LINGUIST List 14.1762

Mon Jun 23 2003

Books: Typology: Cristofaro

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. tom.perridge, Subordination: Cristofaro

Title: Subordination
Series Title: Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Oxford University Press 
 http://www.oup-usa.org/, http://www.oup.co.uk		 
			
Book URL: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-925279-3

Author: Sonia Cristofaro, University of Pavia 

Hardback: ISBN: 0199252793, Pages: 320, Price: �55.00
			
Abstract:

This book presents a typology of subordination systems across the
world's languages. Traditional definitions of subordination are based
on morphosyntactic criteria, such as clausal embedding or
non-finiteness. The book shows that these definitions are untenable in
a cross-linguistic perspective, and provides a cognitively based
definition of subordination.

The analysis is based on a representative 80 language sample, and
represents the broadest study so far conducted on the cross-linguistic
coding of several types of complement, adverbial, and relative
sentence. These sentence types display considerable structural
variation across languages. However, this variation turns out to be
constrained, and appears crucially related to the functional
properties of individual sentence types. This work is the first
systematic attempt to establish comprehensive implicational
hierarchies describing the coding of complement, adverbial and
relative sentences at a single stroke. Concepts from typological
theory and cognitive linguistics are integrated to account for these
hierarchies.

Lingfield(s): Typology
		Syntax
			 
Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)


 See this book announcement on our website: 
 http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=6489.