James D. McCawley, The Syntactic Phenomena of English, second edition

James McCawley was ? a Professor in the Departments of Linguistics and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He wrote this book as a syntax textbook to be useful for a two-quarter sequence devoted to a detailed analysis of a large number of syntactic phenomena in English and to an exposition of the ideas of syntactic theory that are valuable as aids to exploring and understanding syntactic phenomena. He mentioned as a prerequisite a reasonably demanding introductory linguistics sequence. However, thanks to the clear and accessible writing style, as well as a coherent and systematic presentation, the amount of prior knowledge of syntax necessary for comprehending the material is fairly low. To the readers’ benefit, the book contains a great amount of material, certainly far more than could be covered in a two-quarter sequence, and probably even more than would be feasible to cover in a one-year sequence. Therefore, as a textbook it offers an abundance of course material for the instructors to choose from, and for the students to supplement the material covered in the classroom. Each chapter except the first includes exercises which encourage students to practice doing linguistics by asking the sort of questions that a linguist asks when investigating, describing or explaining some phenomenon. Quite a few selected wrong answers to exercises are also provided. One thing that I personally miss in comparison to other fine textbooks is a “recommended further reading” section at the end of each chapter. Although citations are given throughout the text, and although (or perhaps: because) the book as a whole contains a vast list of bibliographical references covering 15 pages, it would have been useful to have a short survey of related literature relevant to the phenomena discussed in individual chapters. Last but not least, thanks to the breath and depth of the discussion as well as a well worked out index, the book lends itself as an excellent reference work of English syntax.