Language and Meaning (Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics)

This book illustrates the structuralist idea that language creates the reality we perceive. The data presented in this volume focus on the problematic issues of the passive construction and irregular (strong) verbs, with examples taken primarily from English with separate subsections on German and Russian. The author presents a new and different analysis of these complex topics which proceeds from the levels of form to meaning rather than the traditional and generative methodologies that follow the opposite path from meaning to form. This book will be of interest to all linguists who have ever confronted the controversial question of the interaction between lexical exceptions and grammatical rules. The scope of this volume is rather broad and it compares and contrasts text grammar versus sentence grammar in an innovative way.