Syntactic Effects of Conjunctivist Semantics

“Taking a fresh look at argument-adjunct asymmetries, Hunter identifies similarities between the syntactic and semantic distinctions of adjuncts and provides a simple mechanism that explains both at once. This well-written book takes an important step towards a simpler perspective on a vast array of facts.”

“In this impressive study, Hunter argues that movement and adjunction are complex computational operations that share simpler components. His formally explicit version of this intriguing idea unifies a range of otherwise disparate facts concerning the relations among the syntax and semantics of verbs, arguments, and adjuncts. Hunter's analyses are clear, measured, and illuminating.”

“In spite of the centrality of recursion in syntax, the structural character of one of its major exponents, adjunction, has remained a mystery. Previous work has taken adjunction to be a thing apart, a configuration with its own distinctive properties and derivational source. Yet, this view leaves unexplained why adjunction may iterate and why it yields structures that are less tightly integrated and constitute islands for extraction. In Syntactic Effects of Conjunctivist Semantics: Unifying Movement and Adjunction, Tim Hunter tackles this mystery. Hunter provides a mathematically precise reformulation of the fundamental derivational operations of grammar, which allows him to draw an exciting connection between the units of derivation and the constaints imposed by neo-Davidsonian semantic interpretation. Hunter then demonstrates how the previously basic operations of internal merge, external merge, and adjunction, together with their characteristic properties, arise from the composition of the more basic primitives he advocates. This is work of the first caliber; it is lucidly written, empirically and theoretically rich, and, by rethinking the foundations of grammar, makes progress on a long-standing puzzle.”