Abstract
The essential meaning of a clause is typically conveyed by a small subset of the-morphemes in that clause, sometimes by only one or two; the information conveyed by the other morphemes is supplementary or already known. Clauses consist of one or more clusters; a cluster is made up of a nucleus (a single morpheme conveying information of central importance to the clause) and any number of satellites (bound morphemes or independent words conveying more peripheral information). Positing such a pragmatic structure for clauses makes it possible to give a unified explanation for apparently diverse morphological and syntactic phenomena in a number of languages.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 261-297 |
| Number of pages | 37 |
| Journal | Studies in Language |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1987 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The research for this paper was partially funded by a grant from Language Learning. I thank Bill Croft, Peter Hook, Jerry Sadock, and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Communication
- Linguistics and Language