Andrew Carnie
Amazon Price: $46.99
List Price: $47.95
Usually ships in 24 hours
By: Wiley-Blackwell
Amazon Marketplace: 45
new & used starting at $36.74
|
Buy at Amazon.com
|
Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Reference -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Reference -> General AAS
Subjects -> Reference -> Foreign Languages -> General
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Great text for the beginning linguist 4 out of 5 stars.
23 of 23 people found this review helpful.
Carnie's "Syntax" is a good text for the graduate student, although it falls for many of the same pitfalls any beginning syntax book faces. The layout in this book is wonderful. The writing is mostly clear and even has a dry sense of humor at points. Indices are great and it is easy to go back and find what you need. Each chapter - indeed each subsection - has a summary of the ideas learned. For ideas like raising and control this is an invaluable way to quickly compare the differences between the concepts. There are also definitions for the theories and concepts discussed. Great job on this.Exercises are great. Some of them can really push a student. But they are designed in such a way that to solve them, students will usually have to link ideas from other chapters and draw logical conclusions. This really helps students start to build up a linguistic framework, as opposed to just scattered, disparate pieces of information. He relies heavily on Irish. But, in all fairness, the problems are relevant and serve the student well.
The only problem the "Syntax" really had is where it chose to simplify the model. Any introduction to syntax has to simplify its model for students to understand. The problem is where to simplify. By and large, Carnie succeeds in making complex material understandable. But in a few cases the simplifications can confuse the student more than the complex concept would have. This is nothing that a good professor can't overcome, though. There are also a few big ideas handled in a cursor way or not at all. DP-hypothesis is mentioned in such a way that the reader wonders why he even brought it up (to be perfectly honest, nothing in his models even require it). VP shells aren't even mentioned.
Carnie does a better job than most in incorporating and addressing competing theories. He still has a minimalist perspective - which I don't have a problem with - but is less dogmatic than most. The end of the book even has chapters on Lexical-functional grammar and HPSG. Hey, students are intelligent. Give them the skills and they can make intelligent choices on their own.
All-in-all this is a good book for an introductory syntax course at the graduate level. It can be used for a person studying syntax independently, but don't hesitate to check out papers or other texts when you feel confused. There were some concessions made for simplification and often that extra bit of information can make it click.
Editorial Review:
Building on the success of the bestselling first edition, the second edition of this textbook provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the major issues in Principles and Parameters syntactic theory, including phrase structure, the lexicon, case theory, movement, and locality conditions.
- Includes new and extended problem sets in every chapter, all of which have been annotated for level and skill type.
- Features three new chapters on advanced topics including vP shells, object shells, control, gapping and ellipsis and an additional chapter on advanced topics in binding.
- Offers a brief survey of both Lexical-Functional Grammar and Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar.
- Succeeds in strengthening the reader's foundational knowledge, and prepares them for more advanced study.
- Supported by an instructor's manual and online resources for students and instructors, available at www.blackwellpublishing.com/carnie.
