Basic Linguistic Theory Volume 3: Further Grammatical Topics - Softcover

Dixon, R. M. W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199571104 ISBN 13: 9780199571109

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

Basic Linguistic Theory provides a fundamental characterization of the nature of human languages and a comprehensive guide to their description and analysis. In crystal-clear prose, R. M. W. Dixon describes how to go about doing linguistics. He show how grammatical structures and rules may be worked out on the basis of inductive generalisations, and explains the steps by which an attested grammar and lexicon can built up from observed...

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About this title

About the Author

R. M. W. Dixon is Adjunct Professor at the Cairns Institute, James Cook University. His pioneering fieldwork on Australian Aboriginal languages began in the 1960s and led, among many other works, to grammars of Dyirbal and Yidiñ, culminating in Australian Languages: Their nature and development (CUP 2002). His other books include A Grammar of Boumaa Fijian (U Chicago Press 1988), Ergativity (CUP, 1994), The Rise and Fall...

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Review

These books are monumental and destined to become classics, equatable to the two volumes entitled Language by Sapir (1921) and Bloomfield (1933), and to Givon's Syntax, volumes 1 (1984) and 2 (1990) but in each case surpassing them in scope, detail, rigor, and coherence. Dixon presents a complete, fully articulated, and cohesive explication of grammar, with extensive elaboration on every major grammatical structure found in the world's languages, as...

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Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0199571104
• ISBN 13: 9780199571109
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576