Syntactic Nuts: Hard Cases, Syntactic Theory, and Language Acquisition (Foundations of Grammar) - Softcover

Culicover, Peter W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198700237 ISBN 13: 9780198700234

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1999

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Peter W. Culicover is currently the Chair of the Department of Linguistics and Director of the Center for Cognitive Science at the Ohio State University.

Review

`Culicover addresses the fundamental question of the nature of syntactic universals and the related issue of how syntactic knowledge is acquired by children. His answer challenges many mainstream generative conceptions in taking to a new and higher level the debate over the relative balance
between innateness and learning. The fact that his conclusions are supported by dozens of meticulously argued analyses of diverse syntactic phenomena gives his conclusions a credibility that has heretofore been missing in critiques of parametric approaches to universal grammar'
Frederick Newmeyer, University of Washington

`Culicover takes us on an invigorating tour through a vast range of 'idiosyncratic' data.'
John R. Taylor, Cognitive Linguistics 10-3 (1999).

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0198700237
• ISBN 13: 9780198700234
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256