Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 509branching; (d) R is asymmetric ( symmetric relation); (e) R is transitive (transitive relation). Hierarchies have a broad range of applications from taxonomicclassifications of the human environment to dominance relations in society. In linguistics,hierarchies exist in syntax ( immediate constituent analysis), in lexical semantics( hyponymy, taxonomic anlaysis), and in markedness theory.lexicologyReferenceshierarchy universalHierarchy universals are universal, usually statistical restrictions which refer tohierarchies of grammatical categories or syntactic functions. Well known are thehierarchy universals formulated in the framework of relational grammar and byE.L.Keenan and B.Comrie and are based on the following hierarchy of syntacticfunctions: subject>direct object> indirect object>oblique object. One of the mostimportant claims of such a hierarchy universal is the following implicational schema: if asyntactic function A ranks before a syntactic function B, and if B is accessible to alinguistic regularity R, then A is also accessible to R. In other words, if A>B then A ismore accessible to a linguistic regularity than B. With regard to verb agreement, forexample, this law predicts that subjects are more accessible to verbal agreement thanobjects, i.e. there is no language in which verbs agree with objects but not with subjects.Hierarchy universals have also been formulated for relative clause constructions, passive,and reflexivization, as well as for hierarchies of other categories, e.g. thematic relations( case grammar), ani-macy, and topicality ( topic vs comment).ReferencesCorbett, G.G. 1983. Hierarchies, targets and controllers: agreement patterns in Slavic. London.Croft, W. 1990. Typology and universals. Cambridge.Edmondson, J. 1978. Ergative languages, accessibility hierarchies, governing reflexives andquestions of formal analysis. In W.Abraham (ed.), Valence, semantic case and grammaticalrelations. Amsterdam. 633–60.Givón, T. 1976. Topic, pronoun and grammatical agreement. In C.N.Li (ed.), Subject and topic.New York. 149–78.Johnson, D.E. 1977. On relational constraints on grammars. In P.Cole and J.M.Sadock (eds),Grammatical relations. New York. 151–78.Keenan, E.L. and B.Comrie. 1977. Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar. LingI 8. 63–99.Moravcsik, E.A. 1978. Agreement. In J.H.Greenberg (ed.), Universals of human language.Stanford, CA. Vol. 4, 352–74.