Syntax on the Edge: A Graph-Theoretic Analysis of Sentence Structure(21 Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory)

What is the most descriptively and explanatorily adequate format for syntactic structures and how are they constrained? Different theories of syntax have provided various answers: sets, feature structures, tree diagrams… Building on formal and empirical insights from a wide variety of approaches spanning more than 70 years (including Transformational Grammar, Relational Grammar, Lexical-Functional Grammar, and Tree Adjoining Grammar), this monograph develops a new, mathematically grounded, framework in which objects known as graphs, and the constraints that follow from them, are argued to provide the best characterisation of the system of expressions and relations that make up natural language grammars. This new approach is motivated and exemplified via detailed and formally explicit analyses of major syntactic phenomena in English and Spanish.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments List of Figures Abbreviations 1 Introduction: Setting the Scene  1.1 Methodological and Historical Context  1.2 Transformations and the Preservation of Relations  1.3 Declarative vs. Procedural Syntax  1.4 On Graphs and Phrase Markers: First- and Second-Order Conditions on Structural Representations  1.5 Structural Uniformity (and Two Ways to Fix It)  1.6 You Only Have One Mother 2 Fundamentals of Graph-Theoretic Syntax  2.1 Defining (L-)Graphs  2.2 Syntactic Composition and Semantic Interpretation  2.3 Adjacency Matrices and Arcs: More on Allowed Relations 3 A Proof of Concept: Discontinuous Constituents 4 Some Inter-Theoretical Comparisons  4.1 Multiple-Gap Relative Constructions  4.2 Dependencies and Rootedness  4.3 Crossing Dependencies 5 Ordered Relations and Grammatical Functions  5.1 A Categorial Excursus on Unaccusatives and Expletives 6 Towards an Analysis of English Predicate Complement Constructions  6.1 Raising to Subject  6.2 Raising to Object  6.3 Object-Controlled Equi  6.4 Subject-Controlled Equi  6.5 A Note on Raising and Polarity: ‘Opacity’ Revisited 7 More on Cross-Arboreal Relations: Parentheticals and Clitic Climbing in Spanish  7.1 Discontinuity and Clitic Climbing in Spanish Auxiliary Chains 8 On Unexpected Binding Effects: a Graph-Theoretic Approach to Binding Theory  8.1 Grafts and Graphs 9 Complementation within the NP 10 Wh-Interrogatives: Aspects of Syntax and Semantics  10.1 Simple Wh-Questions 11 MIG s and Prizes 12 The Structural Heterogeneity of Coordinations 13 A Small Collection of Transformations  13.1 Passivisation  13.2 Dative Shift  13.3 Transformations vs. Alternations 14 Some Open Problems and Questions  14.1 A Note on Leftward and Rightward Extractions  14.2 Deletion without Deletion  14.3 Long Distance Dependencies and Resumptive Pronouns  14.4 Identity Issues in Local Reflexive Anaphora  14.5 Ghost in the Graph  14.6 A Derivational Alternative?  14.7 Future Prospects 15 Concluding Remarks Appendix: Some Notes on (Other) Graph-Based Approaches References Index

About the Author :
Diego Gabriel Krivochen, Ph.D. (2018), University of Reading, is currently a Lecturer in Syntax at the University of Oxford. He has published on theoretical syntax, English and Spanish grammar, and implicit learning of artificial grammars.