Search results for "Syntax"
Items we need to order for you
Syntax
The second edition of this invaluable introductory text takes account of developments in syntactic studies. Dealing with the whole range of syntax, this book explains, in a lucid and approachable way, why linguists have adopted certain solutions to problems and not others. This book introduces the basic concepts used in the description of syntax, independently of any single model of grammar. Profusely illustrated with diagrams, there are sets of exercises for every chapter which can be used in class or by students working independently.
R 3,449.20
Syntax
The extensively updated fourth edition of the leading introductory textbook on theoretical syntax, including an all-new chapter and additional problem sets Now in its fourth edition, Andrew Carnie's Syntax: A Generative Introduction remains the leading introduction to the rules, principles, and processes that determine the structure of sentences in language. Comprehensive yet accessible, the text provides a well-balanced, student-friendly introduction to syntactic theory. Topics include phrase structure, the lexicon, binding theory, case theory, movement, covert movement, locality conditions, ditransitives, verbal inflection and auxiliaries, ellipsis, control theory, non-configurational languages, and more. Students are provided with numerous exercises and pedagogical features designed to strengthen comprehension, review learning objectives, test knowledge, and highlight major issues in the field. The fourth edition features revised material throughout, including a new section on Chomsky's Merge and additional problem sets in every chapter, while new examples throughout the text broaden the appeal and relatability of the text to a more diverse set of students. The optional The Syntax Workbook: A Companion to Carnie's Syntax has also been thoroughly revised and expanded to offer students the opportunity to practice the skills and concepts introduced in the primary text. This classic textbook: Presents authoritative and comprehensive coverage of basic, intermediate, and advanced topicsIncludes ample exercises and clear explanations using straightforward languageOffers extensive online student and instructor resources, including problem sets, PowerPoint slides, an updated instructor's manual, author-created videos, online-only chapters, and other supplementary materialFeatures a wealth of learning tools, including learning objectives, discussion questions, and problems of varying levels of difficulty In the new fourth edition, Syntax: A Generative Introduction remains an essential textbook for beginning syntacticians, perfect for undergraduate and graduate course in linguistics, grammar, language, and second language teaching. Available as a set with The Syntax Workbook: A Companion to Carnie's Syntax, 2nd Edition
R 1,588.00
Syntax
This book is an introduction to syntactic theory and analysis which can be used for both introductory and advanced courses in theoretical syntax. Offering an alternative to the standard generative view of the subject, it deals with the major issues in syntax with which all theories are concerned. It presents syntactic phenomena from a wide range of languages and introduces students to the major typological issues that syntactic theories must address. A generous number of exercises is included, which provide practice with the concepts introduced in the text and in addition expose the student to in-depth analysis of data from many languages. Each chapter contains suggestions for further reading which encompass work from many theoretical perspectives. A separate teaching guide is available.
R 4,169.85
Syntax
Syntax: Basic Concepts and Applications provides a systematic introduction to core topics in syntax, focusing on how the basic concepts apply in the analysis of sentences. Assuming no background in linguistic analysis, the book gives students a working knowledge of syntactic analysis from a minimalist perspective. Step by step it explains the fundamentals of phrase structure, movement and deletion. Well-placed exercises throughout reinforce and extend the concepts and analyses presented in the text, allowing readers to gain understanding of progressively complex issues at a comfortable pace. Much of the data comes from English, but crucial examples are also drawn from a range of other languages, including Russian, Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, Irish, Welsh and Greek.
R 5,637.16
Syntax
This is a textbook of a fundamental kind, designed to introduce students to the basic concepts of syntax. Professor Matthews does not expound the model of any one theoretical school; nor does he attempt a straightforward synthesis of already published work. He believes that students have much to gain from the descriptive traditions of individual languages as well as from theorists. His approach is therefore thematic, dealing with the nature of syntactic relations and all the main types of construction (predication, attribution, coordination etc.). There is much that is original, and every chapter manifests Professor Matthews' characteristic good sense and scholarly discernment. Students will find this volume a challenging one, for Professor Matthews draws attention to the weakness of much current syntactic theory and, in particular, considers the problem of indeterminacy, which theorists have not been able to treat in any systematic way. However the exposition is always lucid and helpfully exemplified, mainly by English. Each chapter ends with a detailed bibliographical survey, which includes notes on terminology and other points of difficulty. Syntax clearly bridges the gap between the teaching of English grammar and that of more theoretical models. Students of English language and linguistics generally will find it a textbook of lasting value.
