Syntax E-Book

Andrew Carnie

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Introducing Linguistics
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 781

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Andrew Carnie’s bestselling textbook on syntax has guided thousands of students through the discipline of theoretical syntax; retaining its popularity due to its combination of straightforward language, comprehensive coverage, and numerous exercises. In this third edition, topics have been updated, new exercises added, and the online resources have been expanded.

• Supported by expanded online student and instructor resources, including extra chapters on HPSG,  LFG and time-saving materials for lecturers, including problem sets, PowerPoint slides, and an instructors’ manual
• Features new chapters on ellipsis, auxiliaries, and non-configurational languages
• Covers topics including phrase structure, the lexicon, Case theory, movement, covert movement, locality conditions, VP shells, and control
• Accompanied by a new optional workbook, available separately, of sample problem sets which are designed to give students greater experience of analyzing syntactic structure

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Part 1 Preliminaries

1 Generative Grammar

0. Preliminaries

1. Syntax as a Cognitive Science

2. Modeling Syntax

3. Syntax as Science - the Scientific Method

4. Where Do the Rules Come From?

5. Choosing among Theories about Syntax

6. The Scientific Method and the Structure of this Textbook

7. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

2 Parts of Speech

0. Words and Why They Matter to Syntax

1. Determining Part of Speech

2. The Major Parts of Speech: N, V, Adj, and Adv

3. Open vs. Closed; Lexical vs. Functional

4. Subcategories and Features

5. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

3 Constituency, Trees, and Rules

0. Introduction

1. Rules and Trees

2. How to Draw a Tree

3. Modification and Ambiguity

4. Constituency Tests

5. Constituency in Other Languages

6. Summary and Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

4 Structural Relations

0. Introduction

1. The Parts of a Tree

2. Domination

3. Precedence

4. C-command

5. Grammatical Relations

6. Summary and Conclusions

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

5 Binding Theory

0. Introduction

1. The Notions Coindex and Antecedent

2. Binding

3. Locality Conditions on the Binding of Anaphors

4. The Distribution of Pronouns

5. The Distribution of R-expressions

6. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

Part 2 The Base

6 X-bar Theory

0. Introduction

1. Bar-level Projections

2. Generalizing the Rules: The X-bar Schema

3. Complements, Adjuncts, and Specifiers

4. Some Definitional Housekeeping

5. Parameters of Word Order

6. Drawing Trees in X-bar Notation

7. X-bar Theory: A Summary

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

7 Extending X-bar Theory to Functional Categories

0. Introduction

1. Determiner Phrases (DPs)

2. A Descriptive Tangent into Clause Types

3. Complementizer Phrases (CPs)

4. Tense Phrases (TPs)

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

8 Constraining X-bar: Theta Theory

0. Introduction

1. Some Basic Terminology

2. Thematic Relations and Theta Roles

3. The Lexicon

4. Expletives and the Extended Projection Principle

5. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

9 Auxiliaries and Functional Categories

0. Introduction

1. Complementizers

2. Determiners

3. Understanding Tense, Aspect, Voice, and Mood

4. Auxiliaries

5. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

Part 3 Movement

10 Head-to-Head Movement

0. Introduction

1. Verb Movement (V → T)

2. T Movement (T → C)

3. Do-support

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

11 DP Movement

0. Introduction

1. A Puzzle for the Theory of Theta Roles

2. Passives

3. Case

4. Raising: Reprise

5. Passives: Reprise

6. Tying Up a Loose End

7. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

12 Wh-movement and Locality Constraints

0. Introduction

1. Movement in Wh-questions

2. Relative Clauses

3. Islands

4. The Minimal Link Condition

5. Echo Questions (Wh-in-situ) in English

6. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

13 A Unified Theory of Movement

0. Introduction

1. Move

2. Explaining Cross-linguistic Differences

3. Scope, Covert Movement, and the MLC

4. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

Part 4 Advanced Topics

14 Expanded VPs

0. Introduction

1. The Problem of Ditransitive Verbs

2. The Active Voice Head and Other Light Verbs

3. Object Shift

4. Ditransitives: Reprise

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

15 Raising, Control, and Empty Categories

0. Introduction

1. Raising vs. Control

2. Two Kinds of Raising, Two Kinds of Control

3. Control Theory

4. Another Kind of Null Subject: “Little” pro

5. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

16 Ellipsis

0. Ellipsis

1. LF-copying or PF-deletion

2. Antecedent-Contained Deletion and Pseudogapping

3. Conclusion

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

17 Advanced Topics in Binding Theory

0. Introduction

1. Levels of Representation

2. The Definition of Binding Domain

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

18 Polysynthesis, Incorporation, and Non-configurationality

0. Introduction

1. Polysynthesis

2. Incorporation

3. Scrambling and Non-configurationality

4. Conclusions

Ideas, Rules, and Constraints Introduced in this Chapter

General Problem Sets

Challenge Problem Sets

Conclusions and Directions for Further Study

References

Index

Go to

www.wiley.com/go/carnie

for bonus chapters on Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) and Head-drivenPhrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), as well as a glossary and othersupplementary materials.

