Syntactic Constructions in English

With exercises based on real language data, this volume gives a comprehensive introduction to construction grammar, focusing on English.

Jong-Bok Kim (Author), Laura A. Michaelis (Author)

9781108470339, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 May 2020

366 pages
25.1 x 17.6 x 2.4 cm, 0.75 kg

'This is a thorough, textbook introduction to classic topics in English syntax, from raising and control to clefting. It needs to be praised for at least two reasons: it satisfies those who are keen on formalism but do not subscribe to the generative model and it brings to the fore the importance of constructions in syntactic analysis.' Cristiano Broccias, Professor of English Linguistics, University of Genoa

Construction grammar (CxG) is a framework for syntactic analysis that takes constructions - pairings of form and meaning that range from the highly idiomatic to the very general - to be the building blocks of sentence meaning. Offering the first comprehensive introduction to CxG to focus on both English words and the constructions that combine them, this textbook shows students not only what the analyses of particular structures are, but also how and why those analyses are constructed, with each chapter taking the student step-by-step through the reasoning processes that yield the best description of a data set. It offers a wealth of illustrative examples and exercises, largely based on real language data, making it ideal for both self-study and classroom use. Written in an accessible and engaging way, this textbook will open up this increasingly popular linguistic framework to anyone interested in the grammatical patterns of English.

Preface
1. What is a theory of english syntax about?
2. Lexical and phrasal signs
3. Syntactic forms, grammatical functions, and semantic roles
4. Head, complements, modifiers, and argument structures
5. Combinatorial construction rules and principles
6. Noun phrases and agreement
7. Raising and control constructions
8. Auxiliary and related constructions
9. Passive constructions
10. Interrogative and wh-question constructions
11. Relative clause constructions
12. Tough, extraposition and cleft constructions
Afterword
Appendix
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK], Linguistics [CF]