"Across the world, professional linguistic inquiry is in full bloom, largely as result of pioneering thinkers who helped rapidly modernize the study of human language in the last century. As the field continues to move forward, further solidifying its position as a conduit of insight into the human condition, it is essential to take stock of the theoretical primitives that have given linguistics its intellectual foundation. This volume does precisely that, inspecting the load-bearing components of the edifice upon which contemporary linguistics has been constructed"--.

• Questioning Theoretical Primitives in Linguistic Inquiry
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• First principles in linguistic inquiry
  • References
• Categories of grammar and categories of speech: When the quest for symmetry meets inherent variability
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The Recueil historique de grammaires du français (RHGF)
    • 2.1 The diachronic underpinnings of synchronic variability
  • 3. Findings
    • 3.1 The normative treatment of variability
  • 4. Contemporary treatment of variability
  • 5. Discussion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
• Letter from Ricardo Otheguy to Shana Poplack
• Variable grammars: Competence as a statistical abstraction from performance constructing theories from data
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Variation in linguistic theory
  • 3. Probabilistic competence
  • 4. The fuzzy lexicon
    • 4.1 Lexical frequency
    • 4.2 Lexical exceptions
  • 5. Acquisition
  • 6. Conclusions
  • References
• Discovering structure: Person and accessibility
  • 1. Grammatical person in cross-linguistic perspective
  • 2. Spontaneous speech and prosodically transcribed data
  • 3. Reconsidering accessibility: Clause linking and distance
    • 3.1. Distance from previous mention: Refining non-coreferential contexts
    • 3.2. Clause linking, prosodic and syntactic: Refining coreferential contexts
  • 4. The workings of accessibility for 3sg vs. 1sg
  • 5. Contextual distribution
    • 5.1. Lexical vs. pronominal and unexpressed 3sg subjects
    • 5.2. The clustering of 3sg pronominal and unexpressed subjects
    • 5.3. Contextual distribution and genre
  • 6. Inside and outside the variable context
  • 7. Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
  • Appendix. Transcription conventions
• The justification of grammatical categories
  • Part I
    • Introduction
    • Rethinking the foundations of linguistics
    • The theory of the sentence
    • The pre-theoretical problem: The acoustic asymmetry of vocal sound
    • The theory-defined problem: The distribution of signals
    • Description and explanation in linguistic analysis
  • Part II
    • Introduction
    • First example: Conjugation classes in Spanish
    • Second example: Declension classes in Latin
    • Third example: Nouns and verbs
    • Fourth example: gender classes
    • The analysis of Otheguy and Stern (2000)
    • Gender classes in Spanish
    • The need to posit a communicative strategy
    • Strategy or rule?
    • The need to posit a second communicative strategy
    • Hypotheses about mental grammar
    • Analytical indeterminacy
    • Summary
    • The puzzle of grammatical gender for a functionalist
    • The unification of otheguy’s two strands of research
  • References
• Spooky grammatical effects
  • 1. The null in mathematics
  • 2. The null in semiotics
    • 2.1 Linguistics
  • 3. Unsignaled structure in music
  • 4. When there’s no there there
    • 4.1 Absence studied from a Columbia School linguistic perspective
    • 4.2 Absence studied in variationist linguistics
  • 5. Conclusion
  • References
  • Sources of data
• Ditransitives and the English system of degree of control: A Columbia School analysis
  • Ditransitives in Construction Grammar
  • Theoretical preliminaries: Columbia School linguistics
    • Signals and meanings
  • English System of Degree of Control
    • Phase I: Two-participant events
    • Phase II: Three-participant events
    • Comparing Phase I and Phase II
  • Data: Gave the wall a push
  • Data: Pushed the wall
  • Patterns of distribution
  • Other contextual factors
    • ‘Giving the book a read’ and other types of examples
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
  • Data sources
  • Appendix. 14 tokens of gave the wall a push
• LatinUs and linguistics: Complaints, conflicts, and contradictions – The anthro-political linguistics solution
  • Introduction
  • WHY do we need more LatinUs in linguistics?
  • Attracting LatinUs
  • Access and admissions criteria
  • What kind of linguistics?
  • Struggling against prescriptivism and linguistic insecurity
  • Concrete solutions for attracting and ensuring successful LatinU majors in linguistics
    • Recruitment and retention in high schools and colleges
    • Provide mentors
    • Tailor topics and examples: “Discouraging professors should be avoided”
    • Encourage students to relate linguistic studies to social realities
  • Conclusion
  • References
• Reviving the unicorn: Linguistic reconsiderations for the existence of Spanglish
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. A summary and deconstruction of Otheguy on Spanglish
  • 3. A critique of Otheguy’s criteria for glottonymic differentiation in linguistic science
    • 3.1 The criterion of systemic difference: Must a variety differ in its system in order to justify glottonymic differentiation?
    • 3.2 The criterion of sufficient minimal difference: How much must linguistic systems differ to be considered different languages?
    • 3.3 The uniqueness criterion: Must linguistic features or processes characterizing a speech way be unique to merit glottonymic differentiation?
  • 4. On the implementation of linguistic analytical methods, the application of scientific principles and necessary conditions for naming
    • 4.1 Atomistic analysis in defining linguistic varieties: A problematic implementation of analytical methods
    • 4.2 Axioms of science, names and their referents
  • 5. On duolingual discourse of the Latino community and Spanglish: What now?
    • 5.1 Do duolingual practices constitute a linguistic variety?
    • 5.2 Can Spanglish be called a ‘language’?
  • 6. Summary and concluding statements
  • Works cited
  • Other sources consulted
• Bilingual acquisition: Difference or incompleteness?
  • Introduction
  • Critique of incomplete acquisition
  • Language contact and change
  • The data
  • Subject realization
  • Tense acquisition
  • Position of clitics in verbal periphrases
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
• An incomplete disquisition against ‘incomplete acquisition’: With particular reference to changes in the distribution of the subjunctive in Spanish
  • 1. Primitive prolegomena
  • 2. Changes in the use of the subjunctive in the Spanish of New York City
  • 3. The subjunctive in futurate adverbial clauses introduced by cuando
  • 4. The subjunctive in finite clauses embedded under causative hacer
  • 5. Changes in the use of the subjunctive in monolingual Spanish: dejar
  • 6. English hortatives with let’s
  • 7. On the acquisition of subject–auxiliary inversion in wh-questions
  • 8. Closing remarks on ‘incomplete acquisition’
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
• Index