An Introduction to Word Grammar

Word grammar is a theory of language structure and is based on the assumption that language, and indeed the whole of knowledge, is a network, and that virtually all of knowledge is learned. It combines the psychological insights of cognitive linguistics with the rigour of more formal theories. This textbook spans a broad range of topics from prototypes, activation and default inheritance to the details of syntactic, morphological and semantic structure. It introduces elementary ideas from cognitive science and uses them to explain the structure of language including a survey of English grammar.

Review

‘Masterfully written and meticulously organised, Richard Hudson’s book describes how general principles of categorization and cognitive processing give rise to the network structure of language, and English grammar in particular. This is essential and accessible reading for anyone interested in the induction, generalization and organization of language in the mind.’ Peter Robinson, Aoyama Gakuin University

Book Description

A theory of language structure based on the assumption that language is a network and all of knowledge is learned.

About the Author

Richard Hudson is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at University College London. His recent publications include Language Networks: The New Word Grammar (2007).