The Syntax and Semantics of Split Constructions: A Comparative Study

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1403921121 ISBN 13: 9781403921123

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

Split constructions are very widespread in natural languages. The separation of the semantic restriction of a quantifier from that quantifier is a typical example of such a construction. This study addresses the problem that such discontinuous strings exhibit a number of locality constraints, including intervention effects. These are shown to follow from the interaction of a minimalist syntax with a semantics that directly assigns a model-theoretic interpretation to syntactic logical forms. The approach is shown to have wide empirical coverage and a conceptual simplicity. The book will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of syntax and semantics.

About the Author:

ALASTAIR BUTLER is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Formal Language Games Research Group at the Institute for Logic, Language and Information, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research interests are topics in natural language syntax and semantics.

ERIC MATHIEU is an affiliated Researcher in the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at University College, London. His work is on the syntax-semantics interface.

Review:

'Butler and Mathieu argue persuasively that many apparently far-flung

constructions belong together under the rubric of 'split construction'.

Their generalizations are provocative and well-supported, and the theory

is firmly grounded in Predicate Logic with Barriers, a dynamic logic that

provides a fresh perspective on ideas and generalizations that have been,

and continue to be, central to syntactic and semantic theory.' - Christopher Potts, Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts