Author： Haiman John
Publisher： John Benjamins Publishing Company
E-ISSN： 1569-9978|26|3|573-593
ISSN： 0378-4177
Source： Studies in Language, Vol.26, Iss.3, 2002-01, pp. : 573-593
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Abstract
One of the design features of language is its systematicity: to a considerable extent, the rules of grammar relate not to the world outside, but only to other rules. They exist in autonomy from external motivations. Subject-verb inversion in the Germanic languages as a marker of interrogatives is a well-known example of such an externally unmotivated rule. The notion of systematization implies a process whereby such rules have evolved from pre-systematic externally motivated origins.
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