Functional Structure(s), Form and Interpretation

The issue of how interpretation results from the form and type of syntactic structures present in language is one which is central and hotly debated in both theoretical and descriptive linguistics. This volume brings together a series of eleven new cutting-edge essays by leading experts in East Asian languages which shows how the study of formal structures and functional morphemes in Chinese, Japanese and Korean adds much to our general understanding of the close connections between form and interpretation. This specially commissioned collection will be of interest to linguists of all backgrounds working in the general area of syntax and language change, as well as those with a special interest in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Yen-hui Audrey Li is Professor of Linguistics and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the comparison of grammatical properties in English, Chinese and other East Asian languages. Recent work has considered issues of order and constituency, scope interaction of quantificational expressions, as well as the distribution, structure and interpretation of different types of nominal expressions and relative constructions. Andrew Simpson is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research interests centre on the comparative syntax of East and Southeast Asian languages, and his work addresses issues relating to processes of language change, DP-structure, the syntax of question formation and the interaction of syntax with phonology.

Part I: Functional Structure and Processes of Interpretatio in the DP/NP Part II: Grammaticalization and the Diachronic Development of Functional Structure Part III: Clause Level Structures: Processes of Interpretation and Principles of Organization