Whales, Candlelight, and Stuff Like That General Extenders in English Discourse

by Overstreet, Maryann

• ISBN13: 9780195125740
• ISBN10: 0195125746
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This innovative work provides the first comprehensive account of general extenders ("or something," "and stuff," "or whatever"). Combining insights from linguistics, cognitive psychology, and interactional sociolinguistics, the author demonstrates that these small phrases are not simply vague expressions, but have a powerful role in making interpersonal communication work. The audience for this book includes linguists, scholars of English, teachers of English as a first and a second language, sociolinguists, psycholinguists, and communications researchers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Transcription Conventions	p. xi
Preliminaries	p. 1
Introduction	p. 3
Ideational Function	p. 19
Vague Language and List Construction	p. 21
Category Implication	p. 31
Category Inference	p. 47
Interpersonal Function	p. 63
Intersubjectivity	p. 65
Expectations, Evaluations, and Emphasis	p. 79
Politeness	p. 97
The Maxim of Quality and Disjunctive General Extenders	p. 111
The Maxim of Quantity and Adjunctive General Extenders	p. 125
Conclusion	p. 141
Summary	p. 143
Notes	p. 153
References	p. 157
Index	p. 167
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