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This volume explores the question of why languages differ in the meanings expressed by their grammatical systems. It offers a new methodology to explore the differences and the motivations behind the emergence of meanings, based on data from a wide range of languages, including English, French, Polish, Chadic languages, and Sino-Russian idiolects.
List of contents
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Methodology
- 3: Forced interpretation: The emergence of the comment clause
- 4: Systemic ambiguity as a motivation in the emergence of logophoricity
- 5: The emergence of benefactive function in English
- 6: The emergence of point-of-view of the subject
- 7: The emergence of goal orientation
- 8: The principle of functional transparency as a motivation for the emergence of functions
- 9: Inherent properties of verbs and nouns and the emergence of the locative function
- 10: The emergence of functions through metonymy and language contact: Relationships between propositions
- 11: The emergence of complex action as an outcome of the availability of coding means
- 12: The emergence of gender and number coding in content questions
- 13: The emergence of grammatical relations
- 14: The emergence of a functional domain through language contact
- 15: Conclusions and implications
About the author
Zygmunt Frajzyngier is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Colorado Boulder. His main research interests are the foundations of syntax and semantics in cross-linguistic perspective, typological explanations in grammar, grammaticalization, and Chadic and Afroasiastic linguistics. His many books include The Role of Functions in Syntax: A Unified Approach to Language Theory, Description, and Typology (with Erin Shay; Benjamins 2016), and, as co-editor with Erin Shay, The Afroasiastic Languages (CUP 2012).
Marielle Butters is a PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder. She works on languages in the Tibeto-Burman family, as well as on Sundanese and Chadic languages, particularly in the subfields of language documentation, historical linguistics, and linguistic anthropology. Her research interests include negation, evidential systems, and language in post-colonial settings.
Summary
This volume explores the question of why languages differ in the meanings expressed by their grammatical systems. It offers a new methodology to explore the differences and the motivations behind the emergence of meanings, based on data from a wide range of languages, including English, French, Polish, Chadic languages, and Sino-Russian idiolects.
