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Book Cover
E-book
Author Tallerman, Maggie, 1957- author.

Title Understanding syntax / Maggie Tallerman
Edition Fourth edition
Published Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2015
©2015

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Description 1 online resource (xv, 341 pages) : illustrations
Series Understanding language series
Understanding language series.
Contents Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; List of tables and figures; Note to the instructor; Note to the student; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations used in examples; 1 What is syntax?; 1.1 Some concepts and misconceptions; 1.1.1 What is the study of syntax about?; 1.1.2 Language change; 1.2 Use of linguistic examples; 1.2.1 Why not just use examples from English?; 1.2.2 How to read linguistic examples; 1.3 Why do languages have syntax?; 1.3.1 Word order; 1.3.2 Promotion and demotion processes; 1.3.3 All languages have structure; Further reading
Exercises2 Words belong to different classes; 2.1 Identifying word classes; 2.1.1 How can we tell that words belong to different classes?; 2.1.2 Starting to identify nouns, adjectives and verbs; 2.1.3 An illustration: How do speakers of a language identify word classes?; 2.2 Verbs; 2.2.1 An introduction to verb classes; 2.2.2 Verbs and their grammatical categories; 2.3 Nouns; 2.3.1 Semantic roles for noun phrases; 2.3.2 Syntactic roles for noun phrases; 2.3.3 Nouns and their grammatical categories; 2.3.4 Nouns, definiteness and determiners; 2.4 Adjectives
2.4.1 Positions and functions of adjectives2.4.2 Adjectives and intensifiers; 2.4.3 Adjectives and their grammatical categories; 2.4.4 Are adjectives essential?; 2.5 Adverbs; 2.5.1 Adverbs and adjectives; 2.5.2 The adjunct function; 2.6 Prepositions; 2.6.1 Identifying prepositions in English; 2.6.2 Postpositions; 2.6.3 Grammatical categories for adpositions; 2.7 Conclusion; Further reading; Exercises; 3 Looking inside sentences; 3.1 Finiteness and auxiliaries; 3.1.1 Independent clauses; 3.1.2 Finiteness; 3.1.3 Main verbs and verbal auxiliaries
3.1.4 Ways to express the grammatical categories for verbs3.1.5 Non-finite verbs; 3.1.6 Co-ordination of clauses; 3.1.7 Summary; 3.2 Introduction to subordination; 3.2.1 Complement clauses; 3.2.2 Adjunct or adverbial clauses; 3.2.3 Identifying subordinate clauses; 3.2.4 Special properties of root clauses; 3.2.5 Some cross-linguistic variation in subordination; 3.2.6 Summary: Properties of subordinate clauses and root clauses; 3.3 Major cross-linguistic variations; 3.3.1 The co-ordination strategy; 3.3.2 Nominalization; 3.3.3 Serial verbs; 3.3.4 Summary; Further reading; Exercises
4 Heads and their dependents4.1 Heads and their dependents; 4.1.1 What is a head?; 4.1.2 The influence of heads on their dependents; 4.1.3 Summary: The properties of heads; 4.1.4 More about dependents: Adjuncts and complements; 4.1.5 More about verb classes: Verbs and their complements; 4.1.6 Other heads and their complements; 4.1.7 Summary: The main properties of complements vs. adjuncts; 4.1.8 Is the noun phrase really a determiner phrase?; 4.1.9 Phrases within phrases; 4.2 Where does the head occur in a phrase? Head-initial and head-final languages; 4.2.1 Head-initial languages
Summary "Assuming no prior knowledge, Understanding Syntax illustrates the major concepts, categories and terminology associated with the study of cross-linguistic syntax. A theory-neutral and descriptive viewpoint is taken throughout. Starting with an overview of what syntax is, the book moves on to an explanation of word classes (such as noun, verb, adjective) and then to a discussion of sentence structure in the worlds languages. Grammatical constructions and relationships between words in a clause are explained and thoroughly illustrated, including grammatical relations such as subject and object; function-changing processes such as the passive and antipassive; case and agreement processes, including both ergative and accusative alignments; verb serialization; head-marking and dependent-marking grammars; configurational and non-configurational languages; questions and relative clauses. The final chapter explains and illustrates the principles involved in writing a brief syntactic sketch of a language, enabling the reader to construct a grammatical sketch of a language known to them. Data from approximately 100 languages appears in the text, with languages representing widely differing geographical areas and distinct language families. The book will be essential for courses in cross-linguistic syntax, language typology, and linguistic fieldwork, as well as for basic syntactic description."-- Provided by publisher
Notes Previous edition: London: Hodder Education, 2011
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Notes Print version record
Subject Grammar, Comparative and general -- Syntax.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Linguistics -- Syntax.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Linguistics -- General.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- General.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Grammar & Punctuation.
Grammar, Comparative and general -- Syntax
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781317635116
1317635116
9781315758084
1315758083
9781315758084
132219307X
9781322193076