Rob Truswell

This survey explores interactions between syntax and discourse, through a case study of patterns of extraction from coordinate structures. The theoretical breadth of the volume makes it the most complete account of extraction from coordinate structures to date: at first glance, it appears to be a syntactic matter, but the survey raises theoretical and empirical questions not just for syntax, but also across semantics, pragmatics, and discourse structure. Rather than promoting a single analysis, Daniel Altshuler and Robert Truswell outline reasonable hypotheses that allow theoretical conclusions to be deducted from empirical facts. The theoretical conclusions show that coordinate structures have the potential to discriminate between current syntactic theories, and to inform work on the interfaces between syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse. In many cases, however, the necessary empirical work has not yet been carried out, and too much of the literature revolves around the same handful of primarily English examples. The volume offers a starting point for further research on extraction from coordinate structures, particularly in understudied languages, and provides a guide to how to tease out the theoretical implications of empirical findings.

Data from a study by Savage-Rumbaugh and colleagues on comprehension of spoken English requests by a bonobo and a human infant supports Fitch's hypothesis that humans exhibit dendrophilia, or a propensity to manipulate tree structures, to a greater extent than other species. However, findings from language acquisition suggest that human infants do not show an initial preference for certain hierarchical syntactic structures. Infants are slow to acquire and generalize the structures in question, but they can eventually do so. Kanzi, in contrast, is dendrophobic: even though his non-hierarchical strategy impairs comprehension, he never acquires the hierarchical structure.

Offering an introduction to current research in event structure, the study of the role of events in grammar, this volume reflects the growth in the field. The area of study breaks down into several interrelated questions: How do we perceive events? How do events as objects of perception relate to linguistic event descriptions? What structural distinctions can we make among events, and how are these distinctions reflected grammatically? How do events relate to their participants? To what extent does syntax constrain the grammar of event descriptions? Different sections consider the implications of the Davidsonian event variable for aspects of natural language metaphysics; the relationship of event structure to morphosyntax; crosslinguistic variation in event descriptions; and less narrowly grammatical aspects of event structure.