26.539, Review: Syntax: Jonz (2014)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-26-539. Mon Jan 26 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.539, Review: Syntax: Jonz (2014)

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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 15:01:40
From: Ferid Chekili [feridchekililg at yahoo.fr]
Subject: An Introduction to English Sentence Structure

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/25/25-1632.html

AUTHOR: Jon G Jonz
TITLE: An Introduction to English Sentence Structure
SUBTITLE: Clauses, Markers, Missing Elements
SERIES TITLE: Equinox Textbooks and Surveys in Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Equinox Publishing Ltd
YEAR: 2014

REVIEWER: Ferid Chekili, University of Bahrain

Review's Editor: Anthony Aristar

SUMMARY
 
The last sentence in the Preface serves as a good summary of the book's main
idea: “...a functional grammar of modern written English structure…”, in other
words, “the focus of attention in this introductory book is mainly on
investigating the ways in which event structure is represented in language.”
(6). The book is intended for a wide audience: “a humanities student or a
teacher in preparation or an  aspiring writer or just a plain old language
lover” (ix). The data used for illustration is taken from H.G. Wells's “The
war of the Worlds” (1898).

The book contains a preface, ten chapters, charts and lists, a glossary,
references and an index. Each chapter contains a number of activities with
'suggested responses', usually at the back of the book, 'practice with
terminology', 'bracketing and labeling conventions', 'sentences for analysis',
and (starting with chapter 3) 'analysing and reporting elements'. Chapters 9
and 10, also, contain sections labelled 'Text for Analysis' and 'Dialog for
Analysis'. Each chapter begins with a section entitled 'Preliminaries' which
serves as either an introduction or a summary.

Chapter 1 (Language and Events in Experience) is, mostly, a justification of
the approach used in terms of both structure and function. J. argues that
“everyday experience is made up of events that involve a process that occurs,
participants playing various roles in the event, and the circumstances under
which the event occurs” (6). She further argues that “language structures …
are directly related to the events in our everyday lives” (6). Each event is
then illustrated with examples from “The War of the Worlds”. 

In Chapter 2 (Clauses: Processes) she considers the basic resources that
English employs in building clauses, starting with processes which she takes
to be the core unit of the clause. She argues that “clauses reflect event
structure in a remarkably direct and transparent manner by focusing on event
structure processes, their participant roles and attendant circumstances”
(20). She then illustrates a number of process types that we use to interpret
our environment. 

Chapter 3: Clauses: Participants and Circumstances. Here, she turns to an
identification of the role-players, essential props and circumstances. She
argues that “every process entails specific participant roles” (34). She
further shows that the traditional classification of subject, direct object
and indirect object ought to be supplemented by another participant term,
namely, 'oblique object'. She then turns to a definition of circumstances,
pointing to the difficulty, sometimes, to differentiate them from
participants. These functions (participants and circumstances) are illustrated
using “The War of the Worlds” and practiced both in the text and the
activities following it. Near the end of the chapter (and subsequent ones) she
devotes a section to analysing and reporting elements -here, clause elements -
where she introduces steps for analysing structures and reporting results. 

Chapter 4: Word Groups and Phrases. Beginning with this chapter, she discusses
the constituent structure of word groupings. Here, she explains and defines
the concept of word group and contrasts it with that of phrase. Word groups
are shown to have heads and edges. “Higher- ranking units such as clauses or
clause complexes can fit into lower-ranking units such as word groups”, thus
contributing to  the “productive potential of any language” (55). She
describes three major word groups, i.e. adjective groups, adverb groups and
preposition groups, including the components of the groups and how to identify
their heads. She concludes with a description of phrases as opposed to word
groups, arguing that phrases are made up of two or more word groups. 

Chapter 5: Verb Groups. The chapter considers the 'special features' of
English verb groups which represent the process part of events and clauses.
This chapter -which deals with the elements of verb groups- and chapter 6
-which explains the role of the verb group's left-hand edge in creating clause
types- “show that the beginnings of clauses in general hold powerful potential
for guiding language users in establishing and maintaining interpersonal
relationships and in making sense of the narrative events that language
represents” (82). Here, she focuses on the elements of verb groups, including
the main verb, its left-hand edge (Tense, Modal, nonfinite clause marker), the
'Precentral Space' (semiauxiliaries and core auxiliaries, do) and the
right-hand edge, including postposed particles and idiomatic elements. 

Chapter 6: The Power of Beginnings. Here, J. is concerned with “how the
leading edges of language units, verb groups included have special
significance” (108). She argues that in yes/no questions, “instead of first
running into the subject of the clause (the default setting) you first
encounter the left-hand edge of the verb group” (109) which signals yes/no
questions. In direct requests and imperative clauses, the subject is a missing
element providing “a major cue to a listener's processing mechanism” (111),
and the left-hand edge is occupied by a “zero modal”. Similarly, clauses are
negated by associating “a negative word with the left-hand edge of the verb
group” (114). Finally, content questions -traditionally wh-questions- are
formed by placing “a wh-marker in front of a regular yes/no question” (115).

Chapter 7: Noun Groups. Noun groups are shown to perform functions almost
everywhere in a clause. J. also lists and illustrates the structural
possibilities of the noun group (126), and explores tests for identifying
nouns, based on inflections, derivational endings and syntax, and describes
the noun group elements, including, the main noun, determiners, adjective
groups and prepositional phrases. She concludes the chapter with a section on
'putting units together' where she describes, in turn, conjoining, apposition
and embedding/subordinating.

Chapter 8: Embedded wh-clauses. Starting with this chapter, J. looks more
closely at embedding, beginning with embedded wh-clauses (this chapter). Four
major varieties are identified: the 'normal version', the 'missing-marker
version', the 'whiz version' and the 'headless version'. These versions are
then reported in triangle-convention form. The chapter ends with a brief
outline of extraposition of wh-embedded clauses, then wh-embedded clauses are
shown to be either restrictive or nonrestrictive. Finally, wh-clauses are
argued to be embeddings rather than appositives. 

Chapter 9: Nonwh-Subordinate clauses. Here, she considers another form of
combining clauses: nonwh-subordination. She begins by providing lists of
wh-markers and nonwh-markers. This is followed by a description of the
distribution and function of subordinate nonwh-clauses and a comparison
between nonwh-subordination and wh-clauses. Next, she raises the issue of
object complements, arguing that they are best analysed -in order to be
“consistent with the assumption that clauses represent event structures”- as
subordinate nonwh-clauses (small clauses in other frameworks -e.g. Aarts
(1992)). Finally, a description of absolute clauses is provided. 

Chapter 10: Nonwh-Complementation, Apposition, Discontinuity; Nonfinite
wh-clauses. In this chapter, J. provides a description of what she calls
nonwh-complement clauses defined as nonwh-clauses that are “embedded in
adjective groups and noun groups” (198). This category includes 'nonfinite
nonwh-complement clauses' and 'nonwh-That complement clauses'. This is
followed by a description of 'Appositive nonwh-That clauses' and of
discontinuity in both extraposition and raising. Finally, she deals with
“clause complexes that appear to possess characteristics of both wh- and
nonwh-clauses simultaneously” (206-209) which she labels 'nonfinite
wh-clauses'.

EVALUATION

In my opinion, J. has succeeded in producing an accurate and fairly
comprehensive description of English clauses and word groups. One interesting
feature of the book- which serves to draw and retain the reader's attention-
is the tone/style used: J. tends to address the reader directly, using a
friendly, informal and at times, quite humourous tone of voice. 

Another significant feature of the book is its heavy reliance on practice
which, besides its obvious merits, contributes to making the
explanations/concepts less abstract for the reader. Practice takes various
forms: the 'practice with terminology' sections have the effect of making the
reader at home with the newly-introduced terminology, by practicing with
concrete examples. The 'Analysing and Reporting' sections, which show the
reader how to analyse grammatical structures and report results, provide
practice, not only of the current chapter, but also of everything up to that
point. The 'Sentences for Analysis' sections introduce the reader to new sets
of data for them to analyse by themselves. Chapters 9 and 10, also, contain
sections labelled 'Text for Analysis' and 'Dialog for Analysis' aiming at
describing structure in context. The 'Suggested Responses', at the back of the
book, allow the reader to verify the correctness of their newly-acquired
knowledge. Each chapter, also, contains activities and extensive illustrations
with abundant examples drawn from “a real and coherent context” (27), all
aiming at making the reader more familiar with the author's explanations.
Similarly, and in order to further achieve the above objectives, repetition is
made use of frequently: the basic idea of the book, i.e. The fact that the
function of language is to represent the events in everyday experience- is
repeated in every chapter. 

On the negative side, the book contains a few shortcomings, owing, perhaps, to
the introductory nature of the task at hand which places certain limits on the
extent of elaboration and depth: 

For instance, although the work is function- and structure-oriented, there is
no mention of information structural processes such as focalised/topicalised
constructions, notoriously taken to illustrate the interface between structure
and function (cf. e.g. Rizzi 1997). 

