Understanding Syntax

<p>Assuming no prior grammatical knowledge <i>Understanding Syntax</i> explains and illustrates the major concepts categories and terminology involved in the study of cross-linguistic syntax. Taking a largely theory-neutral and descriptive viewpoint throughout this book:</p><ul> <li>introduces syntactic typology syntactic description and the major typological categories found in the languages of the world</li> <li>clarifies with examples grammatical constructions and relationships between words in a clause including word classes and their syntactic properties; grammatical relations such as subject and object; case and agreement processes; passives and other valency-changing processes; questions and relative clauses</li> <li>features in-text and chapter-end exercises to extend the reader’s knowledge of syntactic concepts and argumentation drawing on data from over 100 languages</li> <li>highlights the principles involved in writing a brief syntactic sketch of language</li> </ul><p>This sixth edition has been revised to include updated further readings improved examples and exercises and additional explanations of the most demanding concepts.</p><p><i>Understanding Syntax</i> is an essential textbook for students studying the description of language cross-linguistic syntax language typology and linguistic fieldwork and will be the foundation for all studies of theoretical syntax.</p>