R 3,671.66
Syntax
Syntax: Basic Concepts and Applications provides a systematic introduction to core topics in syntax, focusing on how the basic concepts apply in the analysis of sentences. Assuming no background in linguistic analysis, the book gives students a working knowledge of syntactic analysis from a minimalist perspective. Step by step it explains the fundamentals of phrase structure, movement and deletion. Well-placed exercises throughout reinforce and extend the concepts and analyses presented in the text, allowing readers to gain understanding of progressively complex issues at a comfortable pace. Much of the data comes from English, but crucial examples are also drawn from a range of other languages, including Russian, Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, Irish, Welsh and Greek.
R 1,903.75
Syntax
This textbook provides a concise, readable introduction to contemporary work in syntactic theory, particularly to key concepts of Chomsky's minimalist programme. Andrew Radford gives a general overview of the main theoretical concepts and descriptive devices used in 1990s work. The discussion is largely based on data from a range of varieties of English (not only Modern Standard, but also Belfast English, Shakespearean English, Jamaican Creole, etc.) and does not presuppose any prior knowledge of syntax. There are exercises and a substantial glossary. This is an abridged version of Radford's major textbook Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English: A Minimalist Approach, and will be welcomed as a short introduction to current syntactic theory.
R 2,835.59
Understanding Syntax
Assuming no prior grammatical knowledge, Understanding Syntax explains and illustrates the major concepts, categories and terminology involved in the study of cross-linguistic syntax. Taking a largely theory-neutral and descriptive viewpoint throughout, this book:introduces syntactic typology, syntactic description and the major typological categories found in the languages of the worldclarifies with examples grammatical constructions and relationships between words in a clause, including word classes and their syntactic properties; grammatical relations such as subject and object; case and agreement processes; passives and other valency-changing processes; questions and relative clausesfeatures in-text and chapter-end exercises to extend the reader’s knowledge of syntactic concepts and argumentation, drawing on data from over 100 languageshighlights the principles involved in writing a brief syntactic sketch of languageThis sixth edition has been revised to include updated further readings, improved examples and exercises and additional explanations of the most demanding concepts.Understanding Syntax is an essential textbook for students studying the description of language, cross-linguistic syntax, language typology and linguistic fieldwork, and will be the foundation for all studies of theoretical syntax.
R 6,882.73
Minimalist Syntax
Andrew Radford's textbook, Minimalist Syntax, provides a concise, clear, and accessible introduction to syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. Assuming little or no prior knowledge of syntactic theory, Radford takes students through a diverse range of topics in English syntax - such as categories and features, merger, null constituents, movement, case, and split projections - and shows how the 'computational component' works within the minimalist framework. Beginning at an elementary level, the book introduces grammatical concepts and sets out the theoretical foundations of Principles and Parameters and Universal Grammar, before progressing in stages towards more complex phenomena. Each chapter contains a workbook section, in which students are encouraged to make their own analyses of English phrases and sentences through exercises, model answers, and 'helpful hints'. There is also an extensive glossary of terms.
R 6,788.56
English Syntax
This textbook introduces the main aspects of Minimalist syntax through the use of data from a number of varieties of English. In doing so it equips you with a firm grounding in tools of syntactic analysis while demonstrating the potential for variationist linguistics and theoretical syntax to feed into each other. By working through the range of examples and exercises you will be able to see that all varieties of language are rule-based and can be observed and described systematically, regardless of how Standard or socially valued they are.Each chapter explores examples of puzzling syntactic phenomena in varieties of English. Through analysis of the given constructions, and comparison to similar structures, it will introduce you to the relevant concepts in Minimalist syntax.
R 5,607.00
Introduction to Syntax
This comprehensive textbook is an engaging introduction to syntax. Clearly organized and accessible, it provides students with a thorough grounding in the analysis of syntactic structure using data from a typologically wide variety of languages. The book guides students through the basic concepts involved in syntactic analysis and goes on to prepare them for further work in any syntactic theory, using examples from a range of phenomena in human languages. It also includes a chapter on theories of syntax. Each chapter includes generous exercises and recommendations for further study. The emphasis on languages and data sets this book apart from other introductions to syntax. This book is an essential text for undergraduate and graduate students on courses devoted to the study of syntax. It will also be very valuable to students in other cognitive science fields who are interested in language.
