Discourse Configurational Languages

Zusatztext The proposals contained in the papers in this volume are bound to pave the way for subsequent analyses. Any practitioner of generative syntax seriously interested in cross-linguistic variation will need to consult them. Klappentext This volume brings together twelve previously unpublished case studies of languages in which either topic and focus (or both) are configurationally encoded, i.e. languages in which those two notions are controlled by the syntactic structure of the language, if at all. Taken together, the papers characterize the wide range of variation in this area of syntax. Zusammenfassung Comprising eleven studies on languages with designated structural topic and focus positions, this volume includes an introduction surveying the empirical and theoretical problems involved in the description of this language type. Focusing on languages outside the traditional Indo-European group, the essays look at Chadic, Somali, Basque, Catalan, Old Romance, Greek, Hungarian, Finnish, Korean, and Quechua. The papers provide interesting new empirical data, as well as a variety of means and alternatives of representing them structurally. At the same time, they address important theoretical questions in the framework of generative theory. This is the first study to apply methods of comparative syntax to the study of topic and focus.

Product details

• Authors: Kiss, Katalin Kiss, Katalin E. Kiss, Katalin É. Kiss, Katalin E. (Professor of Linguistics Kiss
• Assisted by: Katalin E. Kiss (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 16.03.1995
• EAN: 9780195088342
• ISBN: 978-0-19-508834-2
• No. of pages: 400
• Series: Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax; Oxford Studies in Comparative; Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures