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From Utterances to Speech Acts

By Mikhail Kissine

"Kissine offers a new theory of speech acts which is philosophically sophisticated and builds on work in cognitive science, formal semantics, and linguistic typology. This highly readable, brilliant essay is a major contribution to the field."

--François Recanati, Institut Jean-Nicod


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Book Information

   

Title: Mirrors and Microparameters
Subtitle: Phrase Structure beyond Free Word Order
Written By: David Adger
Daniel Harbour
Laurel J. Watkins
Series Title: Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 122
Description:

What is the nature of syntactic structure? Why do some languages have radically free word order ('nonconfigurationality')? Do parameters vary independently (the micro-view) or can they co-vary en masse (the macro-view)? Mirrors and Microparameters, first published in 2009, examines these questions by looking beyond the definitional criterion of nonconfigurationality - that arguments may be freely ordered, omitted, and split. Drawing on data from Kiowa, a member of the largely undescribed Kiowa-Tanoan language family, the book reveals that classically nonconfigurational languages can nonetheless exhibit robustly configurational effects. Reconciling the cooccurrence of such freedom with such rigidity has major implications for the Principles and Parameters program. This approach to nonconfigurational languages challenges widespread assumptions of linguistic theory and throws light on the syntactic structures, ordering principles, and nature of parametrization that comprise Universal Grammar.

Publication Year: 2011
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Review: Become a Reviewer
BibTex: View BibTex record
Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories
Syntax
Subject Language(s): Kiowa

Versions:
Format: Paperback
ISBN-13: 9781107403598
Prices: U.K. £ 25.99
U.S. $ 45.00