Fundamentals of French Syntax (review)

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.