LINGUIST List 13.2543

Mon Oct 7 2002

Books: Syntax, D. Bouchard

Editor for this issue: Richard John Harvey <richardlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Neden, Julie (ELS), Adjectives, Number & Interfaces: Why Languages Vary, D. Bouchard

Adjectives, Number and Interfaces: Why Languages Vary

By: D. Bouchard, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Montreal, Canada

Volume 61 in the series North-Holland Linguistic Series: Linguistic
Variations

Publication date: October 2002
Hardbound ISBN: 0-08-044055-X
460 pages
Price: USD 94/EUR 94

* Imprint: NORTH HOLLAND *

This study explains why languages vary the way they do in the domain
of adjectival modification in French as contrasted with other
Indo-European languages.

The author rejects previous well known analyses in terms of syntactic
movement to various functional heads and proposes a model in which
external properties of interfaces are the foundations from which the
variation is derived.

Limiting severely the technical apparatus of syntax, the author argues
that the properties of Number at the interfaces are shown to provide a
simple and precise solution for longstanding problems of
compositionality raised by adjectival modification. There is also a
unified analysis of the many other properties involved. The model
provides a principled explanation of the variation concerning nominals
without determiners (Bare NPs) and determiners without nominals
(clitics).

For further information on this book and ordering details, please see:
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/isbn/008044055X