%0 Journal Article
%T When discourse matches syntax: On meta-informative centering theory and discourse coherence in the recent history of English
%A Ana Elina Mart赤nez Insua
%J International Journal of English Studies (IJES)
%D 2011
%I Universidad de Murcia
%R 10.6018/ijes.11.2.149661
%X Este art赤culo estudia c車mo las construcciones con there pueden haber contribuido a la creaci車n de coherencia discursiva a lo largo de la historia del ingl谷s. Desde el marco te車rico de la denominada Meta-Informative Centering Theory (MIC), exploraremos la posibilidad de establecer conexiones entre la estructura sint芍ctica estudiada y diversos tipos de transiciones entre centros de atenci車n (Brennan, Friedman & Pollard, 1987). En 迆ltima instancia, esto contribuir芍 a la mejor caracterizaci車n de la interacci車n entre las teor赤as MIC y Centering Theory, el orden de palabras y la estructura de la informaci車n en una lengua con orden de palabras r赤gido. El estudio de corpus que aqu赤 se presenta se basa en datos extra赤dos de muestras de ingl谷s oral y escrito correspondientes al periodo que va del Ingl谷s Medio tard赤o al Ingl谷s Contempor芍neo. Los datos muestran la capacidad de las construcciones con there para funcionar bien como estructuras altamente coherentes que mantienen el t車pico local previo, o bien como instrumentos para cambiar el centro de atenci車n local. This paper is concerned with how there-constructions may have helped to achieve discourse coherence in the recent history of English. From the theoretical framework of Meta-Informative Centering Theory (MIC) the paper explores the possibility to establish a relation between the syntactic structures under analysis and the distinction between 'smooth-shift' and 'rough-shift' transitions from one centre of attention to another (Brennan, Friedman & Pollard, 1987). This will help, ultimately, to investigate the interaction between centering and MIC theories, word order and information structure in a 'non-free' word order language such as English. A corpus- driven analysis of the behaviour of spoken and written there-constructions from late Middle English to Present Day English will show their capacity to function either as highly coherent structures that continue with the same local topic as the previous utterance(s), or as means to shift the local focus of attention.
%K discourse coherence
%K Meta-Informative Centering Theory
%K there-construction
%K (global and local) centre of attention
%U http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/149661