Current Issues in Comparative Grammar

Current Issues in Comparative Grammar PDF Author: R. Freidin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400901356
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
Current Issues in Comparative Grammar illustrates the diversity and productivity of research within the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar. In combination, the papers in this volume address a rich and varied set of issues in the study of comparative grammar, including the theories of binding, case and government, the parametric effects of inflection, the syntactic properties of infinitival constructions, the analysis of expletives and of clitics, and the interpretation of anaphoric properties at the level of Logical Form. The collection employs several different research strategies, ranging from a broad survey of related constructions in a wide range of languages to the close analysis of an unusual construction in a single language and its consequences for the theory of Universal Grammar. Some of the papers collected here are commentaries on others, or responses to commentaries.

Current Issues in Comparative Grammar

Current Issues in Comparative Grammar PDF Author: R. Freidin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400901356
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Get Book

Book Description
Current Issues in Comparative Grammar illustrates the diversity and productivity of research within the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar. In combination, the papers in this volume address a rich and varied set of issues in the study of comparative grammar, including the theories of binding, case and government, the parametric effects of inflection, the syntactic properties of infinitival constructions, the analysis of expletives and of clitics, and the interpretation of anaphoric properties at the level of Logical Form. The collection employs several different research strategies, ranging from a broad survey of related constructions in a wide range of languages to the close analysis of an unusual construction in a single language and its consequences for the theory of Universal Grammar. Some of the papers collected here are commentaries on others, or responses to commentaries.

Current Issues in Comparative Grammar

Current Issues in Comparative Grammar PDF Author: R. Freidin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789400901360
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description


Deletion phenomena in comparative constructions

Deletion phenomena in comparative constructions PDF Author: Julia Bacskai-Atkari
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961100837
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book provides a new analysis for the syntax of comparatives, focusing on various deletion phenomena affecting the subclause. In particular, the proposed account shows that Comparative Deletion is merely a surface phenomenon that can be drawn back to the overtness of the comparative operator and the availability of lower copies of a movement chain, and it is thus subject to both language-internal and cross-linguistic variation. The main focus of the book is on English, yet other languages are also discussed for comparative purposes, with the aim of showing what the idiosyncratic properties of English comparatives are.

Current Issues in Spanish Syntax and Semantics

Current Issues in Spanish Syntax and Semantics PDF Author: Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110850532
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

Voice syncretism

Voice syncretism PDF Author: Nicklas N. Bahrt
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961103194
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive typological account of voice syncretism, focusing on resemblance in formal verbal marking between two or more of the following seven voices: passives, antipassives, reflexives, reciprocals, anticausatives, causatives, and applicatives. It covers voice syncretism from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, and has been structured in a manner that facilitates convenient access to information about specific patterns of voice syncretism, their distribution and development. The book is based on a survey of voice syncretism in 222 geographically and genealogically diverse languages, but also thoroughly revisits previous research on the phenomenon. Voice syncretism is approached systematically by establishing and exploring patterns of voice syncretism that can logically be posited for the seven voices of focus in the book: 21 simplex patterns when one considers two of the seven voices sharing the same marking (e.g. reflexive-reciprocal syncretism), and 99 complex patterns when one considers more than two of the voices sharing the same marking (e.g. reflexive-reciprocal-anticausative syncretism). In a similar vein, 42 paths of development can logically be posited if it is assumed that voice marking in each of the seven voices can potentially develop one of the other six voice functions (e.g. reflexive voice marking developing a reciprocal function). This approach enables the discussion of both voice syncretism that has received considerable attention in the literature (notably middle syncretism involving the reflexive, reciprocal, anticausative and/or passive voices) and voice syncretism that has received little or not treatment in the past (including seemingly contradictory patterns such as causative-anticausative and passive-antipassive syncretism). In the survey almost all simplex patterns are attested in addition to seventeen complex patterns. In terms of diachrony, evidence is presented and discussed for twenty paths of development. The book strives to highlight the variation found in voice syncretism across the world’s languages and encourage further research into the phenomenon.

Principles and Parameters in Comparative Grammar

Principles and Parameters in Comparative Grammar PDF Author: Robert Freidin
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262061407
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
These essays by an outstanding group of linguists present case studies in contemporary comparative grammar, illustrating the rich and varied ways in which the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar can provide explanations for both the underlying universal properties of the world's languages and the ways in which they differ. The final essay by Noam Chomsky offers a new perspective on the principles and parameters approach to comparative grammar. In his introduction, Freidin describes the historical background of current work in comparative grammar and compares this work to the comparative studies of the nineteenth century. He notes how the current approach traces the fundamental unity of all languages to the language faculty, in contrast to that of the nineteenth century which was primarily concerned with the ancestral relations among languages. The essays that follow convey the wide scope of the interaction between current theory and crosslinguistic studies. Topics include the relevance of binding theory for crosslinguistic studies; the interaction between the syntax/lexical semantics interface and the theory of UG; the role of phrase structure and levels of representation in accounting or syntactic variation; crosslinguistic variation in word order phenomena; and the ways in which the study of comparative grammar can itself contribute to the understanding of UG. Contributors Joseph Aoun. Adriana Belletti. Noam Chomsky. Robert Freidin. Wayne Harbert. Norbert Hornstein. C.-T. James Huang. Anthony S. Kroch. Howard Lasnik. Yen-hui Audrey Li. David Lightfoot. Luigi Rizzi. Ken Safir. Beatrice Santorini. Rex A. Sprouse. Timothy Stowell. Tarald Taraldsen. Lisa deMena Travis. Edwin Williams

