Grammatical Theory
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Grammatical Theory
Author: Frederick J. Newmeyer
language: en
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date: 1983-09-15
Newmeyer persuasively defends the controversial theory of transformational generative grammar. Grammatical Theory is for every linguist, philosopher, or psychologist who is skeptical of generative grammar and wants to learn more about it. Newmeyer's formidable scholarship raises the level of debate on transformational generative grammar. He stresses the central importance of an autonomous formal grammar, discusses the limitations of "discourse-based" approaches to syntax, cites support for generativist theory in recent research, and clarifies misunderstood concepts associated with generative grammar.
Grammatical theory
This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.
Grammatical Theory and Philosophy of Language in Antiquity
This collective volume contains studies in the field of ancient grammar, poetics and philosophy of language. The contributions, written by specialists in the field, focus on central themes in the historiography of ancient linguistics, such as the status of grammar as a discipline in Antiquity, the relationship between poetics and grammatical theory, the constitution and development of the word class system, the descriptive format of grammars, the nature and description of specific word classes, the development of grammatical argumentation. In addition, several methodological issues in the study of ancient grammar and philosophy of language are dealt with: the problem of continuity vs. discontinuity in the history of linguistic thought, the role of schoolroom activities in the development of grammatical description and theory-formation, and problems concerning "tradition", "influence" and "originality" in ancient linguistics. The volume is rounded off with extensive indices of proper names, concepts and technical terms.