Universal Grammar (RLE Linguistics A: General Linguistics)

This collection of 15 articles reflects Edward Keenan’s long-standing research interests in the comparative syntax of the languages of the world. It includes two seminal ‘foundation’ articles, Noun Phrase Accessibility and Universal Grammar (with Bernard Comrie) and Towards a Universal Definition of ‘Subject of’. Most of the other articles have appeared in a variety of relatively inaccessible places, and so this book brings together for the first time a large body of work supporting the research directions taken in the foundation articles. In addition, one article of a psycholinguistic sort was specially prepared for this volume.

Introduction. Part 1: Cross Language Variation 1. Noun Phrase Accessibility and Universal Grammar 2. Variation in Universal Grammar 3. The Psychological Validity of the Accessibility Hierarchy Part 2: Grammatical Relations 4. Towards a Universal Definition of ‘Subject of’ 5. On Collapsing Grammatical Relations in Universal Grammar 6. Semantic Correlates of the Ergative / Absolutive Distinction Part 3: Relation-changing Rules in Universal Grammar 7. Some Universals of Passive in Relational Grammar 8. Passive is Phrasal (not Sentential or Lexical) 9. Parametric Variation in Universal Grammar 10. Predicate Formation Rules in Universal Grammar Part 4: Explanation in Universal Grammar 11. The Logical Status of Deep Structures: Logical Constraints on Syntactic Processes 12. The Functional Principle: Generalising the Notion of ‘Subject’ 13. On Surface Form and Logical Form 14. The Logical Diversity of Natural Languages Part 5: Semantics in Universal Grammar 15. Facing the Truth: Some Advantages of Direct Interpretation