{"id":655,"date":"2010-05-15T22:00:09","date_gmt":"2010-05-15T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=655"},"modified":"2010-05-11T11:51:37","modified_gmt":"2010-05-11T09:51:37","slug":"an-introduction-to-syntactic-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=655","title":{"rendered":"An introduction to syntactic theory"},"content":{"rendered":"
An introduction to syntactic theory<\/strong>. By Edith A. Moravcsik<\/strong>. London: Continuum, 2006. Pp. xiv, 263. ISBN 0826489443<\/a>. $49.95.<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Mousa A. Btoosh<\/a><\/strong>, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University<\/em><\/p>\n

An introduction to syntactic theory<\/em> is a thoughtful continuation of the recent research on syntactic theories and how they deal with conflicting data. The book consists of seven chapters, a preface, a glossary, a bibliography, and an appendix. Each of the first six chapters is introduced by a \u2018preliminaries\u2019 section that, in turn, provides an overview of the chapter in question. Each of these chapters also includes conclusions, notes, and exercises.<\/p>\n

Ch. 1, \u2018Parameters of syntactic theories\u2019 (1\u201335), focuses on the areas of differences and similarities among the syntactic theories. According to Moravcsik, all syntactic theories, irrespective of the differences in their methods and conflict-resolving techniques, must share certain goals. Ch. 2, \u2018Alternative analyses of syntactic structures\u2019 (36\u201374), seeks to explain conflicts within syntactic forms. Discontinuous linear order (paradigmatic and syntagmatic conflicts) and long-distance agreement are tackled as problematic areas in the analysis of the syntactic form.<\/p>\n

Conflicts between syntactic form and meaning are thoroughly discussed in Chs. 3 and 4. Ch. 3, \u2018Alternative analyses of symbolic correspondence relations: Co-ordination\u2019 (75\u2013106), examines the notion of compositionality and noncompositionality in coordinate constructions. Numerous pieces of evidence presented in the bulk of the chapter come together to favor a lack of compositionality between meaning and syntactic form in coordinate conjunctions. Ch. 4, \u2018Alternative analyses of symbolic correspondence relations: Grammatical functions\u2019 (107\u201346), reveals another conflict between form and meaning. Much evidence on the mismatches between semantic participant roles (agent, patient, etc.) and grammatical functions (subject, object, etc.) is clearly stated in the course of the discussion of the double-object constructions.<\/p>\n

Ch. 5, \u2018Alternative analyses of syntactic variation and change\u2019 (147\u201378), discusses variation in constituent order across languages and surveys alternative analyses and resolutions of the conflicts in this domain. The second part of this chapter is devoted to syntactic change in children\u2019s acquisition of relative-clause structures, conflicts in data, and alternative resolutions. Ch. 6, \u2018Four contemporary approaches to syntax\u2019 (179\u2013218), examines the major features and tenants of four contemporary approaches to syntactic description: transformational grammars, dependency grammars, construction grammars, and optimality theory. The last chapter, \u2018Where do conflicts come from?\u2019 (219\u201324), sheds light on the sources of conflicts in syntax and syntactic theory. The chapter reports mainly on conflicts in ordinary linguistic expression and conflicts in linguistic analysis.<\/p>\n

This book, which contains a rich coverage of the various syntactic theories and how they accommodate conflicts, presents a substantial contribution to an understanding of the differences as well as the shared goals among these theories. In sum, An introduction to syntactic theory <\/em>is highly recommended as a valuable resource for anyone learning or teaching syntax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An introduction to syntactic theory. By Edith A. Moravcsik. London: Continuum, 2006. Pp. xiv, 263. ISBN 0826489443. $49.95. Reviewed by Mousa A. Btoosh, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University An introduction to syntactic theory is a thoughtful continuation of the recent research on syntactic theories and how they deal with conflicting data. The book consists of seven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655"}],"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=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":656,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions\/656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}