English Syntax and Argumentation, Second Edition

327 Pages·2001·2.85 MB·English

by  Bas Aarts

English Syntax
and Argumentation
Second edition
Bas Aarts
ENGLISH SYNTAX AND ARGUMENTATION
MODERN LINGUISTICS SERIES
Series Editors
Professor Noe¨l Burton-Roberts
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Professor Andrew Spencer
University of Essex
Each textbook in the Modern Linguistics series is designed to provide a
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liberal and varied exercise material.
Noe¨l Burton-Roberts founded the Modern Linguistics series and acted as
Series Editor for the first three volumes in the series. Andrew Spencer has
since joined Noe¨l Burton-Roberts as Series Editor.
Titles published in the series
English Syntax and Argumentation (second edition) Bas Aarts
Phonology Philip Carr
Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition Vivian Cook
Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Coursebook
Nikolas Coupland and Adam Jaworski
Morphology Francis Katamba
Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles Mark Sebba
Further titles in preparation
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English Syntax
and Argumentation
Second edition
Bas Aarts
Reader in Modern English Language
University College London
&BasAarts1997,2001
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Contents
Preface to the First Edition xii
Preface to the Second Edition xiii
PART I FUNCTION AND FORM
Chapter 1 Introduction 3
Chapter 2 Function 8
2.1 Subject and Predicate 8
2.2 Predicator 14
2.3 Direct Object 15
2.4 Indirect Object 19
2.5 Adjunct 20
Key Concepts 21
Exercises 22
Further Reading 24
Chapter 3 Form: Words, Word Classes and Phrases 25
3.1 The notion ‘word’ 25
3.2 Nouns and determiners 26
3.3 Adjectives 32
3.4 Verbs 34
3.5 Prepositions 44
3.6 Adverbs 44
3.7 Conjunctions 46
3.8 Interjections 48
Key Concepts 48
Exercises 49
Further Reading 52
Chapter 4 More on Form: Clauses and Sentences 53
4.1 Clauses and clause hierarchies 53
4.2 The rank scale 56
4.3 Sentence types 58
4.3.1 Declarative sentences 58
4.3.2 Interrogative sentences 59
vii
viii Contents
4.3.3 Imperative sentences 60
4.3.4 Exclamative sentences 61
4.3.5 The pragmatics of the sentence types 62
4.4 More on tree diagrams 63
Key Concepts 67
Exercises 68
Further Reading 70
Chapter 5 The Function–Form Interface 71
5.1 Function–form relationships 71
5.2 Realisations of the Subject 72
5.3 Realisation of the Predicate and Predicator 75
5.4 Realisations of the Direct Object 75
5.5 Realisations of the Indirect Object 79
5.6 Realisations of Adjuncts 79
Key Concepts 86
Exercises 86
Further Reading 87
PART II ELABORATION
Chapter 6 Predicates, Arguments and Thematic Roles 91
6.1 Predicates and arguments 91
6.2 Thematic roles 94
6.3 Grammatical functions and thematic roles 97
6.4 Selectional restrictions 98
6.5 Three levels of description 99
Key Concepts 99
Exercises 100
Further Reading 102
Chapter 7 Cross-Categorial Generalisations: X-bar Syntax 104
7.1 Heads, Complements and Specifiers 104
7.2 Adjuncts 111
7.3 Cross-categorial generalisations 119
7.4 Subcategorisation 121
7.4.1 Subcategorisation versus argument/thematic structure 123
Key Concepts 124
Exercises 124
Further Reading 127
Contents ix
Chapter 8 More on Clauses 129
8.1 The I-node 129
8.2 Subordinate clauses 134
8.2.1 Clauses functioning as Direct Object, Subject and
Adjunct 134
8.2.2 Clauses functioning as Complements within phrases 137
8.2.3 Clauses functioning as Adjuncts within phrases 138
Key Concepts 140
Exercises 140
Further Reading 141
Chapter 9 Movement 142
9.1 Verb movement: aspectual auxiliaries 142
9.2 NP-movement: passive 149
9.3 NP-movement: Subject-to-Subject raising 155
9.4 Movement in interrogative sentences: Subject–auxiliary
inversion 157
9.5 Wh-movement 160
9.6 The structure of sentences containing one or more
auxiliaries 162
Key Concepts 165
Exercises 165
Further Reading 167
PART III ARGUMENTATION
Chapter 10 Syntactic Argumentation 171
10.1 The art of argumentation 171
10.2 Economy of description: Linguistically Significant
Generalisations and Occam’s razor 174
10.2.1 Linguistically Significant Generalisations 174
10.2.2 Occam’s razor 176
10.2.2.1 Verb-preposition constructions 177
10.2.2.2 Achieving economy in the domain of
functional terminology 181
10.3 Further constraints on description: elegance and
independent justifications 183
10.3.1 Elegance of description 183
10.3.2 Independent justifications 186
10.4 Evaluating analyses 188