Indefinite pronouns

by Haspelmath, Martin

Type Book

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Title Statements

Full title :Indefinite pronouns / Martin Haspelmath.

Summary

Most of the world's languages have indefinite pronouns, that is - expressions such as someone, anything, and nowhere. Martin Haspelmath presents the first comprehensive and encyclopaedic investigation of indefinite pronouns in the languages of the world, mapping out the range of variation in their functional and formal properties. He shows that a cross-linguistic diversity is severely constrained by a set of implicational universals and by a number of unrestricted universals. The author treats his subject matter broadly within the Humboldt-Greenberg tradition of language typology, but also considers the contribution of other theoretical approaches to an understanding of functional and formal properties of indefinite pronouns. The book is organized into four logically ordered steps: selection of a part of grammar - indefinite pronouns - that can be identified across languages by formal and functional criteria; investigation of the properties of indefinite pronouns in a world-wide sample of forty languages; formulation of generalizations that emerge from the data, summarized in the form of an implicational map; and theoretically-informed explanations of the generalizations, which go beyond system-internal statements, appealing to cognitive semantics, functional pressures, and universals of language change (especially grammaticalization).

Edition Statements

Publication Date:1997.

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press
Place of Publication:Oxford
Language:eng
Publication Date:1997.

The Physical Object

Description:xvi, 364 pages ; : 25 cm

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:0198235607, 9780198235606, 0199618526, 9780199618521
oclc:ocm34875702
LC Classification:P279
Dewey Decimal:415

1. Overview -- 2. A Typological Perspective on Indefinite Pronouns -- 3. Formal and Functional Types of Indefinite Pronoun -- 4. An Implicational Map for Indefinite Pronoun Functions -- 5. Theoretical Approaches to the Functions of Indefinite Pronouns -- 6. The Grammaticalization of Indefinite Pronouns -- 7. Further Sources of Indefinite Pronouns -- 8. Negative Indefinite Pronouns -- 9. Conclusions -- App. A. The Data of the 40-Language Sample -- App. B. The Data of the 100-Language Sample.

Subjects

Définis Definiteness (Linguistics) Définition (linguistique) Formale Semantik Grammar, Comparative and general -- Pro… Indefinitpronomen Onbepaaldheid (taalkunde) Pronom Pronoms Taaltypologie Voornaamwoorden