Grammatical categories [electronic resource] : variation in romance languages / M. Rita Manzini, Leonardo Maria Savoia.

Grammatical categories [electronic resource] : variation in romance languages / M. Rita Manzini, Leonardo Maria Savoia.

9780521765190
9781139079686 (electronic book)

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

English

xi, 351 p. : ill.

P240.5 .M36 2011

415

"Grammatical categories (e.g. complementizer, negation, auxiliary, case) are some of the most important building blocks of syntax and morphology. Categorization therefore poses fundamental questions about grammatical structures and about the lexicon from which they are built. Adopting a 'lexicalist' stance, the authors argue that lexical items are not epiphenomena, but really represent the mapping of sound to meaning (and vice versa) that classical conceptions imply. Their rule-governed combination creates words, phrases and sentences - structured by the 'categories' that are the object of the present inquiry. They argue that the distinction between functional and non-functional categories, between content words and inflections, is not as deeply rooted in grammar as is often thought. In their argumentation they lay the emphasis on empirical evidence, drawn mainly from dialectal variation in the Romance languages, as well as from Albanian"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Access limited to authorized users.

Cambridge studies in linguistics ; 128.

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