Reconnecting Language: Morphology and Syntax in Functional Perspectives: 154 (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory) - Hardcover

9789027236593: Reconnecting Language: Morphology and Syntax in Functional Perspectives: 154 (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9027236593 ISBN 13: 9789027236593

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1997

Although the contributors to this book do not belong to one particular ‘school’ of linguistic theory, they all share an interest in the external functions of language in society and in the relationship between these functions and internal linguistic phenomena. In this sense they all take a functional approach to grammatical issues. Apart from this common starting-point, the contributions share the aim of demonstrating the non-autonomous nature of morphology and syntax, and the inadequacy of linguistic models which deal with syntax, morphology and lexicon in separate, independent components. The recurrent theme throughout the book is the inseparability of lexis and morphosyntax, of structure and function, of grammar and society. The third and more specific common thread is case, which in some contributions is adduced to illustrate the more general point of the link between word form on the one hand and clausal and textual relations on the other hand, while in other papers it is at the centre of the discussion.
The interest of the proposed volume consists in the fact that it brings together the views of leading scholars in functional linguistics of various ‘denominations’ on the place of morphosyntax in linguistic theory. The book provides convincing argumentation against a modular theory with autonomous levels (the dominant framework in mainstream 20th century linguistics) and is a plea for further research into the connections between the lexicogrammar and the linguistic and extralinguistic context.

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Synopsis

The functional perspective on language which underlies the contributions to this volume calls for abandoning the "isolationist" approach which has characterized much of 20th-century linguistics and for a return to an integrated approach. This edition seeks to re-establish a link between language and the world, reconnect language to the context in which it has evolved and in which it functions, and to re-establish a link between the strata of language. The contributors aim to demonstrate the non-autonomous nature of morphology, syntax and the lexicon, and the inadequacy of linguistic models which deal with them in separate, independent components. They argue for the inseparability of lexis and morphosyntax and provide argumentation against a modular theory with autonomous levels, the dominant framework in current mainstream linguistics. The book also calls for further research into the connections between grammar, text and the extralinguistic context.

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