From Common Ground to Syntactic Construction

Abstract

This chapter discusses how one might examine the Narrow Ethnosyntax Hypothesis. It expands on Wierzbicka's suggestions for finding likely constructions and discusses pitfalls to avoid, such as alternative possible explanations for the frequency and productivity of intensifiers. The chapter illustrates a procedure for carrying out ethnosyntax using as an example the incipient grammaticalization associated path in a language whose speakers form a relatively homogeneous group, and about whom a number of ethnographies have been written. Show more