RenÉe Lambert-BrÉtiÈre and Claire Lefebvre
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199945290
- eISBN:
- 9780190201203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945290.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
By its very nature, relabeling takes place in the lexical component of the grammar. By hypothesis, different theories of the lexicon should make different predictions as to the nature of the lexical ...
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By its very nature, relabeling takes place in the lexical component of the grammar. By hypothesis, different theories of the lexicon should make different predictions as to the nature of the lexical items that are pertinent for relabeling. The aim of this chapter is to test this hypothesis by comparing the predictions of two different approaches to the lexicon—the Principles and Parameters (P&P) framework and the Radical Construction Grammar (RCxG) framework—for a relabeling-based account of creole genesis, on the basis of data drawn from a subset of Caribbean creoles and their contributing languages. The analysis shows that, for all the constructions studied in this chapter, the RCxG approach to the lexicon presents clear advantages over the P&P model with respect to the relabeling-based account of creole genesis.Less
By its very nature, relabeling takes place in the lexical component of the grammar. By hypothesis, different theories of the lexicon should make different predictions as to the nature of the lexical items that are pertinent for relabeling. The aim of this chapter is to test this hypothesis by comparing the predictions of two different approaches to the lexicon—the Principles and Parameters (P&P) framework and the Radical Construction Grammar (RCxG) framework—for a relabeling-based account of creole genesis, on the basis of data drawn from a subset of Caribbean creoles and their contributing languages. The analysis shows that, for all the constructions studied in this chapter, the RCxG approach to the lexicon presents clear advantages over the P&P model with respect to the relabeling-based account of creole genesis.
Neil Myler
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034913
- eISBN:
- 9780262336130
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034913.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
A major question for linguistic theory concerns how the structure of sentences relates to their meaning. There is broad agreement in the field that there is some regularity in the way that lexical ...
More
A major question for linguistic theory concerns how the structure of sentences relates to their meaning. There is broad agreement in the field that there is some regularity in the way that lexical semantics and syntax are related, so that thematic roles are predictably associated with particular syntactic positions. This book examines the syntax and semantics of possession sentences, which are infamous for appearing to diverge dramatically from this broadly regular pattern. On the one hand, possession sentences have too many meanings: in a given language, the construction used to express archetypal possessive meanings (such as personal ownership) is also often used to express other apparently unrelated notions (body parts, kinship relations, and many others). On the other hand, possession sentences have too many surface structures: languages differ markedly in the argument structures used to convey the same possessive meanings, with some employing a transitive verb HAVE, and others using a variety of constructions based around an intransitive verb BE. Examining and synthesizing ideas from the literature and drawing on data from many languages (including some understudied Quechua dialects), this book presents a novel way to understand the apparent irregularity of possession sentences while preserving existing explanations for the general cross-linguistic regularities we observe in argument structure.Less
A major question for linguistic theory concerns how the structure of sentences relates to their meaning. There is broad agreement in the field that there is some regularity in the way that lexical semantics and syntax are related, so that thematic roles are predictably associated with particular syntactic positions. This book examines the syntax and semantics of possession sentences, which are infamous for appearing to diverge dramatically from this broadly regular pattern. On the one hand, possession sentences have too many meanings: in a given language, the construction used to express archetypal possessive meanings (such as personal ownership) is also often used to express other apparently unrelated notions (body parts, kinship relations, and many others). On the other hand, possession sentences have too many surface structures: languages differ markedly in the argument structures used to convey the same possessive meanings, with some employing a transitive verb HAVE, and others using a variety of constructions based around an intransitive verb BE. Examining and synthesizing ideas from the literature and drawing on data from many languages (including some understudied Quechua dialects), this book presents a novel way to understand the apparent irregularity of possession sentences while preserving existing explanations for the general cross-linguistic regularities we observe in argument structure.
