Future directions for ‘role and reference grammar’: Distinctions to be drawn between Russian and English.
A geological map of the London Underground: Unearthing different soil types in tunnelling.
August 8, 2021The inter-relation between Cornish identity and Cornish dialect: A case study of two Cornish octogenarians and two Cornish twenty-year olds.
August 8, 2021Future directions for ‘role and reference grammar’: Distinctions to be drawn between Russian and English.
Example linguistics dissertation topic 1:
Future directions for ‘role and reference grammar’: Distinctions to be drawn between Russian and English.
Given the changes in modern speech patterns, and the influence of other languages upon both English and Russian, the future of typological adequacy in role and reference grammar as epitomised by the theories of van Valin Jnr is considered at length. The issue of focus placement is thus explored as the essence of this thesis and speculation is made of changes that are likely to occur over the next twenty to thirty years in the two sample languages. A systematic review of van Valin Jnr’s work over the last thirty years is undertaken and an analysis is provided as evidence for the basis of this academic speculation.
Suggested initial topic reading:
- Brisard, F., Östman, J-O. and Verschueren, J. (eds) (2009). Grammar, meaning and pragmatics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Butler, C.S. (2005). ‘Focusing on focus: A comparison of functional grammar, role and reference grammar and systemic functional grammar’, Language Sciences, Vol. 27(6), pp. 585-618.
- Pavey, E.L. (2004). A role and reference grammar analysis. PhD thesis: University of Sussex.
