The case of the missing generalizations

Stephen Crain; Rosalind Thornton; Drew Khlentzos

doi:10.1515/COGL.2009.008

Published by De Gruyter Mouton February 10, 2009

The case of the missing generalizations

Stephen Crain , Rosalind Thornton and Drew Khlentzos

From the journal Cognitive Linguistics

https://doi.org/10.1515/COGL.2009.008

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Abstract

This review discusses several kinds of linguistic generalizations that pose a challenge for the constructionist approach to linguistic generalizations advocated by Adele Goldberg. It is difficult to see, for example, how such an account can explain the wide-ranging linguistic phenomena governed by structural properties, such as c-command, or semantic properties, such as downward entailment. We also argue against Goldberg's rejection of formal semantics in favour of an account of meaning based primarily on information structure and discourse function.

Keywords:: language acquisition; innateness; semantics; first order logic

Author's e-mail: 〈scrain@maccs.mq.edu.au〉.

Received: 2007-08-30

Revised: 2008-01-24

Published Online: 2009-02-10

Published in Print: 2009-February

The case of the missing generalizations

Abstract

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