Rarely Used Structures and Lesser-Studied Languages: Insights from the Margins (Routledge Studies in Linguistics)

This book investigates a set of marginal syntactic structures which have been singularly influential in the development of generative theory, spotlighting lesser-studied languages of the Indic family while emphasizing implications for linguistic theory more broadly. After first defining what constitutes a marginal syntactic structure, this book then undertakes a micro-comparative approach to the rigorous exploration of fundamental properties of human language, including displacement, ellipsis, unbounded dependencies, and the role of clausal peripheries in such languages as Kashmiri and Romani. In so doing, Manetta interrogates and ultimately affirms the relevance of marked and marginal strings which have proven to be crucial to generative syntax while simultaneously advocating for the role of lesser-studied languages to the study of such properties. This book is key reading for graduate students and researchers in linguistics and syntax more specifically, as well as those interested in the study of Indic languages.

Read more Continue reading Read less ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Manetta is an Associate Professor of Linguistics and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Vermont, USA.



--This text refers to the hardcover edition. Read more Continue reading Read less