Cognitive Foundations of Grammar

ISBN-13: 9780195102512 / Angielski / Twarda / 1997 / 200 str.

Bernd Heine

Opis

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.

Recenzje

Wide-ranging the book indeed is ... and its lucid style, coherent focus, and wealth of examples make it an excellent intoduction to the topic and the method that it reprents ... richly informative book ... It can unreservedly be recommended as an introduction to contemporary grammaticalization theory, but it will also be useful and illuminating reading for researchers and students in all areas of cognitive-functional linguistics, and anyone interested in the cognitive foundations of language.

O autorze

Bernd Heine is Professor of African Studies (Afrikanistik) and Director of the Institute for African Studies at the University of Cologne in Germany. He has published thirty books, including Possession: Cognitive Sources, Forces, and Grammaticalization (1997), The Mukogodo Maasai: An Ethnobotanical Survey (co-author, 1994), Auxiliaries: Cognitive Forces and Grammaticalization (Oxford, 1993), and Grammaticalization: A Conceptual Framework (co-author, 1991).