The status of interactives

Abstract

AbstractChapter 6 has a focus on the ontological status of interactive grammar, describing it as a linguistic and conceptual domain on its own. The chapter is concerned more generally with questions that have plagued previous research, namely what the place of interactives is in the overall space of grammar and discourse, and with whether interactives qualify as ‘words,’ as a ‘system,’ or as ‘marginalia.’ The conclusion drawn is that interactive grammar can in fact be understood to form a system, namely one that is far from being marginal or peripheral, being mutually complementary with sentence grammar. Finally, Section 6.6 summarizes general properties of interactives, suggesting that these properties might reflect an archaic design feature of human language evolution.