Publisher's Synopsis
This two-volume work on syntax views grammar as a non-arbitrary language-processing device, to be understood in terms of the various substantive parameters relevant to language: communicative function, cognitive processing, socio-culture and neuro-biology. Distortions in this complex yet highly iconic code are due to conflicting functional requirements, most commonly introduced into the code through the course of diachronic change. Cross-linguistic variation within each functional domain is highly constrained and yields a coherent typology of the most natural ways the same communicative functions can be performed.
