32.487, Review: English; Applied Linguistics; Syntax: Freidin (2020)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-487. Tue Feb 09 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.487, Review: English; Applied Linguistics; Syntax: Freidin (2020)

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Date: Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:05:12
From: Difei Zhang [dzhang226 at wisc.edu]
Subject: Adventures in English Syntax

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36628197


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-1274.html

AUTHOR: Robert  Freidin
TITLE: Adventures in English Syntax
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2020

REVIEWER: Difei Zhang, University of Wisconsin Madison

SUMMARY

This book is written not only for readers who want to become “a more effective
user of the language”, but also for readers who are eager to gain a deeper
“understanding of English sentence structure” (p. i). By establishing and
explaining the link between English syntax and its application in writing, the
author, Robert Freidin, a linguistic professor at Princeton University, uses a
variety of real-life examples (also shown through the title of each chapter)
to indicate how bad writing – ambiguity, redundancy, vagueness and lack of
cohesion and coherence – are created by certain syntactic
structures/constructions. The book explores and analyzes English syntax from
word level to phrasal level and gradually to clausal level, introducing basic
linguistic concepts that can help its readers become capable of evaluating
English writing with concrete linguistic reasons and evidence.

The book starts off with a close examination of two simple phrases: “one fish
two fish red fish blue fish” in Dr. Seuss children’s book, and the title of
Lynne Truss’ book: Eats, Shoots & Leaves. In Chapter 1 “an adventure in
ambiguity with one fish two fish”, Freidin explains why it is possible for
even a short phrase to create different ambiguous interpretations. Through the
analysis of ambiguity caused by words with different meanings but having the
same written form (singular ‘fish’ vs. plural ‘fish’; ‘shoot’ as a noun vs.
‘shoot’ as a verb), and the explanation of how coordination using coordinators
or punctuations can eliminate certain ambiguity, this chapter demonstrates
that English syntax is not simply about individual word order, it is instead
about the computation of different syntactic units. Alongside the analysis,
some basic linguistic concepts such as singular, plural, phonetic form,
lexicon (p. 2), coordinate structure (p. 6), asyndetic coordination (p. 9) and
the Oxford comma (p. 10) are also introduced with examples as key linguistic
terms for analyzing English syntax.

After Chapter 1 shows how coordination can be used to eliminate ambiguity,
Chapter 2 on the contrary demonstrates how coordination can also create
ambiguity. The title of this chapter “exceptional students and teachers” is
exactly one example: whether the adjective ‘exceptional’ modifies only
students or modifies both students and teachers. In the first half of this
chapter (2.1), the author uses simple tree diagrams (p. 14) to illustrate how
the syntactic relations can be different within the same phrase, which
visually helps the readers comprehend these two different computations of the
same set of syntactic units. Freidin then continues his illustration of tree
diagrams with a more complicated noun phrase by adding a prepositional phrase
modifier (p. 16) to the original phrase, and further explains each
interpretation with their distinct hierarchical structure. In the second half
of this chapter (2.2) the author introduces the structure of multiple
coordination, where the use of other coordinators that can also cause
ambiguity (‘or’, ‘either’, ‘both’) are demonstrated with examples. The main
aim of this chapter is to help the readers understand the two dimensions of
English syntax: the linear order, which is visible; and the hierarchical
order, which is usually invisible until it is realized by a syntactic tree
diagram. And, as indicated at the end of this chapter, knowing the interplay
between these two dimensions can facilitate how we process (read) and create
(write) sentences (p. 24).

Chapter 3 at first glance looks just like a continuation of Chapter 2 – using
the title “Introduction to Language and Linguistics” as an example of showing
the structural ambiguity caused by coordination (3.1). However, Chapter 3, in
fact, goes beyond that; it takes the readers to visit some of the most
fundamental questions related to human language usage: what exactly is
language? What is linguistics? And how do we define these terms in order to
properly interpret the title of this chapter? To answer these questions,
Freidin first examines the word “language” on both mental lexical level (3.2)
and syntactic computational level (3.3). Using examples from both English and
Japanese, this chapter asserts that the “hierarchical structure, but not
linear order, determines interpretation” (p. 51). This emphasis on
computational procedures as an important part of human language further
facilitates readers’ understanding of the importance of English syntax: the
reason why we interpret some sentences as bad writing has little to do with
the choice of each individual word or with writing manuals alone – it exists
in the language itself, more specifically, how it is structured syntactically.
Based on this more in-depth understanding of language and linguistics (3.4 and
3.5), the author ends this chapter with a variety of authentic
examples/excerpts on the misuse of ‘and’ and analyzes how it can create
ambiguity, redundancy and vagueness.

After Chapter 3 as a thorough discussion of syntax that prepares the readers
to think about English writing from a structural perspective, Chapter 4 “a
review of a book by two philosophers” begins to deal with more complex
syntactic constructions including complex noun phrases modified by post
prepositional phrases, relative clauses and infinitival clauses. In the first
half of this chapter (4.1-4.3) Freidin uses tree diagrams to explain and
illustrate the definition, structure and examples of each of these more
complicated syntactic constructions. Based on that, the author goes on to
discuss 3 major prescriptive grammar rules alongside syntactic analysis in
section 4.4: preposition stranding (p. 76), split infinitives (p. 83) and
‘that’ vs. ‘which’ (p. 88). By showing the internal structure of these
constructions, the author points out these prescriptive rules need to be both
taught and enforced (p. 88), since they are not backed up with any natural
linguistic constraints. This discussion on how certain prescriptive grammar
rules in fact contradict natural English grammar provides readers with a
different way to judge good/bad writing.

