Syntactic Analysis

Highly readable and eminently practical, Syntactic Analysis: The
Basics focuses on bringing students with little background in
linguistics up to speed on how modern syntactic analysis works.

• A succinct and practical introduction to understanding sentence
  structure, ideal for students who need to get up to speed on key
  concepts in the field

• Introduces readers to the central terms and concepts in
  syntax

• Offers a hands-on approach to understanding and performing
  syntactic analysis and introduces students to linguistic
  argumentation

• Includes numerous problem sets, helpfully graded for
  difficulty, with model answers provided at critical points

• Prepares readers for more advanced work with syntactic systems
  and syntactic analyses

Auteur
Nicholas Sobin is Professor of Language and Linguistics at The University of Texas at El Paso. He has published numerous articles on various topics in syntax in such journals as Linguistics Inquiry, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, and the Journal of Linguistics, and has held Visiting Scholar appointments at M.I.T. and Harvard University. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock.

Texte du rabat
This succinct, practical introduction to understanding sentence structure is ideal for students with little background in linguistics who need to get up to speed on how modern syntactic analysis works. Introducing the reader to the central terms and concepts in the field of syntax, it explains how to understand and operate syntactic analysis, as well as how to approach linguistic argumentation. Included are numerous problem sets, helpfully graded for difficulty, with model answers provided at critical points. Designed for either classroom use or self-study, Syntactic Analysis fills a gap in the available literature by providing a short and hands-on guide to understanding syntactic systems, and provides the reader with a strong foundation for more advanced work in the field.

Résumé
Highly readable and eminently practical, Syntactic Analysis: The Basics focuses on bringing students with little background in linguistics up to speed on how modern syntactic analysis works.

• A succinct and practical introduction to understanding sentence structure, ideal for students who need to get up to speed on key concepts in the field
• Introduces readers to the central terms and concepts in syntax
• Offers a hands-on approach to understanding and performing syntactic analysis and introduces students to linguistic argumentation
• Includes numerous problem sets, helpfully graded for difficulty, with model answers provided at critical points
• Prepares readers for more advanced work with syntactic systems and syntactic analyses

Contenu

Acknowledgments ix

Abbreviations xi

Introductory Notes and References 1

1 Doing Science with Language: Introductory Concepts 5
This chapter introduces hypothesis formation and testing in the realm of human language and discusses the paradox of language acquisition. It offers an initial sketch of the Principles&Parameters approach and the innateness hypothesis.

2 The Structure and Classification of Words 12
Words are analyzed into roots and affixes. A system of generative word formation is introduced involving morphemes and word formation rules. Also discussed are criteria for identifying the lexical class of roots, stems, and words. Finally, a discussion of the meaning of particular affixes leads to the conclusion that affixes do not have simple meanings, but instead participate with a constellation of other factors to determine meaning, something referred to as compositional semantics.

3 Determining the Structure of Sentences 29
Tests of phrasehood are introduced, indicating the presence of hierarchic structure within sentences. Also presented is some of the core terminology of syntactic relations among phrases.

4 Rules of Sentence Structure: A First Approximation 38
Phrase structure rules are introduced as a means of explaining the presence of hierarchic structure within sentences. Beyond basic phrasal structure, key concepts such as structural ambiguity and recursion are presented as further evidence of the efficacy of the phrase structure approach to the analysis of sentences. Recursion is noted as the key to explaining linguistic creativity.

5 Assigning Meaning in Sentences 53
Presented here is the system of determining grammatical function (subject, object, or adjunct) based on structural position. Building on this, theta roles and argument structure are introduced, offering an explanation both of how arguments (subjects, objects, etc.) get their explicit meanings, and how verbs choose the correct complementation pattern.

6 Some Category-Neutral Processes 63
Here, the notion of category-neutral processes is first introduced, paving the way for the generally category-neutral system of X-bar syntax presented later. The processes discussed here are coordination and proform insertion.

7 How Structure Affects Pronoun Reference 71
This chapter introduces c-command and some of the phenomena that ccommand has been crucial for explaining, including the distribution of negative polarity items, and the Binding Principles, the distribution and semantics of anaphors and pronominals, and referring expressions. The presence of such mechanisms as the Binding Principles in the theory of syntax points offers further support for the innateness hypothesis.

8 Complex Verb Forms 82
The case is made here that auxiliary verbs each head a VP, so that sentences with multiple verbs involve a recursive VP architecture. Also, the first transformation, Affix Hopping, is introduced, opening the discussion of transformational grammar, and the levels deep structure and surface structure.

9 Real vs. Apparent Sentence Structure 90
Tense affixes are argued here to originate in the same position as modal verbs do, leading to the claim that deep structure is abstract, that is, consistently different in its alignment of elements from that seen in surface forms. Also discussed is the position of negation and the head movement rule V-to-T, which raises an auxiliary verb to the position of tense. All of this expands the transformational view of syntax. Arguments are presented for the presence of a null tense affix in sentences like They like beans, making the system of
affixation fully general.

10 Generalizing Syntactic Rules 104
Arguments are advanced that phrases headed by themajor lexical categories NP, VP, AjP, and PP share the same internal architecture, pointing toward the conclusion that the rules of the syntactic system are category-neutral rather than category-specific instead of having separate rules for NP or VP, a single, general rule set explains the internal architecture of all major phrase types. 11 Functional Categories 116
The category-neutral analysis is extended here to functional categories such as T and C, leading to the conclusion that the system of syntax is completely category-neutral. The rules of syntax are few and simple. The specific d...