Advanced English Syntax

Gloria Cocchi

Advanced English Syntax

This work, together with the previously published Basic English Syntax (2019), contains a discussion of the core syntactic phenomena which characterize the English language and proposes a principled explanation for them. In particular, this volume investigates rather complex syntactic constructions, such as infinitival clauses, relative clauses or clauses with a marked word order. Gloria Cocchi teaches General Linguistics at the University of Urbino.

Printed Edition

23.00

Pages: 220

ISBN: 9788835118640

Edition: 1a edizione 2021

Publisher code: 1058.60

Availability: Limitata

This work, together with the previously published Basic English Syntax (2019), contains a discussion of the core syntactic phenomena which characterize the English language and proposes a principled explanation for them. In particular, this volume investigates rather complex syntactic constructions, such as infinitival clauses, relative clauses or clauses with a marked word order. Furthermore, the theory outlined will be applied to some specific areas, like cohesion and telegraphic language, which are generally tackled by other related disciplines. We will argue that a formal syntactic approach can help to solve some of the puzzles typically related to these fields of analysis.
We will adopt the theoretical approach known as Generative Grammar (since Chomsky 1957). The basic idea is that a Universal Grammar is innate in our brain, a fact which renders all languages similar despite appearances. Therefore, English will often be contrasted with other languages, in order to show how phenomena that look different may be given a common explanation, based on a diverse parametric choice.

Gloria Cocchi teaches General Linguistics at the University of Urbino. Her research is mainly focussed on formal syntax, with a specific emphasis on some syntactic aspects of English, Italian and its dialects, and Bantu languages, as well as on cross-linguistic comparison and code-switching.

List of abbreviations and symbols
Preface
Introduction. Basic English Syntax
(The Principles and Parameters Theory; Phrases and phrase structure; Sentence structure; Movement)
Diachronic Change of Parameters
(Introduction; The Verb movement parameter; Changes in parameter setting in the history of English; Verb movement and the richness of inflection; Summary)
Non-finite Clauses
(Introduction; Infinitival and other non-finite clauses; More on embedded subjects; Small clauses; Raising constructions; Summary)
Binding Theory
(Introduction; Anaphors and Pronouns; C-command; Binding within infinitival clauses; Binding within a complex DP; Binding and movement; Further considerations; Summary)
Relative Clauses
(Introduction; Two types of relative clauses; The internal structure of relative clauses; Relative clauses without wh-phrases; Wh-islands inside relative clauses; DP-islands; Exclamative clauses; Summary)
The structure of the left periphery
(Introduction; Focus constructions; Topic constructions; The fi ne-grained structure of the left periphery; Summary)
Cohesion
(Introduction; Lexical cohesion; Syntactic cohesion; Summary)
Connectives
(Introduction; A semantic classification of connectives; The syntactic structure of connectives; Summary)
Syntactic Deviations
(Introduction; Elliptical clauses under coordination (gapping); Telegraphic language; ummary)
Glossary
References.

Serie: Lingua, traduzione, didattica

Subjects: Linguistics

Level: Textbooks

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