R 6,169.09
English Syntax
This textbook introduces the main aspects of Minimalist syntax through the use of data from a number of varieties of English. In doing so it equips you with a firm grounding in tools of syntactic analysis while demonstrating the potential for variationist linguistics and theoretical syntax to feed into each other. By working through the range of examples and exercises you will be able to see that all varieties of language are rule-based and can be observed and described systematically, regardless of how Standard or socially valued they are.Each chapter explores examples of puzzling syntactic phenomena in varieties of English. Through analysis of the given constructions, and comparison to similar structures, it will introduce you to the relevant concepts in Minimalist syntax.
R 1,159.00
R 1,216.36
English Syntax
This textbook, first published in 2004, provides a concise, clear, and accessible introduction to current syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. Assuming little or no prior grammatical knowledge, Andrew Radford takes students through a wide range of topics in English syntax, beginning at an elementary level and progressing in stages towards more advanced material. There is an extensive glossary of technical terms, and each chapter contains a workbook section with 'helpful hints', exercises and model answers, suitable for both class discussion and self-study. This is an abridged version of Radford's major new textbook Minimalist Syntax (also published by Cambridge University Press), and will be welcomed as a short introduction to current syntactic theory.
R 5,684.41
English Syntax
This textbook, first published in 2004, provides a concise, clear, and accessible introduction to current syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. Assuming little or no prior grammatical knowledge, Andrew Radford takes students through a wide range of topics in English syntax, beginning at an elementary level and progressing in stages towards more advanced material. There is an extensive glossary of technical terms, and each chapter contains a workbook section with 'helpful hints', exercises and model answers, suitable for both class discussion and self-study. This is an abridged version of Radford's major new textbook Minimalist Syntax (also published by Cambridge University Press), and will be welcomed as a short introduction to current syntactic theory.
R 2,922.60
Introduction to Syntax
This comprehensive introduction to syntax explains the basic concepts of syntax, and how the structures which are in place for describing the world can also be applied to a description of language structure. Edith Moravcsik presents a detailed introduction to syntactic description, including linear order, selection, categories, meaning, sound form, variation and change. The final selection provides a summary which looks at how we can explain syntax. The book includes student-friendly features, such as chapter summaries, suggestions for further reading, exercises, and a glossary of terms.
R 1,764.00
R 846.83
Explaining Syntax
This book brings together many of Peter Culicover's most significant observations on the nature of syntax and its place within the architecture of human language. Over four decades he has sought to understand the cognitive foundations of linguistic theory and the place of syntactic theory in explaining how language works. This has led him to specific proposals regarding the proper scope of syntactic theory and to a re-examination of the empirical basis ofsyntactic analyses, which reflect judgements reflecting not only linguistic competence but the complexity of the computations involved in acquiring and using language.After a brief a retrospective the author opens the book with the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis, an article written with Ray Jackendoff, that proposes significant restrictions on the scope of the syntactic component of the grammar. The work is then divided into parts concerned broadly with representations, structures, and computation. The chapters are provided with contextual headnotes and footnote references to subsequent work, but are otherwise printed essentially as they first appeared.Peter Culicover's lively and original perspectives on syntax and grammar will appeal to all theoretical linguists and their advanced students.
R 7,734.00
R 785.57
Minimalist Syntax
Andrew Radford's textbook, Minimalist Syntax, provides a concise, clear, and accessible introduction to syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. Assuming little or no prior knowledge of syntactic theory, Radford takes students through a diverse range of topics in English syntax - such as categories and features, merger, null constituents, movement, case, and split projections - and shows how the 'computational component' works within the minimalist framework. Beginning at an elementary level, the book introduces grammatical concepts and sets out the theoretical foundations of Principles and Parameters and Universal Grammar, before progressing in stages towards more complex phenomena. Each chapter contains a workbook section, in which students are encouraged to make their own analyses of English phrases and sentences through exercises, model answers, and 'helpful hints'. There is also an extensive glossary of terms.
