LINGUIST List 18.1734

Thu Jun 07 2007

Books: Syntax/Linguistic Theories: Vicente

Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales <hannahlinguistlist.org>

---

Directory         1.    Rianne Giethoorn, The Syntax of Heads and Phrases: Vicente

---

Message 1: The Syntax of Heads and Phrases: Vicente
Date: 05-Jun-2007
From: Rianne Giethoorn <lotlet.uu.nl>
Subject: The Syntax of Heads and Phrases: Vicente


Title: The Syntax of Heads and Phrases Subtitle: A study of verb (phrase) fronting Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series Published: 2007 Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke - LOT
                http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Author: Luis Vicente Paperback: ISBN: Pages: 267 Price: Europe EURO 24.44
Abstract:

This dissertation defends the existence of a type of movement that has sofar been considered not to be possible, namely, movement of a bare head toa specifier position, over arbitrarily long distances. Head-to-specmovement was indeed explicitly banned in previous models of syntactictheory. However, its existence is unavoidable under Chomsky's Bare PhraseStructure hypothesis. This idea is explored in detail in the first chapterof the dissertation, where it is proposed that all moved constituents landon a specifier position, irrespective of their phrase structural status.The result is a unified theory of movement that dispenses with the headversus phrase dichotomy.

The hypothesis above is supported through case studies of threeconstructions that have received very little attention in the literature.Chapter two discusses predicate clefting in Spanish; chapter three,infinitive focalisation in Hungarian; and chapter four, predicate cleftingin Hungarian. The common feature of these constructions is that a bareinfinitive is moved to the left periphery of the clause, in what appears tobe a case remnant predicate movement. It is shown, nonetheless, that aremnant movement analysis cannot be correct, given that both Spanish andHungarian lack the means to create a remnant constituent in all the caseswhere it would be required. Consequently, it is necessary to allow bareheads to undergo run-of-the-mill A-bar movement, as predicted by the theorydeveloped in chapter one.

This dissertation is of interest to a general syntactic readership, as wellas to readers interested in the formal theory of movement, and in thesyntax of Spanish and Hungarian.

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories                             Syntax
Subject Language(s): Hungarian (hun)                             Spanish (spa)
Written In: English (eng )

See this book announcement on our website: http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=26199

	-------------------------- Major Supporters --------------------------
	Blackwell Publishing	http://www.blackwellpublishing.com
	Cambridge University Press	http://us.cambridge.org
	Cascadilla Press	http://www.cascadilla.com/
	Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd	http://www.continuumbooks.com
	Edinburgh University Press	http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/
	Equinox Publishing Ltd.	http://www.equinoxpub.com/
	European Language Resources Association	http://www.elda.org/sommaire.php
	Georgetown University Press	http://www.press.georgetown.edu
	Hodder Arnold	http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk
	John Benjamins	http://www.benjamins.com/
	Lawrence Erlbaum Associates	http://www.erlbaum.com/
	Lincom GmbH	http://www.lincom.at
	MIT Press	http://mitpress.mit.edu/
	Mouton de Gruyter	http://www.mouton-publishers.com
	Multilingual Matters	http://www.multilingual-matters.com/
	Oxford University Press	http://www.oup.com/us
	Palgrave Macmillan	http://www.palgrave.com
	Rodopi	http://www.rodopi.nl/
	Routledge (Taylor and Francis)	http://www.routledge.com/
	Springer	http://www.springer.com
	---------------------- Other Supporting Publishers ----------------------
	Anthropological Linguistics	http://www.indiana.edu/~anthling/
	CSLI Publications	http://cslipublications.stanford.edu/
	Graduate Linguistic Students' Assoc. Umass	http://glsa.hypermart.net/
	International Pragmatics Assoc.	http://www.ipra.be
	Kingston Press Ltd	http://www.kingstonpress.com/
	Linguistic Assoc. of Finland	http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/
	MIT Working Papers in Linguistics	http://web.mit.edu/mitwpl/
	Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke	http://www.lotpublications.nl/
	Pacific Linguistics	http://pacling.anu.edu.au/
	SIL International	http://www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp
	St. Jerome Publishing Ltd.	http://www.stjerome.co.uk
	Utrecht institute of Linguistics	http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/