Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of an extensive study, in progress, of the applicability of a recent theory of syntax to writing. I am looking, in general, at how relational grammar, or universal grammar (as it is commonly called), can predict and explain the syntactic differences in the prose of sophisticated and unsophisticated writers. In this paper in particular, I focus on how the range of usage of relative clauses, sentential complements, and quantifiers by sophisticated and unsophisticated writers adheres to the predictions of universal grammar for these syntactic phenomena. In what follows, I present a brief outline of universal grammar and its applicability to writing, a direct application of universal grammar to prose, and some closing commentary on what the use of universal grammar in writing suggests about a new definition of writing sophistication.
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© 1982 Plenum Press, New York
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Frawley, W. (1982). Universal Grammar and Composition: Relativization, Complementation, and Quantification. In: Frawley, W. (eds) Linguistics and Literacy. Topics in Language and Linguistics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9302-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9302-7_5
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