Function and Class in Linguistic Description: The Taxonomic Foundations of Grammar

ISBN-13: 9783030781750 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022

Mário Alberto Perini

Opis

This book deals with the traditional problem of the classification of linguistic units, with a primary focus on word classes. The approach is descriptive rather than theoretical, and is based on the use of distinctive features analogous to the ones used in phonology, which entails a radical reworking of the traditional classification. The first part presents some basic notions such as the use of distinctive features and the role of word classes in grammar; classification by prototypes; and the use of world knowledge as a resource to assign thematic relations to constituents in the sentence. In the second part, some descriptive problems are examined, namely the classification of verbs according to valency; connectives, adverbs, and the internal constituents of the NP; and the classification of units larger than words. This book will be of use as a guide for linguists working on the description of natural languages, as well as a resource for students on courses in linguistic theory and description.

Spis treści

Chapter 1: Introduction

Part I: General Principles

Chapter 2: Categorization and knowledge

Chapter 3: Form and meaning

Chapter 4: Word classes

Chapter 5: Classes and the grammar

Chapter 6: Prototypes

Chapter 7: Assignment by default.- Part II: Descriptive Application

Chapter 8: Classification of verbs

Chapter 9: Constructions of directional motion: a guided tour of valential complexity

Chapter 10: Functions and classes in the NP

Chapter 11: Towards a taxonomy of connectives

Chapter 12: Adverbs and their relatives

Chapter 13: Features and grammatical description

Chapter 14: Semantic correlations and syntactic features

Chapter 15: Beyond the lexicon

Chapter 16: Summary

O autorze

Mário A. Perini is Professor Emeritus at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He is the author of Describing Verb Valency (2015) and Thematic Relations (2019).

Blurb

This book deals with the traditional problem of the classification of linguistic units, with a primary focus on word classes. The approach is descriptive rather than theoretical, and is based on the use of distinctive features analogous to the ones used in phonology, which entails a radical reworking of the traditional classification. The first part presents some basic notions such as the use of distinctive features and the role of word classes in grammar; classification by prototypes; and the use of world knowledge as a resource to assign thematic relations to constituents in the sentence. In the second part, some descriptive problems are examined, namely the classification of verbs according to valency; connectives, adverbs, and the internal constituents of the NP; and the classification of units larger than words. This book will be of use as a guide for linguists working on the description of natural languages, as well as a resource for students on courses in linguistic theory and description.

Mário A. Perini is Professor Emeritus at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He is the author of Describing Verb Valency (2015) and Thematic Relations (2019).