This study provides a consistent description and explanation of the syntax, the semantics and the pragmatics of Spanish mood. A major focus of attention is the central role of the truthfunctional categories of realis, potentialis and irrealis as parameters relevant to mood selection in both subordinate and non-subordinate clauses. Furthermore, a proposal is offered for a new typology of clause-embedding predicates. The framework chosen stems from the insight that complement-taking predicates share the property of providing information on the set of mental processes which characterize intentional human behavior.
This book is simultaneously a theoretical study in morphosyntax and an in-depth empirical study of Hebrew. Based on Hebrew data, the book defends the status of the root as a lexical and phonological unit and argues that roots, rather than verbs or nouns, are the primitives of word formation. A central claim made throughout is the role of locality in word formation, teasing apart word formation from roots and word formation from existing words syntactically, semantically and phonologically.
Any analysis of the syntax of time is based on a paradox: it must include a syntax-based theory of both tense construal and event construal. Yet while time is undimensional, events have a complex spatiotemporal structure that reflects their human participants. How can an event be flattened to fit into the linear time axis? Chomsky's The Minimalist Program, published in 1995, offers a way to address this problem.
Regardless of its origin in terms of diachronic level and comparative linguistics, a verb form needs to be studied in texts, not in isolation but in connection with all its associated linguistic markers. Which modern tense should be used to translate it can be determined only when its function in the text has been understood.
AN INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE is ideal for use at all levels and in many different areas of instruction, including education, languages, psychology, anthropology, English, teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), and linguistics. All chapters in this best-seller have been revised to reflect recent discoveries and new understanding of linguistics and languages. The best-selling classic, known for its comprehensive and balanced coverage, has been updated to reflect the most current research in the field of linguistics.