Introduction

This introductory chapter defines the scope of the investigations in the book, including the empirical landscape and methodological approach. The chapter lays out a range of ways in which a syntactic structure can be considered “marginal,” including having relatively low-frequency and receiving variable grammaticality judgments from native speakers. Through providing examples from a range of unrelated languages, the chapter further advocates for the theoretical gains that emerge through examining marginal structures in lesser-studied languages. The chapter includes a note on methodologies used to collect the data reported on throughout the book, as well as describes the book’s core contributions.