Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics PDF Author: Géraldine Legendre
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198757115
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
This book investigates the morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties of language, and the interactions between them, from the perspective of Optimality Theory. It integrates optimization processes into the formal and functional study of grammar, interpreting optimization as the result of conflicting, violable ranked constraints. Unlike previous work on the topic, this book also takes into account the question of directionality of grammar. A model of grammar in which optimization processes interact bidirectionally allows both language generation-the process of selecting the optimal form of a given meaning-and language interpretation-the process of optimal interpretation of a given form-to be taken into account. Chapters in this volume explore the consequences of both symmetric (unidirectional) and asymmetric (bidirectional) versions of Optimality Theory, investigating the syntax-semantics interface, first language acquisition, and sequential bilingual grammars. The volume presents cutting edge research in Optimality-Theoretic syntax and semantics, as well as demonstrating how optimization processes as modelled in this formalism serve as a viable approach for linguists and scholars in related fields.

Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics PDF Author: Géraldine Legendre
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198757115
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book investigates the morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties of language, and the interactions between them, from the perspective of Optimality Theory. It integrates optimization processes into the formal and functional study of grammar, interpreting optimization as the result of conflicting, violable ranked constraints. Unlike previous work on the topic, this book also takes into account the question of directionality of grammar. A model of grammar in which optimization processes interact bidirectionally allows both language generation-the process of selecting the optimal form of a given meaning-and language interpretation-the process of optimal interpretation of a given form-to be taken into account. Chapters in this volume explore the consequences of both symmetric (unidirectional) and asymmetric (bidirectional) versions of Optimality Theory, investigating the syntax-semantics interface, first language acquisition, and sequential bilingual grammars. The volume presents cutting edge research in Optimality-Theoretic syntax and semantics, as well as demonstrating how optimization processes as modelled in this formalism serve as a viable approach for linguists and scholars in related fields.

The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax

The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax PDF Author: Adam Ledgeway
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316720586
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1321

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Book Description
Change is an inherent feature of all aspects of language, and syntax is no exception. While the synchronic study of syntax allows us to make discoveries about the nature of syntactic structure, the study of historical syntax offers even greater possibilities. Over recent decades, the study of historical syntax has proven to be a powerful scientific tool of enquiry with which to challenge and reassess hypotheses and ideas about the nature of syntactic structure which go beyond the observed limits of the study of the synchronic syntax of individual languages or language families. In this timely Handbook, the editors bring together the best of recent international scholarship on historical syntax. Each chapter is focused on a theme rather than an individual language, allowing readers to discover how systematic descriptions of historical data can profitably inform and challenge highly diverse sets of theoretical assumptions.

Markedness and Language Change

Markedness and Language Change PDF Author: Viktor Elšik
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110184524
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description
Biographical note: Viktor Elšik teaches at the Univerzita Karlova, Prague, Czech Republic. Yaron Matras is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Manchester, UK.

Investigations of the Syntax-semantics-pragmatics Interface

Investigations of the Syntax-semantics-pragmatics Interface PDF Author: Robert D. Van Valin
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027205728
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Investigations of the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface presents on-going research in Role and Reference Grammar in a number of critical areas of linguistic theory: verb semantics and argument structure, the nature of syntactic categories and syntactic representation, prosody and syntax, information structure and syntax, and the syntax and semantics of complex sentences. In each of these areas there are important results which not only advance the development of the theory, but also contribute to the broader theoretical discussion. In particular, there are analyses of grammatical phenomena such as transitivity in Kabardian, the verb-less numeral quantifier construction in Japanese, and an unusual kind of complex sentence in Wari' (Chapakuran, Brazil) which not only illustrate the descriptive and explanatory power of the theory, but also present interesting challenges to other approaches. In addition, there are papers looking at the implications and applications of Role and Reference Grammar for neurolinguistic research, parsing and automated text analysis.

Syntax and Lexis in Conversation

Syntax and Lexis in Conversation PDF Author: Auli Hakulinen
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027226273
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
LC number: 2005045385

Competition in Syntax

Competition in Syntax PDF Author: Gereon Müller
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110829061
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

The Grammar-pragmatics Interface

The Grammar-pragmatics Interface PDF Author: Nancy Ann Hedberg
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027253989
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
This collection of papers celebrates the work of Jeanette K. Gundel, who has contributed to the field of grammar-pragmatics interface through her publications on the syntactic realization of topic and comment and the cognitive status of referring expressions, as well as by inspiring colleagues to make contributions to the overall field of pragmatics. This volume collects together papers from colleagues and former students on pragmatics and syntax, pragmatics and reference, and pragmatics and social variables. The volume includes papers devoted to explicating the grammar-pragmatics interface, with the focus of the papers ranging from Gricean and post-Gricean pragmatics, construction grammar, and genre theory to formal semantics, as well as papers devoted to expanding on Gundel's own original approach to factors such as the cognitive status decisions underlying speakers' choice of referring expression and the topic and focus decisions underlying speakers' choice of referring expression and the topic and focus decisions underlying speakers' choice of syntactic construction.

Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics

Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics PDF Author: Werner Abraham
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107021227
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
An innovative survey that covers the linguistic questions of modality and mood, offering a new model for the phenomenon.

Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics

Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics PDF Author: Werner Abraham
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108861083
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
What do we mean when we say things like 'If only we knew what he was up to!' Clearly this is more than just a message, or a question to our addressee. We are expressing simultaneously that we don't know, and also that we wish to know. Several modes of encoding contribute to such modalities of expression: word order, subordinating subjunctions, sentences that are subordinated but nevertheless occur autonomously, and attitudinal discourse adverbs which, far beyond lexical adverbials of modality, allow the speaker and the listener to presuppose full agreement, partial agreement under presupposed conditions, or negotiation of common ground. This state of the art survey proposes a new model of modality, drawing on data from a variety of Germanic and Slavic languages to find out what is cross-linguistically universal about modality, and to argue that it is a constitutive part of human cognition.

Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages

Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages PDF Author: Ilana Mushin
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902720571X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Discourse and Grammar in Australian Languages is the first major survey to address the issue of the effects of information packaging on Australian languages, widely known for nonconfigurationality. The papers are based on individual fieldwork and describe a wide range of Australian languages of different types, ranging from the polysynthetic languages of Arnhem Land and the Kimberley to the classical types represented by Walpiri. Topics covered include the pragmatics of information exchange, the interaction of noun class marking with polarity and referentiality, the effects of specificity on argument indexing, the discourse uses of the ergative case, the contribution of pronouns to NP reference, the interaction of tense and aspect clitics with information structure, clause-initial position, and discourse and grammar in Australian languages. The volume will appeal to scholars interested in discourse, typology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.