Rethinking Universals

Michael Cysouw

ISBN 10: 311022092X / ISBN 13: 9783110220926

Edité par De Gruyter Mouton, De Gruyter Mouton Mär 2010, 2010

A propos de cet article

This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -Universals of language have been studied extensively for the last four decades, allowing fundamental insight into the principles and general properties of human language. Only incidentally have researchers looked at the other end of the scale. And even when they did, they mostly just noted peculiar facts as ''quirks'' or ''unusual behavior'', without making too much of an effort at explaining them beyond calling them ''exceptions'' to various rules or generalizations.Rarissima and rara, features and properties found only in one or very few languages, tell us as much about the capacities and limits of human language(s) as do universals. Explaining the existence of such rare phenomena on the one hand, and the fact of their rareness or uniqueness on the other, is a reasonable and interesting challenge to any theory of how human language works.The present volume for the first time compiles selected papers on the study of rare linguistic features from various fields of linguistics and from a wide range of languages.Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Genthiner Strasse 13, 10785 Berlin 300 pp. Englisch.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9783110220926

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Rethinking Universals
• Éditeur: De Gruyter Mouton, De Gruyter Mouton Mär 2010
• Date de parution: 2010
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 311022092X
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9783110220926
• Reliure: Buch
• État de l'article: Neu

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Universals of language have been studied extensively for the last four decades, allowing fundamental insight into the principles and general properties of human language. Only incidentally have researchers looked at the other end of the scale. And even when they did, they mostly just noted peculiar facts as ''quirks'' or ''unusual behavior'', without making too much of an effort at explaining them beyond calling them ''exceptions'' to various rules or generalizations.

Rarissima and rara, features and properties found only in one or very few languages, tell us as much about the capacities and limits of human language(s) as do universals. Explaining the existence of such rare phenomena on the one hand, and the fact of their rareness or uniqueness on the other, is a reasonable and interesting challenge to any theory of how human language works.

The present volume for the first time compiles selected papers on the study of rare linguistic features from various fields of linguistics and from a wide range of languages.

À propos de l?auteur

Jan Wohlgemuth and Michael Cysouw, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.