Publications

Publication details [#10516]

Bois, John W. Du. 1985. Competing motivations. In Haiman, John, ed. Iconicity in syntax: Proceedings of a symposium on iconicity in syntax, Stanford, June 24-26, 1983. John Benjamins. pp. 343–365.

Publication type

Article in book

Publication language

English

Keywords

ergativity | syntactic theory

Annotation

On the basis of an investigation of the discourse basis of ergativity, B. tries to show the existence of competing motivations for grammar, and, at a higher level, the fact that grammar is both a system responding to inherent principles and an adaptive device responding to external pressure.