R 3,166.99
Beginning Syntax
A coherent introduction to generative syntax by a leader in the field, this textbook leads students through the theory from the very beginning, assuming no prior knowledge. Introducing the central concepts in a systematic and engaging way, it covers the goals of generative grammar, tacit native-speaker knowledge, categories and constituents, phrase structure, movement, binding, syntax beyond English, and the architecture of grammar. The theory is built slowly, showing in a step-by-step fashion how different versions of generative theory relate to one-another. Examples are carefully chosen to be easily understood, and a comprehensive glossary provides clear definitions of all the key terms introduced. With end of chapter exercises, broader discussion questions, and annotated further reading lists, 'Beginning Syntax' is the ideal resource for instructors and beginning undergraduate students of syntax alike. Two further textbooks by Ian Roberts, 'Continuing Syntax' and 'Comparing Syntax', will take students to intermediate and advanced level.
R 3,748.09
Continuing Syntax
A logical and clear exposition of hierarchy and locality by a leading figure in the field, Continuing Syntax takes students from an introductory level of syntactic theory to an understanding of cutting-edge research in the field. A comprehensive range of topics is covered, including configurationality, head-movement, clause structure, nominal structure, subjacency, barriers and phases, ensuring that students have a thorough understanding of all the main components of contemporary theory. The many example sentences, extensive glossary, end-of-chapter exercises and annotated further reading lists allow readers to embed and extend their knowledge as they progress through the book. A self-contained work ideal for intermediate-level students, this volume also builds on the author's Beginning Syntax, and lays the foundation for a third volume, Comparing Syntax, which introduces formal syntactic typology.
R 4,124.22
Linear Syntax
Linear Syntax makes a case for a critical reassessment of the widespread view that syntax can be reduced to tree structures. It argues that clausal syntax should instead be based on concepts that are defined in terms of linear order. By connecting the descriptive tools of modern phrase-structure grammar with traditional descriptive scholarship, Andreas Kathol offers a new perspective on many long-standing problems in syntactic theory.
R 1,469.00
Comparing Syntax
A thorough introduction to formal syntactic typology by a leader in the field, Comparing Syntax systematically covers syntactic variation across languages. The textbook covers word-order parameters, null subjects, polysynthesis, verb-movement, ergativity, interrogatives and negation within a comparative framework, ensuring that readers are able to engage with the key topics in the most up-to-date primary research literature. The comprehensive glossary, end-of-chapter exercises and annotated further reading lists allow readers to consolidate and extend their knowledge as they progress through the book. A self-contained work ideal for intermediate and advanced-level students, Comparing Syntax also builds on the author's Beginning Syntax and Continuing Syntax.
R 4,462.92
Natural Language Syntax
In this book, Peter Culicover introduces the analysis of natural language within the broader question of how language works - of how people use languages to configure words and morphemes in order to express meanings. He focuses both on the syntactic and morphosyntactic devices that languages use, and on the conceptual structures that correspond to particular aspects of linguistic form. He seeks to explain linguistic forms and in the process to show how thesecorrespond with meanings. The book's clear, step-by-step exposition is presented within the Simpler Syntax framework whose development has been led by the author and Ray Jackendoff over the last fifteen years. This integrates syntactic theory with the representation of conceptual structure and casts fresh light on the interface between syntax and semantics. It also enables elegant and economical analyses of natural language phenomena without recourse to such abstract devices as functional heads and uniform binarybranching. Peter Culicover opens his account with an overview of the nature of language and the aims of its analysis. He then divides the book into parts devoted to syntactic categories, syntactic structure and argument structure, argument realization, unbounded dependencies, and clausal structure. He provides exercises, problems, and suggestions for further reading throughout the book.
R 3,442.00
Beginning Syntax
This is an elementary introduction to syntactic analysis. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject whatsoever, it is intended for students who are encountering such analysis for the first time. For those embarking on a longer term study of syntax, this will be a valuable and quickly assimilated foundation course. For students who will need to use syntax as a basic descriptive tool - such as trainee teachers, speech therapists or students of literacy style - the book provides a framework for their analysis and practice in its use. The book begins by looking at the use of generalizations in describing sentence structure and the basis for word categories. It then moves through increasingly more complex constructions giving students plenty of opportunity by way of practical exercises to understand the basis of each analysis before moving further. The aim of the book is not to explore complex issues of argumentation. Its emphasis is on practical "hands on" analysis.
