Function and Class in Linguistic Description

This book deals with the traditional problem of the classification of linguisticunits, with a primary focus on word classes. The approach is descriptive ratherthan theoretical, and is based on the use of distinctive features analogous to theones used in phonology, which entails a radical reworking of the traditionalclassification. The first part presents some basic notions such as the use ofdistinctive features and the role of word classes in grammar; classification byprototypes; and the use of world knowledge as a resource to assign thematicrelations to constituents in the sentence. In the second part, some descriptiveproblems are examined, namely the classification of verbs according to valency;connectives, adverbs, and the internal constituents of the NP; and theclassification of units larger than words. This book will be of use as a guide forlinguists working on the description of natural languages, as well as aresourcefor students on courses in linguistic theory and description.