Includes bibliographical references and index.

First principles in linguistic inquiry / Daniel Erker and Naomi Shin -- Categories of grammar and categories of speech: when the quest for symmetry meets inherent variability / Shana Poplack -- Letter from Rica rdo Otheguy to Shana Poplack -- Variable grammars: competence as a stat istical abstraction from performance constructing theories from data / Gregory R. Guy -- Discovering structure: person and accessibility / Cat herine Travis and Rena Torres Cacoullos -- The justification of grammat ical categories / Wallis Reid -- Spooky grammatical effects / Joseph Da vis -- Ditransitives and the English system of degree of control: a Col umbia School analysis / Nancy Stern -- Latinus and linguistics: complai nts, conflicts, and contradictions: the anthro-political linguistics so lution / Ana Celia Zentella -- Reviving the unicorn: linguistic reconsi derations for the existence of Spanglish / Rachel Varra -- Bilingual ac quisition: difference or incompleteness? / Carmen Silva-Corvalssn -- An incomplete disquisition against "incomplete acquisition": with particu lar reference to changes in the distribution of the subjunctive in Span ish / Marcel den Dikken.

"Across the world, professional linguistic inquiry is in full bloom, largely as result of pioneering thinkers who helped rapidly modernize the study of human language in the last century. As the field continues to move forward, further solidifying its position as a conduit of insi ght into the human condition, it is essential to take stock of the theo retical primitives that have given linguistics its intellectual foundat ion. This volume does precisely that, inspecting the load-bearing compo nents of the edifice upon which contemporary linguistics has been const ructed"-- Provided by publisher.