The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar
Published on 28. August 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
1012 pages
978-1-107-57144-0 (ISBN)
Description
Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) is a theory of language in which linguistic structures are accounted for in terms of the interplay of discourse, semantics and syntax. With contributions from a team of leading scholars, this Handbook provides a field-defining overview of RRG. Assuming no prior knowledge, it introduces the framework step-by-step, and includes a pedagogical guide for instructors. It features in-depth discussions of syntax, morphology, and lexical semantics, including treatments of lexical and grammatical categories, the syntax of simple clauses and complex sentences, and how the linking of syntax with semantics and discourse works in each of these domains. It illustrates RRG's contribution to the study of language acquisition, language change and processing, computational linguistics, and neurolinguistics, and also contains five grammatical sketches which show how RRG analyses work in practice. Comprehensive yet accessible, it is essential reading for anyone who is interested in how grammar interfaces with meaning.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 51 mm
Weight
1578 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-57144-0 (9781107571440)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Delia Bentley | Ricardo Mairal Uson | Wataru Nakamura
The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar
Book
06/2023
Cambridge University Press
€174.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Delia Bentley is Professor of Romance Linguistics at the University of Manchester. She is the author of Split intransitivity in Italian (Mouton, 2006) and a co-author of Existentials and Locatives in Romance Dialects of Italy (OUP, 2015). Ricardo Mairal-Uson is Full Professor of Linguistics at Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia since 2002. He has co-authored or co-edited a number of books including Nuevas perspectivas en Gramatica Funcional (Ariel, 1999), which was awarded the Nation Research Price AEDEAN 1999, and Linguistic Universals (with Gil, CUP, 2006). Wataru Nakamura is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Tohoku University. He is the editor of New Perspectives in Role and Reference Grammar (CSP, 2011) and the co-editor of Objectivization and Subjectivization: Typology of Voice Systems (National Museum of Ethnology, 2012). Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Linguistics at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and the Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf. He is the co-author of Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar (CUP, 1984), the co-author of Syntax (CUP, 1997), and the author of Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface (CUP, 2005).
Content
List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Pedagogical guide Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.; Introduction Delia Bentley; Part I. Overview: 1. Principles of role and reference grammar Robert D. Van Valin Jr.; Part II. Topics in RRG: Simple sentences; 2. Lexical and grammatical categories in RRG John M. Peterson; 3. A conceptually-oriented approach to semantic composition in RRG Ricardo Mairal-Uson and Pamela Faber; 4. Semantic macroroles Rolf Kailuweit; 5. Grammatical relations Randy J. LaPolla; 6. Argument structure alternations James K. Watters; 7. Case assignment Wataru Nakamura; 8. Morphology in RRG: the layered structure of the word, inflection and derivation Francisco J. Cortes-Rodriguez; 9. Adverbs, mimetics and ideophones Kiyoko Toratani;10. Adposition assignment and adpositional phrase types in RRG Sergio Ibanez Cerda; 11. The RRG approach to information structure Delia Bentley; 12. Information structure and argument linking Anja Latrouite and Robert D. Valin, Jr.; Part III. Topics in RRG: Complex sentences; 13. The structure and semantics of complex sentences Toshio Ohori; 14. Linking syntax and semantics in adverbial (adjoined) clauses Lilian Guerrero; 15. Cleft sentences and relative clauses Luis Paris; 16. Extraction restrictions in complex sentences Mitsuaki Shimojo; Part IV. Applications of RRG: 17. Role and reference grammar and diachronic syntax Ranko Matasovic; 18. Functional acquisition processes in child language: links to role and reference grammar Richard M. Weist; 19. Grammatical aspects of language processing in the brain: a role and reference grammar perspective Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.; 20. Formalization of RRG syntax Laura Kallmeyer and Rainer Osswald; 21. Computational implementation and applications of role and reference grammar Brian Nolan; Part V. Grammatical sketches: 22. A grammatical sketch of Cheyenne (Plains Algonquian, USA) Avelino Corral Esteban; 23. A grammatical sketch of Yimas (Lower Sepik, Papua New Guinea) Willian A. Foley; 24. A grammatical sketch of Avatime (Kwa, Niger-Congo, Ghana) Saskia van Putten and Rebecca Defina; 25. A grammatical sketch of Amele (Papuan, Papua New Guinea) John R. Roberts; 26. Case and voice in Amis (Austronesian, Taiwan) Joy J. Wu; Index.