Competition in Syntax

Competition in Syntax PDF Author: Gereon Müller
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110829061
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

Competition in Syntax

Competition in Syntax PDF Author: Gereon Müller
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110829061
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Get Book Here

Book Description
The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

Is the Best Good Enough?

Is the Best Good Enough? PDF Author: Pilar Barbosa
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262522496
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
These include new versions of an old debate between constraints on derivations and constraints on representations and entirely new questions about the nature of the candidate set, as well as questions about learnability and computability.

Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation

Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation PDF Author: Franz Rainer
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030025500
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
This is the first volume specifically dedicated to competition in inflection and word-formation, a topic that has increasingly attracted attention. Semantic categories, such as concepts, classes, and feature bundles, can be expressed by more than one form or formal pattern. This departure from the ideal principle "one form – one meaning" is particularly frequent in morphology, where it has been treated under diverse headings, such as blocking, Elsewhere Condition, Pāṇini's Principle, rivalry, synonymy, doublets, overabundance, suppletion and other terms. Since these research traditions, despite the heterogeneous terminology, essentially refer to the same underlying problems, this volume unites the phenomena studied in this field of linguistic morphology under the more general heading of competition. The volume features an extensive state of the art report on the subject and 11 research papers, which represent various theoretical approaches to morphology and address a wide range of aspects of competition, including morphophonology, lexicology, diachrony, language contact, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and language acquisition.

Structural Competition in Grammar

Structural Competition in Grammar PDF Author: Roni A. Katzir
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
This thesis makes the following three claims: (1) Competition exists in natural language: the grammaticality (and meaning) of using a linguistic object 0 can be affected by the grammaticality (and meaning) of a different linguistic object [phi]' (2) Structure plays a role in competition: [phi]' can only affect the grammaticality (and meaning) of [phi]' of [phi]' and [phi]' are structurally related (in particular, if [phi]' is no more complex than [phi]' (3) Simpler is better: if 0 is strictly more complex than [phi]', and if the two are equally good otherwise, q will be blocked by [phi]' The first claim is the most general and the least controversial. It adds little to what is commonly accepted in the domains of conversational implicature, focus alternatives, morphological blocking, and economy conditions in syntax and semantics. Chapter 1 presents background on some of the issues regarding this general claim. The second claim is more controversial. Most work on implicature has treated considerations of structural complexity as unimportant or downright orthogonal to conversational reasoning. In the domain of focus alternatives structure has been occasionally used (in particular, below the word level), but argued to be irrelevant otherwise. In Chapter 2 I will present a case study that shows that, at least sometimes, reference to structure (specifically to structural complexity) is necessary. Chapter 3, jointly written with Danny Fox, discusses a remaining question about the use of alternatives for implicature and provides arguments for a parallel treatment of implicature and focus, as well as for a constraint on the ability of contextual relevance to remove a formal alternative from the set of actual alternatives. In Chapter 4 I discuss certain cases of morphological blocking that cannot be based solely on structural pruning. For the patterns to be accounted for, a direct preference for simpler structures must be active in the grammar.

The Oxford Handbook of Language Attrition

The Oxford Handbook of Language Attrition PDF Author: Monika S. Schmid
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
ISBN: 0198793596
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 657

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Book Description
This volume is the first handbook dedicated to language attrition, the study of how a speaker's language may be affected by crosslinguistic interference and non-use. Topics covered include theoretical implications, psycho- and neurolinguistic approaches, linguistic and extralinguistic factors, L2 attrition, and heritage languages.

Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage

Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage PDF Author: Brian MacWhinney
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191019771
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
This volume examines the conflicting factors that shape the content and form of grammatical rules in language usage. Speakers and addressees need to contend with these rules when expressing themselves and when trying to comprehend messages. For example, there are on-going competitions between the speaker's interests and the addressee's needs, or between constraints imposed by grammar and those imposed by online processing. These competitions influence a wide variety of systems, including case marking, agreement and word order, politeness forms, lexical choices, and the position of relative clauses. Chapters in the book analyse grammar and usage in adult language as well as first and second language acquisition, and the motivations that drive historical change. Several of the chapters seek explanations for the competitions involved, based on earlier accounts including the Competition Model, Natural Morphology, the functional-typological tradition, and Optimality Theory. The book will be of interest to linguists from a wide variety of backgrounds, particularly those interested in psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, philosophy of language, and language acquisition, from advanced undergraduate level upwards.

Phrase Structures in Competition

Phrase Structures in Competition PDF Author: Susan Pintzuk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100052518X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
First published in 1999. This book investigates variation and change in Old English word order, with special emphasis on the position of the verb.

Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage

Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage PDF Author: Brian MacWhinney
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198709846
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
This volume examines the conflicting factors that shape the content and form of grammatical rules in language usage. Speakers and addressees need to contend with these rules when expressing themselves and when trying to comprehend messages. For example, there are on-going competitions between the speaker's interests and the addressee's needs, or between constraints imposed by grammar and those imposed by online processing. These competitions influence a wide variety of systems, including case marking, agreement and word order, politeness forms, lexical choices, and the position of relative clauses. Chapters in the book analyse grammar and usage in adult language as well as first and second language acquisition, and the motivations that drive historical change. Several of the chapters seek explanations for the competitions involved, based on earlier accounts including the Competition Model, Natural Morphology, the functional-typological tradition, and Optimality Theory. The book will be of interest to linguists from a wide variety of backgrounds, particularly those interested in psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, philosophy of language, and language acquisition, from advanced undergraduate level upwards.

Current Approaches to Syntax

Current Approaches to Syntax PDF Author: András Kertész
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110540258
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 616

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Book Description
Even though the range of phenomena syntactic theories intend to account for is basically the same, the large number of current approaches to syntax shows how differently these phenomena can be interpreted, described, and explained. The goal of the volume is to probe into the question of how exactly these frameworks differ and what if anything they have in common.Descriptions of a sample of current approaches to syntax are presented by their major practitioners (Part I) followed by their metatheoretical underpinnings (Part II). Given that the goal is to facilitate a systematic comparison among the approaches, a checklist of issues was given to the contributors to address. The main headings are Data, Goals, Descriptive Tools, and Criteria for Evaluation. The chapters are structured uniformly allowing an item-by-item survey across the frameworks. The introduction lays out the parameters along which syntactic frameworks must be the same and how they may differ and a final paper draws some conclusions about similarities and differences.The volume is of interest to descriptive linguists, theoreticians of grammar, philosophers of science, and studies of the cognitive science of science.

Optimality-Theoretic Syntax

Optimality-Theoretic Syntax PDF Author: Geraldine Legendre
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262263504
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 580

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Book Description
Recent work in theoretical syntax has revealed the strong explanatory power of the notions of economy, competition, and optimization. Building grammars entirely upon these elements, Optimality Theory syntax provides a theory of universal grammar with a formally precise and strongly restricted theory of universal typology: cross-linguistic variation arises exclusively from the conflict among universal principles.Beginning with a general introduction to Optimality Theory syntax, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art, as represented by the work of the leading developers of the theory. The broad range of topics treated includes morphosyntax (case, inflection, voice, and cliticization), the syntax of reference (control, anaphora, and pronominalization), the gammar of clauses (complementizers and their absence), and grammatical and discourse effects in word order. Among the theoretical themes running throughout are the interplay between faithfulness and markedness, and various questions of typology and of inventory. Contributors Peter Ackema, Judith Aissen, Eric Bakovic, Joan Bresnan, Hye-Won Choi, João Costa, Jane Grimshaw, Edward Keer, Géraldine Legendre, Gereon Müller, Ad Neeleman, Vieri Samek-Lodovici, Peter Sells, Margaret Speas, Sten Vikner, Colin Wilson, Ellen Woolford