LINGUIST List 14.544

Mon Feb 24 2003

Books: Linguistic Theories/Syntax: Williams

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. dgw, Representation Theory: Williams

			
Title: Representation Theory
Series Title: Current Studies in Linguistics series
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: MIT Press 
 http://mitpress.mit.edu/		 
			
Author: Edwin Williams

Hardback: ISBN: 0262232251, Pages: 304, Price: $50
Paperback: ISBN: 0262731509, Pages: 304, Price: $25
			
Abstract:

In this theoretical monograph, Edwin Williams demonstrates that when
syntax is economical, it economizes on shape-distortion rather than on
distance. According to Williams, this new notion of economy calls for
a new architecture for the grammatical system--in fact, for a new
notion of derivation. The new architecture offers a style of clausal
embedding--the Level Embedding Scheme--that predictively ties together
the locality, reconstructive behavior, and "target" type of any
syntactic process in a way that is unique to the model. Williams calls
his theory "Representation Theory" to put the notion of economy at the
forefront. Syntax, in this theory, is a series of representations of
one sublanguage in another.

Edwin Williams is Professor of Linguistics at Princeton University. He
is the author of Thematic Structure in Syntax (MIT Press, 1994) and
Introduction to the Theory of Grammar (MIT Press, 1984).

Lingfield(s): Linguistic Theories
		Syntax	
			 
Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)