Linguistic analysis

Meer over het boek

This book reconsiders classic topics in linguistic analysis, reflecting on universal aspects of language through a typological and comparative lens. It aims to demonstrate the crucial interactions at various grammatical levels—phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax, and pragmatics—illustrating their roles in sentence structure and how interface relations contribute to interpretation across different languages. The analysis is framed within the Generative grammar framework, with theoretical insights emerging from data observation rather than serving as a starting point. To facilitate comprehension and help identify language universals, a 'semi-guided' method is employed. Each topic includes discussions of previous literature followed by cross-linguistic evidence, allowing for theory validation against data and the extraction of relevant generalizations. This approach reveals that grammar is governed by a limited set of universal principles, which produce varied effects at different grammatical levels. Understanding the language system necessitates a comparative analysis where the notion of interface is vital. The seven chapters cover categories and functions, argument structure, syntactic functions, noun phrase structure, adverbial modification, information structure, and illocutive force, drawing on data from 74 languages to inform theoretical development. This work is highly recommended for researchers and students interested