Essays on Grammatical Theory and Universal Grammar

This volume brings together a variety of contributions to grammatical theory by a number of leading linguists. New theories in universal grammar are discussed, along with such topics as the relation between ontology and language, and studies of particular language constructions.

This is a collection of original contributions to grammatical theory by a number of leading linguists: John Anderson, Jim Miller, John Lyons, Steve Pulman, Andrew Radford, Bernard Comrie, R. M. W. Dixon, Greville Corbett, and John Hawkins. Topics covered include: the semantic basis for syntactic relations, the relationship between ontology and language, detailed studies of particular constructions in one language, reference tracking systems, grammatical relations, gender systems, and the explanation of Language Universals.

Introduction
John Anderson: Reflections on notional grammar, with some remarks on its relevance to issues in the analysis of English and its history
Bernard Comrie: Some general properties of reference-tracking systems
Greville Corbett: An approach to the description of gender systems
R. M. W. Dixon: Subject and object in universal grammar
John A. Hawkins: Competence and performance in the explanation of language universals
John Lyons: Semantic ascent: A neglected aspect of syntactic typology
Jim Miller: Participant Roles, synonymy, and truth conditions
Steve Pulman: Prepositional relatives and syntactic marginality
Andrew Radford: The status of exclamative particles in modern spoken French
References
Index