Radical Construction Grammar Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective [Paperback]

This book is based on the results of research in language typology, and motivated by the need for a theory to explain them. Croft proposes intimate links between syntactic and semantic structures, and argues that the basic elements of any language are not syntactic but rather syntactic-semantic Gestalts. He puts forward a new approach to syntactic representation and a new model of how language and languages work.

1.Part I: Against Syntactic Categories as Theoretical PrimitivesSyntactic Argumentation and Radical Construction Grammar
2. Parts of Speech
3. Syntactic Categories and Semantic Relativity
4. Grammatical Relations/Syntactic Roles
5.Part II: Against Syntactic RelationsDependency, Constituency, and Linear Order
6. A Radical Approach to Syntactic Relations
7. Heads, Complements, and Adjuncts
8.Part III: Against Universal Syntactic ConstructionsThe Voice Continuum
9. The Coordination-Subordination Continuum
10. Syntactic Theory and the Theory of Language

William Croft is Professor of Linguistics at Manchester University and has held positions at the universities of Michigan, Stanford, and at the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen. His books are 'Typology and Universals' (CUP 1990) and 'Syntactic Categories and Grammatical Relations: The Cognitive Organization of Information' (University of Chicago Press 1991). He is a series editor of 'Oxford Studies in Language Typology and Linguistic Theory'.