Dependency Syntax - Theory and Practice

This work presents the first sustained examination of Dependency Syntax. In clear and stimulating analyses Mel'cuk promotes syntactic description in terms of dependency rather than in terms of more familiar phrase-structure. The notions of dependency relations and dependency structure are introduced and substantiated, and the advantages of dependency representation are demonstrated by applying it to a number of popular linguistic problems, e.g. grammatical subject and ergative construction. A wide array of linguistic data is used - the well-known (Dyirbal), the less known (Lezgian), and the more recent (Alutor). Several "exotic" cases of Russian are discussed to show how dependency can be used to solve difficult technical problems.
The book is not only formal and rigorous, but also strongly theory-oriented and data-based. Special attention is paid to linguistic terminology, specifically to its logical consistency. The dependency formalism is presented within the framework of a new semantics-oriented general linguistic theory, Meaning-Text theory.

About the author

Igor Mel'cuk is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Montreal.

Product details

• Authors: Igor Mel'Cuk
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.1987
• EAN: 9780887064517
• ISBN: 978-0-88706-451-7
• No. of pages: 448
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 222 mm x 35 mm
• Weight: 633 g
• Series: Suny Series in Linguistics; Suny Linguistics
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; Grammatik, Syntax und Morphologie, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Grammar & Punctuation, Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Rhetoric