Aspects of Argument Licensing

Aspects of Argument Licensing PDF Author: Bethany Lochbihler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description

Aspects of Argument Licensing

Aspects of Argument Licensing PDF Author: Bethany Lochbihler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description


Argument Licensing and Agreement

Argument Licensing and Agreement PDF Author: Claire Halpert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190256478
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
The strikingly unrestricted syntactic distribution of nouns in many Bantu languages often leads to proposals that syntactic case does not play an active role in the grammar of Bantu. This book offers a different conclusion that the basis of Zulu that Bantu languages have not only a system of structural case, but also a complex system of morphological case that is comparable to systems found in languages like Icelandic. By comparing the system of argument licensing found in Zulu to those found in more familiar languages, Halpert introduces a number of insights onto the organization of the grammar. First, while this book argues in favor of a case-licensing analysis of Zulu, it locates the positions where case is assigned lower in the clause than what is found in nominative-accusative languages. In addition, Zulu shows evidence that case and agreement are two distinct operations in the language, located on different heads and operating independently of each other. Despite these unfamiliarities, there is evidence that the timing relationships between operations mirror those found in other languages. Second, this book proposes a novel type of morphological case that serves to mask many structural licensing effects in Zulu; the effects of this case are unfamiliar, Halpert argues that its existence is expected given the current typological picture of case. Finally, this book explores the consequences of case and agreement as dissociated operations, showing that given this situation, other unusual properties of Bantu languages, such as hyper-raising, are a natural result. This exploration yields the conclusion that some of the more unusual properties of Bantu languages in fact result from small amounts of variation to deeply familiar syntactic principles such as case, agreement, and the EPP.

