Language Form and Language Function

Front Cover

The two basic approaches to linguistics are the formalist and the functionalist approaches. In this engaging monograph, Frederick J. Newmeyer, a formalist, argues that both approaches are valid. However, because formal and functional linguists have avoided direct confrontation, they remain unaware of the compatability of their results. One of the author's goals is to make each side accessible to the other. While remaining an ardent formalist, Newmeyer stresses the limitations of a narrow formalist outlook that refuses to consider that anything of interest might have been discovered in the course of functionalist-oriented research. He argues that the basic principles of generative grammar, in interaction with principles in other linguistic domains, provide compelling accounts of phenomena that functionalists have used to try to refute the generative approach.

 

Contents

Chapter
6
On the Variety of Generativist
11
The Autonomy of Syntax
25
The Autonomy of Grammar as
77
Conclusion
94
Convincing and Unconvincing
126
External Explanation and
153
Prototype Theory and Syntactic
171
On Unidirectionality
260
Two Issues in Grammaticalization
279
Conclusion
295
Language Typology and Its 1 Overview
297
What Is to Be Done?
335
Implicational Hierarchies
348
Summary
364
Name Index
417

Prototypes
196
Chapter 5
225

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