Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Studies in Linguistics

The theory of Government and Binding, developed by Noam Chomsky and his associates, is probably the most striking and promising development in theoretical syntax. In this book Kenneth Safir refines and extends this framework by re-examining the primitive syntactic relations - the means by which all syntactic relationships and interdependencies are defined and expressed with Universal Grammar.

Examines how accents differ in 'voice quality' across languages and presents a new framework for its analysis with a revised model of lower-vocal-tract articulation, focusing on the larynx in speech. It will appeal to students and researchers in linguistics, phonetics, child language, speech science, clinical linguistics, and forensic phonetics.

The aim of this study is to show that a self-contained linguistic theory cannot by itself be psychologically plausible, but depends on a compatible theory of learning which embraces developmental as well as formal issues.

This book offers a detailed description and analysis of West Flemish, a dialect of Dutch, within the framework of Government and Binding Theory.

Noel Burton-Roberts has made an authoritative contribution to a debate which has involved philosophers and linguists for many years. His command of the issues, his clarity of exposition and his theoretical insight may well serve to change the boundaries of that debate.

In this study Donna Jo Napoli takes a common-sense approach to the notions of argument and predicate. She presents a case for viewing the notion of predicate as a semantic primitive which cannot be defined by looking simply at the lexicon or syntactic structure, offering a theory or predication where the key to the subject-predicate relationship is theta-role assignment.

This important study of the development of English aspectual systems provides an exceptionally clear and systematic account of syntax and semantics.

John Anderson and Colin Ewen, two of the most notable exponents of 'dependency phonology', present in this book a detailed account of this integrated model for the representational of segmental and suprasegmental structure in phonology.

Parallel Structures in Syntax is a significant and thoughtful contribution to syntactic theory, and arguably provides the simplest and most elegant account available of many of the complex phenomena observed in coordination, causatives, and restructuring. It will interest not only theoretical linguists, but also computational linguists and cognitive scientists.

This book presents an investigation of a number of areas of interest in the study of language change, dealing in particular with questions of how patterns of pronunciation vary across both time and space. It will thus be of interest to English language specialists as well as to historical linguists, sociolinguists and phonologists.

This book investigates, from a linguistic point of view, how rural migrants adjust to an urban environment. The focus of Dr Bortoni-Ricardo's study is speakers of Caipira, a dialect of Brazilian Portuguese. The volume examines in careful detail the historical and synchronic sociolinguistic background of the migrants and the changes that have taken place in their linguistic repertoire.

In this study Terence McKay demonstrates how the principles of the theory of Government and Binding apply to German syntax and in particular to an aspect that has exposed especially problematic and interesting issues: the properties of the infinitival constructions with lassen, scheinen and the verbs of perception.

Anthony Warner offers a detailed account of both the synchronic and diachronic properties of auxiliaries. This book meets the dual challenge of accounting for both the grammar and the history of the English auxiliary. It will be essential reading for all those interested in English syntax and its history.

This study offers a comprehensive and illuminating account of one of the characteristics shared to some degree by the languages of the Balkan peninsula - Greek, Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Romanian - namely the loss of the infinitive and its replacement by finite verb forms.

The goal of John Haiman's study is to challenge the monopoly of arbitrariness, which he believes has affected in significant ways many models of linguistic description and analysis, notably those proposed by Saussure and more recently by Chomsky and his associates.

The book's clarity of exposition will enable readers not wholly familiar with metrical phonology to appreciate fully the elegance of this model in, arguably, its most basic form.

Linguistic Realities is a major contribution to the philosophy and methodology of linguistics. Its application of Popperian philosophy of science to the philosophy of linguistics will arouse much debate among philosophers and linguists alike.

Harry Bunt provides a thorough analysis of the problem of 'mass terms' and offers an original and detailed solution. This significant advance in our understanding of the formal syntactic and semantic properties of mass terms will be of interest not only to linguists and logicians, but also to all those concerned with the processing of natural language.

A central tenet of this volume is that theories of language development should be relatable to some general view of human development and, on this basis, Dr Atkinson presents a number of conditions that any adequate theory of language development should satisfy.

In this volume Dr Romaine lays the foundation for a field of research encompassing both historical linguistics and sociolinguistics, which aims to investigate and account for language variation within a particular speech community over time. Preliminary suggestions for a truly integrative sociolinguistic theory will be of interest to sociolinguists, historical linguists and general linguists.

Dr Lass argues that theoretical constructs of language change should be based more on philosophy than the physical sciences.

Dr Thrane makes an original contribution to one of the central topics in syntax and semantics: the nature and mechanisms of reference in natural language.

This book is an important contribution to Australian linguistics and to linguistic theory in general.

A critical exposition of Piaget's views on child language and thought.

Dr Linell attacks the claim that the transformational models of language have some psychological validity and represent our mental organisation of linguistic knowledge.

The 'standard theory' of Chomsky and Halle has dominated phonology in recent years. It has been subject to modification and to criticism but not of a really fundamental kind. Dr Foley does here offer a fundamental criticism and a genuine theoretical alternative.

A detailed study of Old English, taking as its point of departure the 'standard theory' of generative phonology as developed by Chomsky and Halle. Dr Lass and Dr Anderson set out all the main phonological processes of Old English and aghainst their larger historical background (including subsequent developments in the history of English).

A description of the phonology of modern Greek dialects from the point of view of their historical development in so far as this may be reconstructed from their modern form. Throughout the work the historical development of numerous sample words is presented in order to illustrate the rules.

Dr Brown examines the functions of different types of rules in the phonological component of a generative grammar with examples especially from Lumasaaba, a Bantu language of eastern Uganda.

Professor Samuels presents a comprehensive explanation of the reasons for linguistic change, applying his theory in particular to the history of English. He assesses and mediates between the conflicting dogmas of different schools of linguistics, and offers an alternative theory of linguistic change which is basically simple but has the scope to cover any type of change.