Books in the Cambridge Studies in Linguistics series

Dr Thrane makes an original contribution to one of the central topics in syntax and semantics: the nature and mechanisms of reference in natural language.

Dr Linell attacks the claim that the transformational models of language have some psychological validity and represent our mental organisation of linguistic knowledge.

The 'standard theory' of Chomsky and Halle has dominated phonology in recent years. It has been subject to modification and to criticism but not of a really fundamental kind. Dr Foley does here offer a fundamental criticism and a genuine theoretical alternative.

A detailed study of Old English, taking as its point of departure the 'standard theory' of generative phonology as developed by Chomsky and Halle. Dr Lass and Dr Anderson set out all the main phonological processes of Old English and aghainst their larger historical background (including subsequent developments in the history of English).

A description of the phonology of modern Greek dialects from the point of view of their historical development in so far as this may be reconstructed from their modern form. Throughout the work the historical development of numerous sample words is presented in order to illustrate the rules.

Dr Brown examines the functions of different types of rules in the phonological component of a generative grammar with examples especially from Lumasaaba, a Bantu language of eastern Uganda.

Professor Samuels presents a comprehensive explanation of the reasons for linguistic change, applying his theory in particular to the history of English. He assesses and mediates between the conflicting dogmas of different schools of linguistics, and offers an alternative theory of linguistic change which is basically simple but has the scope to cover any type of change.

A study of the different roles which nouns play in the event or state expressed by the verb or adjective with which they are associated. The book explores within the framework of transformational-generative grammar the 'localist hypothesis', which asserts that all the roles for nouns involve basically the notions of location and direction.

Linguistic Realities is a major contribution to the philosophy and methodology of linguistics. Its application of Popperian philosophy of science to the philosophy of linguistics will arouse much debate among philosophers and linguists alike.

Most syntacticians, no matter their theoretical persuasion, agree that features (types or categories) are the most important units of analysis. Within Chomskyan generative grammar, the importance of features has grown steadily and within minimalism, it can be said that everything depends on features. They are obstacles in any interdisciplinary investigation concerning the nature of language and it is hard to imagine a syntactic description that does not explore them. For the first time, this book turns grammar upside down and proposes a new model of syntax that is better suited for interdisciplinary interactions, and shows how syntax can proceed free of lexical influence. The empirical domain examined is vast, and all the fundamental units and properties of syntax (categories, parameters, Last Resort, labelling, and hierarchies) are rethought. Opening up new avenues of investigation, this book will be invaluable to researchers and students in syntactic theory, and linguistics more broadly.

In this book Dr Coleman reviews current theories of the sound-structure of words and syllables, arguing that contemporary theories are unnecessarily complex. He puts forward the use of Declarative Phonology, a simpler but entirely adequate theory. He illustrates his argument with detailed analyses of English and Japanese words and syllables.

This study of reduplication in Afrikaans provides a unified and principled analysis of an unusual and highly complex word formation process, shedding new light on the scope and content of various fundamental lexicalist principles of word formation.

A new approach to the analysis of the multiple meanings of English modals, conjunctions, conditionals and perception verbs. Although such ambiguities cannot easily be accounted for by feature-analyses of word meaning, the author's argument shows that they can be analyzed readily and systematically.

In this study Andrea Moro identifies the new category of inverse copular sentences, where the predicative noun phrase occupies the position which is canonically reserved for subjects. In the process, he sheds new light on such classical issues as the distribution and nature of expletives, locality theory and cliticization phenomena.

In her book, Eve Clark argues for the centrality of the lexicon in language and in language acquisition. She examines the hypotheses children draw on about possible word meanings and how they map their meanings on to forms. The book is unusual in dealing with data from a wide variety of languages.

In this new and important study of the analysis of discourse markers, Diane Blakemore argues that the exercise in classification that has dominated discourse marker research should be replaced by the investigation of the way in which linguistic expressions contribute to the inferential processes involved in utterance understanding.

This controversial new book offers a detailed and thorough analysis of word stress in English which aims to move contemporary theories of stress, and phonology more generally, in new directions.

A comprehensive overview of third language acquisition, revealing unique links between language and mind, brain, and cognition, which are otherwise impossible to appreciate. It will appeal to researchers and students in second and third language acquisition, psycholinguistics and applied linguistics.

Children often mispronounce words when learning their first language. Is it because they cannot perceive the differences that adults make or is it because they can't produce the sounds involved? Neither hypothesis is sufficient on its own to explain the facts. On the basis of detailed analyses of his son's and grandson's development, Neil Smith explains the everyday miracle of one aspect of first-language acquisition. Mispronunciations are now attributed to performance rather than to competence, and he argues at length that children's productions are not mentally represented. The study also highlights the constructs of current linguistic theory, arguing for distinctive features and the notion 'onset' and against some of the claims of Optimality Theory and Usage-based accounts. Smith provides an important and engaging update to his previous work, The Acquisition of Phonology, building on ideas previously developed and drawing new conclusions with the aid of fresh data.

Referencing new developments, this book investigates various ways in which a speaker/hearer's experience with language affects the representation of phonology. Rather than assuming phonological representations in terms of phonemes, Joan Bybee adopts an exemplar model, in which specific tokens of use are stored and categorized phonetically with reference to variables in the context.

This book provides evidence that a unified analysis of the different types of relative clauses is possible. Addressing key issues of importance in the field today, it will be welcomed by a wide variety of linguists, ranging from formal theoretical linguists, to typologists, to semanticists.

An innovative investigation of 'missing' grammatical forms and their significance for linguistic theory. This accessible introduction to inflectional defectiveness draws on both formal and psycholinguistic perspectives to explore the structure of inflectional paradigms: the text's novel approach makes it essential reading for graduate students and researchers in linguistics.

This second edition presents a completely revised overview of research on intonational phonology since the 1970s, including new material on research developments since the mid 1990s. In addition there is an associated website with sound files of the example sentences discussed in the book.

Brings to light largely unreported and unanalysed types of non-standard relative clauses in everyday English. A sophisticated and empirically rich analysis, it will be of interest to researchers and students working on syntax, the English language, language variation, corpus linguistics, experimental linguistics, and language change.

Questions about the development of the Romance future have engaged scholars since Thielmann's classic statement of 1885.

A history of modern linguistics, focusing on the spread and influence of ideas originating in North America, especially those of Bloomfield and Chomsky.

This study comprehensively describes and analyses the syntax and semantics of German reflexive constructions known as middles (e.g. Das Buch liest sich leicht 'The book reads easily'), including those formed with lassen 'let'. It provides an in-depth comparison of German middles and middle constructions in English and French, and the only detailed account written in English.

The aim of this study is to show that a self-contained linguistic theory cannot by itself be psychologically plausible, but depends on a compatible theory of learning which embraces developmental as well as formal issues.

This book offers a detailed description and analysis of West Flemish, a dialect of Dutch, within the framework of Government and Binding Theory.

Noel Burton-Roberts has made an authoritative contribution to a debate which has involved philosophers and linguists for many years. His command of the issues, his clarity of exposition and his theoretical insight may well serve to change the boundaries of that debate.