The universal structure of categories : towards a formal typology
Martina Wiltschko (Author)
"Using data from a variety of languages such as Blackfoot, Halkomelem, and Upper Austrian German, this book explores a range of grammatical categories and constructions, including tense, aspect, subjunctive, case and demonstratives. It presents a new theory of grammatical categories - the Universal Spine Hypothesis - and reinforces generative notions of Universal Grammar while accommodating insights from linguistic typology. In essence, this new theory shows that language-specific categories are built from a small set of universal categories and language-specific units of language. Throughout the book the Universal Spine Hypothesis is compared to two alternative theories - the Universal Base Hypothesis and the No Base Hypothesis. This valuable addition to the field will be welcomed by graduate students and researchers in linguistics"-- Provided by publisher
1 online resource (xx, 356 pages)
9781316004159, 9781139833899, 9781316008652, 9781316006412, 9781139990301, 9781316010914, 9781316013151, 9781316001912, 1316004155, 1139833898, 1316008657, 1316006417, 1139990306, 1316010910, 1316013154, 1316001911
885337994
The universal structure of categories
A history of ideas behind the spine
The universal spine as a heuristic for the identification of grammatical categories
Anchoring categories in independent clauses
Anchoring categories in dependent clauses
Nominal anchoring categories
Categories that introduce a point of view
Towards a formal typology
English