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Fundamentals
ofLinguistic
Analysis
Fundamentals
of Linguistic
Analysis
Ronald W. Langacker
University ofCalifornia, San Diego
iflj
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
New York Chicago San Francisco Atlanta
/ / /
©
1972 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
or any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 0-15-529455-5
Library ofCongress Catalog Card Number: 70-190448
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Preface
In reviewing another "problems" book some years ago, I made the comment
that an adequate text to span the gap between hnguistic theory and hnguistic
practicewasstill lacking.Thiscommentwasnotaltogetherfair, foritisdoubt-
ful that any text can serve this function adequately. I fully expect the same
criticism to be leveled at the present volume, and I wish to acknowledge its
correctness in advance.
It is apparent nevertheless that books ofthis kind have an important role
to play in linguistic pedagogy. Linguistics is a rather esoteric discipline that
students find it hard to come to grips with. Explaining to them preciselywhat
linguists do when they do linguistics is not easy, and showing them is not
much easier. The best way for students to learn what linguistics is all about
is by doingit themselves, by workingwith real language data and discovering
for themselves regularities of the kind that linguists have come to expect.
Materials that make linguistic analysis into a concrete reality for students
instead ofthe mysterious abstraction that it tends to be thus have great peda-
gogical importance.
This book is intended to meet in part the need for such materials. It is
meant for intermediate and advanced undergraduate students in linguistics
and might also be used by graduate students who enter the field with little or
no previous training. The book presupposesan introductory course in linguis-
tics which covers the subject matter presented in my 1968 textbook, Language
vi Preface
andIts Structure, or some comparable volume. Although there is no intrinsic
connection between this book and LAIS, I have found it convenient to use
the latter as a guide in determiningwhat background material to present here
in detail and what material to treat only briefly or omit altogether. For ex-
ample, the basic phonetic symbols introduced in LAIS have been used here
without comment, while others are explained in the text when they are first
employed. The terminology and theoretical orientation of LAIS have also
been adopted here, butfor themostpart the terms are standard ones and the
theory is ageneral onethat shouldprovecompatiblewith the requirements of
most instructors,
I havetriedtomake thistext as general and flexibleaspossible, and itcan
be used in a number ofways. First, it can serve as the primary textbook for a
course in linguistic analysis. As a supplementary text providing practical
problems to accompany other course material, it should be appropriate for
courses on various levels dealing with a variety of subject matter. Finally,
teachers may find it useful as a reference manual, providing topics for class
discussion and problems that can be adapted for exercises or examinations.
The book is intendedfor study rather than light reading, and itis contem-
plated that relatively few students will work through it without the guidance
of an instructor. Problems with solutions are included in the text as peda-
gogical aids. They serve both to exemplify the substantive points under dis-
cussionandto showthe studentwhatto lookforwhen workingwith linguistic
data. These problems constitute an introduction to the series of problems
without accompanying solutions that conclude each section. (Solutions to
these problems are available, to instructors only, in a separate key.) The
problems are arranged in increasing order ofdifficulty, but this gradation is
highly subjective and should not be interpreted too rigorously.
One immediately faces a host of philosophical and practical decisions
when conceiving and planning a book ofthis sort. Should the book concen-
trateonasinglearea, likesyntax, orshoulditbemoregeneral? Whattheoreti-
cal orientation should be adopted? How much emphasis should be placed on
procedural hints and "discovery procedures"? What format should be used
for the problems? How should long vowels be written?
I cannot guarantee that I have made the correct philosophical decisions
in all instances, nor can I hope tojustify them fully in a few lines; but since
these decisions directly determine the character ofthis book, it is appropriate
that they at least be made explicit.
One or several volumes could easily be devoted to each of the topics
coveredhere, namelylexical, syntactic, phonological, anddiachronicanalysis.
The coverage of each ofthese topics is less inclusive and perhaps less satis-
factory than it would have been had a whole book been devoted to it alone.
However, a book dealing withjust one area would have only limited useful-
ness, anditisquestionablewhetherthedegreeofdetailthatcouldbepresented
in a book restricted to a single domain would really be appropriate at the
