Contrasting English and German Grammar: An Introduction to Syntax and Semantics

Transcription

1 Brochure More information from Contrasting English and German Grammar: An Introduction to Syntax and Semantics Description: This book offers an introduction to the derivation of meaning that is accessible and worked out to facilite an understanding of key issues in compositional semantics. The syntactic background offered is generative, the major semantic tool used is set theory. These tools are applied step-by-step to develop essential interface topics and a selection of prominent contrastive topics with material from English and German. Key Features: - Accessible introduction to contemporary formal semantics - Step-by-step derivations of meaning in tandem with syntactic structure - Training in modelling cross-linguistic differences in syntax and semantics Contents: Preface Part I - Structure and Meaning: An Introduction to Syntax and Semantics Chapter I Introduction to the field: Syntax and semantics 1. The scientific study of language 2. Goals and models in syntax and semantics 2.1. Syntax 2.2. Semantics 3. About this book 4. The structure of Part I 5. Selected references Chapter I- Categories, phrases and phrase structure rules 1. Grammar makes reference to syntactic categories 1.1. Categories 1.2. Major lexical categories in English 1.3. Crosslinguistic variation in the properties of categories 2. Phrases 2.1. Noun phrases 2.2. First steps towards a formal model: phrase structure rules 2.3. Other phrases 3. Phrase Structure Grammar and phrase structures 3.1. Phrase Structure Grammar 3.2. Phrase structure trees and constituency 3.3. Structural ambiguities Chapter I-A systematic way of constructing phrases 1. NPs revisited: more internal structure 1.1. Intermediate levels: N 1.2. Complements vs. adjuncts 1.3. The new set of phrase structure rules 2. Evidence for intermediate projections within verb phrases 2.1. First evidence for V 2.2. Complements and adjuncts again

2 3. Generalizing from nouns and verbs: the X' schema 3.1. Adjectives and prepositions 3.2. The four players: heads, complements, adjuncts, and specifiers 4. A loose end: subcategorization 5. Universal and variable aspects of syntactic structure 6. Selected references Chapter I-Clause structure and movement 1. Clausal structure 1.1. Finding the head of the clause 1.2. Excursus: Mood selection in Romance and Balkan languages 2. Head movement 2.1. V-to-I movement and affix hopping 2.2. I-to-C movement 2.3. Differences in head movement: The case of French 2.4. An intermediate summary and a note on the model of grammar 3. Wh-movement 3.1. Basic wh-questions 3.2. Wh-phrases 3.3. Embedded wh-questions 3.4. Complex wh-questions: an analysis and corroborating evidence from German Chapter I-Goals and methods in semantics 1. What we have to account for 1.1. Elements of reasoning: contradiction and consequence 1.2. Several meanings: ambiguity 1.3. Method: compositionality 1.4. Semantic and pragmatic meaning 2. Tutorial on sets 2.1. Sets and elements 2.2. Relations between sets 2.3. Operations on sets Chapter I-Composing sentence meanings first steps 1. Sentence meanings - some distinctions and a first composition rule 2. Meanings of parts of sentences: first steps 2.1. Referential NPs 2.2. Predicates Chapter I-Extending the theory 1. Step by step composition some trivial steps 2. Modifiers 2.1. Intersective modifiers 2.2. Adjuncts with non-intersective meanings 3. Relations 3.1. Transitive verbs 3.2. Transfer to prepositions 3.3. Three-place relations 3.4. Interpretability Chapter I- NP Semantics 1. Definites: referential NPs with presuppositions 2. Quantifiers 2.1. Quantifiers: non-referential NPs 2.2. No simpler meaning is possible for quantified NPs 3. Scope ambiguity ambiguity

3 3.1. Interpreting negation 3.2. Negation and quantifiers Appendix Syntactic and semantic rules from Part I 1. Syntax 1.1. PS rules 1.2. The generalized X' schema 1.3. Transformations 2. Rules of composition Part II - Extending the Theory and Applying it to Crosslinguistic Differences Chapter II-Introduction and roadmap to the second part 1. Aims and background 2. The topics ahead 2.1. Clause structure - English vs. German 2.2. Quantifiers and scope 2.3. Negation and polarity 2.4. Focus 2.5. Ellipsis 2.6. Tense and aspect Chapter II-Clause structure - English and German 1. Review of English clause structure 2. German clause structure Chapter II-Quantifiers and scope 1. Interpreting referential vs. quantified noun phrases 1.1. Referential NPs 1.2. Quantifiers: non-referential NPs 1.3. Paraphrases 2. Ambiguities 2.1. Ambiguities between quantified subject NPs and elements in the Idomain 2.2. Digression: Pronouns, variables 2.3. Ambiguities between quantified objects and elements in the I-domain 2.4. Subject-object ambiguities 2.5. Inverse linking 3. Comparison with the German scope facts 3.1. The middle field Negation Two quantifiers 3.2. The prefield Negation Two quantifiers Inverse linking Chapter II-Negation and polarity 1. Negative and positive polarity items 1.1. Negative polarity items 1.2. Downward entailing contexts 1.3. Positive polarity items 2. Scope in the distribution of some vs. any Chapter II-Focus 1. What is focus? 1.1. Focus can make a difference in discourse appropriateness Questions and answers

4 Contrast 1.2. Focus can make a truth conditional difference Focus sensitive adverbs Focus can disambiguate ellipsis 2. Focus introduces alternatives 2.1. Alternatives: The idea 2.2. Deriving focus alternatives 2.3. Applying focus alternatives Only revisited Contrast Question/answer congruence Implicatures 3. Some remarks on focus across languages 3.1. Topicalization vs. prefield 3.2. Focus in the middle field 4. Further readings Chapter II-Ellipsis 1. What is ellipsis? 2. Structural identity at LF 2.1. Why LF? 2.2. A note on other kinds of ellipsis and crosslinguistic variation 3. Focus in ellipsis 3.1. The contrast condition 3.2. Pseudogapping 4. Antecedent Contained Deletion (ACD) 4.1. The phenomenon 4.2. The analysis and some consequences 5. Selected References Chapter II- Tense and Aspect 1. What are tense and aspect? 1.1. Tense 1.2. Aspect 2. Compositional semantics for tense and aspect 2.1. Tenses are time pronouns 2.2. The LF-structure for tense and aspect 2.3. Composition rules for tense and aspect 2.4. Temporal intensions and extensions 3. The perfect 4. Some tense and aspect contrasts crosslinguistically 4.1. On German tense and aspect 4.2. The bigger picture 5. Selected references Chapter II-Conclusions 1. What we have done 2. Where to go from here 2.1. For the linguist 2.2. Related fields References Index Ordering: Order Online - Order by Fax - using the form below Order by Post - print the order form below and send to

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