Studies in Contemporary Phrase Structure Grammar (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Studies in contemporary phrase structure grammar ed. by Robert D. Levine, Georgia M. Green Michael A. Covington Studies in contemporary phrase structure grammar. Ed. by Robert D. Levine and Georgia M. Green. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. iv, 335. This book contains seven papers on aspects of head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG) preceded by a fast-paced introduction by the editors to the current version of HPSG (1–38) in which a number of quite different-looking notations are reconciled. A bit more explicitness would be welcome in places, e.g. examples 2 and 3 on pp. 3–4 actually encode different, small parts of example 1, and the connection among the three is not obvious. Likewise, it was not quite obvious to me how example 13 on p. 11 encodes the whole of tree 15, as the authors seem to indicate, rather than just the root of it. The account of equi and raising on p. 14 would have benefited from a couple of example sentences. However, perhaps this introduction was not meant for newcomers. On pp. 28–35 the editors give a good overview of the rest of the volume. Two of the papers analyze Japanese causatives and reach opposite conclusions. The question is whether causatives (such as tabesase ‘cause to eat’ from tabe ‘eat’) are syntactically complex structures or single words generated in the lexicon. In favor of the lexical account are the facts that the form of -(s)ase is morphologically conditioned; verb reduplication, honorification, and other processes treat tabesase (etc.) as a unit; and some causatives have undergone semantic drift. In favor of a nonlexical analysis: Adverbs can have scope over just the inner verb in a causative; a causative verb can be used with a noncausative gerundive, which takes on a causative sense, as if one -(s)ase were modifying two verbs; and there are some signs that binding and quantifier scope can ‘see into’ causatives. Christopher D. Manning, Ivan Sag, and Masayo Iida (39–79) argue that the lexicalist hypothesis is correct and that the resulting HPSG structure is rich enough to account for the putative counterevidence. Their key tactic is to move the two-level structure of a causative into its argument list, which is visible to quantifier scope and binding. Takao Gunji (119–60) takes the opposite tack, giving causatives a two-level structure in the syntax though not in the morphology or phonology. His crucial move is to make morphology a separate structural level from syntax. The other five papers are ‘A syntax and semantics for purposive adjuncts in HPSG’ (Michael J. R. Johnston, 80–118); ‘Modal flip and partial verb phrase fronting in German’ (Kathryn L. Baker, 161–98); ‘A lexical comment on a syntactic topic’ (i.e. topicalization, Kazuhiko Fukushima, 199–222); ‘Agreement and the syntax-morphology interface in HPSG’ (Andreas Kathol, 223–74); and ‘Partial VP and split NP topicalization in German’ (Erhard W. Hinrichs and Tsuneko Nakazawa, 275–332). All of them attack linguistic problems whose significance is not confined to HPSG. Michael A. Covington University of Georgia Copyright © 2001 Linguistic Society of America