This landmark work in computational linguistics is of great importance both theoretically and practically because it shows that much of English grammar can be learned by a simple program.The Acquisition of Syntactic Knowledge investigates the central questions of human and machine cognition: How do people learn language? How can we get a machine to learn language? It first presents an explicit computational model of language acquisition which can actually learn rules of English syntax given a sequence of grammatical, but otherwise unprepared, sentences.
This investigation of complex verb formation seeks to identify and clarify the way(s) in which a base verb becomes 'complex'. The author carefully considers both the syntactic and the morphological side of this question, and in doing so brings a wealth of data from very diverse languages to bear on claims made about the relationship between syntactic and morphological structure. The work takes the radical position that most data admit of either a syntactic (Phrase Structure) or lexical analysis because both are likely to be valid — under different circumstances.
Most natural languages display an inventory of pronominal elements that obligatorily or optionally remain phonologically null in a few, in many or even in all syntactic surroundings. The authors of the papers compiled in this book analyse such null pronouns in a synchronic and diachronic way and recover the specific morphological and syntactic prerequisites for their origin and insertion.
Key Terms in Syntax and Syntactic Theory explains all of the relevant terms which students of linguistics and English language are likely to encounter during their undergraduate study. The book includes definitions of key terms within syntax and syntactic theory, as well as outlines of the work of key thinkers in the field, including Noam Chomsky, M.A.K Halliday, Lucien Tesnière and Robert van Valin. The list of key readings is intended to direct students towards classic articles, as well providing a springboard to further study. Key Terms in Syntax and Syntactic Theory is an essential resource for students of linguistics.
This volume is based on a workshop we organized as part of the Annual Meeting of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS) in 2007. The workshop focused on the role of syntax in the emergence of new genres and brought together insights from research that uses the concept of genre as a reference-point for the description (and, possibly, explanation) of patterns of morphosyntactic variation.
