Deep And Surface Structure Constraints In Syntax

In the last decade a profound change has occurred in linguistic science. Not only have old problems been tackled from an entirely new point of view but also quite a few new fields of linguistic research have been opened. The common characteristic of the majority of the theories and methods developed recently is the search for a more adequate description of language. Adequacy does not mean simply that the theory must conform to the facts. It must also meet the general requirements of present-day theories: coherence, clear-cut notions, rigor of presentation. It has also become abundantly clear that linguistic research cannot be content with the registration and classification of linguistic phenomena. In one way or another linguistics must try to explain the deep-seated regularities in language which in general do not appear on the surface in some straightforward way. Therefore, we find the attribute 'deep' very often in contemporary linguistic literature. Linguistic theories seek an explanation for the observed facts in terms of a system of hypotheses about the functioning of language. As research proceeds these will undergo essential changes. Some of them will be waived, others com plemented. The papers of the present volume follow these general principles of linguistic theory though they may differ from each other in the way of presentation considerably. Some of the papers make use of the framework of transformational-generative grammar (e. g. Kuroda; Perlmutter), others approach the pertinent problem from a different angle (e. g. Dupraz and Rouault; Apresyan, Mel'cuk, and Zolkovski).

Preliminary Material /John P. Kimball --Possible and Must /Lauri Karttunen --The Modality of Conditionals-A Discussion of “Possible and Must” /John P. Kimball --Forward Implications, Backward Presuppositions, and the Time Axis of Verbs /Talmy Givón --Temporally Restrictive Adjectives /David Dowty --Cyclic and Linear Grammars /John P. Kimball --On the Cycle in Syntax /John Grinder --Discussion /George Lakoff --Action and Result: Two Aspects of Predication in English /Michael B. Kac --Three Reasons for Not Deriving 'Kill' from 'Cause to Die' in Japanese /Masayoshi Shibatani --Kac and Shibatani on the Grammar of Killing /James D. Mc Cawley --Reply to McCawley /Michael B. Kac --Doubl-ing /John Robert Ross --Where Do Relative Clauses Come From? /Judith Aissen --On the Nonexistence of Mirror Image Rules in Syntax /Jorge Hankamer --The VP-Constituent of SVO Languages /Arthur Schwartz --Lahu Nominalization, Relativization, and Genitivization /James A. Matisoff --Navaho Object Markers and the Great Chain of Being /Nancy Frishberg --The Crossover Constraint and Ozark English /Suzette Haden Elgin --Author Index /John P. Kimball --Subject Index /John P. Kimball.

No detailed description available for "Targets and Syntactic Change".

The main text of this book is concerned with establishing the relative ordering of about thirty transformational rules of grammar which have been regularly included in the introductory course of transformational grammar presented at M.I.T.'s Department of Linguistics. The rules presented in this book are exemplary of the basic insights achieved by advocates of the transformational approach to English syntax. This book is intended to be a workbook which should be used as a supplement to, not a substitute for, a course in introductory transformational syntax.

This volume explores the continuing relevance of Syntactic Structures to contemporary research in generative syntax. The contributions examine the ideas that changed the way that syntax is studied and that still have a lasting effect on contemporary work in generative syntax. Topics include formal foundations, the syntax-semantics interface, the autonomy of syntax, methods of data analysis, and detailed discussions of the role of transformations. New commentary from Noam Chomsky is included.