The Substance of Language Volume III: Phonology-Syntax Analogies - Hardcover

Anderson, John M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199608334 ISBN 13: 9780199608331

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2011

Synopsis

The three volumes of The Substance of Language collectively overhaul linguistic theory from phonology to semantics and syntax to pragmatics and offer a full account of how the form/function relationship works in language. Each explores the consequences for the investigation of language of a conviction that all aspects of linguistic structure are grounded in the non-linguistic mental faculties on which language imposes its own structure. The first and third look at how syntax and phonology are fed by a lexical component that includes morphology and which unites representations in the two planes. The second examines the way morphology is embedded in the lexicon as part of the expression of the lexicon-internal relationships of words.

Phonology-Syntax Analogies looks at the substantive and structural analogies between phonology and syntax and the factors that cause such analogies to break down. It considers the degree to which analogies between syntax and phonology result from their both being representational subsystems within the overall system of language. At the same time it examines how far semantic and phonetic properties limit such analogies. The book presents a powerful argument against the notion of an ungrounded autonomous syntax, which it sustains and supports by detailed grammatical analyses and a powerfully coherent conceptual understanding of the nature of language

The many detailed proposals of John Anderson's fine trilogy are derived from an over-arching conception of the nature of linguistic knowledge that is in turn based on the grounding of syntax in semantics and the grounding of phonology in phonetics, both convincingly subsumed under the notion of cognitive salience. The Substance of Language is a major contribution to linguistic theory and the history of linguistic thought.

About this title

About the Author

John M. Anderson is Emeritus Professor of English Language at the University of Edinburgh. He has been a visiting professor at universities in Denmark, Poland, Greece, and Spain. His books include The Grammar of Case (CUP, 1971); Old English Phonology (with Roger Lass, CUP, 1975); Principles of Dependency Phonology (with Colin J. Ewen, CUP, 1987); A Notional Theory of Syntactic Categories (CUP, 1997); Modern Grammars of Case (OUP, 2006); and The Grammar of Names (OUP, 2007).

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0199608334
• ISBN 13: 9780199608331
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432