Grammar inside and outside the clause : some approaches to theory from the field

Abstract

This collection presents theoretically significant work on the syntax of the clause - writing arising from field work on languages with radically different clause organization from those that have informed much theoretical work in syntax. The papers advance linguistic theory and description in three critical areas of clause grammar: the discreteness of the clause as a linguistic unit; the relation between discourse cohesion and the close syntactic cohesion which links clauses within sentences; and the understanding of parameters underlying systems of clause-internal grammatical relation, from traditional 'accusative' (subject-direct object) systems to lesser known 'ergative' and 'split-intransitive' systems. These advances are a natural consequence of an inductive, comparative, phenomenon-oriented approach to linguistic variability and universality which, the authors argue, must become an equal partner with approaches predominantly oriented toward the development of particular theoretical models.