Modern Syntax: A Coursebook

by Andrew Carnie

• ISBN13: 9780521682046
• ISBN10: 0521682045
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-31
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This practical coursebook introduces all the basics of modern syntactic analysis in a simple step-by-step fashion. Each unit is constructed so that the reader discovers new ideas, formulates hypotheses and practises fundamentals. The reader is presented with short sections of explanation with examples, followed by practice exercises. Feedback and comment sections follow to enable students to monitor their progress. No previous background in syntax is assumed. Students move through all the key topics in the field including features, rules of combination and displacement, empty categories, and subcategorization. The theoretical perspective in this work is unique, drawing together the best ideas from three major syntactic frameworks (minimalism, HPSG and LFG). Students using this book will learn fundamentals in such a way that they can easily go on to pursue further study in any of these frameworks.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
How to use this book	p. x
A note on the theoretical perspective of this book	p. xii
Some basic ideas in syntax
Defining syntax	p. 3
Syntactic data	p. 9
Hypotheses	p. 19
Group 1 Review	p. 29
Categories and subcategories
Parts of speech and lexical categories	p. 33
Functional categories	p. 42
Subcategories 1: pronouns	p. 49
Subcategories 2: other subcategories of nouns	p. 61
Subcategories 3: transitivity	p. 70
Tangent: tense, aspect, voice and mood	p. 81
Subcategories of auxiliaries	p. 93
Group 2 Review	p. 108
Constituents, MERGE and trees
Constituency	p. 111
C-MERGE: complements	p. 119
Complements: a case study	p. 135
Specifiers: VP and TP	p. 156
Specifiers: NP and DP	p. 170
Tagging	p. 179
MERGE: adjuncts	p. 192
Drawing trees	p. 210
Group 3 Review	p. 226
Movement and control
Passives	p. 231
Non-finite clauses 1: control constructions	p. 242
Non-finite clauses 2: raising sentences	p. 262
Head-to-head movement 1: auxiliaries	p. 279
Head-to-head movement 2: main verbs	p. 290
Wh-questions	p. 314
Group 4 Review	p. 314
Conclusions
Evaluating our progress	p. 319
The next steps	p. 327
Glossary, symbols and abbreviations	p. 333
Features and their values	p. 346
Rules, constraints and principles	p. 349
References	p. 351
Index	p. 356
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