Project Details
Projekt
GRK 697: Sentence Types: Variation and Interpretation
Subject Area
Linguistics
Term
from 2001 to 2010
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273279
The starting point of the research training group revolves around the questions which basic communicative functions are grammatically encoded in the languages of the world (such as making assertions, giving commands, asking questions), how this encoding takes place (phonologically, morphologically, syntactically), and how to analyse the meaning of the particular encoding. The theoretical study of the relationship between form and function concentrates, among other things, on the problem whether a definition of sentential structural types such as declarative, imperative or interrogative is possible independent of their function. Therefore, the topic "sentence types" is a central point of a global research connection that involves grammatical inquiries about linguistic forms and functional interpretations. As such, it entails an interaction of different areas of linguistic theory.
Alongside the theoretical contribution to an explanatory linguistics, an adequate study of this topic demands the descriptive and typological study of sentence types in different natural languages as well as the development of a diachronic analysis of historical language change. Beyond the co-operation internal to the area of linguistics, the research training group establishes interdisciplinary relations with the neighbouring cognitive-theoretical disciplines. The question of an implementation of the discourse effects related to sentence types creates the relationship with computer science, while the processing of different sentential structural types as well as the investigation of language-pathological manifestations are topics of research in the neuro-scientific project of the research training group.
Alongside the theoretical contribution to an explanatory linguistics, an adequate study of this topic demands the descriptive and typological study of sentence types in different natural languages as well as the development of a diachronic analysis of historical language change. Beyond the co-operation internal to the area of linguistics, the research training group establishes interdisciplinary relations with the neighbouring cognitive-theoretical disciplines. The question of an implementation of the discourse effects related to sentence types creates the relationship with computer science, while the processing of different sentential structural types as well as the investigation of language-pathological manifestations are topics of research in the neuro-scientific project of the research training group.
DFG Programme
Research Training Groups
Applicant Institution
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Participating Researchers
Professor Dr. Marcel Erdal; Professor Dr. Günther Grewendorf; Professorin Dr. Helen Leuninger; Professor Dr. Jörg Meibauer; Professorin Dr. Ruxandra Sireteanu-Constantinescu (†); Professor Dr. Rainer Voßen; Professor Dr. Thomas E. Zimmermann
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Jost Gippert
