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The Role of Functions in Syntax
A unified approach to language theory, description, and typology
The main aim of this book is to address a fundamental question in linguistics, namely why languages are similar and why they are different. The study proposes that languages are fundamentally similar when they encode the same meanings in their grammatical systems and that languages are different when they encode different meanings. Even if languages encode the same meaning, they may differ with respect to the formal means used to code those meanings. This approach allows for a typology based on functional domains, subdomains and functions coded in individual languages. The outcome of the study is a unified approach to language theory, linguistic typology, and descriptive linguistics. The argumentation for the hypotheses and the proposed approach is supported by analyses of data from more than a dozen languages, including English, Polish, French, Wandala, Mina, Hdi, and several other Chadic languages. The study is accessible to a wide variety of linguists.
[Typological Studies in Language, 111] 2016. xvi, 308 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 22 February 2016
Published online on 22 February 2016
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments | pp. xiii–xiv
- List of abbreviations | pp. xv–xvi
- Chapter 1. The importance of meaning for syntax | pp. 1–14
- Chapter 2. Theoretical foundations of the proposed approach | pp. 15–48
- Chapter 3. Why the meaning encoded in the grammatical system matters | pp. 49–68
- Chapter 4. Lexical and morphological coding means and their implications | pp. 69–84
- Chapter 5. Linear orders as coding means | pp. 85–106
- Chapter 6. A methodology for the discovery of meanings encoded in the grammatical system | pp. 107–136
- Chapter 7. The distinction between the meaning encoded in the grammatical system and inferences from utterances | pp. 137–158
- Chapter 8. Indirectly affected argument, benefactive, and malefactive | pp. 159–178
- Chapter 9. The clause and the meanings encoded in the grammatical system | pp. 179–206
- Chapter 10. Clausal predications in English | pp. 207–220
- Chapter 11. Clausal predications in Polish | pp. 221–236
- Chapter 12. Clausal predications in Wandala | pp. 237–262
- Chapter 13. Towards a non-aprioristic typology of functional categories | pp. 263–280
- Chapter 14. Conclusions, implications, and open questions | pp. 281–290
- References | pp. 291–302
- Subject index | pp. 303–304
- Language index | pp. 305–306
- Name index | pp. 307–308
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