The Lexical Approach develops many of the fundamental principles avanced by proponents of Communicative Approaches . The most important difference is the increased understanding of nature of lexis in natutrally occurring langugae, and its potential contribution to langaue pedagogy
This work is the culmination of an eighteen-year collaboration between Ken Hale and Samuel Jay Keyser on the study of the syntax of lexical items. It examines the hypothesis that the behavior of lexical items may be explained in terms of a very small number of very simple principles. In particular, a lexical item is assumed to project a syntactic configuration defined over just two relations, complement and specifier, where these configurations are constrained to preclude iteration and to permit only binary branching. The work examines this hypothesis by methodically looking at a variety of constructions in English and other languages.
In recent years the discussion around issues of argument structure, argument projection and argument changing operations in the generative literature has focused around two extreme positions on the role of lexical entries. The more traditional view ( Lexicalist or endo-skeletal , as in Borer 2003) assumes that the lexical entry of a given verb encodes enough information to allow structure to directly project from it.
This book is the first complete theory of the morphology of language. It describes both inflection and lexical word formation, their relation to syntax, phonology, and semantics, and to each other. It enumerates most of the morphological categories of the world's languages, describing their recombinant abilities, and how they are realized in inflectional and lexical derivations.
Structuring Events presents a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect for anyone interested in the study of verb meanings. Provides an introduction to aspectual classes and aspectual distinctions. Utilizes case studies to present a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect and compare it with alternative theories. Useful for students and scholars in semantics and syntax as well as the neighboring fields of pragmatics and philosophy of language.
