Syntactic Analysis - by Nicholas Sobin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Highly readable and eminently practical, Syntactic Analysis: The Basics focuses on bringing students with little background in linguistics up to speed on how modern syntactic analysis works.

• A succinct and practical introduction to understanding sentence structure, ideal for students who need to get up to speed on key concepts in the field
• Introduces readers to the central terms and concepts in syntax
• Offers a hands-on approach to understanding and performing syntactic analysis and introduces students to linguistic argumentation
• Includes numerous problem sets, helpfully graded for difficulty, with model answers provided at critical points
• Prepares readers for more advanced work with syntactic systems and syntactic analyses

From the Back Cover

This succinct, practical introduction to understanding sentence structure is ideal for students with little background in linguistics who need to get up to speed on how modern syntactic analysis works. Introducing the reader to the central terms and concepts in the field of syntax, it explains how to understand and operate syntactic analysis, as well as how to approach linguistic argumentation. Included are numerous problem sets, helpfully graded for difficulty, with model answers provided at critical points.

Designed for either classroom use or self-study, Syntactic Analysis fills a gap in the available literature by providing a short and hands-on guide to understanding syntactic systems, and provides the reader with a strong foundation for more advanced work in the field.

Review Quotes

"Ultimately, I would argue that this book succeeds with its goals by laying a broad, basic, and clear foundation in the philosophy of generative syntax, thus allowing undergraduates to learn the nature of scientific inquiry with languages in a trimester/quarter system or supporting graduate students with little or distant background to read and respond to primary literature with more confidence and understanding." (Linguist, 27 August 2012)

About the Author

Nicholas Sobin is Professor of Language and Linguistics at The University of Texas at El Paso. He has published numerous articles on various topics in syntax in such journals as Linguistics Inquiry, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, and the Journal of Linguistics, and has held Visiting Scholar appointments at M.I.T. and Harvard University. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock.