LINGUIST List 12.352

Sat Feb 10 2001

Books: West-Germanic & Hungarian Syntax

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Jud Wolfskill, West-Germanic & Hungarian Syntax: Verbal Complexes, Koopman & Szabolcsi

For more information please visit at:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/KOOVPF00


Verbal Complexes

Hilda Koopman and Anna Szabolcsi


In this book Hilda Koopman and Anna Szabolcsi propose a unified
analysis of restructuring constructions in Hungarian, Dutch, and
German that involves only overt phrasal movement and derives variation
from the varying sizes of pied piping constituents.

Restructuring verbs in Hungarian exhibit three patterns: the will
begin up-climb and the up will begin climb orders common in Dutch and
the up-climb begin will order common in German. Traditionally these
have been analyzed as involving no movement (or covert movement),
phrasal movement, and head movement, respectively. The first goal of
this book is to develop a unified analysis where (1) the same features
are checked in all three orders, (2) all feature checking is achieved
by overt movement, and (3) all three types involve phrasal
movement. The second goal is to account for the significant variation
across Hungarian, Dutch, and German, which is argued to arise from the
varying sizes of the constituents pied piped in the course of
movement.

In addition to its novel theoretical claims, the book presents the
first systematic description of Hungarian complex verbs and the first
comparison of West-Germanic and Hungarian.

Hilda Koopman is Professor of Linguistics at the University of
California, Los Angeles. Anna Szabolcsi is Professor and Director of
Graduate Studies in the Department of Linguistics, New York
University.

7 x 9, 262 pp., paper ISBN 0-262-61154-6, cloth ISBN 0-262-11253-1

Current Studies in Linguistics #34



Jud Wolfskill					617.253.2079 phone
Associate Publicist				617.253.1709 fax
MIT Press					wolfskilmit.edu
5 Cambridge Center				http://mitpress.mit.edu
Fourth Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142