Vol.6, No 1, 2008pp. 1 - 14
UDC 811.111'366.573'367
GRADIENCE IN ANALYSIS: A CASE OF PRESENTATIVE
PASSIVE
Junichi Toyota
Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature, Department of
English, Sweden
In this paper, a concept of overlapping grammatical categories in a linguistic
analysis is discussed. This overlap has gained recognition in research
and is often termed as gradience. A specific instance of gradience concerning
various types of the passive voice, especially the one involving less-typical
information status, is used as an example to illustrate how gradience exists
in different languages. The passive is known to function as a topic marker
in a clause, but there are some cases where it is used as a focus device.
By studying these features both synchronically and diachronically, one
can find gradience of the passive both structurally and functionally.
Key words: gradience; grammatical category; passive; information
status
GRADIJENTNOST U ANALIZI: SLUČAJ
PREZENTACIONOG PASIVA
U ovom radu razmatra se koncept preklapanja gramatičkih kategorija u lingvističkoj
analizi. Za ovu vrstu preklapanja se u literaturi često koristi termin
gradijentnost. Posebna vrsta gradijentnosti koja se tiče različitih oblika
pasiva, naročito onog koji obuhvata manje tipičan informacioni status,
razmatra se kao primer kako gradijentnost postoji u različitim jezicima.
Poznato je da pasiv funkcioniše kao tematski marker u klauzi, ali postoje
izvesni slučajevi kada se koristi i kao sredstvo za označavanje fokusa.
Proučavanjem ovih karakteristika kako sinhronijski tako i dijahronijski,
može se utvrditi gradijentnost pasiva i strukturalno i funkcionalno.
Ključne reči: gradijentnost, gramatička kategorija, pasiv,
informacioni status
