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This book reflects on key questions of enduring interest on the
nature of syntax, bringing together Grant Goodall's previous
publications and new work exploring how syntactic representations
are structured and the affordances of experimental techniques in
studying them. The volume sheds light on central issues in the
theory of syntax while also elucidating the methods of data
collection which inform them. Featuring Goodall's previous studies
of linguistic phenomena in English, Spanish, and Chinese, and
complemented by a new introduction and material specific to this
volume, the book is divided into four sections around fundamental
strands of syntactic theory. The four parts explore the
dimensionality of syntactic representations; the relationship
between syntactic structure and predicate-argument structure;
interactions between subjects and wh-phrases in questions; and more
detailed investigations of wh-dependencies but from a more overtly
experimental perspective. Taken together, the volume reinforces the
connections between these different aspects of syntax by
highlighting their respective roles in defining what syntactic
objects look like and how the grammar operates on them. This book
will be a valuable resource for scholars in linguistics,
particularly those with an interest in syntax, psycholinguistics,
and Romance linguistics.
The philosophy behind Conectate is simple: take what we know about
second-language learning, combine it with the best practices in
second-language teaching, and infuse it throughout with stimulating
cultural content that challenges students to see themselves and the
world in new ways. The overarching goal is to help instructors
teach a highly effective, consistently engaging, and truly
inspirational course in Spanish that is based on solid research.
*Meaning-based activities: At its core, language is a way of
expressing meaning, so all activities in Conectate guide students
through the process of using Spanish meaningfully, either by
understanding sentences that they hear or see, or by producing
sentences that express what they want to communicate. Students are
given myriad opportunities to engage in meaningful activities
within a rich cultural context in all four skills: listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. *Active-learning approach: Students
learn best when they are fully engaged with the material and are
actively participating in every stage of the learning process.
There is strong evidence that learning improves when students try
to anticipate what is about to be learned or when they test
themselves on what they have just learned. To this end, Conectate
incorporates these techniques in every chapter. Rather than simply
presenting students with a vocabulary list, for instance,
vocabulary activities in Conectate ask students to figure out which
word goes with which meaning, requiring students to engage actively
with the material. Grammar activities, similarly, have students use
a grammar point in meaningful ways right from the start, allowing
them to uncover some basic grammatical properties on their own
before these have been explained to them. As the research
literature and everyday experience show, this type of challenge
leads to better learning outcomes. *Input-to-output sequence: In
every section of Conectate, students focus first on comprehension
and then transition to production. This sequencing of activities
ensures that students are fully prepared to do each activity and
follows a fundamental principle of language acquisition: you learn
to understand before you learn to produce. Whether focused on input
or output, though, all activities are solidly meaning-based. In the
initial activities, students see or hear the words and need to
understand them, while in later activities, they need to speak or
write the words in order to express an idea. *Review: Students
learn best when they revisit topics on a regular basis, so
Conectate builds in review as an integral part of the program. Each
grammar section, for instance, is preceded by a brief
active-learning activity that refreshes students' awareness of a
related grammatical point that they have already seen. In addition,
for certain topics that are known to be challenging, such as object
pronouns, students build up their knowledge incrementally over the
course of several chapters, always reviewing what they have seen
previously before proceeding. *Authentic language and culture:
Students will ultimately be using their Spanish in the real world,
not in a classroom, so Conectate is infused throughout with videos
of Spanish-speakers from all over the world, telling their stories
in a spontaneous, unscripted, and natural way. From the very
beginning, students learn to understand buenos dias, for example,
the way people really say it, and as they proceed, they learn to
understand more extended discourse. The activities are carefully
designed so that beginning students can understand and engage with
this natural speech, despite the fact that it is "real Spanish,"
not language artificially created for a textbook.
This book proposes a radical revision in the definition of phrase
markers, the fundamental object in the generative theory of syntax.
Phrase markers have traditionally been defined in such a way that
each node in the phrase marker must satisfy a relation of either
dominance or precedence with every other node. Grant Goodall argues
convincingly that the dominance and precedence requirement should
be dropped. The argument is lucidly articulated and is supported by
a comprehensive description and analysis of of coordination in
English and of causative and restructuring constructions in the
Romance languages. Parallel Structures in Syntax is a significant
and thoughtful contribution to syntactic theory, and arguably
provides the simplest and most elegant account available of many of
the complex phenomena observed in coordination, causatives, and
restructuring. It will interest not only theoretical linguists, but
also computational linguists and cognitive scientists.
Experimental syntax is an area that is rapidly growing as
linguistic research becomes increasingly focused on replicable
language data, in both fieldwork and laboratory environments. The
first of its kind, this handbook provides an in-depth overview of
current issues and trends in this field, with contributions from
leading international scholars. It pays special attention to
sentence acceptability experiments, outlining current best
practices in conducting tests, and pointing out promising new
avenues for future research. Separate sections review research
results from the past 20 years, covering specific syntactic
phenomena and language types. The handbook also outlines other
common psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic methods for studying
syntax, comparing and contrasting them with acceptability
experiments, and giving useful perspectives on the interplay
between theoretical and experimental linguistics. Providing an
up-to-date reference on this exciting field, it is essential
reading for students and researchers in linguistics interested in
using experimental methods to conduct syntactic research.
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