Reconnecting Language: Morphology and Syntax in Functional Perspectives

The functional perspective on language which underlies the contributions to this volume calls for abandoning the "isolationist" approach which has characterized much of 20th-century linguistics and for a return to an integrated approach. This edition seeks to re-establish a link between language and the world, reconnect language to the context in which it has evolved and in which it functions, and to re-establish a link between the strata of language. The contributors aim to demonstrate the non-autonomous nature of morphology, syntax and the lexicon, and the inadequacy of linguistic models which deal with them in separate, independent components. They argue for the inseparability of lexis and morphosyntax and provide argumentation against a modular theory with autonomous levels, the dominant framework in current mainstream linguistics. The book also calls for further research into the connections between grammar, text and the extralinguistic context.