The Syntactic Phenomena of English

by James D. McCawley

This second edition of James D. McCawley's classic textbook offers in one volume a complete course in the syntactic structure of English. New to this edition are sections on appositive constructions, parasitic gaps, contrastive negation, and comparative conditional sentences, as well as expanded coverage of cleft sentences and free relatives. The presentation is coherent, comprehensive, and systematically organized, beginning with an overview of McCawley's approach to syntactic analysis and progressing through the major constructions and processes of English grammar. No prior special knowledge of syntax is presupposed, and the number and variety of exercises after each chapter have been increased.

And now available from the author! Answers to Selected Exercises .

Instructors using James D. McCawley's The Syntactic Phenomena of English, Second Edition may request a complimentary copy of Answers to Selected Exercises in The Syntactic Phenomena of English by writing on their department's letterhead to the author, James D. McCawley, Department of Linguistics, 1010 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. [ This material is available only from the author and is not available from the University of Chicago Press.]

Genres: Linguistics

834 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Jared Collier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creative and sophisticated syntactic analysis of English, with broader implications to syntax. Author is cutting and original. Definitely worth reading if you want to have a better understanding of syntax.

[Dan'l · Rating 5 out of 5]

Treating English linguistics as an empirical science, McCawley at the University of Chicago dissects English to reveal each gear & tooth of many mechanisms, which is a truly eye-opening experience to probe how the human mind works under the hood, especially when English is one's native language, yet these mechanisms that occur so naturally are in fact deeply obfuscated and operating via a data-structure that is not outwardly presented to the conscious mind.