| List of figures | p. xi |
| List of tables | p. xii |
| List of contributors | p. xiii |
| Acknowledgements | p. xiv |
| List of abbreviations and symbols | p. xvi |
| Parts-of-speech systems | p. 1 |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Open classes | p. 3 |
| Nouns | p. 5 |
| Verbs | p. 9 |
| Adjectives | p. 13 |
| Adverbs | p. 19 |
| Closed classes | p. 22 |
| Pronouns and other pro-forms | p. 24 |
| Noun adjuncts | p. 34 |
| Verb adjuncts | p. 40 |
| Conjunctions | p. 45 |
| Other closed classes | p. 52 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 60 |
| Word order | p. 61 |
| Introduction | p. 61 |
| Some basic word order correlations | p. 61 |
| Verb-final languages | p. 61 |
| Verb-initial languages | p. 64 |
| svo languages | p. 68 |
| Object-initial languages | p. 71 |
| Interim summary | p. 72 |
| Conclusion | p. 73 |
| Identifying basic word order | p. 73 |
| Identifying constructions cross-linguistically | p. 78 |
| Identifying the order of subject, object, and verb | p. 78 |
| Identifying subjects | p. 78 |
| The order of subject, object, and verb | p. 79 |
| Lexical noun phrases versus pronouns | p. 80 |
| Identification of manner adverbs | p. 80 |
| Identification of prepositions and postpositions | p. 81 |
| Adpositions versus case affixes | p. 82 |
| Case affixes versus adpositional clitics | p. 82 |
| Adpositions and relational nouns | p. 85 |
| Languages without adpositions | p. 86 |
| Identification of genitives | p. 86 |
| Alienable versus inalienable possession | p. 86 |
| Lexical genitives versus possessive pronouns | p. 87 |
| Exceptions to word order generalizations | p. 87 |
| Other word order characteristics that correlate with the order of object and verb directionally | p. 89 |
| Verb and adpositional phrases | p. 89 |
| Verb and non-argument noun phrases | p. 90 |
| Main verb and auxiliary verb | p. 90 |
| Copula verb and predicate | p. 91 |
| Question particles | p. 91 |
| Complementizer and clause | p. 93 |
| Article and noun | p. 94 |
| Subordinate and main clause | p. 96 |
| Word order characteristics that correlate with the order of object and verb unidirectionally | p. 96 |
| Noun and relative clause | p. 96 |
| Plural word and noun | p. 98 |
| Intermediate unidirectional and bidirectional cases | p. 99 |
| Subordinator and clause | p. 99 |
| Complementizer and clause | p. 100 |
| Word order characteristics that do not correlate with the order of object and verb | p. 101 |
| Adjective and noun | p. 101 |
| The absence of a correlation with the order of object and verb | p. 101 |
| Identifying adjectives | p. 102 |
| Demonstrative and noun | p. 104 |
| Numeral and noun | p. 105 |
| Negative particle and verb | p. 105 |
| Tense-aspect particle and verb | p. 107 |
| Degree word and adjective | p. 107 |
| Other typological characteristics correlating with the order of object and verb | p. 108 |
| Position of interrogative expressions in content questions | p. 108 |
| Affix position | p. 110 |
| The use of case in distinguishing transitive arguments | p. 110 |
| Other sorts of implicational generalizations | p. 110 |
| Order among elements at the same level | p. 111 |
| Languages with flexible word order | p. 113 |
| Typological versus language-particular description of word order | p. 114 |
| Examples of summaries of word order properties | p. 115 |
| Siyin Chin | p. 116 |
| Batad Ifugao | p. 120 |
| Summary | p. 129 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 130 |
| The major functions of the noun phrase | p. 132 |
| Introduction | p. 132 |
| Preliminaries | p. 135 |
| Semantic roles | p. 135 |
| Agent and patient | p. 137 |
| Other semantic roles | p. 140 |
| Coding strategies | p. 141 |
| Order and arrangement | p. 141 |
| NP-marking | p. 142 |
| Cross-referencing | p. 145 |
| Pragmatic functions | p. 148 |
| Topics and topic-comment articulation | p. 149 |
| Focus-presupposition articulation | p. 150 |
| Thetic articulation | p. 150 |
| Overview of grammatical functions | p. 152 |
| Types of grammatical function | p. 152 |
| External functions | p. 154 |
| Oblique functions | p. 157 |
| Obliques (PPS) in English | p. 157 |
| Obliques in Warlpiri | p. 161 |
| Core grammatical functions | p. 164 |
| Subjects | p. 165 |
| A concept of subject | p. 166 |
| Subjects and coding features in ordinary main clauses | p. 166 |
| Subject ellipsis | p. 168 |
| Coding features in non-main clauses | p. 174 |
| Switch reference | p. 176 |
| Reflexivization | p. 177 |
| Other properties of subjects | p. 179 |
| Other core grammatical relations | p. 180 |
| Direct objects and second objects | p. 180 |
| Indirect objects | p. 188 |
| Other core relations | p. 191 |
| Syntactic ergativity | p. 193 |
| Reconsidering grammatical relations | p. 197 |
| Mixed syntactic ergativity | p. 198 |
| The Philippine type | p. 202 |
| The universal status of a- and p-subjects | p. 211 |
| Manipuri | p. 212 |
| Split intransitivity | p. 216 |
| Conclusion | p. 222 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 222 |
| Clause types | p. 224 |
| Introduction | p. 224 |
| Nonverbal predicates | p. 224 |
| Types of copulas | p. 225 |
| Adjectival predicates | p. 227 |
| Nominal predicates | p. 229 |
| Equational clauses versus clauses with true nominal predicates | p. 233 |
| Optional copulas | p. 236 |
| Locative predicates / existential clauses | p. 238 |
| Locative copulas | p. 238 |
| Existential clauses | p. 240 |
| Existential clauses for expressing predicate possession | p. 244 |
| Other types of existential clauses | p. 246 |
| Minor types of clauses with nonverbal predicates | p. 247 |
| Verbal predicates | p. 250 |
| Transitive versus intransitive clauses | p. 250 |
| Ergative versus accusative patterns | p. 251 |
| Ditransitive clauses | p. 253 |
| Subtypes of intransitive clauses | p. 259 |
| Stative versus nonstative clauses | p. 259 |
| Split intransitivity | p. 261 |
| Zero-intransitive (or ambient) clauses | p. 267 |
| Semi-transitive clauses | p. 270 |
| Clauses with derived verbs | p. 274 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 275 |
| Speech act distinctions in grammar | p. 276 |
| Speech acts and sentence types | p. 276 |
| Declarative sentences | p. 284 |
| Declaratives in relation to the other basic types | p. 285 |
| Interaction with evidentiality | p. 288 |
| Interrogative sentences | p. 290 |
| Polar interrogatives | p. 292 |
| Intonational marking | p. 292 |
| Interrogative particles | p. 294 |
| Interrogative tags | p. 296 |
| Disjunctive-negative structures | p. 297 |
| Change in the order of constituents | p. 298 |
| Verbal inflection | p. 299 |
| Constituent interrogatives | p. 299 |
| Imperative sentences | p. 303 |
| Positive imperatives | p. 304 |
| Negative imperatives (prohibitives) | p. 308 |
| Indirect strategies | p. 311 |
| Related constructions | p. 313 |
| Some minor sentence types | p. 316 |
| Exclamatives | p. 316 |
| Echo questions | p. 319 |
| Nonfinite presentatives | p. 319 |
| Answers to questions | p. 320 |
| Summary and conclusion | p. 322 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 323 |
| Passive in the world's languages | p. 325 |
| Introduction | p. 325 |
| Passive as a foregrounding and backgrounding operation | p. 325 |
| Basic passives | p. 328 |
| General properties of basic passives | p. 328 |
| The syntactic form of basic passives | p. 332 |
| Strict morphological passives | p. 333 |
| Periphrastic passives | p. 336 |
| The semantics of basic passives | p. 339 |
| Aspectual differences | p. 340 |
| Degree of subject affectedness | p. 341 |
| Non-basic passives | p. 342 |
| Passives with agent phrases | p. 342 |
| Agent phrases in non-passive constructions | p. 342 |
| The form of agent phrases | p. 343 |
| Passives on non-transitive verbs | p. 345 |
| Passives on ditransitive verb phrases | p. 348 |
| Other passives with non-patient subjects | p. 350 |
| Constructions that resemble passives | p. 352 |
| Middles | p. 352 |
| Unspecified subject constructions | p. 354 |
| Inverses | p. 356 |
| Antipassives | p. 359 |
| The functional load of passive in grammars | p. 359 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 361 |
| A typology of information packaging in the clause | p. 362 |
| Introduction | p. 362 |
| On verbal semantics and packaging options | p. 364 |
| Conceptual events, participants, and perspective | p. 364 |
| Parameters governing actor choices | p. 370 |
| Parameters governing undergoer choices | p. 374 |
| Intransitive verbs and the unaccusative/unergative split | p. 380 |
| On argument structure and pivots | p. 383 |
| The nature of argument structure | p. 383 |
| The notion of pivot | p. 389 |
| A typology of pivots | p. 394 |
| On information structure | p. 402 |
| The discourse status of noun phrases | p. 402 |
| The information status of noun phrases | p. 409 |
| The animacy hierarchy | p. 413 |
| Topics, pivots, and prominence | p. 416 |
| On voice: clause-internal packaging options | p. 418 |
| Passive constructions | p. 418 |
| Foregrounding passives | p. 422 |
| Backgrounding passives | p. 423 |
| Summary | p. 427 |
| Antipassive constructions | p. 429 |
| Foregrounding antipassives | p. 430 |
| Backgrounding antipassives | p. 433 |
| Applicative constructions | p. 437 |
| Summary of clause-internal packaging constructions | p. 441 |
| On clause-external packaging options: topicalizations, left dislocations, and right dislocations | p. 442 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 446 |
| Bibliography | p. 447 |
| Subject index | p. 470 |
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