oa Elements of Structural Syntax
This volume appears now finally in English, sixty years after the
death of its author, Lucien Tesnière. It has been translated from
the French original into German, Spanish, Italian, and Russian, and
now at long last into English as well. The volume contains a
comprehensive approach to the syntax of natural languages, an
approach that is foundational for an entire stream in the modern
study of syntax and grammar. This stream is known today as
dependency grammar (DG). Drawing examples from dozens of
languages, many of which he was proficient in, Tesnière presents
insightful analyses of numerous phenomena of syntax. Among the
highlights are the concepts of
valency and
head-initial vs.
head-final languages. These concepts are now taken for
granted by most modern theories of syntax, even by
phrase structure grammars, which represent, in a sense,
the opposite sort of approach to syntax from what Tesnière was
advocating.
Now Open Access as part of the
Knowledge Unlatched 2017 Backlist Collection.
