Categorial Features

Categorial Features

Author: Phoevos Panagiotidis

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1107038111

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Proposes a novel theory of parts of speech, bringing together the latest research and discoveries.


English Grammatical Categories

English Grammatical Categories

Author: Ian Michael

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-06-10

Total Pages: 646

ISBN-13: 9780521143264

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This book examines the traditional grammar, very briefly for its Greek and Latin origins, and fully during its first two hundred years as 'English' grammar.


Grammatical Categories in Linguistics and Education

Grammatical Categories in Linguistics and Education

Author: Holden Härtl

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2024-11-04

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 3111141063

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This volume explores how grammatical categories, as defined by theoretical linguistics, are effectively implemented in language education. Aiming to bridge the gap between linguistic research and language pedagogy, it offers a detailed inquiry that spans theoretical frameworks and empirical data. By presenting a series of insightful studies, this work illustrates how findings from theoretical linguistics can be applied to enhance practical language instruction, demonstrating the reciprocal enrichment of both fields. Essential for linguists, language educators, and researchers interested in the intersections of grammar, cognition, and pedagogy, the volume is organized into four engaging sections. Each section illuminates the nuances of grammar teaching and language acquisition. It begins with a theoretical analysis of linguistic categories across diverse languages, progresses through the links between linguistic research and teaching methodologies, and delves into the role of empirical data in classroom applications. The final section focuses on the practical implementation of linguistic categories in language teaching, promoting a deeper understanding of grammar as a dynamic component of language learning.


The Evolution of Grammar

The Evolution of Grammar

Author: Joan Bybee

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1994-11-15

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 0226086658

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Joan Bybee and her colleagues present a new theory of the evolution of grammar that links structure and meaning in a way that directly challenges most contemporary versions of generative grammar. This study focuses on the use and meaning of grammatical markers of tense, aspect, and modality and identifies a universal set of grammatical categories. The authors demonstrate that the semantic content of these categories evolves gradually and that this process of evolution is strikingly similar across unrelated languages. Through a survey of seventy-six languages in twenty-five different phyla, the authors show that the same paths of change occur universally and that movement along these paths is in one direction only. This analysis reveals that lexical substance evolves into grammatical substance through various mechanisms of change, such as metaphorical extension and the conventionalization of implicature. Grammaticization is always accompanied by an increase in frequency of the grammatical marker, providing clear evidence that language use is a major factor in the evolution of synchronic language states. The Evolution of Grammar has important implications for the development of language and for the study of cognitive processes in general.


Grammatical Categories

Grammatical Categories

Author: M. Rita Manzini

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-03-31

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 1139500430

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Grammatical categories (e.g. complementizer, negation, auxiliary, case) are some of the most important building blocks of syntax and morphology. Categorization therefore poses fundamental questions about grammatical structures and about the lexicon from which they are built. Adopting a 'lexicalist' stance, the authors argue that lexical items are not epiphenomena, but really represent the mapping of sound to meaning (and vice versa) that classical conceptions imply. Their rule-governed combination creates words, phrases and sentences - structured by the 'categories' that are the object of the present inquiry. They argue that the distinction between functional and non-functional categories, between content words and inflections, is not as deeply rooted in grammar as is often thought. In their argumentation they lay the emphasis on empirical evidence, drawn mainly from dialectal variation in the Romance languages, as well as from Albanian.


The Development of Word Meaning

The Development of Word Meaning

Author: Stan Kuczaj

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1461248442

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For some time now, the study of cognitive development has been far and away the most active discipline within developmental psychology. Although there would be much disagreement as to the exact proportion of papers published in develop mental journals that could be considered cognitive, 50% seems like a conserva tive estimate. Hence, a series of scholarly books devoted to work in cognitive development is especially appropriate at this time. The Springer Series in Cognitive Development contains two basic types of books, namely, edited collections of original chapters by several autbors, and original volumes written by one author or a small group of authors. The flagship for the Springer Series is a serial publication of the "advances" types, carrying the sub title Progress in Cognitive Development Research. Each volume in the Progress sequence is strongly thematic, in that it is limited to some well-defmed domain of cognitive-developmental research (e. g. , logical and mathematical development, development of learning). All Progress volumes will be edited collections. Editors of such collections, upon consultation with the Series Editor, may elect to have their books published either as contributions to the Progress sequence or as sepa rate volumes. All books written by one author or a small group of authors are being published as separate volumes within the series. A fairly broad defmition of cognitive development is being used in the selec tion of books for this series.


Approaches to Grammaticalization

Approaches to Grammaticalization

Author: Elizabeth Closs Traugott

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1991-01-01

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 9027228957

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The study of grammaticalization raises a number of fundamental theoretical issues pertaining to the relation of langue and parole, creativity and automatic coding, synchrony and diachrony, categoriality and continua, typological characteristics and language-specific forms, etc., and therefore challenges some of the basic tenets of twentieth century linguistics.This two-volume work presents a number of diverse theoretical viewpoints on grammaticalization and gives insights into the genesis, development, and organization of grammatical categories in a number of language world-wide, with particular attention to morphosyntactic and semantic-pragmatic issues. The papers in Volume I are divided into two sections, the first concerned with general method, and the second with issues of directionality. Those in Volume II are divided into five sections: verbal structure, argument structure, subordination, modality, and multiple paths of grammaticalization.


Development of Nominal Inflection in First Language Acquisition

Development of Nominal Inflection in First Language Acquisition

Author: Ursula Stephany

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 461

ISBN-13: 3110188406

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The crosslinguistic studies of the early developmental stages of number, case, and gender in twelve typologically different languages with eight genetic affiliations follow a functional-constructivist approach. Some issues addressed are mean size of paradigms, percentage of base forms, and productivity. One of the main findings is that the typological characteristics of the language acquired influence the process of inflectional development.


The Lexico-Grammatical Categories of Theme as an Index of Genre in Discourse Analysis

The Lexico-Grammatical Categories of Theme as an Index of Genre in Discourse Analysis

Author: Anwar El-Issa

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2016-06-24

Total Pages: 722

ISBN-13: 1524612227

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The book is based on systemic-functional grammar (SFG) and focuses on the concept of Theme (the element which occupies the initial position in the clause in English), which plays a special role in the textual organization of the message contained in the clause. Theme represents one of the ways by which writers construct meaningful communicative language or stretches of discourse. It signals the relationship between the thought in the speakers mind and its expression in the discourse. Therefore, it contributes to the method of development of the texts proper. The reason for choosing Theme as a tool of analysis stems from the fact that it is a fruitful approach to the understanding of texts as is shown by the fact that it has been the concern of a number of major studies. I will adopt both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis. The results of this analysis will be presented and tabulated in such a way as to underline the distinguishing features of the genre. The tools of functional grammar (Theme and Transitivity) will be applied to the data being collected. A significant, positive facet pertinent to this study lies in its pedagogical implications. The study of the structure of Theme has resulted in useful applications, and the findings drawn from the data collected will, it is hoped, have wider application; they are not meant to be merely suggestive. The findings in this book show how Theme-Rheme can have significant pedagogical values and impacts on the native and non-native learners. The learner not only has to construct his/her sentences, choosing appropriate lexis, but he/she has to make those sentences cohere into a text belonging to the genre being tackled. The findings in this book also suggest that control of the Theme-Rheme system is part of what the successful writer (native or non-native) uses to achieve such coherence. In this regard, students can be aware of a variety of linguistics choices to help them write more effectively and coherently.