Robert D. Borsley – författare

This 1996 volume brings together ten chapters on the Celtic languages using the insights of principles-and-parameters theory. The leading researchers in the field examine Welsh, Irish, Breton and Scots Gaelic in comparative perspective, making reference to recent work on English, French, Arabic, German and other languages. The editors have provided a substantial introduction which seeks to make the volume accessible to theoreticians unfamiliar with the Celtic languages and also to Celtic specialists who are less familiar with the theoretical framework underpinning the work. The Syntax of the Celtic Languages makes a substantial contribution both to linguistic theory and to our understanding of the Celtic languages.

This 1996 volume brings together ten chapters on the Celtic languages using the insights of principles-and-parameters theory. The leading researchers in the field examine Welsh, Irish, Breton and Scots Gaelic in comparative perspective, making reference to recent work on English, French, Arabic, German and other languages. The editors have provided a substantial introduction which seeks to make the volume accessible to theoreticians unfamiliar with the Celtic languages and also to Celtic specialists who are less familiar with the theoretical framework underpinning the work. The Syntax of the Celtic Languages makes a substantial contribution both to linguistic theory and to our understanding of the Celtic languages.

Welsh, like the other Celtic languages, is best known amongst linguists for its verb-initial word order and its use of initial consonant mutations. However it has many more characteristics which are of interest to syntacticians. This book, first published in 2007, provides a concise and accessible overview of the major syntactic phenomena of Welsh. A broad variety of topics are covered, including finite and infinitival clauses, noun phrases, agreement and tense, word order, clause structure, dialect variation, and the language's historical Celtic background. Drawing on work carried out in both Principles and Parameters theory and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar, it takes contemporary colloquial Welsh as its starting point and draws contrasts with a range of literary and dialectal forms of the language, as well as earlier forms (Middle Welsh) were appropriate. An engaging guide to all that is interesting about Welsh syntax, this book will be welcomed by syntactic theorists, typologists, historical linguists and Celticists alike.

This book looks at the ways in which negation works in Welsh. It shows that there are a number of ways of forming a negative sentence, and explains the conventions which native speakers follow when they use negative patterns. It also considers the implications of the Welsh facts for general theories of negation.

Welsh, like the other Celtic languages, is best known amongst linguists for its verb-initial word order and its use of initial consonant mutations. However it has many more characteristics which are of interest to syntacticians. This book, first published in 2007, provides a concise and accessible overview of the major syntactic phenomena of Welsh. A broad variety of topics are covered, including finite and infinitival clauses, noun phrases, agreement and tense, word order, clause structure, dialect variation, and the language's historical Celtic background. Drawing on work carried out in both Principles and Parameters theory and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar, it takes contemporary colloquial Welsh as its starting point and draws contrasts with a range of literary and dialectal forms of the language, as well as earlier forms (Middle Welsh) were appropriate. An engaging guide to all that is interesting about Welsh syntax, this book will be welcomed by syntactic theorists, typologists, historical linguists and Celticists alike.

Das Buch führt in die beiden wichtigsten Versionen der Syntax-Theorie des letzten Jahrzehnts ein, in die Government and Binding Theory der generativen Grammatik Chromskyscher Prägung und in die moderne Phrasen-Struktur-Grammatik, namentlich in die Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar und die Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Es ist so angelegt, daß nach einer Reihe von Kapiteln, die in syntaktische Grundprobleme einführen, über die in der Linguistik weitgehende Übereinstimmung herrscht, in den anschließenden Kapiteln verschiedene Phänomenbereiche vorgeführt werden, die in den beiden genannten Hauptrichtungen der Syntax-Theorie je unterscheidlich analysiert werden.

Im einzelnen werden folgende Komplexe behandelt: (1) Einleitung, (2) Konstituentenstrukturen, (3) syntaktische Regeln, (4) syntaktische Kategorien, (5) Köpfe und Komplemente, (6) Subjekte und Prädikate, (7) nichtkanonische Komplemente und Subjekte, (8) grammatische Funktionen, (9) Passivkonstruktionen, (10) Hebungskonstruktionen, (11) Kontrolle, (12) Wh-Abhängigkeiten, (13) Inselbeschränkungen und (14) ein abschließender Vergleich der beiden Syntax-Theorien. Das Buch umfaßt ferner ein Literaturverzeichnis, ein Glossar mit der Erklärung wichtiger Begriffe und ein Stichwortregister. Die deutsche Version des Buchs - die Originalausgabe erschien 1991 bei Edward Arnold unter dem Titel "Syntactic Theory. A unified approach" - ist wesentlich umfangreicher als die englische Version, da sie die verschiedenen syntax-theoretischen Probleme nicht nur anhand des Englischen, sondern auch anhand des Deutschen erörtert. Dadurch ergeben sich für die Leser interessante Möglichkeiten des Vergleichs zwischen den Struktureigenschaften beider Sprachen. Darüberhinaus wird deutlich, daß die unterschiedlichen Struktureigenschaften beider Sprachen partiell differenzierte theoretische Zugänge erfordern.