Topic：The Grammar of Conversational English: Ellipsis and Double Negation
Speaker：Prof. Roberto A. Valdeón, University of Oviedo
Host：Prof. Guo Yangsheng, School of Foreign Languages for Business
Time：Dec.13th, 2021（Monday）16:00—17:00
Platform and meeting ID：Tencent meeting，390-3643-4418
Speaker：
Roberto A. Valdeón，member of Academia Europaea, is a Professor at the University of Oviedo, Spain, the Editor-in-Chief of Perspectives, and the General Editor of Benjamins Translation Library. He has published more than 120 articles in Language and Intercultural Communication, Across Languages and Cultures, Meta and so on. He is an Honorary Professor at some of the most prestigious universities in China, such as Jinan University, Nankai University, Beijing International Studies University, and lectures regularly.
Content：
In this second talk, I will discuss two grammatical features of conversation: ellipsis and double negatives. Unlike other European languages, English is supposed to use pronouns before verbs. However, in conversational English, speakers tend to omit information that is considered known to the listeners, including pronouns as well as auxiliaries, articles and prepositions. On the other hand, double negation is rarely used in standard English, while non-standard varieties use it frequently. I will discuss the difference between these two features.
