This highly successful text has long been considered the standard introduction to the practical analysis of English sentence structure. It covers key concepts such as constituency, category and functions, and also utilises tree diagrams throughout to help the reader visualise the structure of sentences. In this fourth edition, Analysing Sentences has been thoroughly revised and now features a brand new companion website with additional activities and exercises for students and an answer book for the in-text exercises for professors. The extra activities on the website give students practice in identifying syntactic phenomena in running text and will help to deepen understanding of this topic. Accessible and clear, this book is the perfect textbook for readers coming to this topic for the first time. Featuring many in-text, end-of-chapter and Further Exercises, it is suitable for self-directed study as well as for use as core reading on courses.

A systematic introduction to core topics in syntax, focusing on how the basic concepts apply in the analysis of sentences.

Chomsky proposes a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes recent developments in the descriptive analysis of particular languages into account. Beginning in the mid-fifties and emanating largely form MIT, an approach was developed to linguistic theory and to the study of the structure of particular languages that diverges in many respects from modern linguistics. Although this approach is connected to the traditional study of languages, it differs enough in its specific conclusions about the structure and in its specific conclusions about the structure of language to warrant a name, "generative grammar." Various deficiencies have been discovered in the first attempts to formulate a theory of transformational generative grammar and in the descriptive analysis of particular languages that motivated these formulations. At the same time, it has become apparent that these formulations can be extended and deepened.The major purpose of this book is to review these developments and to propose a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes them into account. The emphasis in this study is syntax; semantic and phonological aspects of the language structure are discussed only insofar as they bear on syntactic theory.

Language columnist June Casagrande presents a fun and breezy guide to everything a grown-up interested in grammar needs to know. When it comes to grammar, it seems like everyone—even die-hard word nerds—feel they "missed something" in school. The Joy of Syntax picks up where sixth grade left off, providing a fresh foundation in English syntax served up by someone with an impressive record of making this otherwise inaccessible subject a true joy. With simple, pithy information on everything from basic parts of speech and sentence structure to usage and grammar pitfalls, this guide provides everything you need to approach grammar with confidence.

The 46 papers in this 4-volume collection pro-vide clear and certain evidence that the search for "implicational universals" of human language (that is, for valid empirical generalizations such as "if property Y exists in a language, then property X must exist as well") has established itself, once and for all, as a powerful and dynamic force in modern linguistics. Concomitantly, the collection attests to a broadened use among scholars engaged in universals re-search of a theoretical and methodological strategy-pioneered, elaborated, and most extensively applied by Joseph Greenberg- that contrasts in fundamental respects with procedures favored by generative grammarians. Finally, and most impressive of all, the papers present abundant "results," a profusion of concrete findings that should persuade even the most hardened skeptics that implicational principles have a great deal to tell about what human language is and how it got to be that way. -- from http://www.jstor.org (May 21, 2014).

The book guides students through the basic concepts involved in syntactic analysis and goes on to prepare them for further work in any syntactic theory, using examples from a range of phenomena in human languages. It also includes a chapter on theories of syntax.

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 world’s 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.