TY  - GEN
A1  - Kranich, Svenja
T1  - Functional layering and the English progressive
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe
N2  - In this article, it will be argued that the concept of functional layering – an extension of Hopper’s (1991) concept of layering – can be fruitfully applied to understand the mechanisms behind the sometimes large and messy looking synchronic picture of diverse meanings which one and the same construction can fulfill at a particular point in time. The concept will be used to account for the meaning spectrum of the present-day English progressive, which, it will be argued, no monosemic approach to date can account for. Taking a look at the diachrony of the construction will help to reveal that the various “exceptions” found in the use of the progressive can be understood as reflections of different stages in its development. Older, less grammaticalized or less well-defined usage patterns thus often survive in certain restricted niches next to the newer, more grammaticalized or more clear-cut functions, representing different diachronic layers. In addition to this diachronic motivation for synchronic meaning variety, the article will also address the crucial question of how a present-day hearer of a progressive form is able to decode the specific meaning intended by the speaker based on contextual clues. The article ends with some suggestions for further applications of the concept of functional layering.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe - 110 
KW  - grammaticalization
KW  - subjectification
KW  - semantic change
KW  - the English progressive construction
KW  - polysemy
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-93961
SN  - 1866-8380
IS  - 110
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Wiemann, Dirk
T1  - Cities of the Mind – Villages of the Mind
BT  - Imagining Urbanity in Contemporary India
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe
N2  - Deep into the second half of the twentieth century the traditionalist definition of India as a country of villages remained dominant in official political rhetoric as well as cultural production. In the past two decades or so, this ruralist paradigm has been effectively superseded by a metropolitan imaginary in which the modern, globalised megacity increasingly functions as representative of India as a whole. Has the village, then, entirely vanished from the cultural imaginary in contemporary India? Addressing economic practices from upper-class consumerism to working-class family support strategies, this paper attempts to trace how ‘the village’ resurfaces or survives as a cultural reference point in the midst of the urban.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe - 109 
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-93951
SN  - 1866-8380
IS  - 109
ER  -