LINGUIST List 10.111

Mon Jan 25 1999

Books: Syntax

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

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Directory

Jud Wolfskill, Three Investigations of Extraction, Paul M. Postal

Jud Wolfskill, An Introduction to Minimalist Syntax, Juan Uriagereka

Message 1: Three Investigations of Extraction, Paul M. Postal

Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:42:02 -0400
From: Jud Wolfskill <wolfskilMIT.EDU>
Subject: Three Investigations of Extraction, Paul M. Postal

Three Investigations of Extraction

Paul M. Postal

In this technical monograph, Paul Postal deals with several issues that have been treated only marginally in the development of current linguistic theorizing. He focuses on three problems in syntactic theory that are connected to "extraction"--the occurrence of an element in a distinguished position distinct from its unmarked locus in simple clauses. He examines a largely ignored body of systematic contrasts among known extraction types, the status of the Coordinate Structure Constraint, and the phenomenon of Right Node Raising.

Paul M. Postal is Research Professor in the Department of Linguistics at New York University.

Current Studies in Linguistics 29

6 x 9, 232 pp., 13 illus. cloth ISBN 0-262-16179-6

For more information please visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/POSTHF98

Message 2: An Introduction to Minimalist Syntax, Juan Uriagereka

Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:43:51 -0400
From: Jud Wolfskill <wolfskilMIT.EDU>
Subject: An Introduction to Minimalist Syntax, Juan Uriagereka

Rhyme and Reason An Introduction to Minimalist Syntax by Juan Uriagereka

foreword by Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini

This book takes the form of a dialogue between a linguist and another scientist. The role of the linguist is to present the fundamentals of the minimalist program of contemporary generative grammar. Although the linguist serves essentially as a voice for Noam Chomsky's ideas, he is not intended to be a portrait of Chomsky himself. The other scientist functions as a kind of devil's advocate, making the arguments that linguists tend to face from those in the "harder" sciences. In addition to the device of the dialogue, the author employs a myriad of graphics--everything from classical paintings to contemporary cartoons.

The author does far more than simply present the minimalist program. He conducts a running argument over the status of theoretical linguistics as a natural science. He raises the general issues of how we conceive words, phrases, and transformations, and what these processes tell us about the human mind. He also attempts to reconcile generative grammar with the punctuated equilibrium version of evolutionary theory. For according to the linguist, the linguistic system in our species emerged as a complex system, comparable to other complex phenomena in life that elude strict adaptationist explanations.

Juan Uriagereka is Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland at College Park.

9 x 10, 694 pp., 216 illus., cloth ISBN 0-262-21014-2

For more information visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/URIRHF98http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/URIRHF98

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