On Understanding Grammar
eBook - PDF

On Understanding Grammar

  1. 396 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

On Understanding Grammar

About this book

On Understanding Grammar covers the interdependencies among the various aspects of linguistics and the human language. This eight-chapter text considers some pertinent topics in linguistics, such as discourse-pragmatics, diachronic syntax, topology, creology, method, and ontology. Chapter 1 describes the notions of fact, theory, and explanation, particularly about how these notions manifest themselves in actual practice. Chapter 2 redefines syntax in terms of communicative function and discourse-pragmatics, and about the relation between the function of grammatical devices and their formal properties. Chapter 3 deals with discourse-pragmatics and how it transcends the narrow bounds of deductive logic, as well as the function and ontology of negation in language, and how those relate to the fundamental information-theoretic principle of figure versus ground. Chapter 4 explores the two major aspects of case systems, namely, the semantic role and pragmatic function, and how the two interact in determining the typological characteristics of grammars. Chapter 5 examines the relation between discourse and syntax based on diachronic, ontogenetic, phylogenetic viewpoints. Chapter 6 tackles the relation between synchronic grammar and diachronic change, while Chapter 7 describes the relationship between human language and its phylogenetic evolution. Chapter 8 is about language and ontology, as well as the relation between cognition and the universe. This book will prove useful to linguistics and language researchers.

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Yes, you can access On Understanding Grammar by Talmy Givón, Harry A Whitaker in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Grammar & Punctuation. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. On Understanding Grammar
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Table of Contents
  5. FOREWORD
  6. PREFACE
  7. Chapter 1. METHODOLOGY: on the crypto- Structuralist nature of transformational grammar
  8. Chapter 2. GRAMMAR AND FUNCTION: toward a discourse definition of syntax
  9. Chapter 3. LOGIC VERSUS LANGUAGE: negation in language: pragmatics, function, ontology
  10. Chapter 4. SEMANTIC CASE AND PRAGMATIC FUNCTION: promotion, accessibility, and the typology of case marking
  11. Chapter 5. SYNTACTICIZATION: from discourse to syntax: grammar as a processing strategy
  12. Chapter 6. LANGUAGE CHANGE: where does crazy syntax come from: diachronic constraints on synchronic grammars
  13. Chapter 7. LANGUAGE AND PHYLOGENY: the SOV mystery and the evolution of discourse
  14. Chapter 8. LANGUAGE AND ONTOLOGY: on construing a universe
  15. BIBLIOGRAPHY
  16. INDEX