C4 grammaticography colloquium: In, out and all about: Theorising hypertext in reference grammars

Abstract

Hypertextual connections of various sorts occupy a substantial proportion of good reference grammars. But we lack a developed overall theory of the functions that hypertext can discharge in reference grammars. This paper will first develop an inductive typology of the different roles played by hypertext, based on a sample of reference grammars, and then work in the other direction by showing how the analysis of one specific problem – verb paradigms in the Papuan language Nen – leads out in a complex network of hypertextual connections.