This volume brings together a selection of articles illustrating the multifaceted nature of current research in generative syntax. The authors, including some of the leading figures in the field, present analyses of typologically diverse languages, with some studies drawing on dialectal, acquisitional and diachronic evidence. Set against this rich empirical background, the contributions address an equally wide range of theoretical issues.

Drawing upon recent theoretical developments and empirical discoveries, this book provides a coherent and comprehensive introdution to generative research in this field. Dr. Haegeman brings together ten chapters to illustrate the new appraoch to comparative grammar which has developed against the background of the 'principles and parameters' model. The contributors show how this framework guides empirical research by seeking to reveal the underlying grammatical basis for similarities and differences between languages and language groups. Throughout the text, attention is drawn to the ways in which empirical study feeds into theory construction, raising new questions for the overall conceptual framework and sometimes providing new solution

Its twenty-one commissioned chapters serve two functions: they provide a general and theoretical introduction to comparative syntax, its methodology, and its relation to other domains of linguistic inquiry; and they also provide a systematic selection of the best comparative work being done today on those language groups and families where substantial progress has been achieved." "This volume will be an essential resource for scholars and students in formal linguistics."--Jacket.

The present volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 23rd and 24th Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop held at the University of Edinburgh and the Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussels. The contributions provide new perspectives on several topics of current interest for syntactic theory on the basis of comparative data from a wide range of Germanic languages. Among the theoretical and empirical issues explored are various ellipsis phenomena, the internal structure of the DP, the syntax-morphology interface, the syntax-semantics interface, Binding Theory, various diachronic developments, and 'do-support'-type phenomena. This book is of interest to syntacticians with an interest in theoretical, comparative and/or diachronic work, as well as to morphologists and semanticists interested in the connections their fields have with syntax. It will also be of interest to graduate and advanced undergraduate students in linguistic disciplines.

This book provides a detailed survey of Korean and Japanese syntax from a comparative perspective, based within a generative framework. Yukata Sato and Sungdai Cho demonstrate that while the two languages exhibit remarkably similar morphosyntactic features, they behave differently in specific types of construction, with the main differences observed in genitive marking, sentence negation, Negative Polarity Items, the formation of causatives, and passivization. The book also explores pragmatic and sociolinguistic issues in the two languages, and shows that they differ in the perception and realization of 'givenness' as a topic marker and in the influence of relationships of power and distance on the use of honorifics. The authors further offer additional context by exploring the typological relationship between Japanese and Korean and the surrounding languages such as Ainu, and the Chinese and Altaic languages, as well as providing socio-cultural and historical background.

The essays collected in this volume, most previously unpublished, address a number of closely interconnected issues raised by the comparative syntax of functional heads within the Principles-and-Parameters approach. The general theory of head movement, the properties of derived structures created by incorporation, and the parameterization involved are the main theoretical foci. One major empirical area which is addressed concerns head movement in configurations involving certain kinds of operator-like elements, for example, the different manifestations of Verb Second phenomena in Wh and other constructions and the syntax of negative heads and specifiers. In addition, properties of functional heads and head movement in nominal and clausal structures and the causative construction are investigated.

This collection of seven papers studies important aspects of the syntax of Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Rumanian from a comparative perspective based on current linguistic frameworks, including the Minimalist Program. Topics addressed include control, raising, and obviation, negation, noun phrase structure, clitic pronouns, and verb movement.