Differentiating Disjunctive and Parenthetical Constructions

Abstract

The investigations reported in this paper are part of a larger attempt to delineate the precise role of pragmatics in linguistic communication, and to sufficiently enrich pragmatic theory (especially those portions of it which are not directly concerned with illocutionary-force determinations) so that we may better account for the contribution of pragmatics towards meaning. Of particular interest in this regard are wards or strings which cannot be interpreted compositionally, but which must be processed by the pragmatic component. It is hoped that a detailed analysis of such material and its precise interaction with surrounding compositional material will help us to uncover the exact nature of the relationship existing between the syntactic and pragmatic components of communication. In the discussion at hand, I will attempt to differentiate two classes of constructions, disjuncts and parentheticals, which are of interest in this study.