A corpus-based study of phrasal and clausal temporal adjuncts at the left and right peripheries across genres of written English discourse

Abstract

This paper examines the distribution and functions of phrasal and clausal temporal adjuncts in left-peripheral and right-peripheral position across three genres of written English discourse, i.e. informative, argumentative and narrative discourse. Drawing on data from news reports and commentaries from The Guardian, as well as personal narratives written by students from the Universities of Portsmouth and Sussex, the study aims to provide answers to the following research questions: (1) In how far does the use of phrasal and clausal temporal adjuncts vary across syntactic positions as well as across discourse genres? (2) How can discourse-genre-specific preferences in the positional distribution of temporal adjuncts in written English discourse be accounted for? The analysis shows that left-peripheral temporal adjuncts are considerably more frequently used in commentaries and student stories than in news reports, where temporal adjuncts are most frequently placed in right-peripheral position. This genre-specific variation is accounted for by various syntactic, semantic and discourse-related factors which are systematically related to the specific communicative purposes of the underlying discourse genres. Ultimately, this paper aims to argue that the macro-level concept of discourse genre plays a crucial role in determining and constraining the positional distribution of temporal adjuncts in written English discourse.