As one who desires to produce a 'practical' bilingual grammar and dictionary for a group of people living in a multilingual-multicultural environment, I found many of M's arguments for semiotic grammar compelling, largely because he attempts to explain linguistic units on the basis of the unity of syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Lou Hohulin, Notes on Linguistics 2.4 (1999)

The label `semiotic grammar' captures a fundamental property of the grammars of human languages: not only is language a semiotic system in the familiar Saussurean sense, but its organizing system, its grammar, is also a semiotic system. This proposition, explicated in detail by William McGregor in this book, constitutes a new theory of grammar. Semiotic Grammar is `functional' rather than `formal' in its intellectual origins, approaches, and methods. It demonstrates, however, that neither a purely functional nor a purely formal account of language is adequate, given the centrality of the sign as the fundamental unit of grammatical analysis. The author distinguishes four types of grammatical signs: experiential, logical, interpersonal, and textural. The signifiers of these signs are syntagmatic relationships of the following types, respectively: constituency, dependency, conjugational (scopal) and linking (indexical, connective). McGregor illustrates and exemplifies the theory with data from a variety of languages including English, Acehnese, Polish, Finnish, Japanese, Chinese, and Mohawk; and from his pioneering research on Gooniyandi and Nyulnyul, two languages of the Kimberleys region of Western Australia.
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The proposal and development of a theory of grammar based on the notion of linguistic sign, providing by this notion a range of analyses of established syntactic and morphological relations, categories and roles. McGregor discusses Australian Aboriginal languages as well as more familiar ones.
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Preface ; I. Introduction ; 2. Basic Concepts of Grammatical Theory ; 3. Syntagmatic Relations: A Classification of Signs ; 4. Constituency: The Experiential Semiotic ; 5. Dependency: The Logical Semiotic ; 6. Conjugation: The Interpersonal Semiotic ; 7. Linking Relationships: The Textural Semiotic ; 8. Enough Ain't Enough: The Grammar of Nominal Tautologies in English ; 9. Grammar and Beyond ; References ; Index
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`As one who desires to produce a 'practical' bilingual grammar and dictionary for a group of people living in a multilingual-multicultural environment, I found many of M's arguments for semiotic grammar compelling, largely because he attempts to explain linguistic units on the basis of the unity of syntax, semantics and pragmatics.' Lou Hohulin, Notes on Linguistics 2.4 (1999)
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diagrams, figures, and tables illustrate the arguments
diagrams, figures, and tables illustrate the arguments

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780198236887
Publisert
1997
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Vekt
843 gr
Høyde
242 mm
Bredde
165 mm
Dybde
30 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
448