On the Nature of the Syntax-Phonology Interface

Reviews / Votes

Kleanthes Grohmann I believe Boskovic succeeds in presenting a quite complex state of affairs in manageable ways. At no point is the reader overwhelmed with data and discussion, but data and discussion are plentiful throughout this chapter (and the entire book, in fact). Linguist List Steven Franks, Indiana University On the Nature of the Syntax-Phonology Interface brings together a fascinating array of facts, primarily drawn from the South Slavic languages, to argue for an account of clitics based on the phonological filtering of syntactically motivated structures. Not only does this approach neatly reconcile inconsistencies inherent to purely syntactic or purely prosodic accounts, but it provides compelling empirical support for important recent advances in syntactic theory. Boskovic's analysis does this by exploiting the idea of scattered copy deletion in novel ways, and by making critical use of the Linear Correspondence Axiom and Multiple Spell-Out. The result is a strictly derivational model with far-reaching analytical consequences for diverse language phenomena. On the Nature of the Syntax-Phonology Interface offers an invaluable contribution to current understanding of the Syntax-Phonology interface and, in so doing, opens up exciting new avenues of study. Andrew Caink, University of Westminster It presents a startlingly elegant analysis of much previously recalcitrant data in South Slavic and brings to light a great deal of fresh data. It is an important contribution to the field as a whole and withing Slavic linguistics it has already set a new benchmark for any discussion of cliticisation. Journal of Linguistics, Volume 39