The Icelandic preposition hjá ‘at’: Its role in canonical intransitive sentences
This paper seeks to explain the roles that the preposition hjá plays in canonical intransitive sentences in Icelandic. According to Hopper and Thompson’s (1980) transitivity hypothesis, this type of intransitive sentence is characterised by the expression of an event that contains a participant aff...
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Universiti Malaya
2017-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of Modern Languages |
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| Online Access: | https://sare.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/3327 |
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| author | Toshiko Yamaguchi |
| author_facet | Toshiko Yamaguchi |
| author_sort | Toshiko Yamaguchi |
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This paper seeks to explain the roles that the preposition hjá plays in canonical intransitive sentences in Icelandic. According to Hopper and Thompson’s (1980) transitivity hypothesis, this type of intransitive sentence is characterised by the expression of an event that contains a participant affected by that event. The Icelandic intransitive sentence designates a change of state, agentivity, and a resultant state. The third meaning is particularly important as it expresses a situation that is not necessarily part of the meaning of the predicate but rather evoked by the speaker’s real-world knowledge. The addition of hjá makes the intransitive sentence more transitive because it gives rise to an additional participant. The key to understanding the unique behaviour of hjá is to decode its semantic and pragmatic, or conceptual, properties. The entire issue ultimately comes down to two fundamental questions: how do we perceive the world and how is it coded in a language?
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-aeed56c86b094eeebd76e1e37fbce338 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1675-526X 2462-1986 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2017-06-01 |
| publisher | Universiti Malaya |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Modern Languages |
| spelling | doaj-art-aeed56c86b094eeebd76e1e37fbce3382024-11-21T04:48:13ZengUniversiti MalayaJournal of Modern Languages1675-526X2462-19862017-06-01201The Icelandic preposition hjá ‘at’: Its role in canonical intransitive sentencesToshiko Yamaguchi0University of Malaya This paper seeks to explain the roles that the preposition hjá plays in canonical intransitive sentences in Icelandic. According to Hopper and Thompson’s (1980) transitivity hypothesis, this type of intransitive sentence is characterised by the expression of an event that contains a participant affected by that event. The Icelandic intransitive sentence designates a change of state, agentivity, and a resultant state. The third meaning is particularly important as it expresses a situation that is not necessarily part of the meaning of the predicate but rather evoked by the speaker’s real-world knowledge. The addition of hjá makes the intransitive sentence more transitive because it gives rise to an additional participant. The key to understanding the unique behaviour of hjá is to decode its semantic and pragmatic, or conceptual, properties. The entire issue ultimately comes down to two fundamental questions: how do we perceive the world and how is it coded in a language? https://sare.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/3327hjá, Icelandic, intransitive sentence, perception, semantics, pragmatics |
| spellingShingle | Toshiko Yamaguchi The Icelandic preposition hjá ‘at’: Its role in canonical intransitive sentences Journal of Modern Languages hjá, Icelandic, intransitive sentence, perception, semantics, pragmatics |
| title | The Icelandic preposition hjá ‘at’: Its role in canonical intransitive sentences |
| title_full | The Icelandic preposition hjá ‘at’: Its role in canonical intransitive sentences |
| title_fullStr | The Icelandic preposition hjá ‘at’: Its role in canonical intransitive sentences |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Icelandic preposition hjá ‘at’: Its role in canonical intransitive sentences |
| title_short | The Icelandic preposition hjá ‘at’: Its role in canonical intransitive sentences |
| title_sort | icelandic preposition hja at its role in canonical intransitive sentences |
| topic | hjá, Icelandic, intransitive sentence, perception, semantics, pragmatics |
| url | https://sare.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/3327 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT toshikoyamaguchi theicelandicprepositionhjaatitsroleincanonicalintransitivesentences AT toshikoyamaguchi icelandicprepositionhjaatitsroleincanonicalintransitivesentences |