Distinctions in English Grammar
― Offered to Renaat Declerck ―

Author： Bert Cappelle　Naoaki Wada ISBN： 978-4-7589-2154-1 First published： 2010 / 10 / 16 Price (in Japan only)： 6,200 yen (Tax Not Included) (384 pages)

Summary

Distinctions are all-important to grammatical description. Terms and concepts cannot be defined without them. Yet, linguists may disagree on which distinctions to make, where, and on which grounds. A grammarian may have a tendency to either split categories or lump them together, and may prefer to draw either sharp or blurred dividing lines between forms, usage types, or areas of study.

This volume sheds new light on several topics in English grammar by introducing, redrawing or questioning boundaries between grammatical classes, between synchrony and diachrony, and between semantics and pragmatics. It is dedicated to Renaat Declerck, emeritus professor of English linguistics who retired from Belgium’s University of Leuven in 2009. While Declerck’s main contributions lie in his detailed study of the English tense system, he has dissected a vast range of grammatical phenomena in English. The first part of the book discusses distinctions in the grammar of the English verb phrase, dealing with tense, modality, and -ing forms and nominalisations. The second part is devoted to distinctions in the grammar of the sentence and utterance in English, exploring issues related to word order and information structure, reasoning, and dialogic interaction.

Insightfully written by European and Japanese scholars in honour of Renaat Declerck’s careful descriptive approach and many achievements, the fifteen original papers collected in this book will reward anyone studying or describing the grammar of English.

Table of Contents

Preface
Bibliography of Renaat Declerck
Table of Contents

When a Linguist Draws a Line　　Bert Cappelle and Naoaki Wada

PART I:　Distinctions in the Grammar of the Verb Phrase in English
　Tenses・Modals・-ing Forms and Nominalisations

[Tenses]
On the Non-Perfect Tense in the Temporal Since-Construction in Discourse　　Kazuhiko Tanaka
On the Distinction of English Past Tenses　　Naoaki Wada

[Modals]
Some Observations on the Meaning of Modals　　Ilse Depraetere
Should vs. Ought to　　Bert Cappelle and Gert De Sutter
The English Comparative Modals―A Pilot Study　　Johan van der Auwera and Astrid De Wit

[-ing Forms and Nominalisations]
Recent Changes in the Use of the Progressive Construction in English　　Bas Aarts, Joanne Close and Sean Wallis
On Going　　Raphael Salkie
The Category of the Gerund in a Diachronic Perspective　　Xavier Dekeyser
Nominalisation Research―A Bird's Eye View　　Liesbet Heyvaert

PART II:　Distinctions in the Grammar of the Sentence and Utterance in English
　Word Order and Information Structure・Reasoning and Dialogic Interaction

[Word Order and Information Structure]
Adverbial Distinctions that Matter and Others that Don't　　Joost Buysschaert
It-Clefts in Casual Conversational English: The Weakening of their Specificational Meaning　　Chris Bicler and Kristin Davidse
Left Dislocation and Multiple Focussing in Clefts　　Shigeki Seki
Extraposed When-Clauses: Free Relative Clauses or Noun Clauses?　　Anne Jugnet

[Reasoning and Dialogic Interaction]
The Let Alone Puzzle: A Question of Orientation　　Theo A.J.M. Janssen and Frederike C. van der Leek
Is the Echo Question a Type of Reported Speech?　　Lieven Vandelanotte

Index