| Emergence of Functions in Language C Contributor(s): Al, Frajzyngier Et (Author) |
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ISBN: 0198844298 ISBN-13: 9780198844297 Publisher: Academic OUR PRICE: $114.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 2021 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - Historical & Comparative - Philosophy | Language |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.1" W x 9.3" (1.36 lbs) 336 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This volume explores the question of why languages - even those spoken in the same geographical area by people who share similar social structures, occupations, and religious beliefs - differ in the meanings expressed by their grammatical systems. Zygmunt Frajzyngier and Marielle Butters outline a new methodology to explore these differences, and to discover the motivations behind the emergence of meanings. The motivations that they identify include: the communicative need triggered when the grammatical system inherently produces ambiguities; the principle of functional transparency; the opportunistic emergence of meaning, whereby unoccupied formal niches acquire a new function; metonymic emergence, whereby a property of an existing function receives a formal means of its own, thus creating a new function; and the emergence of functions through language contact. The book offers new analyses of a range of phenomena across different languages, such as benefactives and progressives in English, and point of view of the subject and goal orientation in Chadic languages. It also draws on a wealth of data from other languages including French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, and a variety of less familiar Sino-Russian idiolects. |