Comparative Grammar

Comparative Grammar PDF Author: Victoria Roberts
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780415341998
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 2543

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Book Description
The study of comparative grammar has long been a concern of linguistic theory. To the extent that, by studying the aspects of grammar which vary, we might arrive at an idea of what does not vary, this study can be seen as one way of studying universals of grammar. Although it has antecedents in the Middle Ages, comparative grammar was not systematically studied until the nineteenth century, and then purely from a historical perspective. In the past forty years, however, two important approaches have emerged: Greenbergian language typology and the Chomskyan programme based on the idea of the interaction of the principles and parameters of universal grammar. In recent years, these two approaches have to a degree converged. Our notion of how grammatical systems vary and our ability to provide detailed, sophisticated analyses of this variation across a range of languages and grammatical phenomena is probably greater than it has been at any time in the past. Concentrating on principles-and-parameters theory, this new Routledge Major Work presents a general, detailed and critical overview of what has been achieved. Aside from the first and last volumes, each one is devoted to a particular aspect of grammatical variation which has been identified as underlying important differences among languages. The first volume presents some of the most important work prior to the formulation of the principles-and-parameters approach in approximately 1980, including Greenberg's seminal early paper on language typology, while the last volume, in addition to considering further aspects of variation, briefly illustrates how the principles-and-parameters approach has been applied to first-language acquisition and syntactic change. With comprehensive introductions to each volume, newly written by the editor, which place the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Comparative Grammar is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by linguistics scholars and students as a vital research resource.

Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon

Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon PDF Author: Lutz Edzard
Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
ISBN: 9783447054416
Category : Semitic languages
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The papers collected in this volume cover topics from the theoretical perspectives on Semitic linguistics to the practical application of philological methods to various texts. Michael G. Carter opens with some deliberations on Arabic linguistics in its Islamic context. Jan Retso reinvestigates the question of the origins of Arabic dialects. Werner Arnold offers some glimpses of the Arabic dialects in the Tel Aviv region. Janet Watson, Bonnie Glover Stalls, Khalid al-Razihi and Shelagh Weir describe aspects of Razihit, a language variety spoken in north-west Yemen. Sven-Olof Dahlgren presents some statistics on sentential negation in Quranic Arabic. Rosmari Lillas-Schuil deals in-depth with the stylistic . gure hendiadys in Biblical Hebrew. Geoffrey Khan sheds new light on compound verbal forms in north-eastern Neo-Aramaic. Kjell Magne Yri examines the grammaticalization of nouns as postpositions in Amharic. Lutz Edzard analyzes various types of compound formations in Modern Semitic. Pernilla Myrne offers some thoughts on the gender-specific use of sexual vocabulary by women in Classical Arabic. Judith Josephson investigates the Hellenistic heritage of the zan diqa 'heretics'. Gunvor Mejdell gives an overview of the use of the vernacular in modern Egyptian literature. Finally, Tetz Rooke looks at cross-cultural issues in connection with translation problems from Arabic into European languages.

English Grammar

English Grammar PDF Author: Liliane Haegeman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 063118838X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 691

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Book Description
This book is intended primarily for undergraduate students of English, though it will also be useful for undergraduates in linguistics focusing on English. It shows how a restricted set of principles can account for a wide range of the phenomena of English syntax. While the main focus of the book is empirical, it introduces important theoretical concepts: theta theory, X-bar theory, case theory, locality, binding theory, economy, full interpretation, functional projections. In doing so it prepares the student for more advanced theoretical work. The authors integrate many recent insights into the nature of syntactic structure into their discussion. They present information in a gradual way: hypotheses developed in early chapters are reviewed and modified in subsequent ones. The authors also pay attention to the relation between structure and interpretation and to language variation, and particularly to register variation. They include a wide range of diverse exercises, giving the student an opportunity for creative individual work on English.

Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language and Linguistics

Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language and Linguistics PDF Author: Alex Barber
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 9780080965017
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 836

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Book Description
The application of philosophy to language study, and language study to philosophy, has experienced demonstrable intellectual growth and diversification in recent decades. Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language and Linguistics comprehensively analyzes and evaluates many of the most interesting facets of this vibrant field. An edited collection of articles taken from the award-winning Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Second Edition, this volume acts as a single-stop desk reference resource for the field, comprising contributions from the foremost scholars of philosophy of linguistics in their various interdisciplinary specializations. From Plato's Cratylus to Semantic and Epistemic Holism, this fascinating work authoritatively unpacks the diverse and multi-layered concepts of meaning, expression, identity, truth, and countless other themes and subjects straddling the linguistic-philosophical meridian, in 175 articles and over 900 pages. Authoritative review of this dynamic field placed in an interdisciplinary context Approximately 175 articles by leaders in the field Compact and affordable single-volume format