Lectures on Contemporary Syntactic Theories

Lectures on Contemporary Syntactic Theories
Author: Peter Sells
Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1985
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

This books provides an introduction to three contemporary syntactic theories, Government-Binding Theory, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, and Lexical-Functional Grammar. In successive chapters, Sells lucidly presents and illustrates the fundamental apsects of each theory. In an introductory chapter he describes the basic syntactic concepts and assumptions shared by each theory; in the postscript, Thomas Wasow provides a more general overview of the different perspectives of these three approaches.

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
Author: Stefan Müller
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 1632
Release:
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961102554

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is a constraint-based or declarative approach to linguistic knowledge, which analyses all descriptive levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) with feature value pairs, structure sharing, and relational constraints. In syntax it assumes that expressions have a single relatively simple constituent structure. This volume provides a state-of-the-art introduction to the framework. Various chapters discuss basic assumptions and formal foundations, describe the evolution of the framework, and go into the details of the main syntactic phenomena. Further chapters are devoted to non-syntactic levels of description. The book also considers related fields and research areas (gesture, sign languages, computational linguistics) and includes chapters comparing HPSG with other frameworks (Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Construction Grammar, Dependency Grammar, and Minimalism).

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax
Author: Marcel den Dikken
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1412
Release: 2013-07-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107354587

Syntax – the study of sentence structure – has been at the centre of generative linguistics from its inception and has developed rapidly and in various directions. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax provides a historical context for what is happening in the field of generative syntax today, a survey of the various generative approaches to syntactic structure available in the literature and an overview of the state of the art in the principal modules of the theory and the interfaces with semantics, phonology, information structure and sentence processing, as well as linguistic variation and language acquisition. This indispensable resource for advanced students, professional linguists (generative and non-generative alike) and scholars in related fields of inquiry presents a comprehensive survey of the field of generative syntactic research in all its variety, written by leading experts and providing a proper sense of the range of syntactic theories calling themselves generative.

Grammatical theory

Grammatical theory
Author: Stefan Müller
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 879
Release: 2018
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961102732

This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.

Syntactic Structures

Syntactic Structures
Author: Noam Chomsky
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 120
Release: 2020-05-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3112316002

No detailed description available for "Syntactic Structures".

A Companion to Chomsky

A Companion to Chomsky
Author: Nicholas Allott
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2021-04-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1119598680

A COMPANION TO CHOMSKY Widely considered to be one of the most important public intellectuals of our time, Noam Chomsky has revolutionized modern linguistics. His thought has had a profound impact upon the philosophy of language, mind, and science, as well as the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science which his work helped to establish. Now, in this new Companion dedicated to his substantial body of work and the range of its influence, an international assembly of prominent linguists, philosophers, and cognitive scientists reflect upon the interdisciplinary reach of Chomsky's intellectual contributions. Balancing theoretical rigor with accessibility to the non-specialist, the Companion is organized into eight sections—including the historical development of Chomsky's theories and the current state of the art, comparison with rival usage-based approaches, and the relation of his generative approach to work on linguistic processing, acquisition, semantics, pragmatics, and philosophy of language. Later chapters address Chomsky's rationalist critique of behaviorism and related empiricist approaches to psychology, as well as his insistence upon a "Galilean" methodology in cognitive science. Following a brief discussion of the relation of his work in linguistics to his work on political issues, the book concludes with an essay written by Chomsky himself, reflecting on the history and character of his work in his own words. A significant contribution to the study of Chomsky's thought, A Companion to Chomsky is an indispensable resource for philosophers, linguists, psychologists, advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and general readers with interest in Noam Chomsky's intellectual legacy as one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century.

Kriyol Syntax

Kriyol Syntax
Author: Alain Kihm
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 323
Release: 1994-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027252351

This book describes the Portuguese-based Creole which is widely spoken as a first language in Guinea-Bissau. The study focuses on one variety, 'central Kriyol', and its main aim is to present a complete description of the grammar of the language. The theoretical framework for the syntactic analysis is purposely eclectic but relies primarily on Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, and ample attention is paid to the cognitive or semantic dimension in the explanation of linguistic facts. After a short introduction on the history and phonology of the language and the organization of the study, there are chapters dealing with the simple sentence, Tense and Aspect, the noun phrase, the complex sentence, topicalization/focalization/questions, and Middles/Passives/Causatives. The final chapter discusses Kriyol texts, especially comic-books, from which a considerable number of examples used in the study are taken.