Similarly, although the description of English clauses and word groups is
clear and insightful, there is a large number of lists and rules -both
indicating completeness- reminiscent of traditional grammar descriptions,
(e.g. 81, 86...). 

Regarding terminology, it is unclear whether some of the new terms introduced
by J. are in fact needed, as they refer to constructions that have a
well-established tradition. For instance, 'nonfinite nonwh-complement clauses'
(199) refer to what classical Government and Binding theory termed 'Control';
and 'nonwh-That complement clauses' (200) refer to Ross's (1967) the 'Complex
NP' construction. Similarly, the elements of event structure - the terms
'process', 'participant', 'circumstance'- may be parallelled to 'predicate',
'argument' and 'adjunct' respectively in formal argument structure theory. On
the other hand, certain terms, which have become fairly common, are not used
by J. For example, the term 'Unaccusative' (e.g. Burzio 1986) for the class of
verb which J. describes on pp. (26-27).

Contrary to most formal approaches, which analyse ‘that’ as part of the clause
-its head - J. treats it separately as a 'marker' that is external to the
clause. In relatives – here, wh-clauses- ‘that’ is shown to correspond to
other wh-markers (146), hence, missing an important generalisation recognised
in other frameworks (e.g. Rizzi 1990), namely, that ‘that’ is the same
complementizer in both relatives and other types of embedding, that may or may
not co-occur with a wh-word. (In relatives, ‘that’ shows up when the
wh-element is a null operator). In the other uses of ‘that’, as a pronoun, a
determiner and a comparative marker (168) which J. takes  as justification for
the dual analysis of ‘that’, ‘that’ does not introduce a subordinate/embedded
clause.

Certain statements are made which clash with other proposals and which
therefore would require an explanation. For example, “semiauxiliaries might be
seen as a spot in English clauses where formerly full-blown nonfinite clauses
(introduced with ‘to’) are being taken into the verb group as auxiliaries as
time goes by” (98). Even though this statement may be true for most cited
cases, some of these constructions (including J.'s examples with ‘seem to’)
have, in fact, been analysed – synchronically- as consisting of two clauses in
certain frameworks (see e.g.Haegeman 1994). 

Likewise, some of the tests -based on meaning- that J. uses, for instance, to
distinguish phrasal verbs from prepositional verbs (99), have been found
unreliable by some researchers. More reliable tests have been used in the
literature, such as coordination facts (e.g. Akmajian and Heny 1975). 

Finally, although the book is descriptive, it aims at universality. However,
there is an obvious lack of explanation – an important criterion of
universality. For instance, certain well-known processes are described but
left unexplained in spite of a rich literature on the subject - e.g. The
analysis of expletive ‘it’ (203-204): in formal approaches, an explanation for
its presence, namely, the Extended Projection Principle, has been  provided;
or raising constructions, such as ‘Ted wanted her to leave’ (205) which have
been explained in other frameworks, with reference to Exceptional Case
Marking. 

Similarly, despite the fact that the basic function of language argued for in
the book – namely, that language represents everyday experience- may be
universal, the book is basically descriptive and hence, would be “a viewpoint
on English” and not, as mentioned in the preface, on “language in general”. 

Notwithstanding these inevitable limitations, the objectives set out at the
beginning of the book have, in general, been met: the book has fulfilled its
aim of being a good introduction to the description of English sentence
structure and function that is certainly useful to the intended audience.
Likewise, the book has succeeded in achieving its main objective, namely,
showing «how language is shaped to reflect the events in ordinary everyday
experience» (ix). 

REFERENCES

Aarts, B. 1992. « Small clauses in English: the Non-Verbal Types ». Berlin and
NewYork: Mouton de Gruyter.

Akmajian, A. and F. Heny. 1975. « Introduction to the Principles of
Transformational Syntax ».  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

Burzio, L. 1986. « Italian Syntax: A Government Binding Approach ». Dordrecht:
Reidel.

Haegeman, L. 1994. « Introduction to Government and Binding Theory », 2nd
edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Rizzi, L. 1990. « Relativised Minimality ». Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

Rizzi, L. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In « Elements of
Grammar: a Handbook of Generative Syntax », ed. Liliane Haegeman, 281-337.
Dordrecht: Kluwer. 

Ross, J. 1967. « Constraints on Variables in Syntax ». Doctoral Dissertation.
MIT.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ferid Chekili is Professor of English and Linguistics, currently employed by
the University of Bahrain.His research interests include syntactic theory, the
syntax/information structure interface and generative second language
acquisition.








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