Introduction

• Published in: The Discourse Function of Inversion in English pp. 3 - 9
• Main Author: Birner, Betty J.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 1996
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Vincent Van Gogh; Nuclear Accent; CONNECTIVE FUNCTION; Morphological Definiteness; Syntactic Form; Guided Missile; Specific Processing Mechanisms; Clinker Brick; Unaccusative Verb; NATO; Chuck Wagon; SVO; Discourse Function; Inversion Type; Open Proposition; Main Verb; Preposed Constituent; SVO Sentence; Pitch Accent; Angled Brackets; Gregory Ward; Relative Information Status; Fuddy Duddy; Syntactic Options
• ISBN: 9780815325567; 9781138967755; 1138967750; 0815325568
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203820964-1

It has long been a primary goal of linguistic research to make explicit the implicit competence possessed by a native speaker of a language, but only in recent years has the relationship between form and function in discourse been recognized as an integral part of this competence. If we hope to adequately model a speaker's linguistic knowledge, it is insufficient merely to investigate the rules governing the grarnmaticality of linguistic forms; researchers must likewise investigate the circumstances under which these forms may be used, and the influence of context not only on the acceptability or unacceptability of a given syntactic form, but also on the interpretation induced by the use of that form. Without an understanding of the appropriate use of linguistic signs, it will be impossible to fully understand natural-language discourse, and equally impossible to model it computationally