Modelling Syntactic Gradience

Abstract In previous chapters we have looked at two ways in which grammar can be said to display gradience. Form classes can be subsectively gradient in displaying intra-categorial prototype effects, such that we can speak of typical nouns, adjectives, and verbs, or they can be intersectively gradient in exhibiting convergence between categories. It is important to reiterate the point I made in Chapter 6 that the existence and extent of pervasiveness of Intersective Gradience are a function of the categories of the adopted framework: if it is claimed that there is gradience between two categories a and b, then it must first be established that a and b actually exist as word classes.