Indefinite Pronouns

ISBN-13: 9780198235606 / Angielski / Twarda / 1997 / 384 str.

Martin Haspelmath

Opis

This book is the first comprehensive and encyclopaedic investigation of indefinite pronouns (expressions like someone, anything, nowhere) in the languages of the world. It shows that the range of variation in the functional and formal properties of indefinite pronouns is subject to a set of universal implicational constraints, and proposes explanations for these universals.

Recenzje

A welcome addition to the typological literature, this book is the most comprehensive work to date devoted exclusively to the description of indefinite pronous ... in the world's languages. / Haspelmath's presentation offers generally interesting reading, giving us many facts, testable universal claims, and tantalizing attempts at explanation. With its many examples, the book can serve not only as a springboard for further scholarship but also as a useful reference work for teaching. / ... well-organized book.../ The writing style is accessible; thus the book has a potentially wide readership among both linguists and nonlinguists interested in language universals and their explanation./ Haspelmath is to be applauded for attempting explanations of so many of his findings. The explanatory ideas he appeals to are seductive ones that crop up repeatedly in linguistics./ Jessica Wirth, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Anthropological Linguistics, Vol 41, no 1