Grammatical Categories: Variation in Romance Languages (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics)
Cambridge University Press, 3/31/2011
EAN 9780521765190, ISBN10: 0521765196
Hardcover, 364 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
Language: English
Grammatical categories (e.g. complementizer, negation, auxiliary, case) are some of the most important building blocks of syntax and morphology. Categorization therefore poses fundamental questions about grammatical structures and about the lexicon from which they are built. Adopting a 'lexicalist' stance, the authors argue that lexical items are not epiphenomena, but really represent the mapping of sound to meaning (and vice versa) that classical conceptions imply. Their rule-governed combination creates words, phrases and sentences - structured by the 'categories' that are the object of the present inquiry. They argue that the distinction between functional and non-functional categories, between content words and inflections, is not as deeply rooted in grammar as is often thought. In their argumentation they lay the emphasis on empirical evidence, drawn mainly from dialectal variation in the Romance languages, as well as from Albanian.
Introduction
the biolinguistic perspective
1. The structure and interpretation of (Romance) complementizers
2. Variation in Romance k-complementizer systems
3. Sentential negation
adverbs
4. Sentential negation
clitics
5. The middle-passive voice
evidence from Albanian
6. The auxiliary
have/be alternations in the perfect
7. The noun (phrase)
agreement, case and definiteness in an Albanian variety
8. (Definite) denotation and case in Romance
history and variation.
Advance praise: 'Grammatical Categories is a sample of Manzini and Savoia's unique blend of innovative theorizing and painstaking empirical research. Highly recommendable.' Knut Tarald Taraldsen, Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics, University of Tromsø