The distinction between functional categories and lexical categories is at the heart of present-day grammatical theory, in theories on language acquisition, code-switching and aphasia. At the same time, it has become clear, however, that there are many lexical items for which it is less easy to decide whether they side with the lexical categories or the functional ones. This book deals with the grammatical behavior of such in- between-categories, which are referred to here as "semi-lexical categories".

Infinitives: Restructuring and Clause Structure offers a detailed study of the clausal architecture of infinitival constructions providing a unified analysis of restructuring, control, modals, and raising. The book critically evaluates previous proposals from both syntactic and semantic perspectives and presents a new analysis incorporating many recent developments in generative linguistic theory.

This text focuses on the need for a formal lexical theory, in particular one in which lexical insertion occurs at three derivational levels. Its syntactic, subcategorization-based approach fully analyzes constructions such as causatives, light verbs, nominalization, null arguments, passives, perfects, and pseudo-partitives. Rich empirical treatments based on English, French, Italian and Japanese further claim that morphology should be fully integrated into syntax. Theoretical constructs of Economy and Abstract Case are reformulated as conditions at three interfaces: the Dictionary, Logical Form and Phonological Form.

Covering linguistic research on empty categories over more than three decades, this monograph presents the result of an in-depth syntactic and focus-theoretical investigation of ellipsis in generative grammar. The phenomenon of ellipsis most generally refers to the omission of linguistic material, structure and sound. The central aim of this book is to explain on the basis of linguistic theorizing of how it is possible that we understand more than we actually hear. The answer developed throughout this book is that ellipsis is an interface phenomenon which can only be explained on the basis of the complex interaction between syntax, semantics and information structure.

Bringing together papers from various subfields of theoretical linguistics, this volume gives a representative glimpse of current research of form and function in grammar. Its overarching topic is the relation between the major clause types and their canonical or idiosyncratic roles in discourse. Though none of the papers addresses the topic in its full breadth, they all make their specific contributions to it, scrutinizing the pertinent aspects of the grammatical interfaces and elaborating detailed case studies.