Aspect and Argument Licensing in Neo-Aramaic

Aspect and Argument Licensing in Neo-Aramaic PDF Author: Laura Mennen Kalin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
This dissertation explores interactions between grammatical/viewpoint aspect and argument licensing in several endangered Northeastern Neo-Aramaic languages. The most pervasive of these interactions are the aspect-based agreement splits attested across Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (Doron and Khan 2012), where the agreement pattern of the imperfective is partially or completely reversed in the perfective. There are two language types that are of core interest in the dissertation, which form a natural class in that they have a consistent nominative/accusative alignment across aspects and have a restriction on objects in the perfective: (i) partial agreement reversal, with objects that are specific banned in canonical perfective aspect (Senaya), and (ii) complete agreement reversal, with objects that are non-third person banned in canonical perfective aspect (Christian Barwar, Jewish Zakho, Telkepe, i.a.). The dissertation includes novel data and novel observations from languages of both types, namely Senaya (fieldwork by Laura McPherson, Kevin Ryan, and myself) and Jewish Zakho (my own fieldwork). The two aspect splits described above are the topic of Chapter 2, where it is argued that such splits arise because imperfective Asp (in addition to finite T) can license an argument, while perfective Asp cannot (Kalin and van Urk To Appear); additionally, it is argued that v is not an argument licenser in these languages. There is therefore a fundamental distinction between the argument-licensing capacity of canonical perfective aspect (all licensing must come from T) and canonical imperfective aspect (licensing comes from both Asp and T). The ban on specific objects in the perfective in Senaya (partial reversal) is a result of there only being one argument licenser in canonical perfective aspect, T, which will always license the higher argument, the subject. The ban on non-third person objects in the perfective in complete reversal languages is a result of person and number on T probing separately, with only the number probe reaching the object; this induces a Person Case Constraint effect: the object must be third person, because first/second person nominals require agreement with a person probe (Bejar and Rezac 2003). The analysis is couched in a Minimalist framework (Chomsky 2000, 2001), with argument licensing (Case valuation) resulting from phi-agreement. In Neo-Aramaic, argument licensing is spelled out on the probe as morphological agreement, not as morphological case on the nominal. Having a complete picture of how these Neo-Aramaic aspect splits work depends also on understanding the languages' secondary strategy for expressing perfective aspect (whose argument-licensing pattern looks like that of the imperfective), which is taken up in Chapter 3. I propose that there are two adjacent high aspect projections in the clause. The Neo- Aramaic secondary perfective stacks perfective aspect on top of imperfective aspect, and thus has the additional licensing capacity of imperfective aspect (lower Asp is a licenser) while ultimately being perfective semantically. The lower aspect head, which is imperfective, combines with the verb root to determine the root-and-pattern verb base, while the higher aspect head, which is perfective, is spelled out as the prefix qam-. I propose a compositional semantics for the secondary perfective and draw, in particular, parallels with the affixal aspect `stacking' that is seen in Slavic languages (Babko-Malaya 2003, Svenonius 2004, Ramchand 2008, Gribanova 2013, i.a.). A final crucial component of understanding these Neo-Aramaic aspect splits, taken up in Chapter 4, involves characterizing the pattern of Differential Object Marking (DOM) that arises in these languages---only specific objects trigger/require phi-agreement. I propose that differential marking arises from the interaction of two factors that can vary crosslinguistically: (i) where in nominal structure uninterpretable Case merges, and (ii) where in clause structure argument licensers (obligatorily or optionally) merge. I assume that unvalued features do not need to be valued in the course of a derivation (contra Chomsky (2000, 2001) and following Preminger (2011)), and further, that it is possible for a feature to simply be unvalued (and not uninterpretable) (Pesetsky and Torrego 2007). I maintain (with Chomsky (2000, 2001) and Pesetsky and Torrego (2007)) that uninterpretable features do need to be valued in the course of a derivation. My novel proposal for accounting for DOM is that (unlike in existing proposals) all nominals bear unvalued Case, but only some nominals additionally bear uninterpretable Case; all nominals, then, can be valued for Case (all have a Case feature), though only nominals with uninterpretable Case require licensing, i.e., Case valuation. In the Neo-Aramaic language Senaya, uninterpretable Case is introduced inside nominals on the projection that encodes specificity. In imperfective aspect, Asp is the obligatory Case locus (i.e., the obligatory argument licensing locus), while in perfective aspect, the obligatory Case locus is the one and only Case locus, namely, T. Nonspecific nominals in Senaya do not bear uninterpretable Case, and therefore only have their Case feature valued when they are the closest nominal to an obligatory Case locus, i.e., in subject position. Nonspecific nominals in object position do not get their Case feature valued, because they are not in the scope of an obligatory Case licenser, and can in fact surface in a position where Case/licensing is never available, namely, as the object in a canonical perfective. My claim, then, is that unmarked objects in DOM languages are unmarked precisely because their Case feature is unvalued (which does not cause a crash). Overall, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of argument licensing and the aspectual middlefield: aspectual heads are potential argument-licensing loci and can effect agreement/Case-based aspect splits; aspect-based splits need not involve any ergativity; there are two high aspectual projections; and finally, all nominals have a Case feature, but not all nominals require licensing.

Perspectives on Phrase Structure: Heads and Licensing

Perspectives on Phrase Structure: Heads and Licensing PDF Author: Susan Rothstein
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004373195
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explores licensing theory and its implications for a theory of syntax. This book brings a series of papers which focus on developing a constrained set of licensing mechanisms relating elements in a syntactic representation, and on the different properties of lexical and functional heads as licenses of complements and specifiers.

Argument Structure

Argument Structure PDF Author: Eric J. Reuland
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027291268
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Get Book Here

Book Description
Recent developments in the generative tradition have created new interest in matters of argument structure and argument projection, giving prominence to the discussion on the role of lexical entries. Particularly, the more traditional lexicalist view that encodes argument structure information on lexical entries is now challenged by a syntactic view under which all properties of argument structure are taken up by syntactic structure. In the light of these new developments, the contributions in this volume provide detailed empirical investigations of argument structure phenomena in a wide range of languages. The contributions vary in their response to the theoretical questions and address issues that range from the role of specific functional heads and the relation of argument projection with syntactic processes, to the position of argument structure within a broader clausal architecture and the argument structure properties of less studied categories.

