Reviews for Cambridge Companion to Saussure

The average rating for Cambridge Companion to Saussure based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-12-22 00:00:00 Nate Ahlness I recommend it if you want to get a general history of case within formal linguistics. I also liked the chapters on ergativity and localist theories. However, the book lacked other paradigms that discuss case, e.g., Cognitive linguistics treatments of case (and case prototypicality and polysemy), or treatments within construction grammar approaches. This is surprising, given that the title is so general that one would naturally expect more comprehensiveness. Slightly problematic is that research dating from 1993 is called "recent literature" (in 2006!). I did enjoy the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. They were funny and apt.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-07-06 00:00:00 Kem Kob This book is most suitable for those completely new to syntax wishing a generative-ish introduction to the topic. The approach is original: as described circumstantially on the back flap of the tome, the textbook mainly introduces the learner to a new style of thinking about syntax and language in general. However, if you already have an idea of what linguistics entails and its methods are, and maybe have some knowledge of any syntactic theory, this book might come across as a nuisance rather than a helpful guide. Its explanations are lengthy and, frankly, slightly uninformative. Overexplanations of even the simplest of concepts are repeated ad nauseam. After reading one hundred pages, one wonders what exactly one has learned - if one hasn't given up already, because reading those lengthy considerations is extremely time-consuming. The whole book could probably be summarised in less than twenty pages. Read this if you're new to syntax and envisage a future at the more formalist end of the spectrum. Don't read this if you want an efficient and state-of-the-art intro to generative syntax.