H. Haider - Böcker

Derivation or Representation? Hubert Haider & Klaus Netter 1 The Issue Derivation and Representation - these keywords refer both to a conceptual as well as to an empirical issue. Transformational grammar was in its outset (Chomsky 1957, 1975) a derivational theory which characterized a well-formed sentence by its derivation, i.e. a set of syntactic representations defined by a set of rules that map one representation into another. The set of mapping­ rules, the transformations, eventually became more and more abstract and were trivialized into a single one, namely "move a" , a general movement-rule. The constraints on movement were singled out in systems of principles that ap­ ply to the resulting representations, i.e. the configurations containing a moved element and its extraction site, the trace. The introduction of trace-theory (d. Chomsky 1977, ch.3 §17, ch. 4) in principle opened up the possibility of com­ pletely abandoning movement and generating the possible outputs of movement directly, i.e. as structures that contain gaps representing the extraction sites.

In recent years, numerous important innovations in generative grammar have originated within the field of Germanic syntax. The 13 comparative studies in this volume aim to demonstrate how much the field has grown both in quantity and quality within the last decade. The topics investigated include the phrase structure of clauses and nominal phrases, morphological and abstract case, binding, and different types of movement (verb movement, scrambling, object shift, extraposition, and topicalization). The studies often cut across the division between Germanic SVO languages and Germanic SOV languages, thus opening new perspectives on the field, and non-Germanic languages such as Bengali and Italian are also included in the discussion.

This volume contains thirteen comparative studies on various aspects of Germanic syntax, as well as a general introduction to the field by the editors. In recent years, numerous important innovations in generative grammar have originated within the field of Germanic syntax. The various contributions to this volume demonstrate clearly how much the field has grown both in quantity and quality within the last decade. The topics investigated include the phrase structure of clauses and nominal phrases, morphological and abstract case, binding, and different types of movement (verb movement, scrambling, object shift, extraposition, and topicalization). The studies often cut across the division between Germanic SVO languages and Germanic SOV languages, thus opening new perspectives on the field. Furthermore, non-Germanic languages like Bengali and Italian are also included in the discussion.Contributors: Josef Bayer; Giuliana Giusti; Hubert Haider; Jarich Hoekstra; Teun Hoekstra; Helen de Hoop; Richard Kayne; Wim Kosmeijer; Joan Maling; Gereon Muller; Ad Neeleman, Susan Olsen, Zvi Penner; Tanya Reinhart; Eric Reuland; Ian Roberts; Manuela Schonenberger; Rex Sprouse; Tarald Taraldsen; Sten Vikner.