Gradience in Grammar: Generative Perspectives
Gisbert Fanselow, Caroline Féry, Matthias Schlesewsky, and Ralf Vogel
Abstract
This book represents the state of the art in the study of gradience in grammar: the degree to which utterances are acceptable or grammatical, and the relationship between acceptability and grammaticality. Gradience is at the centre of controversial issues in the theory of grammar and the understanding of language. The acceptability of words and sentences may be linked to the frequency of their use and measured on a scale. Among the questions considered in the book are: whether such measures are beyond the scope of a generative grammar or, in other words, whether the factors influencing accepta ... More
This book represents the state of the art in the study of gradience in grammar: the degree to which utterances are acceptable or grammatical, and the relationship between acceptability and grammaticality. Gradience is at the centre of controversial issues in the theory of grammar and the understanding of language. The acceptability of words and sentences may be linked to the frequency of their use and measured on a scale. Among the questions considered in the book are: whether such measures are beyond the scope of a generative grammar or, in other words, whether the factors influencing acceptability are internal or external to grammar; whether observed gradience is a property of the mentally represented grammar or a reflection of variation among speakers; and what gradient phenomena reveal about the relationship between acceptability and grammaticality, and between competence and performance. The book is divided into four parts. Part I clarifies the nature of gradience from the perspectives of phonology, generative syntax, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. Parts II and III examine issues in phonology and syntax. Part IV considers long wh-movement from different methodological perspectives. The data discussed comes from a wide range of languages and dialects, and includes tone and stress patterns, word order variation, and question formation.
Keywords:
gradience grammar,
acceptability,
grammaticality,
phonology,
syntax,
long wh-movement,
tones,
stress patterns,
word order variation,
question formation
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2006 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199274796 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274796.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Gisbert Fanselow, editor
University of Potsdam
Author Webpage
Caroline Féry, editor
University of Potsdam
Author Webpage
Matthias Schlesewsky, editor
Phillips University of Margurg
Ralf Vogel, editor
Phillips University of Margurg
Author Webpage
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