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Functional Categories and Parametric Variation (Paperback)
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Functional Categories and Parametric Variation (Paperback)
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This book explores the idea that functional categories are the
flesh and blood of grammar'. From within the context of the
Principles and Parameters framework put forward by Chomsky and
others, Jamal Ouhalla develops the argument that much of what we
understand by the term grammar and grammatical variation involves
functional categories in a crucial way. His main thesis is that
most, if not all, of the information which determines the major
grammatical processes and relations (movement, agreement, case,
etc.) and consequently parametric (or crosslinguistic) variation is
associated with functional categories. By identifying parameters
with a limited set of lexical properties associated with a
well-defined group of functional categories, the book offers a new
and highly constrained version of the theory of Lexical
Parametrization. Dr Ouhalla begins by identifying a set of lexical
properties which distinguish functional categories from
substantives, arguing that each of them represents a parameter in
its own right. He then goes on to argue on the basis of evidence
drawn from a broad range of languages that functional categories,
most of which are bound morphemes, behave in important respects
like independent syntactic categories, and therefore should be
assigned a full categorial status on a par with substantives. The
remainder of the book contains detailed discussions of how this
conclusion, together with the theory of Lexical Parametrization
developed, account naturally for some major typological differences
having to do mainly with word order in sentences and noun phrases.
Although the various discussions it contains are conducted within
the Chomskyan framework, Functional Categories and Parametric
Variation is comprehensible to linguists of all theoretical
persuasions. It is an original and important contribution to
syntactic theory in general.
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