25.1493, Review: Linguistic Theories; Syntax; French: Pusk=?UTF-8?Q?=C3=A1s_?=(2013)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-25-1493. Fri Mar 28 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.1493, Review: Linguistic Theories; Syntax; French: Puskás (2013)

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Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:18:04
From: Ross Bilous [ross.bilous at utoronto.ca]
Subject: Initiation au Programme Minimaliste

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-3346.html

AUTHOR: Genoveva  Puskás
TITLE: Initiation au Programme Minimaliste
SUBTITLE: Eléments de syntaxe comparative
SERIES TITLE: Sciences pour la communication - Volume 103
PUBLISHER: Peter Lang AG
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Ross Bilous, York University

SUMMARY 

The volume under review has been conceived from a series of course lectures on
syntax (in French) taught at an introductory level by the author over the
course of over 10 years. It is the result of multiple revisions of lecture
notes taking into consideration students’ questions and comments. It consists
of Preface, Table of Contents, Introduction and 15 chapters, followed by
Glossary, Bibliographic References and Index. At the end of each chapter there
is a brief section entitled “Pour en savoir plus” (‘To learn more’ or ‘For
more information’: the reviewer’s translation) that contains bibliographical
references to some salient and frequently referred to books and articles on
the subject tackled in the chapter.

In the “Preface” (p. VII) the author invites the reader to do the same
exercise her students were encouraged to do -- the exercise of questioning,
and view the book as a guide to syntactic theory rather than an absolute
reference book. The numerous data cited all along the book come from different
languages: Romanian, Italian, Slovenian, Croatian, Chinese, Hungarian, etc.

In the “Introduction”, an outline of the theoretical model advocated in this
coursebook is provided. By introducing the concept of generative grammar model
and the notion of Universal Grammar (UG), the author explains the role of
generativist approach in the study of languages. In a clear and structured
fashion, and sometimes recurring to metaphorical illustrations, UG is shown as
a State0 (i.e., initial state) of linguistic knowledge. Then, the reader is
led to perceive the conceptualization of interlinguistic similarities and
differences through the Theory of Principles and Parameters, according to
which universal principles underlie interlinguistic similarities, whereas
variation across languages results from combinations of different parameters.
Next, the ascent of the Minimalist Program within the generativist approach is
explicated: it had to be developed due to structural “redundancy” in the
preceding “descriptive system” and due to the need for “reorientation in
research” (p. 5). In passing, it was fittingly mentioned that “minimalism has
not necessarily achieved stability in all of its domains of application” (p.
5, reviewer’s translation). Further, the author speaks about the importance of
comparing different languages in order to comprehend what it is that they all
have in common. Finally, the description of practical objectives of the course
and of the sources used throughout the book round up this introductory
section.

In Chapter 1, two central aspects of argument structure are explained:
sub-categorization and thematic roles. To have a sentence, at least one
predicate and one argument are needed. The structure of a sentence depends on
the characteristics of a predicate. There are two types of constraints:
semantic and syntactic. The semantic one determines the number of arguments
that a predicate has and the syntactic one defines the syntactic type of
arguments and their syntactic relation with the predicate that they are
associated with. Based on their meaning, verbal predicates sub-categorize
certain types of complements (i.e., c-selection). Every argument receives one
thematic role.

In Chapter 2, Puskás discusses the division of words into lexical and
functional categories, following the view that every word is a collection of
different phonological, semantic and syntactic properties. Syntactic
properties, or features, allow us to classify words into two syntactic
categories: lexical and functional. The former have semantic content, while
the latter are deprived of this content but are used in the construction of
sentences having certain grammatical functions.

