Natural Syntax of English: transitivity
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Janez Orešnik
Abstract
The framework of this paper is Natural Syntax initiated by the author in the tradition of (morphological) naturalness as established by Wolfgang U. Dressler and Willi Mayerthaler. Natural Syntax is a pseudodeductive linguistic theory, and this is its most recent version. The naturalness judgements are couched in naturalness scales, which follow from the basic parameters (or "axioms") listed at the beginning of the paper. The predictions of the theory are calculated in what are known as deductions, the chief components of each being a pair of naturalness scales and the rules governing the alignment of corresponding naturalness values. Parallel and chiastic alignment is distinguished and related to Henning Andersen's early work on markedness. The basic idea is to illustrate how a (pseudo)deductive theory of syntax performs if it insists on avoiding abstract solutions, and in particular on excluding any generative component. Natural Syntax is exemplified here with selected English cases of transitivity. Special attention is given to relative-frequency phenomena.
© School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, 2012
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- The expressions of spatial relations during interaction in American Sign Language, Croatian Sign Language, and Turkish Sign Language
- Linguistic-phonetic characteristics of cluttering across different speaking styles: a pilot study from Hungarian
- Revisiting the thetic/categorical distinction in Japanese
- Structural and lexical aspects of the grammar of desinences
- Russian intervocalic deletion in Derivational Optimality Theory
- Natural Syntax of English: transitivity
- Reconsidering the role of practice in foreign language teaching and learning
- Review of Siever, Torsten: Texte i. d. Enge. Sprachökonomische Reduktion in stark raumbegrenzten Textsorten
- Review of Chruszczewski, Piotr: Językoznawstwo antropologiczne: Zadania i metody
- Review of Arabski, Janusz and Adam Wojtaszek (eds.): The acquisition of L2 phonology
