Customer Reviews

Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction, 2nd Edition (Center for the Study of Language and Information - Lecture Notes)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Syntactic Theory is a comprehensive introduction to syntax, and not only presents a comprehensive theory but teaches the reader to analyze English sentences and formulate and test original hypotheses. Sag et al develop a very powerful analytic framework, and take you step by step through its development. This incremental approach is my only criticism; while its important to lay a solid foundation, the authors present several simplified-yet-flawed theories in the beginning, and the transition to "real" theory sneaks up on the reader. I believe that the simplified theories are important to introduce syntax to the reader at a manageable pace, be ware that the first few chapters inform the later chapters, but many of the grammatical hypothesis will be disproved later in the book. It can cause a bit of confusion, but the careful reader should have no problem. Overall, a great learning tool and very useful excercises.

I used this as a textbook in one of my graduate courses in syntax, and overall, I liked the way the book was structured, in which the authors presented simple theories in the beginning, and improving and revising them as the book goes along. Even though this means that the beginning theories are flawed, I believe this is the only way to introduce a complex theoretical notion such as syntax.

Descriptive and doesn't assume any prior knowledge of Chomskian theories. Has some difficulty explaining certain concepts, but most of it it very clear.