The following chapters deal with different types of syntactic constraints. In
Chapters 3 to 5, the author addresses the structure of simple sentential
units, consisting of different types of constituents that are hierarchically
organized and that can be used to build different syntactic representations
with a sentential head at the top. Chapter 3 speaks about different syntactic
operations that can be used to identify one-word or complex constituents:
substitution, clefting, question-making, omission. These operations are part
of constituency tests that can help reveal language-specific or universal
constraints as well as expose ambiguous structures. Chapter 4 is about the
hierarchic organization of constituents in tensed sentences, ways of
representing different constituents within the hierarchy of sentential
structure, types of phrases and the notion of functional projections. Chapter
5 explains the importance of having a sentential head, the relation between
tensedness and verbal predicate, head movement and subject movement, and the
role of auxiliaries and of modal verbs. Chapters 6 and 7 are dedicated to the
structure of complex sentences containing tensed and non-tensed (i.e.,
infinitive) object clauses. Chapter 6 discusses the structure of tensed
subordinate clauses by showing how complementizer types depend on individual
properties of verbs that appear in the principal clause. Object clauses in the
subject position are also analyzed. Chapter 7 deals with two kinds of
tenseless subordinate clauses: those that contain subject control verbs and
those with exceptional case marking verbs. Chapters 8 to 11 deal with the
movement of different constituents: interrogative and relative phrases as well
as nominal phrases in unaccusative constructions. More specifically, Chapter 8
explains the nature of “Wh-movement”, strategies of this type of movement,
what motivates it and, finally, the issue of “yes-no” questions that do not
have the Wh-interrogative phrase. Chapter 9 addresses: 1) locality constraints
on 2 types of Wh-movement in indirect interrogative embedded clauses: within
an embedded clause and outside of an embedded clause; and 2) island effects in
instances where the movement of a Wh-element from an embedded clause is not
licit. In Chapter 10, the author shows structural similarities and differences
between relative clauses and “Wh-Questions”. It is explained and structurally
shown that, unlike interrogative pronouns, relative pronouns refer to nominal
antecedents being realized as subjects, or (in)direct objects of an embedded
clause. Chapter 11 deals with the properties of the so-called “A-movement”. If
Wh-movement targets non-argument positions, this movement targets argument
positions, characterized by thematic role assignment to either the complement
of V or specifier of VP. Structures with both non-referential (expletive)
subject and referential subject (that receives theta role) are analyzed.
Raising(-to-object) verbs are similar to passive participles and are
subcategorized under the class of unaccusative verbs whose internal argument
moves cyclically to the Spec,TP of the principal clause in order to receive
nominative case.

The subsequent chapters tackle more complex constructions, and therefore,
require, according to the author, more precision. Chapter 12 is about double
object constructions, or constructions containing ditransitive verbs that are
predicates with three arguments, known also under the name of VP-shell. The
author adopts the approach under which causative constructions do not have an
embedded clause but are double VP structures, and ditransitive constructions
are similar to them, also having VP shells. In these constructions, the
lexical (causative) abstract verb (ALLER “GO”) assigns a thematic role of
patient to its external argument and a thematic role of location to its
internal argument. It is shown how this analysis can be extended to
constructions with object control verbs as well as to transitive verbs with
two objects. Chapter 13 covers the question of sentential negation, drawing a
distinction between sentential negation that negates an entire sentence and
negative phrases that negate only a part of a sentence. A unique sentential
structure is adopted accounting for interlinguistic diversity. Chapter 14
addresses the role of Complementizer, the properties of focalization and
topicalization and the possibility of combining focus with topic. CP is a
projection that encodes the illocutionary (interrogative of declarative) force
of the main clause. The main clause predicate determines this force by
selection. Topicalization and focalization are accompanied by movement into
Spec,CP, given that some languages (such as those of the Germanic group) can
encode the feature of topic or focus on C (p. 270). And finally, in Chapter
15, the “legitimization” and “interpretation” (p. 283) of two types of DPs,
“complete” ones and pronouns, and the possibility of reintroduction of Binding
Theory into syntax are discussed. If DPs can be referential, pronouns are
referentially dependent – they depend on another entity, generally a DP, their
antecedent. The author adopts an approach under which CP is the domain of
binding -- it is a phase where a pronoun is bound by a DP -- and movement is
contained locally, that is, in the phase CP.

EVALUATION

This book is very well structured and easy to read due to the fact that the
author has evidently invested much of her time into formulating and
reformulating (general and specific) explanations of different concepts and
syntactic operations, while being particularly meticulous about her choice of
words. Additionally, the Glossary and Index are very useful additions to a
book of this type.

In terms of the structure and format of this textbook, I would like to suggest
that it would be very useful to include a small variety of exercises at the
end of each chapter. This provision would help students reinforce their
learning as well as test their level of understanding of the concepts learned
from different angles. For the teaching professor, such a section would
provide an opportunity to do a formative evaluation (either formal or
informal) of students’ competence and performance.