This third edition first published 2013 © 2013 Andrew Carnie

Edition History: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd (1e, 2002 and 2e, 2007)

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carnie, Andrew, 1969-   Syntax : a generative introduction / Andrew Carnie. -- Third Edition.       pages cm. -- (Introducing linguistics ; 16)     Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-65531-3 (pbk.) 1. Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax. 2. Generative grammar. I. Title. P295.C37 2012 415--dc23

2012009763

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover Image: Vassily Kandinsky, Sweet Pink, ink with watercolour, 1929, Roethel 925. Sotheby’s, London / Superstock. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2012. Cover design by Nicki Averill

1     2013

Dedicated with love to my parents, Robert and Jean and in memory of my teacher and mentor, Ken Hale

Preface and Acknowledgments

Almost every preface to every syntax textbook out there starts out by telling the reader how different this book is from every other syntax textbook. On one hand, this is often the truth: each author shows their own particular spin or emphasis. This is certainly true of this textbook. For example, you’ll be hard-pressed to find another textbook on Principles and Parameters syntax that uses as many Irish examples as this one does. Nor will you find another P&P textbook with a supplementary discussion of alternative theoretical approaches like LFG or HPSG. On the other hand, let’s face facts. The basic material to be covered in an introductory textbook doesn’t really vary much. One linguist may prefer a little more on binding theory, and a little less on control, etc. In this text, I’ve attempted to provide a relatively balanced presentation of most of the major issues and I’ve tried to do this in a student-friendly way. I’ve occasionally abstracted away from some of the thornier controversies, when I felt they weren’t crucial to a student understanding the basics. This may make the professional syntactician feel that I’ve cut corners or laid out too rosy a picture. I did this on purpose, however, to give students a chance to absorb the fundamentals before challenging the issues. This was a deliberate pedagogical choice. I’m well aware that sometimes I’ve glossed over controversies, but I think a student has to learn the basics of how the system works before they can seriously critique and evaluate the model. This is a textbook, not a scholarly tome, so its aim is to reach as many students as possible. The style is deliberately low-key and friendly. This doesn’t mean I don’t want the students to challenge the material I’ve presented here. Throughout the book, you’ll find grey “textboxes” that contain issues for further discussion or interesting tidbits. Many of the problem sets also invite the student to challenge the black and white presentation I’ve given in the text. I encourage instructors to assign these, and students to do them, as they form an important part of the textbook. Instructors may note that if a favorite topic is not dealt with in the body of the text, a problem set may very well treat the question.

A quick word on the level of this textbook: This book is intended as an introduction to syntactic theory. It takes the student through most of the major issues in Principles and Parameters, from tree drawing to constraints on movement. While this book is written as an introduction, some students have reported it to be challenging. I use this text in my upper-division undergraduate introduction to syntax course with success, but I can certainly see it being used in more advanced classes. I hope instructors will flesh out the book, and walk their students through some of the thornier issues.

This textbook has grown out of my lecture notes for my own classes. Needless to say, the form and shape of these notes have been influenced in terms of choice of material and presentation by the textbooks my own students have used. While the book you are reading is entirely my fault, it does owe a particular intellectual debt to the following three textbooks, which I have used in teaching at various times:

Cowper, Elizabeth (1992) A Concise Introduction to Syntactic Theory: The Government and Binding Approach. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Haegeman, Liliane (1994) Introduction to Government and Binding Theory (2nd edition). Oxford: Blackwell.

Radford, Andrew (1988) Transformational Grammar: A First Course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

I’d like to thank the authors of these books for breaking ground in presenting a complicated and integrated theory to the beginner. Writing this book has given me new appreciation for the difficulty of this task and their presentation of the material has undoubtedly influenced mine.

Sadly, during the final stages of putting the first edition of this text together, my dissertation director, teacher, mentor, and academic hero, Ken Hale, passed away after a long illness. Ken always pushed the idea that theoretical syntax is best informed by cross-linguistic research, while at the same time the accurate documentation of languages requires a sophisticated understanding of grammatical theory. These were important lessons that I learned from Ken and I hope students will glean the significance of both by reading this text. While I was writing this book (and much other work) Ken gave me many comments and his unfettered support. He was a great man and I will miss him terribly.

