This state-of-the-art guide to some of the most exciting work in
current linguistics explores how the core components of the language
faculty interact. It examines how these interactions are reflected in
linguistic and cognitive theory, considers what they reveal about the
operations of language within the mind, and looks at their reflections
in expression and communication. Leading international scholars present
cutting-edge accounts of developments in the interfaces between
phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
They bring to bear a rich variety of methods and theoretical
perspectives, focus on a broad array of issues and problems, and
illustrate their arguments from a wide range of the world's languages.
After the editors' introduction to its structure, scope, and content,
the book is divided into four parts. The first, Sound, is concerned
with the interfaces between phonetics and phonology, phonology and
morphology, and phonology and syntax. Part II, Structure, considers the
interactions of syntax with morphology, semantics, and the lexicon, and
explores the status of the word and its representional status in the
mind. Part III, Meaning, revisits the syntax-semantics interface from
the perspective of compositionality, and looks at issues concerned with
intonation, discourse, and context. The authors in the final part of
the book, General Architectural
Concerns, examine work on Universal Grammar, the overall model of
language, and linguistic and associated theories of language and
cognition. All scholars and advanced students of language will value
this book, whether they are in linguistics, cognitive science, philosophy, artificial intelligence, computational science, or informatics.
This book offers a perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between rule systems and lexicon. It argues that the balance struck by mainstream generative grammar is wrong. It puts forward a new basis for syntactic theory, drawing on a wide range of frameworks, and charts new directions for research. In the past four decades, theories of syntactic structure have become more abstract and syntactic derivations have become more complex. The book traces this development through the history of contemporary syntactic theory, showing how much it has been driven by theory-internal rather than empirical considerations. It develops an alternative that is responsive to linguistic, cognitive, computational, and biological concerns. At the core of this alternative is the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis: the most explanatory syntactic theory is one that imputes the minimum structure necessary to mediate between phonology and meaning. A consequence of this hypothesis is a richer mapping between syntax and semantics than is generally assumed. Through analyses of grammatical phenomena, some old and some new, the book demonstrates the empirical and conceptual superiority of the Simpler Syntax approach.
This abridged version of Radford's Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English offers a concise, accessible introduction to current syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. Assuming little or no prior grammatical knowledge, it leads students through a range of topics in English syntax, beginning at an elementary level and progressing in stages towards more advanced material. An extensive glossary is included and each chapter contains a workbook section with "helpful hints", exercises, and model answers, suitable for class discussion and self-study.
The Blackwell Companion to Syntax- Vol I to V
This monumental reference resource offers a comprehensive survey of the field of syntax as it has been studied over the last forty years or so. Made up of 77 extensive case studies written by 80 of the world's leading linguists, it gives a complete overview of the empirical facts and theoretical insights gleaned in syntactic research in recent decades.
The Blackwell Companion to Syntax- Vol III
This monumental reference resource offers a comprehensive survey of the field of syntax as it has been studied over the last forty years or so. Made up of 77 extensive case studies written by 80 of the world's leading linguists, it gives a complete overview of the empirical facts and theoretical insights gleaned in syntactic research in recent decades.
The Blackwell Companion to Syntax- Vol III
