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Effect Before Cause

Effect Before Cause In the present study, I look at a regularity first observed in Talmy (2000: 483), who showed that in sentences describing sequences of events of the cause-and-effect type, effect events take precedence over causes. They tend to be mentioned first in a sentence, and grammatical patterns exist where cause events cannot be expressed before effects. I use Talmy’s observation to argue against an excessive emphasis on idiosyncrasy of grammatical constructions. Specifically, I will show that the effect-over-cause precedence visible at sentence level, applies especially well, on a smaller scale, to clauses, constraining the range of forms that constructions can take. Thus, the form of constructions is determined by factors like viable arrangements of events within a clause and the metaphoric grounding of meanings that a given construction conveys. Such constraints result in striking convergences between constructions in different languages. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Cognitive Semantics Brill

Effect Before Cause

Cognitive Semantics , Volume 2 (2): 23 – Sep 18, 2016

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
2352-6408
eISSN
2352-6416
DOI
10.1163/23526416-00202003
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In the present study, I look at a regularity first observed in Talmy (2000: 483), who showed that in sentences describing sequences of events of the cause-and-effect type, effect events take precedence over causes. They tend to be mentioned first in a sentence, and grammatical patterns exist where cause events cannot be expressed before effects. I use Talmy’s observation to argue against an excessive emphasis on idiosyncrasy of grammatical constructions. Specifically, I will show that the effect-over-cause precedence visible at sentence level, applies especially well, on a smaller scale, to clauses, constraining the range of forms that constructions can take. Thus, the form of constructions is determined by factors like viable arrangements of events within a clause and the metaphoric grounding of meanings that a given construction conveys. Such constraints result in striking convergences between constructions in different languages.

Journal

Cognitive SemanticsBrill

Published: Sep 18, 2016

References