This linguistic textbook by Peter Culicover provides a broad introductory overview of various top... more This linguistic textbook by Peter Culicover provides a broad introductory overview of various topics in the study of syntax. Its major objectives are to show how natural language makes use of various syntactic and morphosyntactic devices, and to lay out the conceptual structures that correspond to particular aspects of linguistic form (xi). The title of the book is thoughtprovoking : rather than Introduction to syntax, Syntactic theory or the like, Culicover chose the title Natural language syntax, which can be interpreted twofold. First, it may be regarded as a direct response to recent research in syntax, especially the Minimalist program (Chomsky 1995), emphasizing that linguistic theory needs to place greater emphasis on accounting for actual language data rather than indulge in purely formalistic investigation. Another possible reading of the title is that the syntactic theory proposed in this book is natural, intuitive and simple, and that the title alludes to Culicover's previous book Simpler syntax (Culicover & Jackendoff 2005). In general, the discussions in this book are framed in theory-neutral terms, supplemented with comparisons between Culicover & Jackendoff's 'simpler syntax ' (SS) approach and so-called mainstream generative grammar (MGG). Chapter 1, 'Overview ', defines syntax as 'the system that governs the relationship between form and meaning in a language' (1) ; and states that the goal of linguistic theory is 'to understand what the properties of human languages are, and why they are that way ' (3). Culicover compares the SS and MGG approaches for the treatment of displacement. Instead of pursuing a derivational analysis, as in MGG, SS directly specifies 'correspondence rules ' between syntactic positions and meanings. Chapter 2, ' Syntactic categories ', provides a detailed description of various syntactic and morphosyntactic categories, and introduces the notational device of an attribute value matrix (also employed in Lexical Functional Grammar and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar), which displays the features and values of lexical items. To Culicover, a lexical item expresses the correspondences between mophosyntactic categories, semantic values and phonological representation, as exemplified in (1).
Recent studies of sluicing as an elliptical construction are divided with respect to how the bare... more Recent studies of sluicing as an elliptical construction are divided with respect to how the bare wh-word in the sluicing clause (i.e. wh-sluice) manifests its expected grammatical properties on the one hand, and receives its semantic interpretation on the other hand. In this paper, I investigate Emirati Arabic (ea) sluicing and conclude that ea sluicing should be analyzed as tp-deletion from an underlying wh-construction, at the level of pf. This supports the pf-deletion approach (Ross 1969, Merchant 2001) and argues against the lf-copying approach (Chung, Ladusaw and McCloskey 1995, 2006, Chung 2005) to sluicing. Moreover, I demonstrate that the ea sluicing source is predetermined by the type of wh-construction in ea. ea allows two types of wh-constructions, namely wh-fronting and wh-clefts. Both wh-strategies, while morphosyntactically distinct, are fully attested in the formation of sluicing. This paper also claims that the typology of wh-constructions has a direct impact on the typology of sluicing.
Jairo Nunes, Linearization of chains and sideward movement (Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 43). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. Pp. xiv+196
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