Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Three aspects of syntactic structure
- 2 Identifying constituents and categories
- 3 Passives, applicatives, and “Dative Shift”
- 4 Reflexives
- 5 Control
- 6 Pragmatic functions: topic and focus
- 7 Filler–gap dependencies and relativization
- 8 Causative constructions
- 9 Serial verbs and related issues
- 10 “Quirky case” and subjecthood
- 11 Syntactic ergativity
- References
- General index
- Language index
Preface and acknowledgments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Three aspects of syntactic structure
- 2 Identifying constituents and categories
- 3 Passives, applicatives, and “Dative Shift”
- 4 Reflexives
- 5 Control
- 6 Pragmatic functions: topic and focus
- 7 Filler–gap dependencies and relativization
- 8 Causative constructions
- 9 Serial verbs and related issues
- 10 “Quirky case” and subjecthood
- 11 Syntactic ergativity
- References
- General index
- Language index
Summary
This book provides a framework for analyzing and describing grammatical structure, building on what linguists have learned about language in general while paying careful attention to the unique features of each particular language. Its primary focus is on syntax (sentence structure), but it also deals with aspects of meaning, function, and word structure that are directly relevant to syntax.
This is a book about syntactic analysis, rather than syntactic theory. I have adopted a simplified version of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) as the analytical framework for the book, but I have tried in each chapter to emphasize linguistic phenomena over formal notation. The analyses presented here are very much in the spirit of LFG, but the notation employed is modified and simplified compared to that of standard LFG. Those readers who want a more complete introduction to LFG as a formal system are encouraged to consult Bresnan (2001), Dalrymple (2001), or Falk (2001).
This book is written at a level which should be appropriate for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students. It presupposes some familiarity with basic linguistic concepts and terminology, but no previous background in formal syntax. The contents can be covered fairly easily in a typical semester-length course. The book does not assume that its readers have native-speaker intuitions about English. So, for example, in some places the meanings of English idioms are explained, alternative possible interpretations of certain constructions are explicitly spelled out, etc.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Analyzing SyntaxA Lexical-Functional Approach, pp. ix - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004