Bare Grammar: A Study of Language Invariants (Stanford Monographs in Linguistics) - Hardcover

Keenan, Edward; Stabler, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1575861895 ISBN 13: 9781575861890

Publisher: The Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications, 2007

Synopsis

Without assuming arbitrary restrictions on grammar notation at the outset, 'Bare Grammars' aim to provide the most straightforward definitions of the constructions present in human languages, together with a compositional semantics. A simple generative approach is presented which induces a natural algebraic notion of structure, with the surprising result that not only classical syntactic relations (like c-command) but also certain morphological relations concerning identity of particular morphemes (e.g. case markers) are properly structural. Formal models of case marking, verb voice, anaphora, are considered, and linguistic universals are proposed that do not assume any kind of structural isomorphism between languages. A strong form of compositionality is defended, together with the hypothesis that grammatical morphemes ('syntactic constants') always denote semantic constants, revealing that the relation between form and meaning is not subject to arbitrary dictates of linguistic convention, history, and accidents of human biology.

About this title

Book Description

Without assuming arbitrary restrictions on grammar notation at the outset, 'Bare Grammars' aim to provide the most straightforward definitions of the constructions present in human languages, together with a compositional semantics.

About the Author

Edward L. Keenan is professor of linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1575861895
• ISBN 13: 9781575861890
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 152