In every language there are descriptive lexical elements, such as evening and whisper, as well as grammatical elements, such as the and -ing. The distinction between these two elements has proven useful in a number of domains, but what is covered by the terms, lexical and grammatical, and the basis on which the distinction is made, appear to vary according to the domain involved. This book analyses the grammatical elements ('functional categories') in language, a topic that has drawn considerable attention in linguistics, but has never been approached from an integrated, cross-disciplinary perspective. Muysken considers functional categories from the perspective of grammar, language history, language contact and psychology (including child language and aphasia). Empirically based, the book examines the available converging evidence from these various disciplines, and draws on comparative data from a wide range of different languages.

This book presents a challenge to the widely-held assumption that human languages are both similar and constant in their degree of complexity. For a hundred years or more the universal equality of languages has been a tenet of faith among most anthropologists and linguists. It has been frequently advanced as a corrective to the idea that some languages are at a later stage of evolution than others. It also appears to be an inevitable outcome of one of the central axioms of generative linguistic theory: that the mental architecture of language is fixed and is thus identical in all languages and that whereas genes evolve languages do not. Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable reopens the debate. Geoffrey Sampson's introductory chapter re-examines and clarifies the notion and theoretical importance of complexity in language, linguistics, cognitive science, and evolution. Eighteen distinguished scholars from all over the world then look at evidence gleaned from their own research in order to reconsider whether languages do or do not exhibit the same degrees and kinds of complexity. They examine data from a wide range of times and places.They consider the links between linguistic structure and social complexity and relate their findings to the causes and processes of language change. Their arguments are frequently controversial and provocative; their conclusions add up to an important challenge to conventional ideas about the nature of language. The authors write readably and accessibly with no recourse to unnecessary jargon. This fascinating book will appeal to all those interested in the interrelations between human nature, culture, and language.

This book provides a general perspective on valency-changing mechanisms - passives, antipassives, causatives, applicatives - in the languages of the world. It contains a comprehensive typology of causatives by R. M. W. Dixon, and detailed descriptions of valency-changing mechanisms in ten individual languages by leading scholars, based on original fieldwork. The sample languages span five continents and every kind of structural profile. Each contributor draws out the theoretical status and implications of valency-changing derivations in their language of study, and the relevant parameters are drawn together, and typological possibilities delineated, in the editors' introduction. The volume, originally published in 2000, will interest typologists, those working in the fields of morphosyntactic variation and lexical semantics, and exponents of formal theories engaging with the range of linguistic diversity found in natural language.

本书以翔实的文献资料、严谨的逻辑推理，对丘处机“一言止杀”的传说进行了质疑，认为“一言止杀”并非史实，从中更可见早期全真教的传道与后世的误读。本书对道教史研究界的非理性的“宗教情感”有所批评，对王重阳、丘处机等人的虚妄情节有所揭示，对陈垣、姚从吾等前辈学者之误读有所批判，以期还历史以真相。

本书是一部全面反思现代民间文学或民俗学理论和方法的“学术史论”性质的著作。作者用现象学的方法悬置了历史上作为学术研究对象的客体，重点以“民”或“民俗”这一核心概念为主线，探讨了中外民间文学话语的现代性特征，又以精神分析与现代民间文学话语在现代性语境中的发生为切入点，讨论了现代学术在方法论和对象建构方面共同体现的现代性原则。因此，本书也是作者立足跨文化对话的立场对国际民间文学或民俗学研究的基本问题所做的理论思考和学术史的梳理。
读者对象：文学特别是民俗学研究人员及该专业的大学生、研究生。