This book explores how grammatical oppositions - for instance, the contrast between present and past tense - are represented in the syntax of natural languages. The nature of syntactic contrast is tied to a fundamental question in generative syntactic theory: what is universal in syntax, and what is variable? The chapters in this volume examine the dual role of features, which both define a set of paradigmatic contrasts and act as the building blocks of syntactic structures and the drivers of syntactic operations. In both of these roles, features are increasingly considered the locus of parametric variation. This identification of parameters with features has opened up new possibilities for investigating connections between the morphological system of a language and its syntax, and suggests a new role for featural contrast in syntactic theory. The contributors to this volume address these two major questions from a range of perspectives, drawing on data from a variety of typologically diverse languages, including Blackfoot, Greek, Onondaga, and Scottish Gaelic.
| ISBN: | 9780198817925 |
| Publication date: | 5th October 2020 |
| Author: | Bronwyn M Bjorkman, Daniel Currie Hall |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press an imprint of OUP OXFORD |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 336 pages |
| Series: | Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics |
| Genres: |
Grammar, syntax and morphology |
This book explores how grammatical oppositions - for instance, the contrast between present and past tense - are represented in the syntax of natural languages. The nature of syntactic contrast is tied to a fundamental question in generative syntactic theory: what is universal in syntax, and what is variable? The chapters in this volume examine the dual role of features, which both define a set of paradigmatic contrasts and act as the building blocks of syntactic structures and the drivers of syntactic operations. In both of these roles, features are increasingly considered the locus of parametric variation. This identification of parameters with features has opened up new possibilities for investigating connections between the morphological system of a language and its syntax, and suggests a new role for featural contrast in syntactic theory. The contributors to this volume address these two major questions from a range of perspectives, drawing on data from a variety of typologically diverse languages, including Blackfoot, Greek, Onondaga, and Scottish Gaelic.
Contrast and Representations in Syntax features in the following genres: Grammar, syntax and morphology
Contrast and Representations in Syntax is available in Paperback, Hardback
Contrast and Representations in Syntax was written by Bronwyn M Bjorkman, Daniel Currie Hall and published by Oxford University Press an imprint of OUP OXFORD
Contrast and Representations in Syntax has 336 pages
Yes it is part of Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics series