Simpler Syntax

Reviews / Votes

This groundbreaking book offers a new and compelling perspective on the structure of human language. * Folia Linguistica * Simpler Syntax is a very rich book, both in its basic content -- over 500 pages worth -- and in its generous provision of food for thought. It should prove thought-provoking not just for scholars working within generative linguistics, for whom it will provide many novel and insightful solutions to some very old questions within that paradigm, but also for linguists from outside the generative tradition, who will find in it one of the very few historically and applicationally contextualised accounts of the preoccupations of generative linguistics. * Edward McDonald, School of Asian Studies, University of Auckland * This book is a major step forward for linguistics. Its systematic, accessible style of analysis heralds a renaissance in syntax, not just for specialists but for everyone. * Mark Liberman, University of Pennsylvania * Two master syntacticians show how far current syntactic theory has lost touch with reality - and how to reconnect. A brilliant book, inspiring new optimism about the field. * Geoffrey K. Pullum, University of California, Santa Cruz * Should syntax be integrated with the lexicon, and with semantics and pragmatics more generally? Simpler Syntax offers an important new option. By integrating syntax with the lexicon, and working from lexical units (words, idioms, phrases), Ray Jackendoff and Peter Culicover dispense with many, perhaps most, claims about the special status of syntax. This new book will be welcomed by psycholinguists concerned with processing and with the acquisition of language. It will also be welcome to the many linguists interested in seeing pragmatics as well as semantics in the syntax interface. * Eve V. Clark, Stanford University *