Understanding Relative Clauses

The book offers a usage-based account of how humans comprehend complex linguistic structures. The author proposes a theory of constructional access, which treats syntactic patterns as complex and abstract signs. In this view, syntactic processing is subject to the very same dynamics as lexical processing and should yield the same type of frequency effects.

Autorentext

Daniel Wiechmann, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Klappentext

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks, as well as studies that provide new insights by approaching language from an interdisciplinary perspective. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.

Zusammenfassung
"Daniel Wiechmann's Understanding Relative Clauses presents an extremely detailed and methodologically interesting quantitative corpus analysis of one of the most debated syntactic structures in the field of (psycho)linguistics, namely, relative clause constructions (RCCs). [...] To sum up, Understanding Relative Clauses reports an interesting analysis of these constructions and suggests a compelling hypothesis of language processing, making it an essential read for scholars working on RCC5 and related constructions, as well as in the fields of corpus linguistics and psycholinguistics more generally."
Minna Kirjavainen in: Cagnitive Linguistics 2017; 28(1): 203-208