The rest of the book is organized in a more modular way by exploring more
complex syntactic constructions, namely: displacement, passive voice,
interrogatives, adverbials, and ellipsis. Some of these concepts are discussed
along with others because of their interrelationship. 

Chapter 5 “Bob is certain to succeed” mainly focuses on displacement, where
Freidin examines displacement of clauses, in passives and in noun phrases.
Based on the examination of how certain syntactic elements can be located in
alternative syntactic positions, the author illustrates how to utilize
displacement as “a tool for establishing coherence between sentences in a
text” (p. 135). Following this, Chapter 6 “It is a truth universally
acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in
want of a wife” adapts the opening sentence in Jane Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice to show how the choice of a certain sentence structure can be more
powerful than other alternatives and therefore demonstrate one’s artistry in
English writing.

Chapter 7 “Does every politician who cheats instinctively lie?” continues to
expand displacement together with other syntactic constructions including
adverbials, questions (both yes/no-questions and wh-questions) and relative
clauses. More linguistic terms such as wh-displacement (p. 161), cleft (p.
163) and pseudo-cleft (p. 166) are introduced and illustrated with example
sentences as well as tree diagrams.

Chapter 8, which is also the last chapter of this book, introduces ellipsis as
a new syntactic construction and at the same time, revisiting passive
constructions (which have been discussed earlier in Chapter 5) based on Henry
Fowler’s analysis. The chapter starts off with the examination of Fowler’s
analysis of “inferior defenses could then, as now, be tackled, as Vernon did
at Porto Bello, Exmouth at Algiers, & Seymour at Alexandria”, listing out each
of Flower’s original solutions to this problematic sentence. However, after
using syntactic trees to break down this sentence into smaller syntactic
constituents and coming up with parallel structures of these smaller units,
Freidin proves that the problematic sentence turns out to be caused by
ellipsis other than the bad use of passive. Using this as an example, the
author again illustrates how having basic syntactic knowledge can help one to
pinpoint the actual problem in bad writing and encourage the readers of this
book to become more capable language users.

EVALUATION

Just as its title says, Adventures in English Syntax provides its readers with
an adventurous experience regarding different syntactic constructions, ranging
from some well-known/relatively simple ones such as the Oxford comma,
preposition stranding, split infinitives and ‘that’ vs. ‘which’ to some lesser
known or complicated/controversial ones such as the use of passive,
displacement and ellipsis. The most valuable feature of this book is that it
introduces English syntax to readers without linguistic backgrounds, and
provides them with opportunities to think about the English language from a
structural, vertical perspective. With authentic examples incorporated into
each chapter, as well as the actual editing of a sentence, a paragraph, and a
text, the author shows the readers of this book how exactly syntactic
knowledge can enhance actual language use, and how powerful a reader and
writer you would become if you managed to comprehend the structure of the
English language.

Although most parts of the book are designed for readers with no background in
linguistics, some of the chapters, especially Chapter 4-8, can be assigned as
supplementary readings (not as a textbook, since there are no exercises, and
the trees are not strictly following x-bar theory) to first year linguistic
students who are taking their first syntax class, and perhaps, considering the
levels of difficulty and complexity of these chapters, it is even more
appropriate to linguistic students with more advanced syntax knowledge. Based
on my teaching experience at UW-Madison, for readers with limited syntactic
knowledge, it can be already challenging to identify syntactic
units/constituents (noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases…etc.).
However, the tree diagrams in Chapter 4-8 involve more complicated functional
syntactic elements (C and T) other than just individual lexicons/phrases, and
have more vertical layers - all of these can be intimidating for readers
without any linguistic background. To improve scaffolding, it would be nice if
there were more explicit content on more basic knowledge, for example, the
identification of constituents, the distinction between “word class” (noun,
verb, adverbs…etc.) and “grammatical function” (subject, object, modifier,
adverbial…etc.) before moving onto clausal-level constructions.

In terms of helping to enrich the readers’ linguistic knowledge, the glossary
at the end of the book (p. 192-196) is very helpful. Listing the key
linguistic terms which appeared in the book with their definitions is
definitely helpful for readers who want to revisit these concepts afterwards.
However, the glossary is organized by alphabetical order – if there were an
index  which listed the chapters where these terms first appeared , the
readers might be helped to make connections between the terms and the actual
book content.

Overall, the book is inspiring for readers with or without linguistic
knowledge. For readers without a linguistic background, the book approaches
good/bad writing with concrete and detailed syntactic analysis using tree
diagrams and color-coded text, which visually helps the readers realize and
comprehend the vertical way of decomposing a sentence. For readers with some
linguistic background, the book provides evidence on how syntax knowledge can
be used as a tool. Unlike most of the syntactic textbooks which emphasize more
on the question “what is syntax”, this book also answers the question “what
can syntax do”. By showing how syntactic analysis can be incorporated into the
actual editing process, also by discussing/comparing how a similar meaning can
be realized by alternative sentence structures, the book suggests
linguistic/syntactic knowledge can be incorporated as one of the pedagogical
approaches of teaching English writing.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Difei Zhang is currently pursuing her Ph.D. degree in English Language and
Linguistics at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been a Writing Center
instructor for 2 years and has been teaching introduction to college
composition/academic writing for more than 3 years. Her dissertation topic is
using corpus-based approach to analyze the digital transformation of news
writing, specifically focusing on the change of certain syntactic features.
Her research interests mainly include: applied English syntax, register
analysis of digital news, corpus-based syntactic analysis of English written
texts.





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