Diagnosing Syntax

Diagnosis is an essential part of scientific research. It refers to the process of identifying a phenomenon, property, or condition on the basis of certain signs and by the use of various diagnostic procedures. This book is the first ever to consider the use of diagnostics in syntactic research and focuses on the five core domains of natural language syntax - ellipsis, agreement, anaphora, phrasal movement, and head movement. Each empirical domain is considered in turn from the perspectives of syntax, syntax at the interfaces, neuropsycholinguistics, and language diversity. Drawing on the expertise of 20 leading scholars and their empirically rich data, the book presents current thoughts on, and practical answers to, the question What are the diagnostic signs, techniques and procedures that can be used to analyse natural language syntax? It will interest linguists, including formalists, typologists, psycholinguists and neurolinguists.

Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng is Chair Professor of Linguistics at Leiden University. She received her PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 1991. Her main research interests include comparative syntax (both micro- and macro-comparation), syntax-semantics interface and syntax-phonology interface. Some recent research topics include verb doubling, free choice items and prosodic domains. She has published in Linguistic Inquiry, The Linguistic Review, Syntax, Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Journal of African Language and Linguistics, Natural Language Semantics, and Journal of Semantics.

Norbert Corver is Professor of Dutch Linguistics at Utrecht University. He received his PhD in Linguistics from Tilburg University in 1990. His main research interests are Dutch syntax, micro- and macro-comparative syntax, the study of syntax at the interface with information structure and affect. Some recent research topics include predicate displacement, the internal syntax of adjective phrases, NP-ellipsis, the syntax of interjections, exclamatives and curse expressions. He has published in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Linguistic Inquiry, The Linguistic Review, Lingua, Linguistics, and The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics.