This book provides an account of the structure of A-bar constructions, focusing on wh-questions and fragment answers in Dagbani, a Mabia (Gur) language spoken in Northern Ghana. It demonstrates that Dagbani wh-phrases occur in two distinct positions, ex-situ and in-situ, except for subject wh-phrases, which only occur in the former position. It provides a theoretical analysis of the distribution of the wh-phrases couched within minimalism (Chomsky 1995). Finally, the book gives an account of the structural correlation between wh-questions and their answers with the focus on the syntactic derivation of fragment answers. The author contends that the derivation of fragment answer involves two processes: A-bar movement together with PF-deletion

This book offers a systemic-functional account of Spanish, and analyses how Spanish grammatical forms compare and contrast with those of English. The authors analyse Spanish according to the three main 'metafunctions': ideational, interpersonal, and textual.
The result is a comprehensive examination of Spanish grammar from the clause upwards. Presupposing little or no knowledge of Spanish, this book will be of interest to researchers in Spanish language, systemic functional linguistics or contrastive linguistics.

This book investigates the lexico-grammatical complementarity in language in its construal of person as a semantic system. Given the vast and wide spectrum of resources for expressing distinctions in the assignment of person roles in language, this book presents person-related system networks covering a rich range of semantic features. It also studies the system of person in relation to other major semantic systems instead of regarding it as one isolated component of language parallel to gender, number, case, etc. Systemic features of person are in turn realized by lexicogrammar, whose components, lexis and grammar form a relationship of complementarity in the process of transforming human experience into meaning. Person-related meaning can be either realized by lexical means, i.e. entity, process, quality, or grammatical means, i.e. pronouns, clitics, affixes, zero forms. Besides, such meaning is also found to be realized at some indeterminate areas along the lexis-grammar continuum. A special feature of this book is that it observes the lexicalization and grammaticalization of person based on evidence from a variety of languages. Readers will be presented a comprehensive look into the meaning of person and will be encouraged to reflect on its realization in their own languages.

Modern Chinese Grammar provides a comprehensive coverage of Chinese grammar through the clause-pivot theory and the double triangle approach, first proposed by Fuyi Xing in 1996. Translated into English for the first time, the book is widely regarded by linguists as a seminal text, and ground-breaking in linguistics research. The book contains discussion of the topics which are essential to Chinese grammar, from words and phrases, to complex sentences and sentence groups. It addresses such controversial issues as word class identification, the distinction between words and phrases, and between clauses and complex sentences. The book also shows, through a wealth of examples, how the clause-pivot theory and the double triangle approach can be applied productively in grammatical studies. Modern Chinese Grammar: A Clause-Pivot Theoretical Approach is an essential purchase for researchers and graduate students of Chinese grammar and syntax.

The functional perspective on Chinese syntax has yielded various new achievements since its introduction to Chinese linguistics in the 1980s. This two-volume book is one of the earliest and most influential works to study the Chinese language using functional grammar. With local Beijing vernacular (Pekingese) as a basis, the information structure and focus structure of the Chinese language are systematically examined. By using written works and recordings from Beijingers, the authors discuss topics such as the relationship between word order and focus, and the distinction between normal focus and contrastive focus. In addition, the authors also subject the reference and grammatical categories of the Chinese language to a functional scrutiny while discussion of word classes and their functions creatively combines modern linguistic theories and traditional Chinese linguistic theories. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese linguistics and linguistics in general.

The functional perspective on Chinese syntax has yielded various new achievements since its introduction to Chinese linguistics in the 1980s. This two-volume book is one of the earliest and most influential works to study the Chinese language using functional grammar. With local Beijing vernacular (Pekingese) as a basis, the information structure and focus structure of the Chinese language are systematically examined. By using written works and recordings from Beijingers, the authors discuss topics such as the relationship between word order and focus, and the distinction between normal focus and contrastive focus. In addition, the authors also subject the reference and grammatical categories of the Chinese language to a functional scrutiny while discussion of word classes and their functions creatively combines modern linguistic theories and traditional Chinese linguistic theories. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese linguistics and linguistics in general.

First published in 1984. This study is designed as an introductory course in phonology for linguistics students. Like phonology itself, the book is divided into two main parts, the first dealing with segmental phonology, and the second with suprasegmental aspects, including stress, rhythm and intonation. Finally, there is a section on applied phonology, including dialects, historical change and language acquisition, all areas which provide the raw material for theoretical phonology. While the author is sympathetic to orthodox generative phonology, he also offers a critique of it, and argues that theoretical phonology should be concerned with the fundamental phonological processes of language-processes which are found repeatedly in different languages at different periods of time.

First published in 1986. This book presents studies of intonation undertaken from within a number of different traditions: acoustic phonetics, phonology, psychology, social psychology, syntax, conversation analysis, developmental phonetics and sociolinguistics. The studies reported are empirically based, and give an indication of the many methodologies which have been developed in different disciplines for the investigation of the nature, structure and functions of intonation.

First published in 1991. The existence of morphonology had been the subject of intense debate in twentieth-century linguistic theory. Attempts to identify putatively morphonological phenomena had often foundered on the widespread assumption of a rigid dichotomy between synchronic morphological structures and the phonetic processes which historically shared them. With the difficulties of establishing any role for morphonology clearly identified, the author introduces a comparative and historical survey of the morphologization of metaphony in Italian dialects. On the basis of this the existence is argued of authentic synchronic 'morphonological' interaction between morphological structures and phonetic processes, such that inflectional paradigms serve to specify phonetic details of implementation of incipient sound changes. The circumstances under which such interaction may be expected to occur are discussed. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of both morphology and phonology, taking seriously the implications of abandoning a rigid distinction between synchronic morphology and diachronic phonology. It successfully integrates linguistic theory with the analysis of philological data, and indicates the direction for future research on morphonology. This detailed study of Italian dialects also constitutes a valuable addition to the study of Romance dialectology.

First published in 1991. In this study, the author investigates the proper treatment of harmony processes in phonological theory. The data examined lead to a formulation of morphologically governed harmony processes which involves multi-planar representations. The analysis of multi-planar harmony leads into a discussion of Plane Conflation and Bracket Erasure in Lexical Phonology. This title will be of great interest to students of linguistics.

First published in 1976. This title presents a study of Yucatec Maya segmental phonology by children. The aim of the study is to describe the phonological systems revealed in the speech of group of children in order to determine the kinds of structural differences which exist among these pedolectal variants. This title will be of great interest to students of linguistics.

First published in 1988. This title explores the phonology of Sekani, a northern Athabaskan language, within the framework of Lexical Phonology. After providing an overview of the language of Sekani and the theory of Lexical Phonology, the author goes on to explore various issues in the application of this theory. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.

First published in 1994. This study aims to provide evidence for the natural class of sounds comprised of front vowels, front glides and coronal consonants. The author also shows that a revised definition of the articulator feature [coronal] properly characterises this natural class of sounds. The study provides a formal representation of front vowels and coronal consonants and their interaction within a nonlinear model of feature organisation. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.

First published in 1994. In this study, the author proposes that neutralization is the result of a wellformedness condition that the author calls the Laryngeal Constraint: In languages that have laryngeal neutralization, a laryngeal node is only licensed in a particular syllabic configuration; elsewhere the node will delink to repair the violation of well-formedness. This approach to neutralization is required to correctly explain the typology of laryngeal neutralization. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.

First published in 1995. This investigation shows that cliticization is not a totally unified phenomenon. Asymmetries in the behaviour of phonological and syntactic clitics show that no single principle predicts all clitic behaviour. The study explores the idea that modifications to the original five parameter system of analysis can be altered to a more efficient analysis in terms of three parameters. This title will be of interest to students of phonetics and phonology.

Henry Smith here develops a theory of syntactic case and examines its synchronic and diachronic consequences. Within a unification-based framework, the book draws out pervasive patterns in the relationship between morphosyntax ("linking") and grammatical function. The theory proposed consists of three ordered constraints on the association of NPs and arguments, based on the central notion of "restrictiveness". Beginning with a detailed study of dative substitution in Icelandic, the author moves on to examine a wide array of synchronic and diachronic data and to construct a typology of case. Theoretically innovative and sophisticated, and descriptively wide-ranging, this book will appeal to all those interested in the cross-linguistic marking of case and the ways in which case systems may change over time.

Over the past few decades, the book series Linguistische Arbeiten [Linguistic Studies], comprising over 500 volumes, has made a significant contribution to the development of linguistic theory both in Germany and internationally. The series will continue to deliver new impulses for research and maintain the central insight of linguistics that progress can only be made in acquiring new knowledge about human languages both synchronically and diachronically by closely combining empirical and theoretical analyses. To this end, we invite submission of high-quality linguistic studies from all the central areas of general linguistics and the linguistics of individual languages which address topical questions, discuss new data and advance the development of linguistic theory.

This 1996 volume brings together ten chapters on the Celtic languages using the insights of principles-and-parameters theory. The leading researchers in the field examine Welsh, Irish, Breton and Scots Gaelic in comparative perspective, making reference to recent work on English, French, Arabic, German and other languages. The editors have provided a substantial introduction which seeks to make the volume accessible to theoreticians unfamiliar with the Celtic languages and also to Celtic specialists who are less familiar with the theoretical framework underpinning the work. The Syntax of the Celtic Languages makes a substantial contribution both to linguistic theory and to our understanding of the Celtic languages.

