introduction to word grammar_hudson, richard a.pdf

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An Introduction to Word Grammar

Word Grammar is a theory of language structure based on the assump-

tion that language, and indeed the whole of knowledge, is a network, and

that virtually all of knowledge is learned. It combines the psychological

insights of cognitive linguistics with the rigour of more formal theories.

This textbook spans a broad range of topics from prototypes, activation

and default inheritance to the details of syntactic, morphological and se-

mantic structure. It introduces elementary ideas from cognitive science

and uses them to explain the structure of language including a survey of

English grammar.

richard hudson is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at University College

London. His recent publications include Language Networks: the New Word

Grammar (2007) .

CAMBRIDGE TEXTBOOKS IN LINGUISTICS

General editors: P . A u s t i n, J . B r e s na n, B . C o m r i e , S . C r a i n, W . D r e s s l e r ,

C. Ewen, R. Lass, D. Lightfoot, K. Rice, I. Roberts, S. Romaine,

N. V. Smith

AN INTRODUCTION TO WORD GRAMMAR