Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar by William A Foley Jr

Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar by William A Foley Jr

The key argument of this book, originally published in 1984, is that when human beings communicate with each other by means of a natural language they typically do not do so in simple sentences but rather in connected discourse - complex expressions made up of a number of clauses linked together in various ways. A necessary precondition for intelligible discourse is the speaker's ability to signal the temporal relations between the events that are being discussed and to refer to the participants in those events in such a way that it is clear who is being talked about. A great deal of the grammatical machinery in a language is devoted to this task, and Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar explores how different grammatical systems accomplish it. This book is an important attempt to integrate the study of linguistic form with the study of language use and meaning. It will be of particular interest to field linguists and those concerned with typology and language universals, and also to anthropologists involved in the study of language function.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521269049
ISBN 10	0521269040
Title	Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar
Author	William A Foley Jr
Series	Cambridge Studies In Linguistics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	1984-09-13
Number of pages	432
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable