An essential task for the morphosyntactic level within the grammatical component of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG) is the handling of constituent ordering. This area of grammar, which is known as positional syntax, constitutes the subject of the present paper, in which the ordering of constituents is examined within the framework of a dynamic…

The aim of this paper is to compare the treatment of syntactic functions, and more particularly those traditionally labelled as Subject and Object, in Functional Discourse Grammar and Role and Reference Grammar. Relevant aspects of the overall structure of the two theories are briefly described. The concept of alignment between levels of the…

Drawing on naturally-occurring data extracted from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus de Referencia del Espanol Actual (CREA) in conjunction with data elicited from native speakers by means of questionnaires, this paper provides a bottom-up, usage-based analysis of instances of depictive secondary predicates involving mainly verba…

One fundamental difference between spoken and written language has to do with the "linearity" of speaking in time, in that the temporal structure of speaking is inherently the outcome of an interactive process between speaker and listener. But despite the status of "linearity" as one of Saussure's fundamental principles, in practice little more…

Some sociolinguistic considerations must enter directly into a complete generative grammatical analysis of Yoruba. Using Katz's conventional approach to grammatical description wherein syntax and semantics are separate would exclude a group of possible sentences. (POP)

Reports research at the University of Saskatchewan in which experiments with variously rearranged English and French sentences showed grammatical acceptability decreasing as the disruption of the sentence producing field of subject, verb, object, qualifier increased. (RM)

Evidence exists that the static/dynamic contrast can be established over how semantic relations link to syntax. The claim that this aspectual contrast can be derived over the linking of semantic relations in turn accounts for the failure of the English verb SEE to be marked for an aspectuality, and for the aspectual polysemy of English verbs of…

Analyzes the causal relationship between the establishment of the classifier system and the grammaticalization of the morphosyntactic particle "de" in the history of Chinese. Argues that grammaticalization is subject to influence of the overall structural change of a language in a particular period of time. (Author/VWL)

Presents evidence that argument structure is not a semantic but a syntactic level of representation. Evidence is based on the distinction between primary and secondary objects found in languages such as Chichewa. Concludes that because argument structure must express the distinction between primary and secondary objects, it follows that argument…

Accounts for the observation that in a broad range of genetically unrelated languages two classes of direct objects are found that are based on their semantic and syntactic properties. Specifically, splits are found in case marking, object position, and the ability of the object to trigger verb agreement. Proposes that this split in object…

The goal of this paper is to explore the ramifications of a nontraditional view of cognition and social interaction for the study of grammatical structure. (Contains 77 references.) (JL)

Outlines a way of conceiving the area of language identified by case or grammatical relation that does not rely on the specification of universal inventory. The alternative proposes the existence of principles of intelligence, which in their operation in language, yield the language performance that is interpreted as ROLES. (Contains 80…

Examines the traditional characterization of the process of verb formation in Sinhala (Singhalese) and the interaction between grammar components involved in the process. Compares this with a new approach, and presents an attempt at formulating derivation rules. The basic assumption is that a more integrated approach to the grammar yields a more…