Preferred Argument Structure: Grammar as architecture for function: 14 (Studies in Discourse and Grammar) - Hardcover

9789027226242: Preferred Argument Structure: Grammar as architecture for function: 14 (Studies in Discourse and Grammar)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9027226245 ISBN 13: 9789027226242

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Co, 2003

Preferred Argument Structure offers a profound insight into the relationship between language use and grammatical structure. In his original publication on Preferred Argument Structure, Du Bois (1987) demonstrated the power of this perspective by using it to explain the origins of ergativity and ergative marking systems. Since this work, the general applicability of Preferred Argument Structure has been demonstrated in studies of language after language. In this collection, the authors move beyond verifying Preferred Argument Structure as a property of a given language. They use the methodology to reveal more subtle aspects of the patterns, for example, to look across languages, diachronically or synchronically, to examine particular grammatical relations, and to examine special populations or particular genres. This volume will appeal to linguists interested in the relationship of pragmatics and grammar generally, in the typology of grammatical relations, and in explanations derived from data- and corpus-based approaches to analysis.

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