Daniel Altshuler and Robert Truswell, Coordination and the Syntax-Discourse Interface (Oxford Surveys in Syntax and Morphology 11). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xii + 315.

Abstract

In the last half century, much research has focused on the nature of coordination, particularly on its extraction patterns, collectively dubbed as the Coordinate Structure Constraint (CSC) by Ross (1967). The first part of the CSC, known as the Conjunct Constraint, bans the extraction of conjuncts (*Who did you see Robin and _?), and the second part, known as the Element Constraint, blocks extraction from conjuncts (*Who did you see Robin and a picture of _?). The latter is circumvented when extraction is Across-the-Board (Who did you buy a picture of _and a book about _?) or when the the order of conjuncts has certain asymmetrical interpretations, such as narration (e.g. Here’s the whiskey which I went to the store and bought _) or violated expectation (e.g. How much can you drink_and still stay sober]?). Prior research on the CSC focuses on the syntax or semantic-pragmatic components, not on their interaction. The strength of this monograph is precisely the attention that both domains earn. The conclusion (276) is that neither syntax nor discourse is exclusively responsible for explaining the observable extraction patterns; rather, both are needed to fully understand how coordination interacts with the grammar of extraction. This book offers a deep examination of the role that discourse restrictions play in explaining how extraction works in coordination, covering an extraordinary amount of data. Apart from minor issues discussed below, it is well-argued. Chapter 2 surveys definitions of the object of study and coordination, and it concludes that they defy a cross-linguistic characterization, as there are no necessary and sufficient morphosyntactic properties in the languages of the world. Another challenge for a definition of coordination that the authors mention is ‘nonconstituent’ coordination phenomena, such as Right-Node Raising (RNR) andGapping, but the problemwith this claim is that these phenomena are not strictly related to coordination: