To paraphrase, of the making of syntactic categories there is no end. For any theory of syntax, questions arise about its classificatory scheme: what are the categories? What properties do they have? How do they relate to each other? Eleven essays address these questions by inquiring whether there is a clear distinction between lexical and functional categories, how syntactic categories relate to semantic categories, the relation between syntactic and morphological information, as well as other inquiries. Above all the essays highlight the centrality of questions about syntactic categories...

Leading researchers examine the Celtic languages in comparative perspective, making reference to European and Arabic languages; they use the insights of principles-and-parameters theory. A substantial introduction makes the volume accessible to theoreticians unfamiliar with the Celtic languages and to specialists. The book makes a strong contribution to linguistic theory and to our understanding of the Celtic languages.

This volume brings together ten chapters on the Celtic languages using the insights of principles-and-parameters theory. Leading researchers in the field examine Welsh, Irish, Breton and Scots Gaelic in comparative perspective, making reference to recent work on English, French, Arabic, German and other languages. The editors have provided a substantial introduction which seeks to make the volume accessible to theoreticians unfamiliar with the Celtic languages and also to Celtic specialists who are less familiar with the theoretical framework underpinning the work. The Syntax of the Celtic...

This book provides an introduction to Generalised Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG) and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), theories which have formed one of the main currents in syntactic theory since 1980.

Welsh, like the other Celtic languages, is best known amongst linguists for its verb-initial word order and its use of initial consonant mutations. However it has many more characteristics which are of interest to syntacticians. This book, first published in 2007, provides a concise and accessible overview of the major syntactic phenomena of Welsh. A broad variety of topics are covered, including finite and infinitival clauses, noun phrases, agreement and tense, word order, clause structure, dialect variation, and the language's historical Celtic background. Drawing on work carried out in...