This, the third edition of this book, is quite different from the first two. A reasonably complete list of changes can be found in the instructor’s handbook. These include some important changes to definitions that instructors who have used previous editions will want to look at. The major changes to this volume are:

A companion workbook, with answers, for students to practice assignments. New exercises in almost every chapter. New chapters on Auxiliaries, Ellipsis and Non-configurational Languages. The chapters on LFG and HPSG are now to be found for free on the book’s companion website: www.wiley.com/go/carnie.

I hope that instructors and students will find these revisions helpful. I have attempted where possible to take into account all the many comments and suggestions I received from people using the first and second editions, although of course, in order to maintain consistency, I was unable to implement them all.

 

Acknowledgments:

I’d like to thank the many people who taught me syntax through the years: Barb Brunson, Noam Chomsky, Elizabeth Cowper, Ken Hale, Alec Marantz, Diane Massam, Jim McCloskey, Shigeru Miyagawa, and David Pesetsky. A number of people have read through this book or the previous editions and have given me helpful comments; others have helped on smaller issues but have had no less of an impact on the work and still others have contributed problem sets or editorial advice. This long list includes: David Adger, William Alexander, Dean Allemang, Diana Archangeli, Ash Asudeh, Brett Baker, Uldis Balodis, Mark Baltin, Luis Barragan, Andy Barss, Dane Bell, Emily Bender, Abbas Benmamoun, Jeff Berry, Tom Bever, Claire Bowern, Michael Bauer, Laura Blumenthal, Joan Bresnan, Aaron Broadwell, Dirk Bury, Roy Chan, Ronald Charles, Danny Chen, Deborah Chen-Pichler, Jaehoon Choi, Barbara Citko, Peter Cole, Chris Collins, Jennifer Columbus, Andrew Comrie, Lorenzo Demery, Sheila Dooley, Yehuda Falk, Muriel Fisher, Sandiway Fong, Leslie Ford, Amy Fountain, Stefan Frisch, Alexandra Galani, Jila Ghomeshi, David Gil, Carrie Gillion, Erin Good-Ament, Andrea Haber, Paul Hagstrom, Ken Hale, John Halle, Mike Hammond, Jack Hardy, Heidi Harley, Josh Harrison, Rachel Hayes- Harb, David Heap, Bernhard Heigl, One-Soon Her, Caroline Heycock, Stephan Hurtubise, John Ivens, Eloise Jelinek, Alana Johns, Mark Johnson, Hyun Kyoung Jung, Arsalan Kahnemuyipour, Dalina Kalluli, Simin Karimi, Andreas Kathol, Chris Kennedy, Greg Key, Amy LaCross, Péter Lazar, Carlos Gelormini Lezama, Jeff Lidz, Anne Lobeck, Leila Lomashivili, Sarah Longstaff, Alicia Lopez, Ahmad Reza Lotfi, Ricardo Mairal, Joan Maling, Jack Martin, Diane Massam, Martha McGinnis, Nathan McWhorter, Dave Medeiros, Mirjana Miskovic-Lukovic, Alan Munn, MaryLou Myers, Chris Nicholas, Janet Nicol, Jon Nissenbaum, Peter Norquest, Diane Ohala, Kazutoshi Ohno, Heidi Orcutt-Gachiri, Hiroyuki Oshita, Panayiotis Pappas, Jaime Parchment, Hyeson Park, Barbara Partee, Matt Pearson, David Pesetsky, Colin Phillips, Carl Pollard, Bill Poser, Kristen Pruett, Jeff Punske, Mike Putnam, Janet Randall, Marlita Reddy-Hjelmfelt, Sylvia Reed, Norvin Richards, Frank Richter, Betsy Ritter, Ed Rubin, Jeff Runner, Ivan Sag, Nathan Sanders, Yosuke Sato and his students, Theresa Satterfield, Leslie Saxon, Kevin Schluter, Carson Schütze, Jim Scobbie, Deborah Shapiro, Leah Shocket, Dan Siddiqi, Echo Ki Sihui, Peter Slomanson, Kyle Smith, Norvel Smith, Nick Sobin, Peggy Speas, Megan Stone, Tania Strahan, Joshua Strauss, Maggie Tallerman, Takashi Tanaka, Chris Tancredi, Deniz Tat, Brian ten Eyck, Lisa deMena Travis, Alex Trueman, Adam Ussishkin, Robert Van Valin, Enwei Wang, Shan Wang, Natasha Warner, Andy Wedel, Jennifer Wees, Mary Ann Willie, Marian Wiseley, Dainon Woudstra, Susi Wurmbrand, Kimberley Young, Kim Youngroung, and several anonymous Blackwell and Wiley reviewers. I’m absolutely convinced I’ve left someone off this large list. If it’s you many apologies – I really did appreciate the help you gave me. The students in my Introduction to Syntax classes in Michigan in 1997, and in Arizona in 1998–2012, have used all or parts of this textbook. Glynis Baguley, Ada Brunstein, Sarah Coleman, Danielle Descoteaux, Lisa Eaton, Simon Eckley, Charlotte Frost, Graham Frankland, Tami Kaplan, Becky Kennison, Julia Kirk, Leah Morin, Allison Medoff, Anna Oxbury, Rhonda Pearce, Iain Potter, Beth Remmes, and Steve Smith of Wiley-Blackwell and their subcontractors all deserve many thanks for help getting this and the previous two editions to press. My family (my mother Jean, my late father Bob, Morag, Fiona, Pangur) were all incredible in their support and love. Go raibh maith agaibh agus tapadh leibh!

