This book addresses fundamental issues in linguistic theory, including the relation between formal and cognitive approaches, the autonomy of syntax, and the content of universal grammar. Professor Anderson focuses on the grammar of case relations and, after a critical history of modern grammars of case, explores unresolved issues in the field, including the degree to which syntactic categories are grounded in meaning and the notion of linguistic creativity. He sheds new light on the interactions between meaning and grammar. His argument will interest linguists, philosophers, and cognitive scientists.

Modern Grammars of Case

Reference

Anderson, John M.

Words, Language & Grammar

Oxford University Press

The Grammar of Names

This book is the first systematic account of the syntax and semantics of names. Drawing on work in onomastics, philosophy, and linguistics the author examines the distribution and subcategorization of names within a framework of syntactic categories and considers how the morphosyntactic behavior of names connects to their semantic roles in a range of languages. John Anderson's original and accessible investigation will appeal to scholars and advanced students of linguistics and philosophy.

The Grammar of Names (Oxford Linguistics)

Foreign Language Study & Reference

This book is the first systematic account of the syntax and semantics of names. Drawing on work in onomastics, philosophy, and linguistics, John Anderson examines the distribution and subcategorization of names within a framework of syntactic categories, and considers how the morphosyntactic behaviour of names connects to their semantic roles. He argues that names occur in two basic circumstances: one involving vocatives and their use in naming predications, where they are not definite; the other their use as arguments of predicators, where they are definite. This division is discussed in relation to English, French, Greek, and Seri, and a range of other languages. Professor Anderson reveals that the semantic status of names, including prototypicality, is crucial to understanding their morphosyntax and role in derivational relationships. He shows that semantically coherent subsets of names, such as those referring to people and places, are characterized by morphosyntactic properties which may vary from language to language.

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. The Domain of Syntax explores the consequences for syntax of assuming that language is grounded in cognition and perception. It shows that syntax is characterized by a set of categories based on distinctions in what the categories are perceived to represent. The first part of the book traces the twentieth-century development of anti-notionalism, culminating in the assumption that syntax is autonomous. The author then looks at syntactic phenomena, many involving the fundamental notion of finiteness. He considers whether the appeal to grounding permits a lexicalist approach that would allow syntax to dispense not only with structural mutations such as category-change and 'empty categories' but with universal grammar itself.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.

The Substance of Language Volume I: The Domain of Syntax

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. Morphology , Paradigms, and Periphrases is concerned with the role of the lexicon, in particular its inflectional morphology, in mediating between the substantively different categories of syntax and phonology. In the first part of the book Professor Anderson looks at the central role of the paradigm in reconciling the demands of syntactic categorization with the available means of expression. He examines the expressive role of inflection, illustrating his argument with Old English verb morphology. In the second part of the book the author pursues the notion of grammatical periphrasis. He starts out from its role as a solver of the problem of defective or incomplete paradigms and then compares it with other analytic expressions. He concludes with a discussion of why studies of grammatical periphrasis have focused on verbal constructions. He looks at the mechanism by which grammatical periphrases compensate for gaps in the finite verb paradigm and what this reveals about the substantive differences between verbs and nouns. 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.

The Substance of Language Volume II: Morphology, Paradigms, and Periphrases (Oxford Linguistics)

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 languageThe 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.

The Substance of Language Volume III: Phonology-Syntax Analogies

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 the 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. The Domain of Syntax explores the consequences for syntax of assuming that language is grounded in cognition and perception. It shows that syntax is characterized by a set of categories based on distinctions in what the categories are perceived to represent. The first part of the book traces the twentieth-century development of anti-notionalism, culminating in the assumption that syntax is autonomous. The author then looks at syntactic phenomena, many involving the fundamental notion of finiteness. He considers whether the appeal to grounding permits a lexicalist approach that would allow syntax to dispense not only with structural mutations such as category-change and 'empty categories' but with universal grammar itself.Morphology , Paradigms, and Periphrases is concerned with the role of the lexicon, in particular its inflectional morphology, in mediating between the substantively different categories of syntax and phonology. In the first part of the book Professor Anderson looks at the central role of the paradigm in reconciling the demands of syntactic categorization with the available means of expression. He examines the expressive role of inflection, illustrating his argument with Old English verb morphology. In the second part of the book the author pursues the notion of grammatical periphrasis. He starts out from its role as a solver of the problem of defective or incomplete paradigms and then compares it with other analytic expressions. He concludes with a discussion of why studies of grammatical periphrasis have focused on verbal constructions. He looks at the mechanism by which grammatical periphrases compensate for gaps in the finite verb paradigm and what this reveals about the substantive differences between verbs and nouns.Phonology-Syntax Analogies looks at the substantive and structural analogies betwem 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.

John M. Anderson: The Substance of Language: Three-volume pack

In this vivid, penetrating analysis of man's participation in art, Professor Anderson has written a phenomenology of the creative experience. Such a master of the philosophy of art as Santayana would have appreciated this book, for like Santayana the author finds in art the key to the ultimate place of the human spirit. But unlike Santayana's, Anderson's words are addressed especially to contemporary man, whose questioning of the meaning and prospects of creative effort and the flow of history comes to a particularly intense focus in the art of today. Through fresh and often strikingly novel interpretations of significant examples from many arts, the author provides concrete illustration and evidence for each analytical theme and concept. The presentation of each step in this depiction of creative experience focuses upon a perennial issue of the interpretation of art. Anderson offers provocative accounts of aesthetic intuition as ultimate, of the art-work as distinguished from the art-object, of the central place of meaning and truth in art, of the close relation of comedy to tragedy, and of the sublime as a relatively common form of art.The goal of his analysis is to give an accurate account of aesthetic intuition--to show that it relates to the coursing of events underlying it, and that it is the culmination of these events in the sense of being their ground. Thus he finds in creative experience the talisman of human life, the source of the promise of a history lived by free men.

Realm of Art

Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

This book presents an innovative theory of syntactic categories and the lexical classes they define. It revives the traditional idea that these are to be distinguished notionally (semantically). The author proposes a notation based on semantic features that accounts for the syntactic behavior of classes. The book also presents a case for considering this classification--again in a rather traditional vein--to be basic to determining the syntactic structure of sentences.

A Notional Theory of Syntactic Categories (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics)

Cambridge University Press