Or else, or so or what? A few Examples of the Staging of the Implicit in English
Or-based coordination has certainly received less attention from linguists than its And-based counterpart, which appears to be (and statistically is) the first coordinator with an impressive variety of uses. Whereas And is basically a ‘surface’ coordinator connecting equally explicit though hierarch...
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2012-03-01
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/2455 |
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| author | Bertrand RICHET |
| author_facet | Bertrand RICHET |
| author_sort | Bertrand RICHET |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Or-based coordination has certainly received less attention from linguists than its And-based counterpart, which appears to be (and statistically is) the first coordinator with an impressive variety of uses. Whereas And is basically a ‘surface’ coordinator connecting equally explicit though hierarchised elements, Or provides an insight into implicit otherness, i.e. not what is or will be but what could be. By providing alternative routes for the construction of meaning, the connector clearly reintroduces verticality in an otherwise mainly horizontal though memory-based form of representation.The core value of ‘choice’ that has traditionally been associated with Or can have two readings, one open and one closed. The ‘open’ meaning derives from the diversity offered through the presentation of potentially equally relevant elements. However, such ‘spectrum interpretation’ is confronted to the tyranny of discourse linearity, to the speaker’s possible willingness to provide a situation-specific presentation order and fundamentally to the necessity of a unique preferred option to be selected from the original choice, hence the second, ‘closed’ reading of the word.With that starting point in mind one can now consider how alternation can be literally staged in language and discourse, offering a syntax-based open surface whilst imposing a pragma-semantic restricted choice, as seems to be the case with such constructions as or else, or so and or what among others. First the presence of such combinations is observed in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Second their usage is considered in context, with a view to providing finally a unified theorisation of such constructions. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2f6551fa63154c8fb7890d4a3ed41f68 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-03-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj-art-2f6551fa63154c8fb7890d4a3ed41f682025-01-09T12:52:36ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182012-03-019210.4000/erea.2455Or else, or so or what? A few Examples of the Staging of the Implicit in EnglishBertrand RICHETOr-based coordination has certainly received less attention from linguists than its And-based counterpart, which appears to be (and statistically is) the first coordinator with an impressive variety of uses. Whereas And is basically a ‘surface’ coordinator connecting equally explicit though hierarchised elements, Or provides an insight into implicit otherness, i.e. not what is or will be but what could be. By providing alternative routes for the construction of meaning, the connector clearly reintroduces verticality in an otherwise mainly horizontal though memory-based form of representation.The core value of ‘choice’ that has traditionally been associated with Or can have two readings, one open and one closed. The ‘open’ meaning derives from the diversity offered through the presentation of potentially equally relevant elements. However, such ‘spectrum interpretation’ is confronted to the tyranny of discourse linearity, to the speaker’s possible willingness to provide a situation-specific presentation order and fundamentally to the necessity of a unique preferred option to be selected from the original choice, hence the second, ‘closed’ reading of the word.With that starting point in mind one can now consider how alternation can be literally staged in language and discourse, offering a syntax-based open surface whilst imposing a pragma-semantic restricted choice, as seems to be the case with such constructions as or else, or so and or what among others. First the presence of such combinations is observed in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Second their usage is considered in context, with a view to providing finally a unified theorisation of such constructions.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/2455linguisticssyntaxEnglishsemanticspragmaticscoordination |
| spellingShingle | Bertrand RICHET Or else, or so or what? A few Examples of the Staging of the Implicit in English E-REA linguistics syntax English semantics pragmatics coordination |
| title | Or else, or so or what? A few Examples of the Staging of the Implicit in English |
| title_full | Or else, or so or what? A few Examples of the Staging of the Implicit in English |
| title_fullStr | Or else, or so or what? A few Examples of the Staging of the Implicit in English |
| title_full_unstemmed | Or else, or so or what? A few Examples of the Staging of the Implicit in English |
| title_short | Or else, or so or what? A few Examples of the Staging of the Implicit in English |
| title_sort | or else or so or what a few examples of the staging of the implicit in english |
| topic | linguistics syntax English semantics pragmatics coordination |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/2455 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bertrandrichet orelseorsoorwhatafewexamplesofthestagingoftheimplicitinenglish |