- Fundamentals of French syntax by Christopher Gledhill
The purpose of Ctopher Gledhill’s book is to bridge the gap between introductory texts that deal with traditional grammar and theoretical studies of French syntax. G includes not only a discussion of language-particular twists within a simplified version of X-bar theory and the principles and parameters framework, but also closely related exercises with answer keys, and a survey of several key books in this area. Even though the author assumes very little knowledge in theoretical syntax, it is taken for granted that the reader has a good working knowledge of French: while the book is written in English, no glosses are provided for the French data.
Ch. 1 (7–16) consists of an introduction to such concepts as grammar and syntax and other basic terminology. Ch. 2 presents the core phrase structure rules of French, for example, rules for PP, NP, S, and so on (17–33, followed by exercises, 34–41). Ch. 3 focuses on the clause level, introducing recursion, coordination, and subordination (43–58, followed by exercises, 59–64). Ch. 4 presents X-bar theory and discusses word-order restrictions in French in terms of the complement modifier/adjunct distinction (65–88; exercises, 89–96). More intricate issues at the level of the clause are dealt with in Ch. 5 (97–139; exercises, 140–46), for example, information structure, dislocation, cleft-clauses, question formation, control, and raising or causative clauses with faire.
In Ch. 6 (147–63), G includes an overview of several key books in this area and a series of open issues intended to guide hypothetical research. This chapter is followed by a glossary of syntactic terms (165–77).
On the whole, this book is a quite useful introduction to French syntax and the basics of X-bar theory. The glossary, the exercises, and the literature overview seem very adequate pedagogical tools.