|
|
|
Item Details
Title:
|
RADICAL CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR
SYNTACTIC THEORY IN TYPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE |
By: |
William Croft |
Format: |
Paperback |
List price:
|
£61.00 |
Our price: |
£53.38 |
Discount: |
|
You save:
|
£7.62 |
|
|
|
|
ISBN 10: |
0198299540 |
ISBN 13: |
9780198299547 |
Availability: |
Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.
Delivery
rates
|
Stock: |
Currently 0 available |
Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS |
Pub. date: |
25 October, 2001 |
Pages: |
448 |
Description: |
An important and original work by one the world's leading linguistic theorists. Radical Construction Grammar presents a profound critique of syntactic theory, offers a new approach to syntax, and uncovers the real universals of grammar. It will particularly interest those concerned with theories of grammar and language typology, and with mind/language relations. |
Synopsis: |
Radical Construction Grammar presents a profound critique of syntactic theory and argumentation, and offers a genuinely new approach to syntax based on the fact of grammatical diversity. Recent syntactic theories are essentially formal models for the representation of grammatical knowledge and posit complex syntactic structures in the analysis of sentences. The result has been a endless cycle of new and revised theories of syntactic representation. Radical Construction Grammar argues that this approach to syntax is incompatible with the grammatical variation found within and across languages. This book defends three fundamental theses: (i) constructions are the primitive units of syntactic representation, and grammatical categories are defined by constructions, not the other way around; (ii) the only syntactic structures are the part-whole relations between a construction and the syntactic elements that make it up; (iii) not only are grammatical categories construction-specific, but constructions are language-specific. In other words, syntactic structure is almost entirely language-specific; attempts to find a universal formal model are doomed to failure.Radical Construction Grammar integrates concepts from typological theory and construction grammar to uncover the genuine universals of grammar. Constructions are represented as complex symbolic units pairing form and meaning. The semantic map model of typological theory is used to map category distributions on a largely universal conceptual space. Universals of grammar are found in the mapping of meaning onto form. Systematic patterns of grammatical variation provide evidence for the topography of conceptual space, which in turn reflects the geography of the human mind. |
Illustrations: |
numerous figures and tables |
Publication: |
UK |
Imprint: |
Oxford University Press |
Returns: |
Returnable |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Little Worried Caterpillar (PB)
Little Green knows she''s about to make a big change - transformingfrom a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Everyone is VERYexcited! But Little Green is VERY worried. What if being a butterflyisn''t as brilliant as everyone says?Join Little Green as she finds her own path ... with just a littlehelp from her friends.
|
|
All the Things We Carry PB
What can you carry?A pebble? A teddy? A bright red balloon? A painting you''ve made?A hope or a dream?This gorgeous, reassuring picture book celebrates all the preciousthings we can carry, from toys and treasures to love and hope. With comforting rhymes and fabulous illustrations, this is a warmhug of a picture book.
|
|
|
|