Höglund, Mikko

Yhteystiedot

vastaanotto:
sähköposti: sähköpostiosoitehaku
huone: B5042
puhelin: 0503180617

Ongoing project

Tough-Construction in English – A Cognitive and Usage-Based Approach

In my doctoral dissertation I examine the tough-construction (Mary is tough/easy/difficult/impossible to please) and its variation and change from the early 18th century to the present day in both British and American English.

The dissertation consists of two main parts that interact with each other. I will be investigating the theory of the tough-construction from the point of view of Cognitive and Construction Grammar. In addition, I will conduct an extensive corpus study using two historical corpora (the CLMET and a new corpus compiled in collaboration with Kaj Syrjänen: the Corpus of Early American Literature, CEAL) and two large present-day English corpora (the BNC and COCA).

The main objective of this project is to chart the development of the tough-construction during the past three hundred years, and to see how the pattern has changed in both British and American English. This will shed more light on the nature of the tough-construction and its present-day use, and hopefully also bring new insights to theoretical framework descriptions.