Language Typology: A Functional Perspective

Front Cover
Alice Caffarel, J. R. Martin, Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen
John Benjamins Publishing, 2004 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 700 pages
This book is intended as a systemic functional contribution to language typology both for those who would like to understand and describe particular languages against the background of generalizations about a wide range of languages and also for those who would like to develop typological accounts that are based on and embody descriptions of the systems of particular languages (rather than isolated constructions). The book is a unique contribution in at least two respects. On the one hand, it is the first book based on systemic functional theory that is specifically concerned with language typology. On the other hand, the book combines the particular with the general in the description of languages: it presents comparable sketches of particular languages while at the same time identifying generalizations based on the languages described here as well as on other languages. The volume explores eight languages, covering seven language families: French, German, Pitjantjatjara, Tagalog, Telugu, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese.

From inside the book

Contents

CHAPTER
1
functional theory
16
References
66
CHAPTER 2
77
References
136
References
183
References
251
References
302
References
393
CHAPTER 8
433
CHAPTER 9
479
References
534
255
632
References
663
305
677
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases