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The Syntax of Nonsententials
Multidisciplinary perspectives
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Edited by:
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2006
About this book
This volume brings the data that many in formal linguistics have dismissed as peripheral straight into the core of syntactic theory. By bringing together experts from syntax, semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, language acquisition, aphasia, and pidgin and creole studies, the volume makes a multidisciplinary case for the existence of nonsententials, which are analyzed in various chapters as root phrases and small clauses (Me; Me First!; Him worry?!; Class in session), and whose distinguishing property is the absence of Tense, and, with it, any syntactic phenomena that rely on Tense, including structural Nominative Case. Arguably, the lack of Tense specification is also responsible for the dearth of indicative interpretations among nonsententials, as well as for their heavy reliance on pragmatic context. So pervasive is nonsentential speech across all groups, including normal adult speech, that a case can be made that continuity of grammar lies in nonsentential, rather than sentential speech.
Reviews
Barbara H. Partee, University of Massachusetts-Amherst:
According to Richard Montague, the task of syntax is to give a recursive definition of the set of well-formed expressions of every category of a given language; for compositional semantics that is a very natural perspective, since it is not only sentences that have meanings. But few linguists made much of this aspect of Montague’s approach. I was happy when I first encountered Ellen Barton’s work on non-sentential constituents around 1989. I had long believed that there are non-trivial speech acts involving non-elliptical non-sentential constituents, but the topic never got to the top of my agenda, so I am immensely grateful that such an excellent team of linguists has put together such a strong collection of papers invoking such a breadth of perspectives. I hope this book unleashes a flood of new work on this important topic.
According to Richard Montague, the task of syntax is to give a recursive definition of the set of well-formed expressions of every category of a given language; for compositional semantics that is a very natural perspective, since it is not only sentences that have meanings. But few linguists made much of this aspect of Montague’s approach. I was happy when I first encountered Ellen Barton’s work on non-sentential constituents around 1989. I had long believed that there are non-trivial speech acts involving non-elliptical non-sentential constituents, but the topic never got to the top of my agenda, so I am immensely grateful that such an excellent team of linguists has put together such a strong collection of papers invoking such a breadth of perspectives. I hope this book unleashes a flood of new work on this important topic.
Topics
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Prelim pages
i -
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Table of contents
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Preface
ix -
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Introduction
1 -
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1. Toward a nonsentential analysis in generative grammar
11 -
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2. The syntax of nonsententials
33 -
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3. “Small structures”
73 -
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4. Neither fragments nor ellipsis
93 -
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5. Big questions, small answers
117 -
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6. Extending the nonsentential analysis
147 -
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7. The narrowing acquisition path
183 -
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8. Nonsententials in second language acquisition
203 -
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9. How language adapts to the brain
229 -
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10. Nonsententials and agrammatism
259 -
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11. Reduced syntax in (prototypical) pidgins
283 -
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12. Copula variation in Guyanese Creole and AAVE
309 -
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Epilogue
323 -
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Index
355
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 1, 2008
eBook ISBN:
9789027293350
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
372
This book is in the series
eBook ISBN:
9789027293350
Audience(s) for this book
Professional and scholarly;
