Natural Language And Universal Grammar: Essays In Linguistic

Description:
John Lyons is recognized internationally as one of the most influential scholars in modern linguistics. This volume contains essays spanning many years of his thought and research, in addition to previously unpublished pieces. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 make their first appearance here, and set out the view of linguistics and linguistic theory which underlies the content of this and a (forthcoming) companion volume. The remaining six chapters have been either extensively revised or annotated to provide the reader with their historical context and to bring them into line with the author's current thinking.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Typographical conventions; 1. Language, speech and writing; 2. In defence of (so-called) autonomous linguistics; 3. Linguistic theory and theoretical linguistics; 4. Natural, non-natural and unnatural languages: English, Urdu and other abstractions; 5. The origin of language, speech and languages; 6. Phonemic and non-phonemic phonology: some typological reflections; 7. Towards a 'notional' theory of the 'parts of speech'; 8. Deixis as the source of reference; 9. Deixis and anaphora; Appendix: the scientific study of language. Inaugural lecture, Edinburgh, 1965; Notes; References; Subject index; Names index.