{"id":314,"date":"2010-03-14T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=314"},"modified":"2010-02-10T12:22:34","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T10:22:34","slug":"key-terms-in-syntax-and-syntactic-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=314","title":{"rendered":"Key terms in syntax and syntactic theory"},"content":{"rendered":"
Key terms in syntax and syntactic theory<\/strong>. By Silvia Luraghi<\/strong> and Claudia Parodi<\/strong>. New York: Continuum, 2008. Pp. 265. ISBN 9780826496553<\/a>. $120 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Omaima Ayoub<\/strong>, Furqaan Academy<\/em><\/p>\n

In a dictionary-like format, Silvia Luraghi and Claudia Parodi present an easily accessible reference book that can be used for both self-study and supplementary material in syntax courses. Both linguistics scholars and students will find this book to be an accessibly written summary of the history and development of the field of syntax from the seventeenth century through the present day. However, it does not only outline key syntactic theories and supply definitions of key syntactic terms but also provides a brief account of key thinkers in the field of syntax. Divided into five chapters, the book offers an exhaustive survey of the key syntactic theories, terms, thinkers, and texts that readers will encounter in the linguistic literature.<\/span><\/p>\n

The introduction offers a brief historical sketch that traces the development of syntactic theory through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and surveys the contemporary theories within the field of syntax. Starting with early schools of syntactic thought such as the grammaire general of Port-Royal, the Prague School, glossematics, and then moving to American structuralism, transformational generative grammar, systemic grammar, functional grammar, and generative semantics, the authors briefly discuss the current approaches to syntax such as cognitive grammar, systemic functional grammar, West Coast functionalism, and the functional-typological approach. L&P conclude their introduction by saying that cognitive grammar and functionalism together provide the most complete theoretical alternative to transformational generative grammar.<\/p>\n

In the next two chapters, \u2018Key theories\u2019 and \u2018Key thinkers\u2019, L&P offer more details about these theories. Alphabetically\u2014not chronologically\u2014ordered, \u2018Key theories\u2019 briefly outlines twenty six syntactic theories through the use of tables, diagrams, trees, and examples in English as well as several other languages (accompanied by word-for-word translations and grammatical glosses). Some of the theories included in this chapter are: case grammar, dependency grammar, the minimalist program, and optimality theory. The chapter on \u2018Key thinkers\u2019 provides profiles of pioneer linguists in both historical and contemporary theories of syntax, including Leonard Bloomfield, Noam Chomsky, Joseph Greenberg, Michael Halliday, and George Lakoff. Each entry in this chapter concludes with a list of relevant texts intended for further reading.<\/p>\n

\u2018Key Terms\u2019, which occupies over half of the book\u2019s pages, offers a comprehensive survey of 250 key terms that are currently being used in syntax, including clitic, auxiliary, anaphora, oblique, modification, wh<\/em>-movement, dislocation, ellipsis, node, voice, and so on. Once again, these terms are alphabetically ordered and illustrated by tables, diagrams, trees, and examples in English as well as several other languages (and are also accompanied by word-for-word translations and grammatical glosses). The complicated terms covered in this chapter are presented with an accessible approach that should appeal to both scholars and students within the field of linguistics. The book concludes with a list of key readings that is intended to direct readers towards further study.<\/p>\n

Overall, Key terms in syntax and syntactic theory<\/em> is a valuable contribution to readers interested in linguistics in general and syntax in particular.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Key terms in syntax and syntactic theory. By Silvia Luraghi and Claudia Parodi. New York: Continuum, 2008. Pp. 265. ISBN 9780826496553. $120 (Hb). Reviewed by Omaima Ayoub, Furqaan Academy In a dictionary-like format, Silvia Luraghi and Claudia Parodi present an easily accessible reference book that can be used for both self-study and supplementary material in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}