Radical Construction Grammar

Download or read book Radical Construction Grammar written by William Croft and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2001 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'An important and original work by one of the world's leading linguistic theorists. Radical Construction Grammar presents a profound critique of syntactic theory, offers a new approach to syntax, and uncovers the real universals of grammar. It will particularly interest those concerned with theories of grammar and language typology, and with mind/language relations.' -Folia Linguistica'This is a very important book. It gathers intra- and inter-linguistic evidence that point at the centrality and relativity of the notion of construction; it presents an in-depth discussion of grammatical relations thus revealing problematic hidden assumptions; it argues for universality on the basis of our common cognitive processes but also recognises the importance of language as a system capable of influencing grammatical codification; it shifts the focus of attention to the notion of function. Moreover, Croft weaves his ideas and critical analyses into a coherent picture that exposes the contradictory foundations of much of modern linguistic theory (viz. the circularity of syntactic argumentation). For all these reasons, Croft's book is a must-read for all those interested in grammatical theory and typology.' -Naomi Ogasawara, Linguist ListAn important new volume based on the results of research in language typology, and motivated by the need for a theory to explain them. Professor Croft puts forward a new approach to syntactic representation and a new model of how language and languages work. He covers a wide range of syntactic phenomena, illustrating these with examples that show the varied grammatical structures of the world's languages.