Argument Structure

by Jane B. Grimshaw

Argument Structure is a contribution to linguistics at the interface between lexical syntax and lexical semantics. It formulates an original and highly predictive theory of argument structure that accounts for a large number of syntactic phenomena. The main analytical focus is on passives, nominals, psychological predicates, and the theory of external arguments. In the course of Argument Structure , Jane Grimshaw suggests that, contrary to the prevailing view, argument structure is in fact structured; it encodes prominence relations among arguments which reflect both their thematic and their aspectual properties. The prominence relations support a new theory of external arguments, with far reaching consequences for the syntactic behavior of predicates, and the nature of cross-categorial variation in argument structure.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Academic

214 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 1990

Reviews

[Jakub Sláma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well finally the time has come and after like a year I finished this book, and well, I am not a fan. Tedious as hell. Strenuous to work through. Extremely uninteresting. Editing sloppy af. But, most importantly, hello, I hate everything this book represents: the usual generativist crap, going in circles, "explaining" things by reference to your own concoctions & theory-internal assumptions that turn out to be highly problematic, overreliance on introspection that is actually mostly empirically wrong (see e.g. Grimm and McNally's paper "No ordered arguments needed for nouns" and Lieber's monograph English Nouns: The Ecology of Nominalization, which show that some of the crucial claims are simply wrong, and there is a rather big body of literature showing that one of the basic assumptions, i.e. that only complex event nominals have argument structure, is just as wrong), you name it. I hate this book even more than that because of all the other generativists who have been like "yup, Grimshaw got it right," and used this book as if whatever is written in it is the truth, Just, no, for Christ's sake.

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic and intuitive monograph on one of the more elusive aspects of generative linguistics. After reading chapter 2 and getting to grips with the maximal prominence proposal outlined here I felt I better understood and became better equipped to deal with phenomena regarding binding and the predicate-argument relationship that has since been developed in the decades after this work's publication. I would dare say that it is an essential read for linguists interested in syntax and semantics, and the one thing preventing it from being a perfect book in terms of its rating is the slightly poor copy-editing on the end of LI - at least my copy was rife with typos throughout my read.

[Anie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of wonderful ideas, but not as detailed as I would like. Well worth the time, though.