Papers by Christian Mair (English Linguistics)
Gordon Collier, ed. Us / Them: Translation, Transcription and Identity in Post-Colonial Literary Cultures. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1992. 277-287., 1992
Da nichtfinite Sätze des Englischen in vielen Fällen fakultativ ein eigenes Subjekt zu sich nehme... more Da nichtfinite Sätze des Englischen in vielen Fällen fakultativ ein eigenes Subjekt zu sich nehmen können und dadurch in direkte funktionale Konkurrenz mit finiten Nebensatztypen treten, gibt es im Bereich der Komplementsätze (= Subjekt-, Objekt-und Prädikativsätze) weitreichende strukturelle und distributioneile Kontraste mit dem Deutschen — Kontraste, die in einer neueren Arbeit zur englisch-deutschen kontrastiven Linguistik (Hawkins 1986) als logische Folge einer seit einem Jahrtausend wirksamen sprachhistorischen 'drift' erklärt werden. Auf semantisch-funktionaler Ebene dagegen kommt es — bedingt durch gemeinsame kommunikative Bedürfnisse in beiden Sprechergruppen — gelegentlich zu konvergenten Ent-wicklungen. Bei wertenden Matrixprädikaten etwa haben die we/w-Subjektsätze des Deutschen und die for + NP + inf.-Subjektsätze des Englischen eine gemeinsame Funktion, nämlich den Ausdruck potentieller Modalität. Die funktionelle Gemeinsamkeit führt zu teilweise über-raschenden, weil nicht historisch motivierten distributionellen Entsprechungen zwischen den beiden Sprachen. Les propositions non finies de Fanglais peuvent dans de nombreux cas attirer facultativement un sujet propre et entrer ainsi en concurrence fonctionnelle directe avec des propositions subordonnees finies. II existe ainsi dans le domaine des propositions complementaires (de sujet, d'objet et d'attribut) des contrastes structuraux et distributionnels importants entre l'allemand et l'anglais, contrastes qui dans un ouvrage recent sur la linguistique contrastive anglaise-allemande (Hawkins 1985) sont expliques comme une consequence logique d'un 'drift' diachronique agissant depuis un millier d'annees. Au niveau semantique-fonctionnel il peut se produire parfois, au contraire, des developpements convergents — conditionnes par des be-soins communicatifs communs dans les deux groupes de locuteurs. Les propositions avec wenn-sujets en allemand et les constructions avec for + NP + to-inf. anglaises peuvent avoir une fonction commune, celle d'exprimer une modalite potentielle. La parente fonctionnelle peut aboutir ä des correspondences distributionnelles entre les deux langues, en partie etonnantes ä cause du manque de motivation historique.
International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, Jan 31, 2003
Our Western civilization, it has been said, favours an overdevelopment of the intellect at the ex... more Our Western civilization, it has been said, favours an overdevelopment of the intellect at the expense of the emotions. This is why people prefer nouns to verbs." (Potter 1975: 101)
Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 2015
The present study offers the first analysis of modals and semi-modals which is based on all six c... more The present study offers the first analysis of modals and semi-modals which is based on all six completed Brown family corpora (B-Brown, B-LOB, Brown, LOB, Frown, F-LOB) and shows that the dynamics of diachronic change have prevented the emergence and preservation of stable regional contrasts between British and American English. The significance of this finding for the study of modality in the New Englishes is explored.
Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 2012
from Markus et al., eds. Middle and Modern English Corpus Linguistics (2012)
Sociolinguistic Perspectives, 2014
Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 2010
Language, as we have known since the eighteenth century at least, is at the heart of the study of... more Language, as we have known since the eighteenth century at least, is at the heart of the study of culture. In most English departments in Germany (and continental Europe generally), linguistics, literature and Cultural Studies are institutionally established under one roof. In this environment, cultural and literary studies are considered natural bedfellows, and linguistics and literary studies also have a tradition of recently (re-)intensified cooperation in areas such as, for example, narratology and semantics (see Carter / Stockwell 2008 for a comprehensive and up-todate survey). However, linguists and scholars in Cultural Studies usually pursue their research in mutual ignorance of each other's work. Why this particular axis of cooperation has remained so precarious is the question which this special issue of ZAA is going to address. Having explored the contact zones between linguistics and Cultural Studies in several jointly taught classes over the past few years, we are convinced that mere apathetic co-existence is not salutary and that both linguistics and Cultural Studies have much to gain from closer and more systematic cooperation in research and teaching. The five contributions assembled in this issue make this point -convincingly, though each in its own way. We hope that they will stimulate further co-operation in the field.
Selling the Caribbean: Questions of Value in a Globalized Culture. Themenheft / Special Issue – Z... more Selling the Caribbean: Questions of Value in a Globalized Culture. Themenheft / Special Issue – Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik (ZAA) 63, 2 (2015)
English World-Wide 34 (2013): 253-278.
English Language and Linguistics 6 (2002): 105-131. Nachdrucke / Reprinted in Wolfgang Teubert & ... more English Language and Linguistics 6 (2002): 105-131. Nachdrucke / Reprinted in Wolfgang Teubert & Ramesh Krishnamurthy, eds. Critical Concepts in Linguistics – Corpus Linguistics. Vol. V. London: Routledge, 2007. 386-415; Douglas Biber & Randi Reppen, eds. Corpus Linguistics [Sage Benchmarks in Language and Linguistics], vol. 2: Grammar. Los Angeles, etc.: Sage, 2012. 179-206.
Special Issue on "Construction des connaissances sociolinguistiques, vol. 1: variation et contex... more Special Issue on "Construction des connaissances sociolinguistiques, vol. 1: variation et contexte social." Cahiers de Linguistique 38/1 (2012): 87-110.
In Christian Mair & Hans Lindquist, eds. Corpus Approaches to Grammaticalisation in English. Amst... more In Christian Mair & Hans Lindquist, eds. Corpus Approaches to Grammaticalisation in English. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2004.
In Paul Skandera, ed. Phraseology and Culture in English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2007. 437-468.
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Papers by Christian Mair (English Linguistics)