LINGUIST List 13.1269

Tue May 7 2002

Books: Syntax:Issues in Formal German(ic) Typology

Editor for this issue: Dina Kapetangianni <dinalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. paul, Issues in Formal German(ic) Typology by W.Abraham & C.J.Zwart (eds)

Title: Issues in Formal German(ic) Typology
Series Title: Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 45
			
Publication Year: 2002
			
Publisher: John Benjamins
			
Book URL: http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=LA_45
			
 
Editor: Werner Abraham 
Editor: C. Jan-Wouter Zwart 
				

Hardback: ISBN: 1 58811 102 4, Pages: xviii, 336 pp., Price: USD 100.00
Comment: U.S. and Canada
Hardback: ISBN: 90 272 2766 7, Pages: xviii, 336 pp., Price: EUR 110.00
Comment: Rest of world
			
Abstract:
			
John Benjamins Publishing would like to announce the publication of
the following title in the field of Generative Studies:Issues in
Formal German(ic) Typology by Werner Abraham and C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
(eds.), University of California, Berkeley/University of Groningen

This book takes up a variety of general syntactic topics, which either
yield different solutions in German, in particular, or which lead to
different conclusions for theory formation. One of the main topics is
the fact that languages that allow for extensive scrambling between
the two verbal poles, V-2 and V-last, need to integrate discourse
functions like thema and rhema into the grammatical description. This
is attempted, in terms of Minimalism, thus extending the functional
domain. Special attention is given to the asymmetrical scrambling
behavior of indefinites vs. definites and their semantic
interpretation. Related topics are: Transitive expletive sentences,
types of existential sentences with either BE or HAVE, the
that-trace phenomenon and its semantics, negative polarity items,
ellipsis and gapping, passivization, double negation - all of which
have extensive effects both on distributional behavior and semantic
disambiguation, reaching far beyond effects observable in English with
its rigid, "un-scrambable" word order.

Contributions by: Cedric Boeckx; Jocelyn Cohan;
Christine Czinglar; Britta Jensen; Wolfgang Klein; Juergen Lenerz;
Enrique Mall�n; Laszlo Molnarfi; Athina Sioupi; Wolfgang
Sternefeld; John te Velde.
			
Lingfield(s): Syntax 
			 
Subject Language(s): German 

Written In: English