REFERENTIAL PROPERTIES OF ENGLISH DETACHED NONFINITE CONSTRUCTIONS WITH AN EXPLICIT SUBJECT: OPERATIONALIZATION AND QUANTIFICATION

Abstract

This article presents the results of quantitative-corpus parameterization of reference properties of English detached nonfinite constructions with an explicit subject, carried out from the perspective of the cognitive-quantitative approach to language study. Through the prism of cognitive-constructive grammar, the syntactic patterns under scrutiny are recognized as grammatical constructions, i.e. complex semiotic units, non-compositional cognitively motivated pairings of form and conceptual meaning/ function, stored as holistic, conceptually connected, and interacting structures. Corpus-quantitative parameterization of referential properties of the given constructions presupposes the analysis of the linguistic means of expressing coreference between five micro-constructions and a corresponding matrix clause, reflected by the factors “Coreference” (COREF) and “Absence of coreference” (ØCOREF) of the parameter “Reference relations” (REFREL). Quantitative verification of the data involves a three-stage quantitative procedure incorporating 1) a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), 2) a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and 3) Tukey’s multiple comparison test performed with a computer statistical data analysis software R. The obtained results prove that the non-augmented constructions show a stronger semantic integration into a matrix clause, compensating lack of syntactic connection by closer reference relations, manifested by explicitly expressed full or partial coreference. The use of augmentors facilitates the identification of with-, without-, despite- and what_with- augmented constructions as syntactic patterns, thus balancing the absence of coreference and ensuring adequate cognitive processing of constructions.