{"id":365,"date":"2010-04-04T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2010-04-04T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=365"},"modified":"2010-02-11T11:44:39","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T09:44:39","slug":"365","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=365","title":{"rendered":"Syntax within the word"},"content":{"rendered":"
Syntax within the word: <\/strong>Economy, allomorphy, and argument selection in distributed Morphology. By Daniel Siddiqi<\/strong>. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009. Pp. 143. ISBN 9789027255211<\/a>. $158 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Omaima Ayoub<\/strong>, Islamic Foundation School<\/em><\/p>\n

This book portrays a complex picture of distributed morphology (DM), a modern framework that was proposed in the early 1990\u2019s within the government and binding tradition and the minimalist program as an alternative to other models of universal grammar. In this book, Daniel Siddiqi provides an overview of the major parts of DM (i.e. argument selection, the structure of the verb phrase, nominal compounds in English, stem allomorphy and suppletion) and proposes some revisions to the model (e.g. minimize exponence, eliminate readjustment rules, incorporate a feature blocking system).<\/p>\n

Part 1 includes three introductory chapters. Ch. 1 \u2018Syntax within the word\u2019, provides a synopsis of the major elements of DM. Ch. 2, \u2018Distributed morphology\u2019, details the fundamentals of DM and demonstrates how it is different from lexicalist minimalism. Ch. 3, \u2018Morphological operations in DS: From spellout to PF\u2019, outlines three morphological processes in DM (i.e. morphological merger, fusion\/fission, and readjustment rules).<\/p>\n

Part 2, \u2018On a theory of root allomorphy\u2019, comprises five chapters. Ch. 4, \u2018Root allomorphy\u2019, offers an analysis of root allomorphy within DM and exhibits a functional application of the new economy constraint (minimize exponence). Chs. 5 and 6, \u2018Simplifying DM\u2019 and \u2018Expansion of the fusion analysis\u2019, propose some revisions to the DM framework by highlighting the merits of a new constraint. Ch. 7, \u2018Inflection in compounds\u2019, explains how the same constraint can be used to propose a novel analysis for the blocking of regular inflection in English nominal compounds. Finally, Ch. 8, \u2018Interim conclusions\u2019 provides a summary of Part 2 as a whole.<\/p>\n

Part 3, \u2018Argument selection\u2019, consists of five chapters. Ch. 9, \u2018Argument selection within distributed morphology\u2019, briefly surveys the phenomenon of subcategorization (i.e. argument selection) and describes how it is treated within this framework. Ch. 10, \u2018Minimize exponence based account of subcategorization\u2019, outlines the effects of fusion on an analysis of the argument selection of a verb. Ch. 11, \u2018Subcategorization expanded\u2019, discusses how a model based on the minimize exponence constraint would handle the behavior of verbs (e.g. polysemy of verbs, structural coercion, and dative alternations). Ch. 12, \u2018The nature of verbs\u2019, explores two possible analyses for the category selection of a verb within the DM framework and examines how DM might handle the phenomenon of verb classes. Finally, Ch. 13, \u2018Interim conclusions\u2019, sums up Part 3.<\/p>\n

Part 4, \u2018Odds and ends\u2019, includes three chapters. Ch. 14, \u2018Event semantics\u2019, argues that the new minimize exponence constraint has a potential influence on the relationship between syntax and event semantics, whereas Ch. 15, \u2018Typology and theory\u2019, uses English data to detail some of the typological predictions for the inclusion of minimize exponence in the universal grammar model. Finally, Ch. 16, \u2018Conclusions\u2019, wraps up the book by recapitulating all four parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Syntax within the word: Economy, allomorphy, and argument selection in distributed Morphology. By Daniel Siddiqi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009. Pp. 143. ISBN 9789027255211. $158 (Hb). Reviewed by Omaima Ayoub, Islamic Foundation School This book portrays a complex picture of distributed morphology (DM), a modern framework that was proposed in the early 1990\u2019s within the government […]<\/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\/365"}],"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=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}