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3 results

  • 1 - The Fallacy of Flat Language

  • Asya M. Pereltsvaig, Independent Scholar
  • Book:
    Language Rules!
    Published online:
    14 May 2026
    Print publication:
    14 May 2026, pp 1-19

  • Summary

    This chapter examines the idea that language is organized non-linearly. It also emphasizes the importance of grammatical/function words. The reader is also introduced to the concept of chunking (constituency), illustrated at the level of words in a sentence. Human language is compared to genetic code. It is argued that chunking helps explain what meanings are or aren’t available for ambiguous sentences. Finally, sentence fragments are considered as well.

  • Prologue

  • Asya M. Pereltsvaig, Independent Scholar
  • Book:
    Language Rules!
    Published online:
    14 May 2026
    Print publication:
    14 May 2026, pp xiii-xviii

  • Summary

    This chapter compares the commonly assumed view of language as a linear sequence of words (or sounds) to the “flat earth theory”.

  • 2 - Language Rules Are Not Linear

  • Asya M. Pereltsvaig, Independent Scholar
  • Book:
    Language Rules!
    Published online:
    14 May 2026
    Print publication:
    14 May 2026, pp 20-41

  • Summary

    This chapter further explores the concept of chunking, showing that rules that describe various syntactic patterns are not linear in nature. The special focus is on the phenomenon of binding, especially reflexives, which are used as a litmus test at various level of language. It is shown that concepts of subject and object, although important to describing syntax, are not enough to describe the distribution of reflexives.