Intransitive Predication

Intransitive Predication

Author: Leon Stassen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 792

ISBN-13: 9780199258932

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Basing his analysis on a wide sample of languages, Stassen investigates cross-linguistic variation in one of the core domains of all natural languages - 'cognitive space' - the topography of which is the same for all languages.


Partitive Determiners, Partitive Pronouns and Partitive Case

Partitive Determiners, Partitive Pronouns and Partitive Case

Author: Petra Sleeman

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-12-06

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 3110732297

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Although the interest in the concept of partitivity has continuously increased in the last decades and has given rise to considerable advances in research, the fine-grained morpho-syntactic and semantic variation displayed by partitive elements across European languages is far from being well-described, let alone well-understood. There are two main obstacles to this: on the one hand, theoretical linguistics and typological linguistics are fragmented in different methodological approaches that hinder the full sharing of cross-theoretic advances; on the other hand, partitive elements have been analyzed in restricted linguistic environments, which would benefit from a broader perspective. The aim of the PARTE project, from which this volume stems, is precisely to bring together linguists of different theoretical approaches using different methodologies to address this notion in its many facets. This volume focuses on Partitive Determiners, Partitive Pronouns and Partitive Case in European languages, their emergence and spread in diachrony, their acquisition by L2 speakers, and their syntax and interpretation. The volume is the first to provide such an encompassing insight into the notion of partitivity.


Cognitive Foundations of Grammar

Cognitive Foundations of Grammar

Author: Institute of African Studies University of Cologne Bernd Heine Professor of Linguistics

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1997-10-31

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 0198026285

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The main function of language is to convey meaning. The question of why language is structured the way it is, Heine here argues, has therefore to be answered first of all with reference to this function. Linguistic explanations in terms of other exponents of language structure, e.g. of syntax, are likely to highlight peripheral or epi-phenomenal rather than central characteristics of language structure. This book uses basic findings on grammaticalization processes to describe the role of cognitive forces in shaping grammar. It provides students with an introductory treatment of a field of linguistics that has developed recently and is rapidly expanding.


Ten Lectures on the Elaboration of Cognitive Grammar

Ten Lectures on the Elaboration of Cognitive Grammar

Author: Ronald Langacker

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-07-31

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 900434747X

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This book reviews the basic claims and descriptive constructs of Cognitive Grammar, outlines major themes in its ongoing development, and applies these notions to central problems in grammatical analysis. The initial review covers conceptual semantics, the conceptual characterization of grammatical categories, grammatical constructions, and the architecture of a unified theory of language structure. Main themes in the framework’s development include the dynamicity of language structure, grammar as the implementation of semantic functions, systems of opposing elements to serve those functions, and organization in strata representing successive elaborations of a baseline structure. The descriptive application of these notions centers on nominal and clausal structure, with special emphasis on nominal grounding.


Headless Relative Clauses in Mesoamerican Languages

Headless Relative Clauses in Mesoamerican Languages

Author: Associate Professor of Linguistics Ivano Caponigro

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020-12-15

Total Pages: 579

ISBN-13: 0197518370

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This volume constitutes the first in-depth, systematic study of varieties of headless relative clauses in fifteen languages from five language families, all Mesoamerican languages spoken in Mexico and Guatemala and one Chibchan language spoken in Honduras. Headless relative clauses are clauses that often resemble interrogative clauses or headed relative clauses in their morpho-syntactic shape, but whose meaning brings them close to nominal constructions. For the vastmajority of the languages in this volume, many of which are endangered and all of which are understudied, the work presented here represents the only published material on the subject.


Grammaticalization Scenarios from Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific

Grammaticalization Scenarios from Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific

Author: Walter Bisang

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-09-21

Total Pages: 612

ISBN-13: 3110712792

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This volume intends to fill the gap in the grammaticalization studies setting as its goal the systematic description of grammaticalization processes in genealogically and structurally diverse languages. To address the problem of the limitations of the secondary sources for grammaticalization studies, the editors rely on sketches of grammaticalization phenomena from experts in individual languages guided by a typological questionnaire.