Language and its structures
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About the Book
This book examines linguistic structures from the perspective of Cognitive Grammar. This first chapter provides a general perspective: language structures are entrenched patterns of behavior (i.e. habits) that allow humans to communicate. Those patterns overlap massively and sanction (i.e. legitimize) the more specific structures that actually get spoken (or written or otherwise used for communication). This only works because patterns so closely similar as to be effectively the same have been established by usage in the minds of those we communicate with. Very little in a language had to be that way (and so language is not predictable), but very often it makes sense for it to be that way (it is reasonable, motivated, non-arbitrary). The chapter includes an introduction and the table of contents for the whole book as it currently exists.
About the Author
David Tuggy grew up speaking Spanish and English. He has worked with Nahuatl since 1970, and in Cognitive Grammar since 1979 or so. More information and a number of publications may be found at http://www-01.sil.org/~tuggyd/index_english.htm . You may also wish to view My Brain has a Mind of its Own, which is also published here at Leanpub.com.
About the Publisher
This book is published on Leanpub by Pike Center
Pike Center for Integrative Scholarship is an initiative of SIL International that builds capacity for language development through scholarship. SIL works alongside ethnolinguistic communities as they discover how language development addresses the challenging areas of their daily lives—social, cultural, political, economic and spiritual.
One of Pike Center’s strategies for building capacity is to grow the needed bodies of knowledge through its Agile Publishing program. We are using this lean publishing platform to give our affiliated scholars a platform for developing and refining new contributions to growing bodies of knowledge that support the language development movement. Many of our titles are still in a preliminary stage of development. Others are finished but have such a narrow audience that we have not elected to turn them into print books. Still others have reached the maturity of becoming a print book; in such cases, this is indicated by a link on the landing page for the book.
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