Synthetic Syntax, Meaning, and Philosophical Questions – Rastall Paul (2022)

The book is a collection of twelve original chapters that address various syntactic, semantic, and philosophical questions. The author approaches these issues integratively or holistically and supports his arguments with numerous examples from languages as diverse as English, Russian, and Malay, among others. Each chapter is a standalone text, but the entire collection is bound by an overarching common theme, a unified theory, and methodology. The key concept of the book is synthetic syntax, which represents a fundamental alternative to most contemporary syntactic approaches. Rastall advocates for understanding language as a means by which people express their experiences. At the core of this approach is intra-linguistic and inter-linguistic diversity. Aspects of experience are captured (or named) by basic linguistic units, signs (both words and idioms and sayings), and these signs are grouped to reflect the actual or perceived relationships between these aspects of experience. The processes of naming and grouping are interconnected, and therefore, in this approach, syntax and semantics are integrated. However, Rastall does not present merely sterile formal analyses of these issues; rather, he discusses and reflects on them in the form of an essay. This...