Principles of grammatical analysis

Giorgio Buccellati – July 2025

Premise

The theoretical underpinnings of the Grammar are given in a the volume A Critique of Archaeological Reason for which there is a companion website CAR). It deals, in a discursive and linear fashion, with broader theoretical issues, and is not, as such, incorporated in the Urkesh system.

The theory presented there serves, however, as the backdrop for the whole UGR system, and in particular for the grammatical approach described here. Here I will highlight only some of the central points that are particularly relevant for this Grammar website.

-Emic and -etic: closed and open systems

I mentioned above the relevance of the dichotomy between closed and open systems using as an example the contrast between a paradigm and a list. It is a fundamental principle of grammatical analysis, describing a structural contrast first established within the linguistic domain, whence the terms -emic and -etic are borrowed.

A phon-emic system is a closed system of acceptable sound ranges in any given language: being closed, there is a limited number of acceptable items, which are seen, paradigmatically in function of their reciprocal contrast. Thuis in a given language ther may be a distinction between b and p, while in another they both constitute the same phoneme. Reciprocal understanding maong speakers depends on this system

A phone-tic¹ system, on the other hand, is an open system where any sound as uttered by a speaker can be defined acoustically or in some other way: the contrast with other sounds is not predetermined by a paradigm, but is fully open. Thus they may be many different renderings of either b or p, without that affecting the apeakers’ ability to understand each other. The differences, if noted, would be considered as a matter of “accent.”

For an example in the UGR system, see below under folders

For more details see Buccellati 2006; Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 2025 pp. xxx<; and especially Buccellati 2017 3.4.1).

The “canonical” dimension

A grammatical system is closed in the specific sense that has just been defined. An important corollary is that a closed or -emic system is the one on which a program can ideally operate.

I use the term “canonical” to refer to a set of data that are grammatically organized and can thus be properly accessed by a specifically designed program. For an example see below under folders.

Notes

Through an improper borrowing from the linguistic domain, the term has come to be formalized as -etic, even though in reality it should be (e)-tic.