After introducing the aims and scope of the Handbook, this chapter reflects on the contribution of Role and Reference Grammar to modern linguistic theory, highlighting the key features which uniquely characterize this framework and distinguish it from others.

In chapter 12 we examine the groupishness of religion. Sexual conflict theory suggests that ancient feamle dispersal patterns meant that women found themselves in low trust environments while men remained among genetic relatives. Males therefore formed task-oriented groups and religious consciousness while females tended to form and generate moralizing and punihsing ideologies.

Chapter 6 focuses on meaning and the interpretation of language. It contrasts the meaning of words, which we have stored in our mental lexicon and which we refer to as lexical meaning, with grammatical meaning, such as tense and aspect, gender, and number. There is also pragmatic meaning which depends on our knowledge of the world and contextual information. The difference between denotation, connotation, and reference are explored and basic concepts such a synonymy, antonymy, homonymy, etc. are introduced. Prototype theory is analyzed with appropriate examples. The chapter links to syntax by examining subcategorization, including transitive and intransitive verbs, and also thematic roles and their relation to syntactic structure. It presents the difference between sentences, propositions, and utterances, explaining in depth the importance of truth conditions. The chapter presents important concepts of entailment, contradiction, presupposition, and implicature and concludes with a brief discussion on theoretical frameworks such as cognitive and formal approaches to semantics.

Chapter 2 is dedicated to dative case. It starts by listing a number of theta-roles with which dative case-marking is closely associated, such as recipient, benefactive, malefactive, goal and experiencer. Examples from different languages are provided. Additional uses of the dative are then discussed, such as: dative arguments of modal predicates, possessive dative, co-referential dative constructions (CDCs), ethical dative, affected dative and the use of the dative that creates a reduced agentivity effect. The discussion covers the arguments that are considered to constitute dative subjects, relates to the question of their syntactic status, and addresses certain subject case alternations. Syntactic and semantic analyses of the dative are then considered, including the empty preposition approach, the applicative head analyses, and accounts based on binary features, such as [+/−c] (causes change) and [+/−m] (mental state is relevant).

This chapter provides a synchronic and diachronic overview of morphological case in the Germanic languages, as well as its relationship to phonology, syntax, and semantics. After some terminological and typological preliminaries, I begin with coverage of the different case inventories found in the various Germanic languages, laying out the relevant morphological details and the tracking the changes that effected the steady reductions in the systems across historical stages. I then move on to a description of how the cases in a given inventory are distributed across grammatical environments, and how this correlates with syntactic, semantic, and lexical factors. Finally, I tackle a series of empirical and theoretical questions surrounding the interactions of case with other grammatical phenomena, which are of general cross-linguistic interest, but where the Germanic languages have played an especially important role in the literature. These include how cases relate to grammatical functions, the status of apparent oblique subjects and `quirky case‘, and more broadly what case phenomena might tell us about how morphology interfaces with syntax.

Chapter 1 is devoted to an introduction into the topic of case in general and its relation to semantics in particular. It illustrates a range of case alternations in different languages, showing, on the intuitive level, the ways in which the form of the noun affects sentential meaning. The inherently relational nature of case is discussed, and the distinction is made between abstract, morphological and morpho-syntactic case. The chapter further addresses the classification of cases into structural/configurational, inherent, lexical and semantic. Examples of several case systems in different languages of the world are provided, and the distinction between ergative-absolutive and nominative-accusative languages is introduced. The chapter also briefly illustrates the interrelation between case-marking and theta-role assignment, a phenomenon that is familiar primarily from the literature on inherent case. Finally, the structure of the following chapters is outlined.

Chapter 3 deals with the topic of spatial case. It considers the range of spatial notions which can be reflected in the case system of a language, including configuration, directionality and distality. A particular emphasis is placed on Nakh-Daghestanian languages, which are characterized by especially rich spatial case systems. The question is raised as to whether an empty adposition analysis is appropriate for such languages. Does the case-marker make a truth-conditional contribution by specifying a certain spatial relation, or is this function fulfilled by a functional element which is present in the structure but not phonologically realized? The chapter also considers non-spatial uses of spatial cases, specifically, instances of metaphorical extension and reduced agentivity. Finally, we take a look at the interrelation between overt spatial prepositions and case-assignment in a number of Indo-European languages.

Chapter 8 is devoted to generalizations and conclusions based on the data and analyses discussed in the previous chapters. A (non-exhaustive) list of relations that hold between various cases and semantic concepts is provided. It is proposed that case can be related to at least three broad semantic areas: tense and aspect; individuation; thematic roles and related concepts. Each of these types is illustrated. Further, it is pointed out that the relation between case and meaning is often indirect; moreover, defining the nature of this relation is, in many instances, subject to theory-internal considerations. The meaning component intuitively associated with a particular case can be contributed by four types of source: a lexical head (e.g. V), a functional head (e.g. Appl(icative)), the object DP and the case-marker. Only in the last instance is the relation between case and meaning direct.