R 2,117.00
Comparing Syntax
A thorough introduction to formal syntactic typology by a leader in the field, Comparing Syntax systematically covers syntactic variation across languages. The textbook covers word-order parameters, null subjects, polysynthesis, verb-movement, ergativity, interrogatives and negation within a comparative framework, ensuring that readers are able to engage with the key topics in the most up-to-date primary research literature. The comprehensive glossary, end-of-chapter exercises and annotated further reading lists allow readers to consolidate and extend their knowledge as they progress through the book. A self-contained work ideal for intermediate and advanced-level students, Comparing Syntax also builds on the author's Beginning Syntax and Continuing Syntax.
R 1,554.73
Oxford Handbook of Experimental Syntax
This volume showcases the contributions that formal experimental methods can make to syntactic research in the 21st century. Syntactic theory is both a domain of study in its own right, and one component of an integrated theory of the cognitive neuroscience of language. It provides a theory of the mediation between sound and meaning, a theory of the representations constructed during sentence processing, and a theory of the end-state for language acquisition. Giventhe highly interactive nature of the theory of syntax, this volume defines "experimental syntax" in the broadest possible terms, exploring both formal experimental methods that have been part of the domain of syntax since its inception (i.e., acceptability judgment methods) and formal experimentalmethods that have arisen through the interaction of syntactic theory with the domains of acquisition, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Syntax brings these methods together into a single experimental syntax volume for the first time, providing high-level reviews of major experimental work, offering guidance for researchers looking to incorporate these diverse methods into their own work, and inspiring new research that will push the boundariesof the theory of syntax. It will appeal to students and scholars from the advanced undergraduate level upwards in a range of fields including syntax, acquisition, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and computational linguistics.
R 7,734.00
Experimental Syntax
This original work provides a concise introduction to methods that linguists may use to describe patterns of sentence "acceptability" in speech communities. Experimental Syntax will enable an investigator with a well-formed question about a matter of fact-- relative to sentence acceptability--to design, execute, and analyze an appropriate survey experiment. The book examines variability and demonstrates a method by which an investigator can make principled decisions as to whether individual informants do or do not use a particular "dialect." Furthermore, this well-formulated book shows how to determine whether two or more informants who use atypical dialects are using the same atypical dialect. Experimental Syntax is recommended to researchers and professionals in linguistics who are interested in learning more about the methods available for dialect and sentence structure studies.
R 4,203.79
Portuguese Syntax
This is a collection of previously unpublished articles focusing on the following aspects of Portuguese syntax: clause structure, clitic placement, word order variation, pronominal system, verb movement, quantification, and distribution of particles. The articles are written within the principles and parameters framework and contrast Portuguese with other Romance languages.
R 8,385.17
Pragmatic Syntax
Jieun Kiaer puts forward an argument in this book that the grammar of a language directly underpins the processing of the language, in real time. This is a view that runs against the orthodoxy of linguistic theorizing for the last 50 years, which has insisted that languages have to be characterized in terms that make little or no reference to the dynamics of language use.This orthodox view fails to fit languages in which the verb has to be at the end of the clause - which encompasses more than half of the world's languages. Thus, as this book shows, these languages remain very problematic for conventional theories. Using a mixture of corpus methods, sentence structure analysis, prosody and psycholinguistic theory, Kiaer redresses this imbalance. The data features both Korean and English example and it functions as one of the very first general introductions to Dynamic Syntax available.
R 5,591.00
Introducing Syntax
Syntax is the system of rules that we subconsciously follow when we build sentences. Whereas the grammar of English (or other languages) might look like a rather chaotic set of arbitrary patterns, linguistic science has revealed that these patterns can actually be understood as the result of a small number of grammatical principles. This lively introductory textbook is designed for undergraduate students in linguistics, English and modern languages with relatively little background in the subject, offering the necessary tools for the analysis of phrases and sentences while at the same time introducing state-of-the-art syntactic theory in an accessible and engaging way. Guiding students through a variety of intriguing puzzles, striking facts and novel ideas, Introducing Syntax presents contemporary insights into syntactic theory in one clear and coherent narrative, avoiding unnecessary detail and enabling readers to understand the rationale behind technicalities. Aids to learning include highlighted key terms, suggestions for further reading and numerous exercises, placing syntax in a broader grammatical perspective.
