Case Grammar

Book excerpt: The case grammar model is essentially a description of predicates and the arguments required by the meaning of those predicates in the semantic description of sentences. By probing into semantic structures, case systems can relate one surface structure to many semantic structures and one semantic structure to many surface structures. It is in the area of explaining paraphrase and ambiguity that the model is able to establish relationships which cannot be established on the basis of syntax alone. Yet these semantic realities have important syntactic correlates and help to reveal regularities not otherwise apparent. This volume contains thirteen papers, published between 1970 and 1978, which trace the development of the case grammar matrix model, its relation to tagmemics, generative semantics, and interpretive semantics, and its application to such areas as the analysis of literature and stylistics -- Page 4 of cover.