The story of zero
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The story of zero
John Benjamins, c2017
- : hb
- : [pbk.]
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [389]-406) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: hb ISBN 9789027212399
Description
The zero coding of referents or other clausal constituents is one of the most natural, communicatively and cognitively-transparent grammatical devices in human language. Together with its functional equivalent, obligatory pronominal agreement, zero is both extremely widespread cross-linguistically and highly frequent in natural text. In the domain of reference, zero represents, somewhat paradoxically, either anaphorically-governed high continuity or cataphorically-governed low topicality. And whether in conjoined/chained or syntactically-subordinate clauses, zero is extremely well-governed, at a level approaching 100% in natural text. The naturalness, cross-language ubiquity and well-governedness of zero have been largely obscured by an approach that, for 30-odd years, has considered it a typological exotica, the so-called "pro-drop" associated with a dubious "non-configurational" language type. The main aim of this book is to reaffirm the naturalness, universality and well-governedness of zero by studying it from four closely related perspectives: (i) cognitive and communicative function; (ii) natural-text distribution; (iii) cross-language typological distribution; and (iv) the diachronic rise of referent coding devices. The latter is particularly central to our understanding the functional interplay between zero anaphora, pronominal agreement and related referent-coding devices.
Table of Contents
- 1. Preface
- 2. Natural zero
- 3. Chapter 1: The communicative ecology of zero anaphora
- 4. Chapter 2: The grammar of referential coherence as mental processing instructions
- 5. Chapter 3: Zero and the rise of pronominal agreement
- 6. Chapter 4: Early diachrony of pronominal agreement: A case study in Ute
- 7. Chapter 5: Is zero anaphora a typological exotica?
- 8. Chapter 6: Verbal zero anaphora: Verbless clauses
- 9. Chapter 7: Cataphoric zero: Passive and antipassive voice
- 10. Structural zero
- 11. Chapter 8: Co-reference in relative clauses
- 12. Chapter 9: Co-reference in verb complements
- 13. Chapter 10: Co-reference in adverbial clauses
- 14. Chapter 11: Zero, pronouns and clause-chaining
- 15. Chapter 12: Promiscuous ill-governed zeros?
- 16. Chapter 13: Zero and the puzzle of stranded adpositions
- 17. Bibliography
- 18. Index
- 18. General index
- 19. Language index
- Volume
-
: [pbk.] ISBN 9789027264084
Description
The zero coding of referents or other clausal constituents is one of the most natural, communicatively and cognitively-transparent grammatical devices in human language. Together with its functional equivalent, obligatory pronominal agreement, zero is both extremely widespread cross-linguistically and highly frequent in natural text. In the domain of reference, zero represents, somewhat paradoxically, either anaphorically-governed high continuity or cataphorically-governed low topicality. And whether in conjoined/chained or syntactically-subordinate clauses, zero is extremely well-governed, at a level approaching 100% in natural text. The naturalness, cross-language ubiquity and well-governedness of zero have been largely obscured by an approach that, for 30-odd years, has considered it a typological exotica, the so-called "pro-drop" associated with a dubious "non-configurational" language type. The main aim of this book is to reaffirm the naturalness, universality and well-governedness of zero by studying it from four closely related perspectives: (i) cognitive and communicative function; (ii) natural-text distribution; (iii) cross-language typological distribution; and (iv) the diachronic rise of referent coding devices. The latter is particularly central to our understanding the functional interplay between zero anaphora, pronominal agreement and related referent-coding devices.
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