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Non-Finiteness

A Process-Relation Perspective

Bingjun Yang (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)

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English
Cambridge University Press
28 April 2022
'Non-finiteness' is a phenomenon that occurs in most natural languages, whereby a verb is not inflected by grammatical tense, and does not possess the grammatical features of aspect, mood or voice. Various theories have been developed to explain their distribution and their role in clause structure, but many instances of non-finiteness remain unaccounted for. Taking a functional approach, this study proposes a 'process relation framework' to explain the more complex, previously unaccounted for, instances of non-finiteness in clause structure. It applies the framework comparatively to non-finiteness in English and Chinese, showing how it can be applied across typologically distinct languages. Drawing on corpus-based instances and observations, it introduces numerous thought-provoking cases, in which constructional (or combining) types and the predictability of non-finiteness co-occur. In terms of application, non-finiteness is decisive in categorising language types, and it is critical in processing natural languages, text segmentation and annotation in particular.

By:  
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Height: 236mm,  Width: 158mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   519g
ISBN:   9781316513415
ISBN 10:   1316513416
Pages:   228
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Bingjun Yang is Professor in Systemic Functional Linguistics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His publications include Corpus-based Investigations into Grammar, Media and Health Discourse (Springer Nature, 2020), Language Policy (Routledge, 2017) and Absolute Clauses in English from the Systemic Functional Perspective (Springer, 2015).

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