The Structure of the Lexicon in Functional Grammar

The Structure of the Lexicon in Functional Grammar
Author: Hella Olbertz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 325
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027230463

In functional grammar, the lexicon plays a central role. Lexical items form the basic building blocks around which the structure of a clause is built. This book examines 5 aspects of the role of the lexicon in functional grammar.

The Structure of the Lexicon in Functional Grammar

The Structure of the Lexicon in Functional Grammar
Author: Hella Olbertz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998
Genre: Functional discourse grammar
ISBN: 9781556199295

In functional grammar, the lexicon plays a central role. Lexical items form the basic building blocks around which the structure of a clause is built. This book examines 5 aspects of the role of the lexicon in functional grammar.

Grammatical theory

Grammatical theory
Author: Stefan Müller
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 879
Release: 2018
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961102732

This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax
Author: Marcel den Dikken
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1412
Release: 2013-07-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107354587

Syntax – the study of sentence structure – has been at the centre of generative linguistics from its inception and has developed rapidly and in various directions. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax provides a historical context for what is happening in the field of generative syntax today, a survey of the various generative approaches to syntactic structure available in the literature and an overview of the state of the art in the principal modules of the theory and the interfaces with semantics, phonology, information structure and sentence processing, as well as linguistic variation and language acquisition. This indispensable resource for advanced students, professional linguists (generative and non-generative alike) and scholars in related fields of inquiry presents a comprehensive survey of the field of generative syntactic research in all its variety, written by leading experts and providing a proper sense of the range of syntactic theories calling themselves generative.

A lexicalist account of argument structure

A lexicalist account of argument structure
Author: Stefan Müller
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 106
Release: 2018
Genre: Construction grammar
ISBN: 3961101213

There are two prominent schools in linguistics: Minimalism (Chomsky) and Construction Grammar (Goldberg, Tomasello). Minimalism comes with the claim that our linguistic capabilities consist of an abstract, binary combinatorial operation (Merge) and a lexicon. Most versions of Construction Grammar assume that language consists of flat phrasal schemata that contribute their own meaning and may license additional arguments. This book examines a variant of Lexical Functional Grammar, which is lexical in principle but was augmented by tools that allow for the description of phrasal constructions in the Construction Grammar sense. These new tools include templates that can be used to model inheritance hierarchies and a resource driven semantics. The resource driven semantics makes it possible to reach the effects that lexical rules had, for example remapping of arguments, by semantic means. The semantic constraints can be evaluated in the syntactic component, which is basically similar to the delayed execution of lexical rules. So this is a new formalization that might be suitable to provide solutions to longstanding problems that are not available for other formalizations. While the authors suggest a lexical treatment of many phenomena and only assume phrasal constructions for selected phenomena like benefactive and resultative constructions in English, it can be shown that even these two constructions should not be treated phrasally in English and that the analysis would not extend to other languages as for instance German. I show that the new formal tools do not really improve the situation and many of the basic conceptual problems remain. Since this specific proposal fails for two constructions, it follows that proposals (in the same framework) that assume phrasal analyses for all constructions are not appropriate either. The conclusion is that lexical models are needed and this entails that the schemata that combine syntactic objects are rather abstract (as in Categorial Grammar, Minimalism, HPSG and standard LFG). On the other hand there are constructions that should be treated by very specific, phrasal schemata as in Construction Grammar and LFG and HPSG. So the conclusion is that both schools are right (and wrong) and that a combination of ideas from both camps is needed.

Layered Structure and Reference in a Functional Perspective

Layered Structure and Reference in a Functional Perspective
Author: Michael D. Fortescue
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 459
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027250359

This volume contains revised and expanded versions of those papers from the 1990 Functional Grammar Conference in Copenhagen that contributed specifically to the current investigation of clause structure in terms of semantic layers. One of the key concepts in this discussion is 'reference'. Some papers discuss ways in which previous accounts of reference need to be expanded and differentiated to provide a consistent picture of referential properties. The power of layered analysis to bring out fundamental similarities between languages of very different types is the theme of another group of papers, again with the referential properties of constituents playing a central role. By some contributors layered analysis is challenged, and the question is raised as to how it might fit into a dynamic and pragmatic picture of language. The book is rounded off by a comparison between layered structure in Functional Grammar and in Government and Binding Theory.

Lexical-functional Grammar

Lexical-functional Grammar
Author: Yehuda N. Falk
Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publica Tion
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2001
Genre: Lexical-functional grammar
ISBN:

With this textbook, Yehuda N. Falk provides an introduction to the theory of Lexical-Functional Grammar, aimed at both students and professionals who are familiar with other generative theories and now wish to approach LFG. Falk examines LFG's relation to more conventional theories—like Government/Binding or the Minimalism Program—and, in many respects, establishes its superiority.

Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar

Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar
Author: M.A.K. Halliday
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1060
Release: 2013-09-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1135983488

Fully updated and revised, this fourth edition of Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar explains the principles of systemic functional grammar, enabling the reader to understand and apply them in any context. Halliday's innovative approach of engaging with grammar through discourse has become a worldwide phenomenon in linguistics. Updates to the new edition include: Recent uses of systemic functional linguistics to provide further guidance for students, scholars and researchers More on the ecology of grammar, illustrating how each major system serves to realise a semantic system A systematic indexing and classification of examples More from corpora, thus allowing for easy access to data Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar, Fourth Edition, is the standard reference text for systemic functional linguistics and an ideal introduction for students and scholars interested in the relation between grammar, meaning and discourse.

Between Grammar and Lexicon

Between Grammar and Lexicon
Author: Ellen Contini-Morava
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2000
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9789027236890

The essays in this volume explore the relationship between lexical and grammatical categories, calling into question the strict dichotomy between the two that is sometimes assumed.

The Structure of the Lexicon

The Structure of the Lexicon
Author: Marcel Thelen
Publisher: Academia Press
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2012
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9038218265

One of the few scholarly attempts to reconcile a generatively-based approach to the structure of the lexicon with the cognitive approach of Cognitive Grammar