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Language Arts & Disciplines Study & Teaching

Lessons on the English Verb

No Expression Without Representation

by (author) Walter Hirtle

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2007
Category
Study & Teaching, Grammar & Punctuation
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773531987
    Publish Date
    Mar 2007
    List Price
    $125.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773577916
    Publish Date
    Mar 2007
    List Price
    $110.00

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Description

Guillaume's theory of psychomechanics views language as systematic and semiotic, with the use of verb forms governed by the meaning we want to express, which is embedded in the unconscious resources of one's native tongue rather than in rules. Through his application of Guillaume's framework Walter Hirtle provides original insights on such topics as the treatment of the progressive and the perfect in English, the use of 'do' as an auxiliary in questions and negations, and tense and its relation to aspect and mood. Hirtle is the former director of the Fonds Gustave Guillaume, an archive of 60,000 manuscript pages of the theorist's work, housed at Laval University, the world centre for the study of psychomechanics.

About the author

Walter Hirtle is professeur associé at l’Université Laval, Quebec City, and the author of several books, including Lessons on the English Verb: No Expression without Representation and Language in the Mind: An Introduction to Guillaume's Theory.

Walter Hirtle's profile page