R 5,129.12
Introducing Syntax
Syntax is the system of rules that we subconsciously follow when we build sentences. Whereas the grammar of English (or other languages) might look like a rather chaotic set of arbitrary patterns, linguistic science has revealed that these patterns can actually be understood as the result of a small number of grammatical principles. This lively introductory textbook is designed for undergraduate students in linguistics, English and modern languages with relatively little background in the subject, offering the necessary tools for the analysis of phrases and sentences while at the same time introducing state-of-the-art syntactic theory in an accessible and engaging way. Guiding students through a variety of intriguing puzzles, striking facts and novel ideas, Introducing Syntax presents contemporary insights into syntactic theory in one clear and coherent narrative, avoiding unnecessary detail and enabling readers to understand the rationale behind technicalities. Aids to learning include highlighted key terms, suggestions for further reading and numerous exercises, placing syntax in a broader grammatical perspective.
R 1,586.00
Beginning Syntax
A coherent introduction to generative syntax by a leader in the field, this textbook leads students through the theory from the very beginning, assuming no prior knowledge. Introducing the central concepts in a systematic and engaging way, it covers the goals of generative grammar, tacit native-speaker knowledge, categories and constituents, phrase structure, movement, binding, syntax beyond English, and the architecture of grammar. The theory is built slowly, showing in a step-by-step fashion how different versions of generative theory relate to one-another. Examples are carefully chosen to be easily understood, and a comprehensive glossary provides clear definitions of all the key terms introduced. With end of chapter exercises, broader discussion questions, and annotated further reading lists, 'Beginning Syntax' is the ideal resource for instructors and beginning undergraduate students of syntax alike. Two further textbooks by Ian Roberts, 'Continuing Syntax' and 'Comparing Syntax', will take students to intermediate and advanced level.
R 1,486.61
Syntax and Parsing
This book examines the role of syntax in theories of sentence comprehension, and argues for a distinct processing component which is devoted to the recovery of syntactic structure and which utilizes the contrasting types of information found within a Government-Binding grammar. Paul Gorrell contrasts the primary relations (dominance and precedence) and secondary relations (case assignment, theta-role assignment, etc.) in a phrase-structure tree, and shows how this computational distinction of information types is reflected in the internal structure of the parser, which consists of two sub-components: a structure builder (responsible for creating nodes in a tree and positing primary relations between them), and a structure interpreter (responsible for analysing the tree in terms of secondary relations). This model can also predict garden-path phenomena in the processing of verb-final clauses.
R 4,785.75
English Syntax
Berk provides an introduction to English syntax and grammar, written from a discourse-functional perpsective. No comparable text currently exists. Berk's goal is to ensure that students who have little background in syntax will learn the basics as well as a comprehensive view of English grammar. The primary audience will be beginning graduate students and upper level undergraduates in linguistics courses such as Introduction to Syntax and Introduction to English Structure, as well as in TESOL/ESL programs and English departments. Berk includes an extensive glossary.
R 3,325.00
Experimental Syntax
This original work provides a concise introduction to methods that linguists may use to describe patterns of sentence "acceptability" in speech communities. Experimental Syntax will enable an investigator with a well-formed question about a matter of fact-- relative to sentence acceptability--to design, execute, and analyze an appropriate survey experiment. The book examines variability and demonstrates a method by which an investigator can make principled decisions as to whether individual informants do or do not use a particular "dialect." Furthermore, this well-formulated book shows how to determine whether two or more informants who use atypical dialects are using the same atypical dialect. Experimental Syntax is recommended to researchers and professionals in linguistics who are interested in learning more about the methods available for dialect and sentence structure studies.
R 5,808.06
Introduction to Syntax
This comprehensive introduction presents the basic goals and tools of syntactic analysis. The conceptual framework is theory-neutral, presenting a scientific introduction to the field. The chapters in the first half of the book present a detailed introduction to synchronic description. The second half of the book examines variation and change, syntactic typology, and language acquisition, and possible explanations from structural, evolutionary and functional perspectives.