As far as the content is concerned, generalizations and explanations of some
concepts could be slightly improved by taking into account what is known about
them to date, and using the technique of going from most general to most
specific. For example, on page 129 the concept of the grammatical category of
case is suddenly (and somewhat unexpectedly for the reader) introduced (in
Chapter 7: “Les subordonnées complétives infinitives”). In my opinion, the
status, nature and importance of the category of case should be discussed in a
separate chapter by providing a few more details and examples. Since speakers
of French or English are rarely introduced to this term, and normally get a
very superficial idea (if any) in the study of their native language grammars
about what exactly it is, they are prone to experience difficulties with this
category, which is practically morphologically absent from their native
tongues. Therefore, it might not be enough to say that “case is often present
in the form of an inflectional morphologically identifiable marking that
allows it to indicate the grammatical function of a nominal element” (p. 130,
the reviewer’s translation). In an introductory coursebook like this one, it
might also be useful to briefly explain the distinction between ‘languages
with simplified or impoverished case systems (e.g., English, French, Italian)
and languages with rich case systems or rich case morphology (most Slavic
languages, e.g., Ukrainian, Polish, etc., as well as Hungarian, Latin,
Sanskrit, Hittite, etc.) or “configurational versus non-configurational
languages” (Bilous 2011: 146, among others). Then, it would be of great use to
compare the data from the two types of languages, keeping in mind the fact
that in languages with rich case morphology, there are several types of
lexical inherent cases assigned to a noun in the direct object position (i.e.,
the instances of DOM, “differential object marking”). Ukrainian is a perfect
example of this phenomenon (Bilous 2011). Further, one could briefly address
the questions of case typology within the generative approach (van Kemenade
1987, Bilous 2011: 144, among others) and how different linguists view the
concept of case within the Minimalist framework: Is it an uninterpretable
feature or is it a functional category of K (Bilous 2011: 147)? The author
implicitly follows the first (and more popular) alternative.

As for the quality of the text and the data cited, there are also some minor
inconsistencies, inexactitudes and typographical errors that could easily be
fixed. I provide some examples here. The author uses the English abbreviated
forms of both frequently and not frequently used terms instead of simply
providing French equivalents. To illustrate, throughout the book, the English
acronym “DP” (‘Determiner Phrase’) is employed, even though there exists an
even better (more precise) term in French that is already applied by some
French-writing scholars -- “SDét” (‘Syntagme de Déterminant’) (e.g., Tellier
2003: 29, where the terms “syntagme” and “Déterminant” are used; also Bilous
2011, where the term “SDét” is consistently used throughout the entire
monograph; among others). The author does, however, use this term on page 69
(“syntagme du déterminant”) as well as the terms “syntagme” (p. 57) and
“syntagme nominal (SN)” (p. 61), “syntagme adjectival (SA)” (p. 65), etc. (in
Chapter 4), but then she keeps using the English equivalent acronyms up to the
end of the book. Also, on page 101 the English acronym “HMC” (‘Head Movement
Constraint’) is introduced, followed by the French translation “contrainte sur
le mouvement des têtes” provided in small letters and without quotation marks.
For the sake of consistency (terms and acronyms could and should be given in
the target language if it does have appropriate equivalents), it is important,
in my view, to provide terminological analogues or possible translated
versions of the names of theories, conditions, and so on in the target
language and then, in brackets and in French quotation marks, the English
equivalent that corresponds to it. It is also important to increase the
consistency of instances where such equivalents have been provided (e.g., “le
Filtre du cas (Case Filter)” on page 142). The English syntactic terms
“valuation” and “to value” have French equivalents “validation” and “valider”,
respectively, and therefore, it is recommendable that the latter be employed
instead of “valuation” and “valuer” (pp. 133, 138, 140, etc.) (cf. also Bilous
2011: 150, 134, 219, etc.). The same statement applies to the terms “clause”
(p. 109) and “proposition” (p. 13). Further, on page 139, Ex. 34(b) the German
reflexive verb “sich rühmen” should be used with the genitive form “grosser
Erfolge” and not “grossen Erfolgen” (which is in fact a dative form that can
appear only after the prepositions “mit” and “von”). On pages 45 and 265, the
term “structure phrasale” could be replaced by the much more frequently used
term “structure phrastique” (for the sake of consistency with page 253, where
“phrastique” is actually employed) in order to avoid confusion by using two
terms that refer to the same thing. And finally, on page 138 “Da façon
symétrique” should be spelled as “De façon symétrique”.

In sum, the book in hand is a highly useful textbook, a rarity of its kind,
due to its structure and user-friendliness. I strongly recommend it to both
students and professors who are interested in syntax, language typology,
general linguistics, generative-minimalist approaches to language study and
contrastive analysis of data representing a variety of related and unrelated
languages.

REFERENCES

Bilous, Rostyslav. 2011. Transitivité et marquage d’objet différentiel.
Doctoral Dissertation. Toronto, University of Toronto.

Tellier, Christine. 2003. Éléments de syntaxe de français. Méthodes d’analyse
en grammaire générative. 2e édition, Boucherville, Québec (Canada), Gaëtan
Morin.

van Kemenade, Ans. 1987. Syntactic Case and Morphological Case in the History
of English. Doctoral Dissertation. Dordrecht: Foris.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ross Bilous is a Sessional Assistant Professor of French Linguistics at York
University. His research interests include: theoretical linguistics and
linguistic typology, French morphosyntax, (morpho)syntax-semantics interface,
issues related to transitive relation, issues of bilingualism,
teaching/learning of French as a second language.








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