This book shows how complex words and word-like phrasal lexical units can be analyzed as constructions, as pairings of forms, and meanings. It contributes to current work on the architecture of the grammar, the morphology-syntax interface, the shape and characteristics of the lexicon, and the analysis of grammaticalization phenomena. It is an important work for morphological theory in particular and for linguistic theory in general.
Geert Booij applies the insights of construction grammar to morphological theory and the formation of words and lexical phrases. Construction grammar refers to the class of linguistic theories that focus on the pairing of form and meaning at different levels of abstraction. Such work (by William Croft and Adele Goldberg, for example) has tended to focus on syntax or (as in the case of Ray Jackendoff) on the syntax-semantics interface. Booij offers a characteristically lucid integration of his own and others' work and considers what it reveals about the nature of words and idioms. His book will appeal to professional linguists in all subfields and to graduate students of syntax and morphology.

This is the first cross-linguistic study of imperatives, and commands of other kinds, across the world's languages. It makes a significant and original contribution to the understanding of their morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic characteristics. The author discusses the role imperatives and commands play in human cognition and how they are deployed in different cultures, and in doing so offers fresh insights on patterns of human interaction and communcation.
Alexandra Aikhenvald examines the ways of framing commands, or command strategies, in languages that do not have special imperative forms. She analyses the grammatical and semantic properties of positive and negative imperatives and shows how these correlate with categories such as tense, information source, and politeness. She looks at the relation of command pragmatics to cultural practices, assessing, for example, the basis for Margaret Mead's assumption that the harsher the people the more frequently they use imperatives. Professor Aikhenvald covers a wide range of language families, including many relatively neglected examples from North America, Amazonia, and New Guinea. The book is accompanied by illustrations of some conventional command signs.
Written and presented with the author's characteristic clarity, this book will be welcomed by linguists of all theoretical persuasions. It will appeal to social and cultural anthropologists and cognitive and behavioural scientists.

This book sets out a new reconstruction for the Semitic case system. It is based on a detailed analysis of the expression of grammatical roles and relations in the attested Semitic languages and, for the first time, brings typological methods to bear in the study of these features in Semitic languages and their reconstruction for proto-Semitic. Professor Hasselbach supports her argument with detailed analyses of a wide range of data and presents it in a way that will be accessible to both Semitists and typologists. The volume is divided into seven chapters: the first discusses basic methodologies used in Semitic linguistics and the limitations thereof. The second presents the evidence for morphological case-marking in the individual Semitic languages, the conventional reconstruction of Proto-Semitic, and the evidence which conflicts with it. The third introduces typological concepts and methods and their deployment in Semitic. Chapter 4 considers the case alignment of early Semitic. Chapter 5 presents a detailed study of marking structures and patterns and considers what these reveal about the nature of the original case system. Chapter 6 looks at the functions of case markers, considers the light they cast on the nominal system, and shows that the reconstruction of early Semitic as ergative is implausible. In the final chapter the author argues that early Semitic had a different nominal system from that of the later Semitic languages. She shows that the course of its development has parallels in other Afroasiatic languages, including Berber and Cushitic. Her book sheds important new light on the history of the Semitic languages and on the early development of the Afro-Asiatic language family as a whole.

The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.

This volume adopts a multidisciplinary perspective in analyzing and understanding the rich communicative resources and dynamics at work in digital communication about food. Drawing on data from a small corpus of food blogs, the book implements a range of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches to unpack the complexity of food blogs as a genre of computer-mediated communication. This wide-ranging framework allows for food blogs' many layered components, including recipes, photographs, narration in posts, and social media tie-ins, to be unpacked and understood at the structural, visual, verbal, and discourse level in a unified way. The book seeks to provide a comprehensive account of this popular and growing genre and contribute to our understandings of digital communication more generally, making this key reading for students and scholars in computer-mediated communication, multimodality, critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and pragmatics.

This collection of essays sheds new light on the verb in English. The authors illustrate that verbs can only be properly understood if studied from both a theoretical and descriptive perspective. In Part One, the authors explore topics such as the terminological problems of classification, verb complementation, the semantics and pragmatics of verbs and verbal combinations, and the notions of tense, aspect, voice and modality. In Part Two, computer corpora are used to study various types of verb complements and collocations, to trace the development in English of certain verb forms, and to detail the usage of verbs in different varieties and genres of English.

This book examines the role of syntax in theories of sentence comprehension, and argues for a distinct processing component which is devoted to the recovery of syntactic structure and which utilizes the contrasting types of information found within a Government-Binding grammar. Paul Gorrell contrasts the primary relations (dominance and precedence) and secondary relations (case assignment, theta-role assignment, etc.) in a phrase-structure tree, and shows how this computational distinction of information types is reflected in the internal structure of the parser, which consists of two sub-components: a structure builder (responsible for creating nodes in a tree and positing primary relations between them), and a structure interpreter (responsible for analysing the tree in terms of secondary relations). This model can also predict garden-path phenomena in the processing of verb-final clauses.