: Harry van der Hulst
: Recursion and Human Language
: De Gruyter Mouton
: 9783110219258
: Studies in Generative Grammar [SGG]ISSN
: 1
: CHF 160.50
:
: Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
: English
: 469
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF

In this volume, the issue of recursion is tackled from a variety of angles. Some articles cover formal issues regarding the proper characterization or definition of recursion, while others focus on empirical issues by examining the kinds of structure in languages that suggest recursive mechanism in the grammar. Most articles discuss syntactic phenomena, but several involve morphology, the lexicon and phonology. In addition, we find discussions that involve evolutionary notions and language disorders, and the broader cognitive context of recursion.



Harry van der Hulst, University of Connecticut, USA.
Table of Contents5
List of authors7
Preliminaries13
Re Recursion15
Part I. Discussing the need for recursion on empirical grounds55
1. Pirahã – in need of recursive syntax?57
2. The fluidity of recursion and its implications71
3. Syntactic recursion and iteration97
4. Recursion in conversation: What speakers of Finnish and Japanese know how to do123
5. What do you think is the proper place of recursion? Conceptual and empirical issues147
Part II. Formal Issues165
6. Recursion and the infinitude claim167
7. Just how big are natural languages?193
8. Recursion, infinity, and modeling201
9. How recursive is language? A Bayesian exploration213
Part III. Evolutionary Perspectives231
10. Was recursion the key step in the evolution of the human language faculty?233
11. When clauses refuse to be recursive: An evolutionary perspective247
12. The use of formal language theory in studies of artificial language learning: A proposal for distinguishing the differences between human and nonhuman animal learners267
13. Over the top: Recursion as a functional option287
Part IV. Recursion and the Lexicon299
14. Lack of recursion in the lexicon: The two-argument restriction301
15. Kinds of recursion in Adyghe morphology317
16. Recursion and the Lexicon339
Part V. Recursion outside Syntax353
17. A note on recursion in phonology355
18. Cognitive grouping and recursion in prosody397
19. Becoming recursive: Toward a computational neuroscience account of recursion in language and thought425
20. Recursion in severe agrammatism447
Subject index461
Language index471