Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T11:00:20.900Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The grammaticalization of processing principles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2009

John A. Hawkins
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
Get access

Summary

In this chapter I shall ask how a grammar could, in principle, respond to processing. Grammars have their own basic format of grammatical categories and principles, as defined within a given theory or model. So when we talk about a grammar responding to a principle of performance, or “grammaticalizing” that principle, we have to view this interaction either within the context of some given format, or (as we shall do here) within the context of general properties of many such formats, if one wishes to remain more theory-neutral. The ultimate explanation for a format or formats presumably reduces to some interaction of the innateness, cognitive-semantic and other explanatory primitives underlying universals that were summarized in ch. 1.5. Performance principles contribute to this format and to the associated grammatical principles, but they do so relative to restrictions that are imposed by the other primitives, and they will, in turn, impose restrictions of their own on other explanatory forces. As a result, the precise manner in which a given performance principle can be expressed in a grammar is complex, and the translation from performance to grammar may not always be one-to-one. I begin this chapter by outlining some general ways in which grammars appear to have responded to processing. This enumeration is not intended to be exhaustive. Rather, it serves merely as a background to the major types of grammatical responses for which I shall argue in this book.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×