Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction [Paperback]

Ivan A. Sag (Author), Thomas Wasow (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1575861607 | ISBN-13: 978-1575861609 | Publication Date: February 1, 1999 0

Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction is unlike any other introductory textbook on the market. Targeting students with strong formal/mathematical skills, but assuming no particular previous background, this book focuses on the development of precisely formulated grammars whose empirical predictions can be directly tested. The book begins with the inadequacy of context-free phrase structure grammars, motivating the introduction of feature structures, types and type constraints as ways of expressing linguistic generalizations. Step by step, students are led to discover a grammar that covers the core areas of English syntax that have been central to syntactic theory in the last quarter century, including: complementation, control, 'raising constructions', passives, the auxiliary system, and the analysis of long distance dependency constructions. Special attention is given to the treatment of dialect variation, especially with respect to African American Vernacular English, which has been of considerable interest with regard to the educational practice of American school systems.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Syntactic Theory is, without a doubt, the best available introduction to unification-based syntactic theory. Ivan Sag and Tom Wasow have done a superb job of elucidating the strengths of this approach in a reader-friendly way, without sacrificing formal rigor or depth of explanation. -- Greg Stump, University of Kentucky

As an introductory textbook should be, this book is elegant and parsimonious, in particular, with SPR functioning dually as 'specifier' and 'subject', and GAP replacing SLASH with no LOCAL-NONLOCAL distinction. I've come to appreciate Syntactic Theory much more than previous works on HPSG. The book is well meant to be realistic and performance-plausible while espousing the competence model of phrase structure grammar. -- Suk-Jin Chang, Seoul National University

I found Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction to be very clear and easy to understand, as did my students.

The inclusion of many recent developments within HPSG, which have not appeared elsewhere (at least in easily accessible form), make the book truly state-of-the-art. It builds this state-of-the-art grammar from basic grammars, such as Finite-State Automata, as well as others, making it ideal for non-linguists, and in particular computer scientists. -- Jean-Pierre Koenig, SUNY at Buffalo

Of the various books I have used for teaching syntax, this is the one that I prefer most. It is introductory in the sense that it requires little in terms of background or previous knowledge, but it is also advanced in the sense that it gradually builds up to a level of sophistication that is rarely achieved in introductory textbooks. The exercises are well integrated and challenging enough to trigger lively discussion and a high level of active participation from the students. -- Frank Van Eynde, University of Leuven

This is a textbook that makes it truly fun to teach introductory syntax. It is thoroghly data-driven and teaches the student to pay attention to empirical details and to find linguistic patterns and explanations for them. Based on my own teaching experience with the book, I have found that the book "works" in the sense that by the end of the semester the student has been empowered to extend the book's analyses through precise grammars of their own that can capture syntactic, morphological, and semantic patterns and correlations. I know of no other book on the market today that achieves this. In my view, Sag and Wasow have set a new standard for introductory syntax volumes with their book that all future books should be measured against. -- Anonymous reviewer

Book Description

This book marks a return to 'generative grammar' in its original sense. It focuses on the development of precisely formulated grammars whose empirical predications can be directly tested. There is considerable emphasis on prediction and evaluation of grammatical hypotheses, and on integrating syntactic hypotheses with matters of semantic analysis.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575861607
• ISBN-13: 978-1575861609
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,241,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All-around excellent, February 22, 2000

By 

Joseph A Knasin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction (Paperback)

This is an excellent book for the study of syntactic theory/generative grammar. I'd taken an introductory (undergrad) course in sociolinguistics and wanted to find out about some of the other areas of linguistics, so this is one of the books I bought (along with Noam Chomsky's, which are a must). This book is all-around excellent. It gives a nice little history of linguistics in the intro for those of us who haven't studied it in great detail, and it really starts out with the basics, and provides lots of important examples, making it very easy to pick up on. Most importantly, it doesn't STAY simple - the learning curve in this book seems to work very well. If you enjoy thinking and learning about language, you will love this book. Especially good for computer scientists/math people (I am a CS major).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, but doesn't really do what it claims., November 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction (Paperback)

This book presents a pedagogically simplified version of HPSG, a formal grammar theory, as applied to English. This is a kind of constraint- or unification-based theory of grammar, but not the only one, as the reviewer below seems to think. And I believe that by "credible", he must mean "popular".

The big strength of this book is its formal clarity. HPSG is one of those few linguistic theories which achieves almost complete formal clarity without becoming nearly incomprehensible (as compared to, say, many versions of Categorial Grammar). The theory is explicit enough to be implemented in a computer program-- and it actually had been implemented (...). No other introductory syntax textbook I am aware of can boast of this, and this gains it 4 stars.

The problem is that this results in much more space (and student effort) spent in understanding the technical details of the theory, to the detriment of actually understanding the subject matter of syntax. The syntax of languages other than English is treated only marginally, through problem sets (though in all fairness, some of the problems, e.g. the one on reflexives in Japanese vs. English, are based on serious and subtle differences between the languages).
But even for English syntax, the complexity of detail of the theory is too much for first-time students, who can't really appreciate the why of the analyses in the first place.

In short, this book is perfect as either a gentle introduction to HPSG, for undergrads that have had a good introduction to syntax before and need to be introduced to a good formal framework, or for syntax courses with a computational emphasis where covering a grammar that has been implemented is a major factor. As a first textbook in syntax, it fails; I would rather use something like Robert Van Valin's "An Introduction to Syntax" .

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not outstanding, but ok., September 6, 2000

By 

wrecky (the Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction (Paperback)

For starters: the title is a bit misleading, it should contain the words 'Unification Grammar', because that is the only theory covered in this book. People who aren't familiar with linguistics might think this is THE syntactic theory, but in fact there are many (some of which are much more credible than Unification Grammar). But apart from the fact that UG is not my cup of tea, the book is ok. Not outstanding, but ok. It more or less covers the basics of UG in an easy-to-learn-way. The many feature structures are a big help too, even though the authors do make several crucial faults in some of them! Anyway, the book did for me what it was supposed to do, which was understanding the basics of UG, so I'll rate it 3 out of five.