Initial and final detachments in spoken Estonian: a study in the framework of Information Structuring
Date
2015-07-06
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Abstract
Käesolev doktoriväitekiri „Initial and final detachments in spoken Estonian: a study in the framework of Information Structuring“ käsitleb lahktarindeid eesti suulises keeles infostruktuuri raamistikus.
Lahktarinditena (inglise keeles detachments, dislocations) vaadeldakse siin konstruktsioone, milles leksikaalne element esineb kas enne pealauset või pärast seda, kusjuures pealauses esineb leksikaalse elemendiga samaviiteline asesõna. Neid konstruktsioone peetakse spontaanses keelekasutuses universaalseteks, kuid nende esinemus ja funktsioonid on keeleti mõnevõrra erinevad. Lahktarindeid ei ole eesti keeles varem uuritud; üldiselt on neid keeleuurimustes seotud infostruktuuri mõistetega nagu teema ja postreema, st nad tõstavad esile infostruktuuri tasandil leksikaalses üksuses ühelt poolt teema, mille kohta pealauses (reema) midagi öeldakse ning teiselt poolt esinevad nad struktuurides, kus pealause ehk reema on lausungis esimesel kohal, millele järgneb leksikaalse üksusena postreema.
Et infostruktuuri tasandist lähtuvaid uurimusi eesti keele kohta tehtud pole, antakse väitekirja esimestes peatükkides ülevaade valdkonna problemaatikast ning käesolevas töös olulistest lähenemistest. Väitekiri sisaldab ka ülevaadet enamikust (süntaksit käsitlevatest) uurimustest eesti keele kohta, milles kasutatakse infostruktuuri mõisteid.
Korpuseanalüüsis vaadeldakse lähemalt ülalmainitud kaht tüüpi lahktarindeid, keskendudes peamiselt referendi informatsioonilisele staatusele, tarindite erinevatele funktsioonidele ja toimimisele diskursuse tasandil.
Väitekirja tulemusena võib lahktarindite kohta väita järgmist: tegemist on suulises kõnes levinud struktuuridega, mis toetavad suulisele kõnele iseloomulikku info edastamist lühemate üksuste kaupa. Tarindites viidatavad referendid on enamasti kas vestluses juba esinenud või on tuletatavad vestluse üldisest raamistikust. Postreemat sisaldavates tarindites, kus leksikaalne referent tuleb alles lausungi lõpus, esineb rohkem ka eelneva sisuga seostamata referente. Lisaks vormilistele erinevustele ning nendest tulenevalt on nende kahe struktuuri puhul selgelt näha erinevaid strateegiaid referendi sissetoomise puhul ning selle käsitlemisel edaspidises diskursuses.
The present thesis “Initial and final detachments in spoken Estonian: a study in the framework of Information Structuring” analyses detachment constructions (initial and final detachments) in spoken Estonian, in the framework of Information Structuring. Initial detachments are defined as structures where a detached lexical element precedes the main clause, which contains a coreferential pronoun; in final detachments, the referent is at first referred to by a pronoun in the main clause, followed by the lexical element in a detached element at the end of the utterance. These structures have been considered universals in spontaneous oral language, but their functions and degree of grammaticalization differ in various languages. Detached constructions have not been investigated before in Estonian. They have been associated to the notions of Theme and Post-rheme at the level of Information Structuring, i.e. initial detachment introduces an element that is considered as Theme at the informational level and final detachment serves to introduce the Post-rheme. Given that there are no studies dedicated to the level of Information Structuring as independent object of investigation, an overview about the main problems of this domain is provided in first chapters of the thesis, followed by a summary of studies (in syntax) about Estonian where the notions of Information Structuring framework have been used. The analysis of the corpus concentrates mainly on the informational status of the referent, different functions of these constructions and their functioning at the discourse level. The analysis revealed that detached constructions allow the information to be staged during the discourse building work; as concerns the informational status of the referents, it could be shown that they have mostly been mentioned before during the conversation or are present in the thematic frame of the discourse. Final detachments are also used in order to introduce unmentioned and new referents. Besides the formal differences, and stemming from them, the two constructions are clearly different as concerns the mechanisms of introduction of the referent and its treatment in the discourse.
The present thesis “Initial and final detachments in spoken Estonian: a study in the framework of Information Structuring” analyses detachment constructions (initial and final detachments) in spoken Estonian, in the framework of Information Structuring. Initial detachments are defined as structures where a detached lexical element precedes the main clause, which contains a coreferential pronoun; in final detachments, the referent is at first referred to by a pronoun in the main clause, followed by the lexical element in a detached element at the end of the utterance. These structures have been considered universals in spontaneous oral language, but their functions and degree of grammaticalization differ in various languages. Detached constructions have not been investigated before in Estonian. They have been associated to the notions of Theme and Post-rheme at the level of Information Structuring, i.e. initial detachment introduces an element that is considered as Theme at the informational level and final detachment serves to introduce the Post-rheme. Given that there are no studies dedicated to the level of Information Structuring as independent object of investigation, an overview about the main problems of this domain is provided in first chapters of the thesis, followed by a summary of studies (in syntax) about Estonian where the notions of Information Structuring framework have been used. The analysis of the corpus concentrates mainly on the informational status of the referent, different functions of these constructions and their functioning at the discourse level. The analysis revealed that detached constructions allow the information to be staged during the discourse building work; as concerns the informational status of the referents, it could be shown that they have mostly been mentioned before during the conversation or are present in the thematic frame of the discourse. Final detachments are also used in order to introduce unmentioned and new referents. Besides the formal differences, and stemming from them, the two constructions are clearly different as concerns the mechanisms of introduction of the referent and its treatment in the discourse.
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eesti keel, suuline keel, konstruktsioonigrammatika, strukturaallingvistika, korpuslingvistika, diskursusanalüüs, Estonian language, spoken language, construction grammar, structural linguistics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis