Syntactic Constructions in English

Description

Cover Half-title page Title page Copyright page Contents Preface 1 What Is a Theory of English Syntax About? 1.1 Linguistic and Syntactic Competence 1.2 Generative Grammars 1.3 How We Discover Descriptive Rules 1.4 Two Different Views of Generative Grammar 1.4.1 Deductive Reasoning and the Nativist View 1.4.2 Inductive Reasoning and the Constraint-Based View 1.5 Evidence That Grammar Is Construction-Based 1.6 Goals of This Book 2 Lexical and Phrasal Signs 2.1 Linguistic Signs and Constructions as Form-Meaning Pairs 2.2 From Lexical Signs to Phrasal Signs as a Continuum 2.3 Lexical Signs 2.3.1 Classifying Lexical Signs 2.3.2 Grammar with Lexical Categories Alone 2.4 Phrasal Constructions and Constituency Tests 2.5 Forming Phrasal Constructions: Phrase Structure Rules 2.5.1 NP: Noun Phrase 2.5.2 VP: Verb Phrase 2.5.3 AP: Adjective Phrase 2.5.4 AdvP: Adverb Phrase 2.5.5 PP: Preposition Phrase 2.5.6 CP and ConjP: Complementizer and Conjunction Phrases 2.6 Grammar with Phrasal Constructions 2.7 Multi-word Expressions: Between Lexical and Phrasal Constructions 2.7.1 Fixed Expres 2.7.2 Semi-fixed Expressions 2.7.3 Syntactically Flexible Multi-word Expressions 2.8 Conclusion 3 Syntactic Forms, Grammatical Functions, and Semantic Roles 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Grammatical Functions 3.2.1 Subjects 3.2.2 Direct Objects and Indirect Objects 3.2.3 Predicative Complements 3.2.4 Oblique Complements 3.2.5 Modifiers 3.3 Bringing Form and Function Together 3.4 Form-Function Mismatches 3.5 Semantic Roles 3.6 Conclusion 4 Head, Complements, Modifiers, and Argument Structures 4.1 Building a Phrase from a Head 4.1.1 Internal vs. External Syntax 4.1.2 The Notion of Head, Complements, and Modifiers 4.2 Differences between Complements and Modifiers 4.3 PS Rules, X'-rules, and Features 4.3.1 Problems of PS Rules 4.3.2 Intermediate Phrases and Specifiers 4.3.3 Intermediate Phrases for Non-NPs 4.4 Lexicon and Feature Structures 4.4.1 Feature Structures and Basic Operations 4.4.2 Feature Structures for Linguistic En 4.5 Arguments and Argument-Structure Constructions 4.5.1 Basic Properties of Argument Structure 4.5.2 Types of Argument-Structure Constructions 4.5.3 Argument Structures as Constructions: Form and Meaning Relations 4.6 Conclusion 5 Combinatorial Construction Rules and Principles 5.1 From Lexemes to Words 5.2 Head Features and Head Feature Principle 5.2.1 Parts of Speech Value as a Head Feature 5.2.2 Verb Form as a Head Feature 5.2.3 Mapping between Argument-Structure and Valence Features 5.3 Combinatory Construction Rules 5.4 Nonphrasal, Lexical Constructions 5.5 Feature Specifications on the Syntactic Complement 5.5.1 Complements of Verbs 5.5.2 Complements of Adjectives 5.5.3 Complements of Common Nouns 5.6 Feature Specifications on the Subject 5.7 Clausal Complement and Subject 5.7.1 Verbs Selecting a Clausal Complement 5.7.2 Verbs Selecting a Clausal Subject 5.7.3 Adjectives Selecting a Clausal Complement 5.7.4 Nouns Selecting a Clausal Complement 5.7.5 Prepositions Selecting a Clausal Complement 5.8 Conclusion 6 Noun Phrases and Agreement 6.1 Classification of Nouns 6.2 Syntactic Structures 6.2.1 Common Nouns 6.2.2 Pronouns 6.2.3 Proper Nouns 6.3 Agreement Types and Morphosyntactic Features 6.3.1 Noun-Determiner Agreement 6.3.2 Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement 6.3.3 Subject-Verb Agreement 6.4 Semantic Agreement Features 6.5 Partitive NPs and Agreement 6.5.1 Basic Properties 6.5.2 Two Types of Partitive NPs 6.5.3 Measure Noun Phrases 6.6 Modifying an NP 6.6.1 Adjectives as Prenominal Modifiers 6.6.2 Postnominal Modifiers 6.7 Conclusion 7 Raising and Control Constructions 7.1 Raising and Control Predicates 7.2 Differences between Raising and Control Verbs 7.2.1 Subject Raising and Control 7.2.2 Object Raising and Control 7.3 A Simple Transformational Approach 7.4 A Nontransformational, Construction-Based Approach 7.4.1 Identical Syntactic Structures 7.4.2 Differences among the Feature Specifications in the Valence Information 7.4.3 A Mismatch between Meaning and Structure 7.5 Explaining the Differences 7.5.1 Expletive Subject and Object 7.5.2 Meaning Preservation 7.5.3 Subject vs. Object Control Verbs 7.6 Conclusion 8 Auxiliary and Related Constructions 8.1 Basic Issues 8.2 Transformational Analyses 8.3 A Construction-Based Analysis 8.3.1 Shared Properties of Raising Verbs 8.3.2 Modals 8.3.3 Be and Have 8.3.4 Periphrastic Do 8.3.5 Infinitival Clause Marker To 8.4 Capturing NICE Properties 8.4.1 Auxiliaries with Negation 8.4.2 Auxiliaries with Inversion 8.4.3 Contracted Auxiliaries 8.4.4 Auxiliaries with Ellipsis 8.5 Conclusion 9 Passive Constructions 9.1 Introduction 9.2 The Relationship between Active and Passive 9.3 Approaches to Passive 9.3.1 From Structural Description to Structural Change 9.3.2 A Transformational Approach 9.3.3 A Construction-Based Approach 9.4 Prepositional Passives 9.5 The Get-Passive 9.6 Conclusion 10 Interrogative and Wh-question Constructions 10.1 Clausal Types and Interrogatives 10.2 Movement vs. Feature Percolation 10.3 Feature Percolation with No Abstract Elements 10.3.1 Basic Systems 10.3.2 Nonsubject Wh-questions 10.3.3 Subject Wh-questions 10.4 Indirect Questions 10.4.1 Basic Structures 10.4.2 Non-wh Indirect Questions 10.4.3 Infinitival Indirect Questions 10.4.4 Adjunct Wh-questions 10.5 Conclusion 11 Relative Clause Constructions 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Nonsubject Wh-Relative Clauses 11.3 Subject Relative Clauses 11.4 That-Relative Clauses 11.5 Infinitival and Bare Relative Clauses 11.6 Restrictive vs. Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses 11.7 Island Constraints on the Filler-Gap Dependencies 11.8 Conclusion 12 Tough, Extraposition, and Cleft Constructions 12.1 Introduction 12.2 ‘Tough’ Constructions and Topichood 12.2.1 Basic Properties 12.2.2 Transformational Analyses 12.2.3 A Construction-Based Analysis 12.3 Extraposition 12.3.1 Basic Properties 12.3.2 Transformational Analysis 12.3.3 A Construction-Based Analysis 12.4 Cleft Constructions 12.4.1 Basic Properties 12.4.2 Distributional Properties of the Three Clefts 12.4.3 Syntactic Structures of the Three Types of Cleft: Movement Analyses 12.4.4 A Construction-Based Analysis 12.5 Conclusion Afterword Appendix Bibliography Index