Grammar without grammaticality : growth and limits of grammatical precision /
Grammar is said to be about defining all and only the 'good' sentences of a language, implying that there are other, 'bad' sentences - but it is hard to pin those down. A century ago, grammarians did not think that way, and they were right: linguists can and should dispense with...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Berlin ; Boston :
De Gruyter Mouton,
[2014]
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| Series: | Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ;
254. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | An electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web; click to view |
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| Summary: | Grammar is said to be about defining all and only the 'good' sentences of a language, implying that there are other, 'bad' sentences - but it is hard to pin those down. A century ago, grammarians did not think that way, and they were right: linguists can and should dispense with 'starred sentences'. Corpus data support a different model: individuals develop positive grammatical habits of growing refinement, but nothing is ever ruled out. The contrasting models entail contrasting pictures of human nature; our final chapter shows that grammatical theory is not value-neutral but has an ethical dimension. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (359 pages) : illustrations. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9783110290011 (e-book) |
| ISSN: | 1861-4302 ; |