Syntactic Structures Revisited Contemporary Lectures on Classic Transformational Theory

by Lasnik, Howard

• ISBN13: 9780262621335
• ISBN10: 0262621339
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-04
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

with Marcela Depiante and Arthur Stepanov This book provides an introduction to some classic ideas and analyses of transformational generative grammar, viewed both on their own terms and from a more modern, or minimalist perspective. The major focus is on the set of analyses treating English verbal morphology. The book shows how the analyses in Chomsky's classic Syntactic Structuresactually work, filling in underlying assumptions and often unstated formal particulars. From there the book moves to successive theoretical developments and revisions-both in general and in particular as they pertain to inflectional verbal morphology. After comparing Chomsky's economy-based account with his later minimalist approach, the book concludes with a hybrid theory of English verbal morphology that includes elements of both Syntactic Structuresand A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory. Current Studies in Linguistics No. 33

Author Biography

Howard Lasnik is a Professor at the University of Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	1	(4)
Structure and Infinity of Human Language	5	(46)
Structure	5	(6)
Infinity	11	(24)
Exercises	34	(1)
English Verbal Morphology	35	(16)
Transformational Grammar	51	(74)
What Is a Transformation?	51	(2)
A First Look at Transformations: The Number and Auxiliary Transformations T15 and T20	53	(3)
Properties of Transformations	56	(8)
Other Properties of Transformations	64	(2)
Transformations in Syntactic Structures	66	(40)
Exercises	105	(1)
Theoretical Issues Raised by Syntactic Structures	106	(8)
Learnability and Language Acquisition	114	(11)
Exercises	124	(1)
Verbal Morphology: Syntactic Structures and Beyond	125	(72)
Problems in Syntactic Structures	125	(3)
X-Bar Theory	128	(1)
Subcategorization and Selection	129	(7)
English Verbal Morphology Revisited	136	(27)
V-Raising and Split I	163	(2)
Verb Movement and Economy: Chomsky 1991	165	(16)
Chomsky 1993	181	(6)
Syntactic Structures Revived: Lasnik 1995	187	(10)
Notes	197	(6)
References	203	(4)
Index	207