This authoritative survey shows readers how specific methodological assumptions underlie the core analyses on which syntactic theory is based. The author, an internationally respected figure in the field, gives extensive treatment of Government and Binding (GB) theory and summarizes the major proposals and results of Case theory, Theta theory, X' theory, Binding theory, the theory of A- and A' movement, locality conditions, and the theory of Logical Form (LF). He also provides an up-to-date introduction to a number of more recent proposals, including Chomsky's Minminalist Program, Larsonian...

How are native speakers of a language instinctively able to make precise linguistic judgements about marginal syntactic matters? What does this tell us about both the structure of language and our innate language ability as humans? These questions form the focus of Professor Culicover's in-depth study which will appeal to both graduate students and professionals within the fields of linguistic theory and cognitive science.

This groundbreaking book offers a new and compelling perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between rule systems and lexicon. It argues that the balance struck by mainstream generative grammar is wrong. It puts forward a new basis for syntactic theory, drawing on a wide range of frameworks, and charts new directions for research.
In the past four decades, theories of syntactic structure have become more abstract, and syntactic derivations have become ever...

In this book, Peter Culicover introduces the analysis of natural language within the broader question of how language works - of how people use languages to configure words and morphemes in order to express meanings. He focuses both on the syntactic and morphosyntactic devices that languages use, and on the conceptual structures that correspond to particular aspects of linguistic form. He seeks to explain linguistic forms and in the process to show how these correspond with meanings.
The book's clear, step-by-step exposition is presented within the Simpler Syntax framework whose...

In this book, Peter Culicover introduces the analysis of natural language within the broader question of how language works - of how people use languages to configure words and morphemes in order to express meanings. He focuses both on the syntactic and morphosyntactic devices that languages use, and on the conceptual structures that correspond to particular aspects of linguistic form. He seeks to explain linguistic forms and in the process to show how these correspond with meanings.
The book's clear, step-by-step exposition is presented within the Simpler Syntax framework whose...

This book brings together Peter Culicover's most important observations on the nature of syntax and its place within the architecture of language. Over four decades he has sought to understand the mental system in which linguistic expressions are processed. This has led him to re-formulate the balance between the requirements of interpretation and the role of syntactic structure; to examine the nature of the empirical basis in which particular structural analyses can be applied to linguistic expressions; and to consider the extent to which such analyses reflect judgements based not only on...

A work that reveals the profound links between the evolution, acquisition, and processing of language, and proposes a new integrative framework for the language sciences.