Why do languages have so many different ways of expressing the same idea? Lambrecht addresses this question through an investigation of the "information structure" of sentences. His analysis is based on the observation that the structure of a sentence reflects a speaker's assumptions about the hearer's state of knowledge and consciousness at the time of the utterance. Four independent but interrelated categories are analyzed: presupposition and assertion, identifiability and activation, topic, and focus.
Why do languages have so many different ways of expressing the same idea? Lambrecht addresses this question through an investigation of the "informati...
Accounts of syntax are usually based on two assumptions: firstly, that a sentence comprises a hierarchy of phrases, forming a 'tree' structure; and secondly, that phrases have 'heads', on which subordinate units depend. These fundamental assumptions are questioned in this critical survey, which argues that neither concept is important as is claimed, and that syntactic relations are in fact far more varied. Drawing on data from English as well as other major European languages, it summarizes earlier accounts of syntactic structure and looks at the different ways in which specific constructions...
Accounts of syntax are usually based on two assumptions: firstly, that a sentence comprises a hierarchy of phrases, forming a 'tree' structure; and se...
'Agreement' is the grammatical phenomenon in which the form of one item, such as the noun 'horses', forces a second item in the sentence, such as the verb 'gallop', to appear in a particular form, i.e. 'gallop' must agree with 'horses' in number. Even though agreement phenomena are some of the most familiar and well-studied aspects of grammar, there are certain basic questions that have rarely been asked, let alone answered. This book develops a theory of the agreement processes found in language, and considers why verbs agree with subjects in person, adjectives agree in number and gender but...
'Agreement' is the grammatical phenomenon in which the form of one item, such as the noun 'horses', forces a second item in the sentence, such as the ...
The formal sciences, particularly mathematics, have had a profound influence on the development of linguistics. This insightful overview looks at techniques that were introduced in the fields of mathematics, logic and philosophy during the twentieth century, and explores their effect on the work of various linguists. In particular, it discusses the 'foundations crisis' that destabilised mathematics at the start of the twentieth century, the numerous related movements which sought to respond to this crisis, and how they influenced the development of syntactic theory in the 1950s. The book...
The formal sciences, particularly mathematics, have had a profound influence on the development of linguistics. This insightful overview looks at tech...
The phenomenon of grammaticalization--the historical process whereby new grammatical material is created--has attracted a great deal of attention within linguistics in recent years. This book shows how this approach leads to a number of important conceptual and theoretical issues concerning the nature of functional categories and the form of parameters, as well as the relation of both of these to language change.
The phenomenon of grammaticalization--the historical process whereby new grammatical material is created--has attracted a great deal of attention with...
This second edition presents a completely revised overview of research on intonational phonology since the 1970s, including new material on research developments since the mid 1990s. It contains a new section discussing the research on the alignment of pitch features that has developed since the first edition was published, a substantially rewritten section on ToBI transcription that takes account of the application of ToBI principles to other languages, and new sections on the phonetic research on accent and focus. The substantive chapters on the analysis and transcription of pitch contours,...
This second edition presents a completely revised overview of research on intonational phonology since the 1970s, including new material on research d...
Syncretism--where a single form serves two or more morphosyntactic functions--is a persistent problem at the syntax-morphology interface. It results from a 'mismatch', whereby the syntax of a language makes a particular distinction, but the morphology does not. This pioneering book provides the first full-length study of inflectional syncretism, presenting a typology of its occurrence across a wide range of languages. It will be welcomed by linguists interested in the relation between words and the larger units of which they are a part.
Syncretism--where a single form serves two or more morphosyntactic functions--is a persistent problem at the syntax-morphology interface. It results f...