R 7,945.00
Critical Introduction to Syntax
This book introduces, analyzes and critiques the main areas of debate within the field of syntax. This book introduces the main areas of debate within the field of syntax. Jim Miller analyzes the major themes in syntactic research, paying attention to overlooked non-generative theories and the adoption of the same concepts across different models of grammar. The book analyzes the difference between spoken and written syntax, standard and non-standard syntax, grammar and usage, and addresses concerns such as grammatical prescription. Examples are drawn from a range of everyday examples extracted from corpus data, to present an analysis of how syntax is used in the real world. Comprehensive, accessible and challenging, this book is essential reading for students taking introductory courses in syntax and syntactic theory, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. "Continuum Critical Introductions to Linguistics" are comprehensive introductions to core areas in linguistics. The introductions are original and approach the subject from unique and different perspectives. Using contemporary examples and analogies, these books seek to explain complicated issues in an accessible way.The books prompt critical thinking about each core area, and are a radical departure from traditional, staid introductions to the subject. Written by key academics in each field who are not afraid to be controversial, each book will be essential reading for undergraduate students.
R 1,617.00
Simpler Syntax
This groundbreaking book offers a new and compelling 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 ever more complex. Peter Culicover and Ray Jackendoff trace this development through the history of contemporary syntactic theory, showing how much it has been driven by theory-internal rather than empirical considerations. They develop 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 far richer mapping between syntax and semantics than is generally assumed. Through concrete analyses of numerous grammatical phenomena, some well studied and some new, the authors demonstrate the empirical and conceptual superiority of the Simpler Syntax approach.Simpler Syntax is addressed to linguists of all persuasions. It will also be of central interest to those concerned with language in psychology, human biology, evolution, computational science, and artificial intellige
R 2,825.22
Symmetrizing Syntax
Symmetrizing Syntax seeks to establish a minimal and natural characterization of the structure of human language (syntax), simplifying many facets of it that have been redundantly or asymmetrically formulated. Virtually all past theories of natural language syntax, from the traditional X-bar theory to the contemporary system of Merge and labeling, stipulate that every phrase structure is "asymmetrically" organized, so that one of its elements is always marked as primary/dominant over the others, or each and every phrase is labeled by a designated lexical element. The two authors call this traditional stipulation into question and hypothesize, instead, that linguistic derivations are essentially driven by the need to reduce asymmetry and generate symmetric structures. Various linguistic notions such as Merge, cyclic derivation by phase, feature-checking, morphological agreement, labeling, movement, and criterial freezing, as well as parametric differences among languages like English and Japanese, and so on, are all shown to follow from a particular notion of structural symmetry. These results constitute novel support for the contemporary thesis that human language is essentially an instance of a physical/biological object, and its design is governed by the laws of nature, at the core of which lies the fundamental principle of symmetry. Providing insights into new technical concepts in syntax, the volume is written for academics in linguistics but will also be accessible to linguistics students seeking an introduction to syntax.
R 9,326.72
Papers on Syntax
The selection of papers reprinted here traces the development of syntax from structural linguistics through transformational linguistics to operator gram mar. These three are not opposing views or independent assumptions about language. Rather, they are successive stages of investigation into the word combinations which constitue the sentences of a language in contrast to those which do not. Throughout, the goal has been to find the systemati cities of these combinations, and then to obtain each sentence in a uniform way from its parts. In structural analysis, the parts were words (simple or complex, belonging to particular classes) or particular sequences of these. In transformational analysis, it is found that the parts of a sentence are elementary sentences, whose parts in turn are simple words of particular classes. The relation between these two analyses is seen in the existence of an intermediate stage between the two, presented in paper 4, From Morpheme to Utterance. A further intermediate stage is presented in the writer's String Analysis of Sentence Structure, Papers on Formal Linguistics I, Mouton, The Hague 1962 (though it was developed after transformations, as a syntactic rep resentation for computational analysis). Generalization of both of these analyses leads to operator grammar, in which each sentence is derived in a uniform way as a partial ordering of the originally simple words which enter into it: Each step (least upper bound) of the partial ordering (of a word requiring another) forms a sentence which is a component of the sentence being analyzed.