Case, Argument Structure, and Word Order

Case, Argument Structure, and Word Order PDF Author: Shigeru Miyagawa
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415878594
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the years, a major strand of Miyagawa's research has been to study how syntax, case marking, and argument structure interact. In particular, Miyagawa's work addresses the nature of the relationship between syntax and argument structure, and how case marking and other phenomena help to elucidate this relationship. In this collection of new and revised pieces, Miyagawa expands and develops new analyses for numeral quantifier stranding, ditransitive constructions, nominative/genitive alternation, "syntactic" analysis of lexical and syntactic causatives, and historical change in the accusative case marking from Old Japanese to Modern Japanese. All of these analyses demonstrate an intimate relation among case marking, argument structure, and word order.

A lexicalist account of argument structure

A lexicalist account of argument structure PDF Author:
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961101213
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 106

Get Book Here

Book Description
There are two prominent schools in linguistics: Minimalism (Chomsky) and Construction Grammar (Goldberg, Tomasello). Minimalism comes with the claim that our linguistic capabilities consist of an abstract, binary combinatorial operation (Merge) and a lexicon. Most versions of Construction Grammar assume that language consists of flat phrasal schemata that contribute their own meaning and may license additional arguments. This book examines a variant of Lexical Functional Grammar, which is lexical in principle but was augmented by tools that allow for the description of phrasal constructions in the Construction Grammar sense. These new tools include templates that can be used to model inheritance hierarchies and a resource driven semantics. The resource driven semantics makes it possible to reach the effects that lexical rules had, for example remapping of arguments, by semantic means. The semantic constraints can be evaluated in the syntactic component, which is basically similar to the delayed execution of lexical rules. So this is a new formalization that might be suitable to provide solutions to longstanding problems that are not available for other formalizations. While the authors suggest a lexical treatment of many phenomena and only assume phrasal constructions for selected phenomena like benefactive and resultative constructions in English, it can be shown that even these two constructions should not be treated phrasally in English and that the analysis would not extend to other languages as for instance German. I show that the new formal tools do not really improve the situation and many of the basic conceptual problems remain. Since this specific proposal fails for two constructions, it follows that proposals (in the same framework) that assume phrasal analyses for all constructions are not appropriate either. The conclusion is that lexical models are needed and this entails that the schemata that combine syntactic objects are rather abstract (as in Categorial Grammar, Minimalism, HPSG and standard LFG). On the other hand there are constructions that should be treated by very specific, phrasal schemata as in Construction Grammar and LFG and HPSG. So the conclusion is that both schools are right (and wrong) and that a combination of ideas from both camps is needed.

Arguments and Agreement

Arguments and Agreement PDF Author: Peter Ackema
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019928573X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores the role of agreement morphology in the morphosyntactic realization of a verb's arguments. It examines the differences and parallels between configurational and nonconfigurational languages, languages that allow pronoun drop only in particular constructions, and languages which always require overt syntactic determiner phrases as arguments. These and related issues are explored in the context of a wide range of languages. The book will interest linguists at graduate level and above concerned with morphosyntactic theory, typology, and the interactions of syntax and morphology in different languages.

Coping with Obscurity

Coping with Obscurity PDF Author: James P. Allen
Publisher: Lockwood Press
ISBN: 1937040437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Get Book Here

Book Description
Coping with Obscurity publishes the papers discussed at the Brown University Workshop on Earlier Egyptian grammar in March, 2013. The workshop united ten scholars of differing viewpoints dealing with the central question of how to judge and interpret the grammatical value of the written evidence preserved in texts of the Old and Middle Kingdoms (ca. 2350-1650 BC). The nine papers in the volume present orthographic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic approaches to the data and represent a significant step toward a new, pluralistic understanding of Earlier Egyptian grammar.

Problems in Argument Analysis and Evaluation

Problems in Argument Analysis and Evaluation PDF Author: Trudy Govier
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110859246
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book Here

Book Description
No detailed description available for "Problems in Argument Analysis and Evaluation".