The English ‘Time-measurement construction’ as a case of gradience: A Functional Discourse Grammar approach

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to show the adequacy of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG) to account for a case of gradience in English, a time- measurement construction that expressions like three months (maternity) leave instantiate. These expressions pose a challenge to linguistic theories, as they show the overlap between different categories concerning the interface between two Levels of the architecture of FDG, the Representational and the Morphosyntactic Levels (and/ or articulation). Firstly, these cases resemble compounds, such as a six-day week, where the absence of number marking on day and hyphenation indicate that it is a specific type of unit in which ‘six-day’ modifies the head noun. In addition, they are similar to the so-called measure genitive (e.g. a ten days’ absence), in which the temporal noun is expressed as a genitive with an apostrophe and typically in plural form and which are usually interpreted in a similar way to compounds. By contrast, expressions like three months maternity leave are quantifying, used to measure the amount of the entity denoted by the second noun. By means of the architecture of the theory of FDG the distinctions between the different cases can be accounted for adequately at the different levels of linguistic representation. In addition, FDG’s refined typology of entities will be shown to be crucial to provide an accurate account of the construction.