ISBN10: 0199243700, ISBN13: 9780199243709, [publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford] Softcover Paperback. This is an introduction to the structure of sentences in human languages. It assumes no prior knowledge of linguistic theory and little of elementary grammar. It will suit students coming to syntactic theory for the first time either as graduates or undergraduates. It will also be useful for those in fields such as computational science, artificial intelligence, or cognitive psychology who need a sound knowledge of current syntactic theory.Sentences in human languages are not just collections of random sounds with associated meanings. They involve a host of intriguing phenomena including constraints on possible word orders and theestablishment of relationships between words and phrases which affect both phonological form and meaning. David Adger leads the reader in easy stages through the development of an approach which explains how these phenomena work. This approach is based on ideas from Noam Chomsky's Minimalist Programme - notably the derivational nature of the linguistic system, the interpretability of syntactic features, and the reduction of syntactic operations to Merge and Move. These ideas are explained inclear, simple terms, backed up with examples and diagrams. The book emphasizes the importance of cross-linguistic evidence in the development of syntactic arguments. Above all it demonstrates the valueof building a consistent theoretical ...
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ISBN10: 0199243700, ISBN13: 9780199243709, [publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford] Softcover Paperback. This is an introduction to the structure of sentences in human languages. It assumes no prior knowledge of linguistic theory and little of elementary grammar. It will suit students coming to syntactic theory for the first time either as graduates or undergraduates. It will also be useful for those in fields such as computational science, artificial intelligence, or cognitive psychology who need a sound knowledge of current syntactic theory.Sentences in human languages are not just collections of random sounds with associated meanings. They involve a host of intriguing phenomena including constraints on possible word orders and theestablishment of relationships between words and phrases which affect both phonological form and meaning. David Adger leads the reader in easy stages through the development of an approach which explains how these phenomena work. This approach is based on ideas from Noam Chomsky's Minimalist Programme - notably the derivational nature of the linguistic system, the interpretability of syntactic features, and the reduction of syntactic operations to Merge and Move. These ideas are explained inclear, simple terms, backed up with examples and diagrams. The book emphasizes the importance of cross-linguistic evidence in the development of syntactic arguments. Above all it demonstrates the valueof building a consistent theoretical ...
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