Description
Book SynopsisThe volume deals with the topic of illocutionary shell nouns in English, i.e. nouns that encapsulate a content that is usually expressed in a complement or in a separate sentence or clause, and report or characterize it as a specific speech act. The book reports a usage-based study of the complementation patterns in a corpus of 335 illocutionary nouns distributed across the five Searlean classes of assertive, commissive, directive, expressive, and declarative nouns. The investigation aims to verify the association between the meaning of these nouns and their complementation patterns, and between their semantic similarity and the similarity in the distribution of complementation patterns.
Table of ContentsIntroduction – Data and methodology – Assertive shell nouns – Commissive shell nouns – Directive shell nouns – Expressive shell nouns – Declarative shell nouns – Discussion and conclusion – References – Appendix 1 –Appendix 2 – Index of illocutionary shell nouns – Index of subjects
