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This volume provides the first general introduction to optimality theory -- arguably the d linguistic theory of the 1990s. The book leads the reader to an understanding of optimality theory via the exploration and resolution of specific problems in phonology, morphology, and syntax, but presumes virtually no background knowledge in linguistics.
By mathematics of language is meant the mathematical properties that may, under certain assumptions about modeling, be attributed to human languages and related symbolic systems, as well as the increasingly active and autonomous scholarly discipline that studies such things. More specifically, the use of techniques developed in a variety of pure and applied mathematics, including logic and the theory of computation, in the discovery and articulation of insights into the structure of language. Some of the contributions to this volume deal primarily with foundational issues, others with specific models and theoretical issues. A few are concerned with semantics, but most focus on syntax. The papers in this volume reveal applications of the several fields of the theory of computation (formal languages, automata, complexity), formal logic, topology, set theory, graph theory, and statistics. The book also shows a keen interest in developing mathematical models that are especially suited to natural languages.
This volume of articles was prepared in honor of Winfred P. Lehmann on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The papers are presented in two sections: I. Studies in Descriptive Linguistics, and II. Studies in Historical Linguistics. The volume contains contributions by R.M.W. Dixon, Ralph M. Goodman, Maurice Gross, Einar Haugen, David G. Hays, Archibald A. Hill, Mohammad Ali Jazayery, E.F.K. Koerner, D. Terence Langendoen, Don L.F. Nilsen, Arthur L. Palacas, Sol Saporta, Sanford A. Schane, Jacob Mey, Anders Ahlqvist, Simon C. Dik, Robert T. Harms, Saul Levin, Yakov Malkiel, D. Gary Miller, William G. Moulton, Edgar C. Polome, Gary D. Prideaux, Luigi Romeo, Maria Tsiapera, Krystyna Wachowicz, Mridula Adenwala Durbin, Paul J. Hopper, Aaron Bar-Adon.
This groundbreaking book highlights a phonological preference, the Principle of Rhythmic Alternation, as a factor in grammatical variation and change in English from the early modern period to the present. Though frequently overlooked in earlier research, the phonetically motivated avoidance of adjacent stresses is shown to exert an influence on a wide variety of phenomena in morphology and syntax. Based on in-depth analyses of extensive electronic databases, the book presents 20 exemplary studies from different structural categories. Among them are much-debated as well as novel issues, including the double comparative worser, 'predicative only' a- adjectives, variant past participles, the p...
This is the first of a series of 6 books dealing with case phenomena in different languages, both Indo- and non-Indo-European, resulting from work by a team of 20 specialists at the University of Leuven. It is the first time such a large-scale investigation into case has been undertaken, and a remarkable feature of the project is the use of computer corpora of authentic material. This bibliography presents the many dimensions involved in research into case and case-related phenomena. This includes not only morphological case markers, but also the crossconstituent (semantic and grammatical) relations expressed by morphological case or by its various counterparts; morpho-syntactic processes su...
This handbook provides an authoritative, critical survey of current research and knowledge in the grammar of the English language. The volume's expert contributors explore a range of core topics in English grammar, covering a range of theoretical approaches and including the relationship between 'core' grammar and other areas of language.