Discourse and metadiscourse of Hebrew SOV in the heated parliamentary arena

This paper examines the syntactic, informational, discursive, and metadiscursive functions of the SOV construction in heated parliamentary dialogic discourse. Syntax and information structure coincide in the SOV construction, creating a tripartite structure, in which the initial subject is topicaliz...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of pragmatics 2019-02, Vol.141, p.67-79
Main Authors: Netz, Hadar, Kuzar, Ron
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contrast
Defocalization
Emotive accent
Metadiscourse
Newsworthiness
Political discourse
SOV
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Summary:This paper examines the syntactic, informational, discursive, and metadiscursive functions of the SOV construction in heated parliamentary dialogic discourse. Syntax and information structure coincide in the SOV construction, creating a tripartite structure, in which the initial subject is topicalized, the medially positioned object contains defocalized topical material, and the reduced object-less VP constitutes a narrowed down focus domain, containing the newsworthy element. Discursively, the subject and the newsworthy element stand in contrast with parallel elements in a paired sentence, which is often only implicit. Metadiscursively, the SOV construction is employed in the heated parliamentary arena for an emotively accentuated expression of propriety/impropriety. •In the Hebrew SOV construction, the subject is topicalized, the object defocalized, and the VP reduced.•The reduced VP contains the newsworthy element.•The SOV sentence is contrastively paired with an implicit parallel proposition.•SOV is used metadiscursively for emotive accent of im/propriety in heated parliamentary debates.
ISSN:0378-2166
1879-1387
DOI:10.1016/j.pragma.2018.12.017