Introduction: Catching language

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Introduction: Catching language 1
4. Grammaticography: The art and craft of writing grammars 41
5. Real descriptions: Reflections on native speaker and non-native speaker descriptions of a language 69
6. Realizing Humboldt’s dream: Cross-linguistic grammatography as data-base creation 113
7. The organization of reference grammars: A typologist user’s point of view 137
8. Calculus of possibilities as a technique in linguistic typology 171
9. Descriptive theories, explanatory theories, and Basic Linguistic Theory 207
10. Let the language tell its story? The role of linguistic theory in writing grammars 235
11. On describing word order 269
12. Heterosemy and the grammar-lexicon trade-off 297
13. Field semantics and grammar-writing: Stimulibased techniques and the study of locative verbs 321
14. Taking a closer look at function verbs: Lexicon, grammar, or both? 359
15. Converbs in an African perspective 393
16. From Eurocentrism to Sinocentrism: The case of disposal constructions in Sinitic languages 441
17. How to miss a paradigm or two: Multifunctional ma- in Tagalog 487
18. The interplay of synchronic and diachronic discovery in Siouan grammar-writing 527
19. The historical and cultural dimensions in grammar formation: The case of Modern Greek 549
20. Polylectal grammar and Royal Thai 565
21. Writing culture in grammar in the Americanist tradition 609
22. Backmatter 629