCognitive Linguistics0936-59071613-36412024-02-013516710710.1515/cog-2020-0117Allostructions and stancetaking: a corpus study of the German discourse management constructions Wo/wenn wir gerade/schon dabei sindGillmann Melitta0Institut für Germanistik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, GermanyThe paper reconciles the sociolinguistic concept of stance and stancetaking and Construction Grammar (CxG); it shows that overlapping allostructions may differ in terms of the stances they convey. Drawing on a corpus study of Wikipedia Talk pages, the paper presents a case study of German discourse management markers such as wo wir gerade dabei sind ‘speaking of which’ or wenn wir schon dabei sind ‘while we’re at it’. By statistically comparing the observed frequencies of the filler items with the expected ones (using Hierarchical Configural Frequency Analysis and Distinctive Collexeme Analysis), I will argue that there are two different collocational types, namely wo wir/ich gerade bei NP sind/bin ‘as we are/I am just at NP’ and wenn wir/du schon bei NP sind/bist ‘as we/you are already at NP’. Both serve as discourse management markers, topic orientation markers in particular, whose purpose it is to shift the topic. They involve the same fixed pattern, combining the same categorical slots. However, they diverge in collocational preferences. I will argue that these collocational preferences are indicative of the stances the allostructions conventionally convey: While the allostruction wo wir/ich gerade PP sind/bin seems to be neutral in terms of stance (face-less stance), wenn wir/du schon PP sind/bist is often used to express negative evaluation of a previous utterance made by an interlocutor, thus marking disalignment. The expression of disalignment seems to be related to the construction’s propensity to reference utterances made by an interlocutor.https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2020-0117projecting constructionsdiscourse management markersallostructionsstancehierarchical configural frequency analysis |
| spellingShingle | Gillmann Melitta Allostructions and stancetaking: a corpus study of the German discourse management constructions Wo/wenn wir gerade/schon dabei sind Cognitive Linguistics projecting constructions discourse management markers allostructions stance hierarchical configural frequency analysis |
| title | Allostructions and stancetaking: a corpus study of the German discourse management constructions Wo/wenn wir gerade/schon dabei sind |
| title_full | Allostructions and stancetaking: a corpus study of the German discourse management constructions Wo/wenn wir gerade/schon dabei sind |
| title_fullStr | Allostructions and stancetaking: a corpus study of the German discourse management constructions Wo/wenn wir gerade/schon dabei sind |
| title_full_unstemmed | Allostructions and stancetaking: a corpus study of the German discourse management constructions Wo/wenn wir gerade/schon dabei sind |
| title_short | Allostructions and stancetaking: a corpus study of the German discourse management constructions Wo/wenn wir gerade/schon dabei sind |
| title_sort | allostructions and stancetaking a corpus study of the german discourse management constructions wo wenn wir gerade schon dabei sind |
| topic | projecting constructions discourse management markers allostructions stance hierarchical configural frequency analysis |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2020-0117 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gillmannmelitta allostructionsandstancetakingacorpusstudyofthegermandiscoursemanagementconstructionswowennwirgeradeschondabeisind |