Discourse Pragmatics and the Verb

The orientation of this collection of essays reflects an increasing recognition within linguistics of the importance of pragmatic factors and discourse context for understanding grammar. Whatever intrinsic meanings grammatical categories may have, discourse-pragmatic considerations play a crucial role in the interpretation of their functions in actual language use. This is demonstrated with reference to the major Romance languages French, Spanish and Italian. It represents a new direction for the ongoing linguistic dialogue on the verb and its grammar, as well as making a substantial contribution to studies of Romance linguistics. Discourse-pragmatic considerations are central to the process of our coming to understand the work that verbal categories do in language, work that clearly transcends what we normally think of as the basic grammatical functions of those categories. "Discourse Pragmatics and the Verb" explores the functions of tense, aspect, mood and voice in structuring information (encoding topic-focus relations, foreground-background, assertion and presupposition), creating textual cohesion and connectivity.
This book should be of interest to students and lecturers in linguistics, Romance philology and pragmatics.