Publications
Publication details [#23226]
Hopper, Paul J. and Sandra A. Thompson. 1984. The discourse basis for lexical categories in Universal Grammar. Language 60 (4) : 703–752. 
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Annotation
The paper argues for a view of categoriality as a fundamental property of grammars directly derived from discourse functions. The basic categories Noun and Verb are demonstrated to manifest themselves only when required by discourse, rather than being a-priori givens.