The artwork in chapters 3 and 6 was created by Dane Bell and is used with permission.

Part 1

Preliminaries

chapter 1

Generative Grammar

Learning Objectives

After reading chapter 1 you should walk away having mastered the following ideas and skills:

1. Explain why Language is a psychological property of humans.

2. Distinguish between prescriptive and descriptive rules.

3. Explain the scientific method as it applies to syntax.

4. Explain the differences between the kinds of data gathering, including corpora and linguistic judgments.

5. Explain the difference between competence and performance.

6. Provide at least three arguments for Universal Grammar.

7. Explain the logical problem of language acquisition.

8. Distinguish between learning and acquisition.

9. Distinguish among observational, descriptive and explanatory adequacy.

0. Preliminaries

Although we use it every day, and although we all have strong opinions about its proper form and appropriate use, we rarely stop to think about the wonder of language. So-called language “experts” like William Safire tell us about the misuse of hopefully or lecture us about the origins of the word boondoggle, but surprisingly, they never get at the true wonder of language: how it actually works as a complex machine. Think about it for a minute. You are reading this and understanding it, but you have no conscious knowledge of how you are doing it. The study of this mystery is the science of linguistics. This book is about one aspect of how language works: how sentences are structured, or the study of syntax.

Language is a psychological or cognitive property of humans. That is, there is some set of neurons in my head firing madly away that allows me to sit here and produce this set of letters, and there is some other set of neurons in your head firing away that allows you to translate these squiggles into coherent ideas and thoughts. There are several subsystems at work here. If you were listening to me speak, I would be producing sound waves with my vocal cords and articulating particular speech sounds with my tongue, lips, and vocal cords. On the other end of things you’d be hearing those sound waves and translating them into speech sounds using your auditory apparatus. The study of the acoustics and articulation of speech is called phonetics. Once you’ve translated the waves of sound into mental representations of speech sounds, you analyze them into syllables and pattern them appropriately. For example, speakers of English know that the made-up word bluve is a possible word of English, but the word bnuck is not. This is part of the science called phonology. Then you take these groups of sounds and organize them into meaningful units (called morphemes) and words. For example, the word dancer is made up of two meaningful bits: dance and the suffix -er. The study of this level of Language is called morphology. Next you organize the words into phrases and sentences. Syntax is the cover term for studies at this level of Language. Finally, you take the sentences and phrases you hear and translate them into thoughts and ideas. This last step is what we refer to as the semantic level of Language.

Syntax studies the level of Language that lies between words and the meaning of utterances: sentences. It is the level that mediates between sounds that someone produces (organized into words) and what they intend to say.

Perhaps one of the truly amazing aspects of the study of Language is not the origins of the word demerit, or how to properly punctuate a quote inside parentheses, or how kids have, like, destroyed the English language, eh? Instead it’s the question of how we subconsciously get from sounds and words to meaning. This is the study of syntax.

Language vs. language

When I utter the term language, most people immediately think of some particular language such as English, French, or KiSwahili. But this is not the way linguists use the term; when linguists talk about Language (also known as i-language), they are generally talking about the ability of humans to speak any (particular) language. Noam Chomsky also calls this the Human Language Capacity. Language (written with a capital L) is the part of the mind or brain that allows you to speak, whereas language (with a lower-case l) (also known as e-language) is an instantiation of this ability (like French or English). In this book we'll be using language as our primary data, but we'll be trying to come up with a model of Language.

1. Syntax as a Cognitive Science

Cognitive science is a cover term for a group of disciplines that all have the same goal: describing and explaining human beings’ ability to think (or more particularly, to think about abstract notions like subatomic particles, the possibility of life on other planets or even how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, etc.). One thing that distinguishes us from other animals, even relatively smart ones like chimps and elephants, is our ability to use productive, combinatory Language. Language plays an important role in how we think about abstract notions, or, at the very least, Language appears to be structured in such a way that it allows us to express abstract notions. The discipline of linguistics is thus one of the important subdisciplines of cognitive science. Sentences are how we get at expressing abstract thought processes, so the study of syntax is an important foundation stone for understanding how we communicate and interact with each other as humans.