Radical Construction Grammar

Book excerpt: 'An important and original work by one of the world's leading linguistic theorists. Radical Construction Grammar presents a profound critique of syntactic theory, offers a new approach to syntax, and uncovers the real universals of grammar. It will particularly interest those concerned with theories of grammar and language typology, and with mind/language relations.' -Folia Linguistica'This is a very important book. It gathers intra- and inter-linguistic evidence that point at the centrality and relativity of the notion of construction; it presents an in-depth discussion of grammatical relations thus revealing problematic hidden assumptions; it argues for universality on the basis of our common cognitive processes but also recognises the importance of language as a system capable of influencing grammatical codification; it shifts the focus of attention to the notion of function. Moreover, Croft weaves his ideas and critical analyses into a coherent picture that exposes the contradictory foundations of much of modern linguistic theory (viz. the circularity of syntactic argumentation). For all these reasons, Croft's book is a must-read for all those interested in grammatical theory and typology.' -Naomi Ogasawara, Linguist ListAn important new volume based on the results of research in language typology, and motivated by the need for a theory to explain them. Professor Croft puts forward a new approach to syntactic representation and a new model of how language and languages work. He covers a wide range of syntactic phenomena, illustrating these with examples that show the varied grammatical structures of the world's languages.