F. R. Palmer – författare

Since the publication of his Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics (1968), Sir John Lyons became one of the most important and internationally renowned contributors to the study of linguistics. In a career which spanned several decades, he addressed himself to a broad range of issues of fundamental importance and is particularly noted for his seminal two-volume work, Semantics (1977). This volume, which is edited with an introduction by F. R. Palmer, gathers together a collection of essays by distinguished scholars on topics related to Lyons's work. In a concluding essay, Lyons responds to the contributors and reflects on the intellectual underpinning of his own work.

The fourteen original essays in this collection have been specially written to highlight important developments in the history of Western linguistics from Classical times up until its publication in 1986. Any reader with an interest in the history of linguistic ideas will find much in this collection that is fresh and thought-provoking.

Since the publication of his Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics (1968), Sir John Lyons became one of the most important and internationally renowned contributors to the study of linguistics. In a career which spanned several decades, he addressed himself to a broad range of issues of fundamental importance and is particularly noted for his seminal two-volume work, Semantics (1977). This volume, which is edited with an introduction by F. R. Palmer, gathers together a collection of essays by distinguished scholars on topics related to Lyons's work. In a concluding essay, Lyons responds to the contributors and reflects on the intellectual underpinning of his own work.

Since the publication of F. R. Palmer's first edition of Mood and Modality in 1986, when the topic of 'modality' was fairly unfamiliar, there has been considerable interest in the subject as well as in grammatical typology in general. Modality is concerned with mood (subjunctive etc.) and with modal markers such as English modal verbs (can, may, must etc.) and is treated as a single grammatical category found in most of the languages of the world. In his investigation of this category, Palmer draws on a wealth of examples from a wide variety of languages. He discusses in detail familiar features in a number of mainly European languages, and also looks at less familiar features including 'evidential' systems and the contrast of realis/irrealis, both to be found in unrelated languages.