Modularity in Language

In Modularity in Language, Etsuyo Yuasa investigates exceptions and idiosyncrasies in various complex clauses in Japanese and English within the framework of multi-modular approaches to grammar. She proposes original analyses of various complex clauses in Japanese and English, which deviate from the norms of other complex clauses in the same language or in other languages, and shows how these cases of syntax-semantics mismatch justify the independence (or 'autonomy') of different levels of grammatical structures. Yuasa's significant contribution is the incorporation of the notion of 'construction' from Construction Grammar into multi-modular approaches to grammar. She claims that the idiosyncratic cases examined in this study are instances of constructional and categorial mismatches where a syntactic representation of a prototypical construction is paired with a semantic representation of another prototypical construction. Modularity in Language is aimed at those interested in grammatical theories in general, the parallel architecture of grammar (including Lexical-Functional Grammar, Autolexical Grammar, Representational Modularity), Constructional Grammar, syntax/semantics interface, and Japanese linguistics.

Autorentext

Etsuyo Yuasa is Professor at the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures of Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Klappentext
In Modularity in Language, Etsuyo Yuasa investigates exceptions and idiosyncrasies in various complex clauses in Japanese and English within the framework of multi-modular approaches to grammar. She proposes original analyses of various complex clauses in Japanese and English, which deviate from the norms of other complex clauses in the same language or in other languages, and shows how these cases of syntax-semantics mismatch justify the independence (or 'autonomy') of different levels of grammatical structures. Yuasa's significant contribution is the incorporation of the notion of 'construction' from Construction Grammar into multi-modular approaches to grammar. She claims that the idiosyncratic cases examined in this study are instances of constructional and categorial mismatches where a syntactic representation of a prototypical construction is paired with a semantic representation of another prototypical construction. Modularity in Language is aimed at those interested in grammatical theories in general, the parallel architecture of grammar (including Lexical-Functional Grammar, Autolexical Grammar, Representational Modularity), Constructional Grammar, syntax/semantics interface, and Japanese linguistics.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1. What this book is about1.2. Regularity and idiosyncrasies in grammar1.3. Multi-modular approaches to grammar1.4. The notion of autonomy and mismatch revisited1.5. The notion of construction in multi-modular approaches of grammar1.6. Organization of this study Chapter 2: Correspondence and mismatch 2.1. Prototypes2.2. Mismatch Chapter 3: Coordination-subordination mismatch 3.1. Introduction3.2. Properties of coordination and subordination3.3. Constructions with mixed properties3.4. Analysis3.5. Conclusion Chapter 4: Dependency mismatch I - Nonrestrictive relative clause 4.1. Introduction4.2. Properties of subordinate structures and independent structures4.3. Mixed properties of nonrestrictive relative clauses4.4. Analysis4.5. Implication Chapter 5: Dependency mismatch II - performative adverbial clauses 5.1. Mixed properties of performative adverbial clauses in English5.2. Mixed properties in Japanese adverbial clauses5.3. Analysis5.4. Conclusion Chapter 6: Categorial mismatch 6.1. Introduction6.2. Properties of nouns and subordinating conjunction markers in Japanese6.3. Mixed properties of some subordinating conjunction markers6.4. Analysis6.5. Source of categorial mismatches: grammaticalization6.6. Conclusion Chapter 7: Conclusion 7.1. Constructional approach to mismatch7.2. Nature of each level of grammar7.3. Interrelations among constructions7.4. Future direction of multi-modular approaches to grammar References