The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax

This book investigates the nature and properties of roots, the core elements of word meaning. In particular, chapters examine the interaction of roots with syntactic structure, and the role of their semantic and morpho-phonological properties in that interaction. Issues addressed in the book include the semantics and phonology of roots in isolation and in context; the categorial specification of roots; and the role of phases in word formation.

Internationally recognized scholars approach these topics from a variety of theoretical backgrounds, drawing on data from languages including German, Hebrew, and Modern Greek. The book will be of interest to linguistics students and researchers of all theoretical persuasions from graduate level upwards.

Artemis Alexiadou, Professor and Chair, Institute of English Linguistics, University of Stuttgart,

Hagit Borer, Professor and Chair of Linguistics, Queen Mary, University of London,

Florian Schafer, Researcher, Department of Linguistics, University of Stuttgart

Artemis Alexiadou is Professor of Theoretical and English Linguistics at the Universitat Stuttgart. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1994 from the University of Potsdam. Her research interests lie in theoretical and comparative syntax, morphology, and most importantly in the interface between syntax, morphology, the lexicon, and interpretation. Her work has been published in several journals, edited volumes, and conference proceedings.


Hagit Borer is Professor and Chair of Linguistics at Queen Mary, University of London. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics at MIT, and has held professorial positions at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and at the University of Southern California. Her research interests include syntax, morphosyntax, the syntax-semantics interface, and the acquisition of syntax by children.


Florian Schafer is researcher at the the collaborative research centre (Sonderforschungsbereich) SFB 732 'Incremental Specification in Context' at the University of Stuttgart. He studied General and Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Potsdam and finished his dissertation on the (anti-) causative alternation in 2007 at the University of Stuttgart. His main research interests are in the theories of syntax, morphology, and lexical semantics and the interaction of these modules of grammar.