Customer Reviews

Transformational Grammar: A First Course (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has 10 chapters: 1)Goal; 2)Structure; 3)Phrase-markers; 4)Nonu Phrases; 5)Other Phrases; 6)Clauses; 7)The Lexicon; 8)Transformations; 9)WH movement; 10)Alpha Movement. The book has been considered one of the best introductory textbooks of generative grammar. Radford leads the reader to go through the field step by step. He shows the reader the test and evidence of such categories as NP, VP, AP, PP as well as X', which is very useful to the new hand in the study. After each chapter, there are some interesting and challenging excercises for the reader to think about. The book is a basic reading for readers who first come across the GB theory or the MP theory. The book is never too old to be consulted.

This book is certainly the gold standard in syntax books, but it's pretty dated. For example, the discussion of specifiers is way out of date (nowadays, specifiers are for subject positions), it's discussion of movement is also bound up in early GB theory, which is difficult. Radford's more recent textbooks are much more up to date.

The introductory student of linguistics may be intimidated by the size of this book (over 600 pages) and the small font (probably 9 point). But within a few pages, their fears will almost certainly give way to relief and ultimately satisfaction with the book. Radford has the rare ability to build complex explanations gradually, using just the right balance of supporting quotes (from Chomsky, for example), real-world examples, and visual aids. The reader is carried through a broad range of subject matter by a book that is written in a refreshing and enlightening style. As the other reviewer mentioned, the book never reads as "dated" or "stodgy" - a real accomplishment given the task at hand.

Transformational Grammar, A First Course, Andrew Radford; Cambridge University Press (1988)


I liked it much better when Cambridge U. was busy pumping out Cold War spies & traitors.

Acting on the advice of someone enfiladed with good intentions (after correcting one of my boffo grammatical errors), TG (paperback edition) was ordered.

Reasons NOT to invest in this book:

@) Grammar doesn't matter if legibility has been sacrificed:

The publishers/editors went with a type size that would make it possible to publish War & Peace on a single strip of paper small enough to fit inside of a fortune cookie.

(And there are 600-plus pages of these multiple Little Inkies. Did Radford's "2nd Course" span out to eighteen volumes?);

@) Grammar is not a subsidiary of the science of "Chemistry":

Radford's arcane charts & diagrams, quickly scanned, look an awful lot like Mr. Karpoe's blackboard doodles (back when black slate was the latest in educational circles & drunks armed with swizzle sticks gained prep fame for chasing students out of the hot-water showers operated clandestinely after curfew);

@) Wooden, Academic Writing:

WAW has propelled millions of anguished students back into the audio of the everyday linguists - "We didn't eat no rats!" - who are sanity's eternal enemies.

From now on, I'm sticking with the original guidance of the pleasant, conscientious, & comprehendible advice of E.B. White.

Faced with TG's mumbo-jumbo, in a pinch, frankly, I'd rather go with the advice offered by "spellcheck" (which is sometimes correct).

In Summation ("Hurray!"): Transformational Grammar was - on the same day that it was received - subjected to the ultimate transformational process.

It was pulped.

Saving Grace: Unsold hardcover Cambridge 1st editions of TG can bail out the antiquarian booksellers whose clients order ornate, forever-unread books for their libraries (complimenting their natural-gas "fireplaces").

Hopefully, Cambridge's unsold hardcover editions of Transformational Grammar do feature that signature gold lettering stationed rightly in the lush embrace of richly sensual leather.

If so, this can fund the publication of Andrew Radford's future inspirations (all editions of which can be recycled into the future fake libraries to be constructed in the 3rd & 4th decades of our ongoing century).