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One of the most intriguing features of languages is that speakers can produce novel grammatical utterances that they have never heard before. Consequently, most linguists agree that the mental grammars of speakers are complex systems that must be more abstract than the input they are exposed to. Yet, linguists differ as to how general and abstract speakers' mental representations have to be to allow this grammatical creativity. This book addresses this issue by empirically investigating one specific construction, English comparative correlatives (e.g., the more you eat, the fatter you get). Drawing on authentic corpus data from Old English to Present-day English varieties around the world, it shows how input frequency and domain-general cognitive principles affect the complex mental network of constructions that underlies speakers' linguistic behaviour. This pioneering and original study will be of interest to scholars and students of English syntax and English historical linguistics.

English language --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Clauses, Relative --- Relative clauses --- Comparative clauses. --- Comparison. --- Relative clauses. --- Clauses --- Comparison --- Linguistics --- Philology --- Germanic languages --- Comparative clauses

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This book explores both the possibilities and limits of arguments from human nature in the context of human rights. Can the concept of human nature provide a basis for understanding fundamental rights? Is it plausible to justify the claim to universal validity of human rights by reference to human nature? Or does the idea of human rights in its modern, post-1945 manifestation go, in essence, beyond human nature? The essays in this volume introduce naturalistic positions and their concomitant critiques. They address the role that human nature both actually does and potentially may play in forming a foundation for and acting as an exemplification of fundamental rights. Beyond that, they give attention to the challenges caused by Life Sciences. Human nature itself is subject to transformation and transgression in an unprecedented manner. The essays reflect on issues such as reproduction, species manipulation, corporeal autonomy, and enhancement. Contributors are jurists, philosophers, and political scientists from Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Poland, and Japan.

Human rights --- Natural law --- Law, Politics & Government --- Philosophy & Religion --- Philosophy --- Law, General & Comparative --- Human Rights --- Philosophy. --- Moral and ethical aspects. --- Law. --- Political science. --- Behavioral sciences. --- Law --- Anthropology. --- Theories of Law, Philosophy of Law, Legal History. --- Philosophy of Law. --- Behavioral Sciences. --- Human beings --- Jurisprudence --- Administration --- Civil government --- Commonwealth, The --- Government --- Political theory --- Political thought --- Politics --- Science, Political --- Social sciences --- State, The --- Acts, Legislative --- Enactments, Legislative --- Laws (Statutes) --- Legislative acts --- Legislative enactments --- Legislation --- Philosophy of law. --- Animal behavior. --- Animals --- Animals, Habits and behavior of --- Behavior, Animal --- Ethology --- Animal psychology --- Zoology --- Ethologists --- Psychology, Comparative --- Behavior --- Law—Philosophy. --- Primitive societies

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This collection of articles brings together new research from both established and emerging international experts in the study of English grammar, all of whom have engaged with the notion of 'construction' in their work. The research here is concerned with both synchrony and diachrony, with the relationship between Construction Grammar and other linguistic theories, and with a number of issues in the study of grammar, such as raising and control phenomena, transitivity, relative clause structure, the syntax of gerunds, attributive and predicative uses of adjectives, modality, and grammaticalization. Some of the articles are written within a constructional framework, while others highlight potential problems with constructional approaches to English grammar; some of the articles are based on data collected from corpora, some on introspection; some of the articles suggest potential developments for diachronic construction grammar, while others seek to compare Construction Grammar with other cognitive linguistic theories, most particularly Word Grammar. The research reported in this volume presents a series of ways of looking at the relationship between constructions and patterns in English grammar, either now or in the past. The book addresses scholars and advanced students who are interested in English grammar, constructional approaches to language, and the relationship between functional and formal issues in linguistic description and theory.

English language --- Construction grammar. --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Grammar, Generative. --- Generative grammar --- Germanic languages --- English language - Grammar, Generative --- Construction grammar --- Langue anglaise --- Cognitive Linguistics. --- English /language.