Book announcement--Newmeyer (fwd)

[funkadmn Departmental Account]

The following is a book which readers of this list might find of
interest.  For more information please visit
http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/NEULHF98


Language Form and Language Function

Frederick J. Newmeyer


The two basic approaches to linguistics are the formalist and the
functionalist approaches. In this monograph, Frederick J. Newmeyer, a
formalist, argues that both approaches are valid. However, because
formal and functional linguists have avoided direct confrontation, they
remain unaware of the compatability of their results. One of the
author's goals is to make each side accessible to the other. While
remaining an ardent formalist, Newmeyer stresses the limitations of a
narrow formalist outlook that refuses to consider that anything of
interest might have been discovered in the course of
functionalist-oriented research. He argues that the basic principles of
generative grammar, in interaction with principles in other linguistic
domains, provide compelling accounts of phenomena that functionalists
have used to try to refute the generative approach.


Frederick J. Newmeyer is Chair of the Department of Linguistics,
University of Washington.


Language, Speech, and Communication series


6 x 9, 400 pp., 6 illus.

cloth ISBN 0-262-14064-0



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