R 4,684.25
Questions of Syntax
There are far more syntactically distinct languages than we might have thought; yet there are far fewer than there might have been. Questions of Syntax collects sixteen papers authored by Richard S. Kayne, a preeminent theoretical syntactician, who has sought over the course of his career to understand why both these facts are true. With a particular emphasis on comparative syntax, these chapters collectively consider how wide a range of questions the field of syntax can reasonably attempt to ask and then answer. At issue, among other topics, are the relation between syntax and (certain aspects of) semantics, the relation between syntax and what appear to be lexical questions, the relation between syntax and morphology, the relation between syntax and certain aspects of phonology (insofar as silent elements and theirproperties play a substantial role), and the extent to which comparative syntax can provide new and decisive evidence bearing on these different kinds of questions. To Kayne, comparative syntax can shed light on what may initially seem lexical questions, and antisymmetry on the evolution of human languageitself.Taken as a whole, these essays elucidate the theoretical contributions of one the most influential scholars in linguistics.
R 2,590.28
Syntax in Functional Grammar
In Syntax and Functional Grammar, David Morley provides a freamwork for the analysis of syntactic structure from the perspective of sytemic functional grammar. In part, the book goes back to the grammar's 'scale and category' roots, but it does so in order to present a descriptive framework which reveals how the analysis of the syntactic structure can reflect the meaning structure. There are four sections. Section One, The Linguistic Framework, gives a brief overview of systemic grammar, incuding the linguistic system, context of situation and language functions. Section Two, Class, considers formal units and their classes. The principal focus is in Section Three, Structure, which covers the role of units as elements of structure. The argument also examines approaches by other grammarians. Section Four, Complexity and Complementation, discusses areas of structural complexity and concludes with several refinements to the analysis format. The text is well illustrated with examples and the fuller analytic frameworks are also shown in summary chapters. Syntax in Functional Grammar has two purposes.First, although several introductions to systemic grammar oriented towards the semantic functional dimension are available, lecturers who wish to teach the syntactic framework first now have an appropriate text.Second, for any course in syntactic structure, there is a need for alternatives to the many introductions written largely from a tranformational generative perspective. The book is designed principally for students of language, linguistics and applied linguistics. It will also be of interest to students of language education and of English. The first three sections are suitable for both intermediate undergraduate and graduate courses; the fourth section deals with more advanced topics. G. David Morley is Lecturer in Modern Languages at the University Strathclyde, Scotland.
R 1,735.00
Syntax of Dutch Volume I
The Syntax of Dutch presents a synthesis of current thinking on Dutch syntax. Its principal focus is on describing the Dutch language; technical issues related to linguistic theory are addressed only if new light is shed on the subject.The work is organized around the four lexical categories verbs (volumes 1–3),nouns (volumes 4–5), adjectives (volume 6), and adpositions (volume 7). It includes a general introduction to the semantic, morphological, and syntactic properties of these categories, their argument structure, their modification possibilities, and issues related to word order. The functional categories (determiners, complementizers, etc.) are discussed in relation to the lexical categories with which they occur. Volume 8 concludes the work by considering a number of issues that extend beyond proper sentence grammar: main-clause external elements, coordination, and ellipsis.The Syntax of Dutch will be an indispensable resource for researchers and advanced students of languages and linguistics interested in the Dutch language.
R 7,327.00
Syntax of Dutch Volume VIII
The Syntax of Dutch presents a synthesis of current thinking on Dutch syntax. Its principal focus is on describing the Dutch language; technical issues related to linguistic theory are addressed only if new light is shed on the subject.The work is organized around the four lexical categories verbs (volumes 1–3),nouns (volumes 4–5), adjectives (volume 6), and adpositions (volume 7). It includes a general introduction to the semantic, morphological, and syntactic properties of these categories, their argument structure, their modification possibilities, and issues related to word order. The functional categories (determiners, complementizers, etc.) are discussed in relation to the lexical categories with which they occur. Volume 8 concludes the work by considering a number of issues that extend beyond proper sentence grammar: main-clause external elements, coordination, and ellipsis.The Syntax of Dutch will be an indispensable resource for researchers and advanced students of languages and linguistics interested in the Dutch language.
R 7,327.00
Role of Inflection in Scandinavian Syntax
The authors present a theory of the role which subject-verb agreement and case morphology play in syntax, based mainly on a detailed comparison of the syntactic and inflectional properties of the Scandinavian languages.
R 6,130.72
