Research Catalog

Title

Grammatical roles and relations / F.R. Palmer.

Author

Palmer, F. R. (Frank Robert)

Publication

Cambridge ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xv, 259 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

• Frank Palmer's new book is a typological survey of grammatical roles, such as Agent, Patient, Beneficiary. and grammatical relations, such as Subject, (Direct) Object and Indirect Object, which are familiar concepts in traditional grammars. It describes the devices, such as the Passive, that alter or switch the identities between such roles and relations.
• A great wealth of examples is used to show that the grammatical systems of the familiar European languages are far from typical of many of the world's languages, for which we need to use such terms as 'Ergative' and 'Antipassive'. Professor Palmer provides an elegant and consistent framework within which grammatical roles and relations may be discussed, combining a great clarity of discussion with evidence from an enormous number of the world's languages

Series Statement

Cambridge textbooks in linguistics

Uniform Title

Cambridge textbooks in linguistics.

Subject

• Grammar, Comparative and general
• Typology (Linguistics)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-252) and indexes.

Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. Roles and relations -- 3. Accusative, ergative and agentive systems -- 4. Syntactic relation -- 5. Passive -- 6. Passive: related and problematic issues -- 7. Antipassive -- 8. Topic and inverse systems -- 9. Causatives.

ISBN

• 052145204X (hardback)
• 0521458366 (pbk.)

LCCN

93015563

OCLC

• 27976524
• ocm27976524
• SCSB-3120098

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries