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Part of
On Understanding Grammar: Revised edition
T. Givón
[Not in series 213] 2018
► pp. 175–200

Chapter 6
Where does crazy syntax come from?

Article outline
  • 6.1Introduction
  • 6.2Crazy synchronic phonology
  • 6.3Case studies
    • 6.3.1The Kimbundu passive revisited
    • 6.3.2The Kihungan cleft and WH-question revisited
    • 6.3.3German rel-clauses revisited
    • 6.3.4Some unintended consequences of compressing chained clauses into serial-verb clauses
      • 6.3.4.1The ba-marked object construction in Mandarin Chinese
      • 6.3.4.2The de-verbal conjunction of Yoruba
      • 6.3.4.3Word-order in Ijo
    • 6.3.5German word-order and tense-aspect renovation
    • 6.3.6The Romance and Bantu object pronouns
    • 6.3.7No. Uto-Aztecan nominalized subordinate clauses
  • 6.4Discussion
    • 6.4.1Naturalness: Commonality vs. ease of processing
    • 6.4.2The temporal curve of the diachronic cycle
    • 6.4.3Naturalness: Synchrony vs. diachrony
  • Notes
  • Abbreviation of grammatical terms