Author: Uli Sauerland
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110207559
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
Human language is a phenomenon of immense richness: It provides finely nuanced means of expression that underlie the formation of culture and society; it is subject to subtle, unexpected constraints like syntactic islands and cross-over phenomena; different mutually-unintelligeable individual languages are numerous; and the descriptions of individual languages occupy thousands of pages. Recent work in linguistics, however, has tried to argue that despite all appearances to the contrary, the human biological capacity for language may be reducible to a small inventory of core cognitive competencies. The most radical version of this view has emerged from the Minimalist Program: The claim that language consists of only the ability to generate recursive structures by a computational mechanism. On this view, all other properties of language must result from the interaction at the interfaces of that mechanism and other mental systems not exclusively devoted to language. Since language could then be described as the simplest recursive system satisfying the requirements of the interfaces, one can speak of the Minimalist Equation: Interfaces + Recursion = Language. The question whether all the richness of language can be reduced to that minimalist equation has already inspired several fruitful lines of research that led to important new results. While a full assessment of the minimalist equation will require evidence from many different areas of inquiry, this volume focuses especially on the perspective of syntax and semantics. Within the minimalist architecture, this places our concern with the core computational mechanism and the (LF-)interface where recursive structures are fed to interpretation. Specific questions that the papers address are: What kind of recursive structures can the core generator form? How can we determine what the simplest recursive system is? How can properties of language that used to be ascribed to the recursive generator be reduced to interface properties? What effects do syntactic operations have on semantic interpretation? To what extent do models of semantic interpretation support the LF-interface conditions postulated by minimalist syntax?
Interfaces + Recursion = Language?
Author: Uli Sauerland
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110207559
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
Human language is a phenomenon of immense richness: It provides finely nuanced means of expression that underlie the formation of culture and society; it is subject to subtle, unexpected constraints like syntactic islands and cross-over phenomena; different mutually-unintelligeable individual languages are numerous; and the descriptions of individual languages occupy thousands of pages. Recent work in linguistics, however, has tried to argue that despite all appearances to the contrary, the human biological capacity for language may be reducible to a small inventory of core cognitive competencies. The most radical version of this view has emerged from the Minimalist Program: The claim that language consists of only the ability to generate recursive structures by a computational mechanism. On this view, all other properties of language must result from the interaction at the interfaces of that mechanism and other mental systems not exclusively devoted to language. Since language could then be described as the simplest recursive system satisfying the requirements of the interfaces, one can speak of the Minimalist Equation: Interfaces + Recursion = Language. The question whether all the richness of language can be reduced to that minimalist equation has already inspired several fruitful lines of research that led to important new results. While a full assessment of the minimalist equation will require evidence from many different areas of inquiry, this volume focuses especially on the perspective of syntax and semantics. Within the minimalist architecture, this places our concern with the core computational mechanism and the (LF-)interface where recursive structures are fed to interpretation. Specific questions that the papers address are: What kind of recursive structures can the core generator form? How can we determine what the simplest recursive system is? How can properties of language that used to be ascribed to the recursive generator be reduced to interface properties? What effects do syntactic operations have on semantic interpretation? To what extent do models of semantic interpretation support the LF-interface conditions postulated by minimalist syntax?
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110207559
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
Human language is a phenomenon of immense richness: It provides finely nuanced means of expression that underlie the formation of culture and society; it is subject to subtle, unexpected constraints like syntactic islands and cross-over phenomena; different mutually-unintelligeable individual languages are numerous; and the descriptions of individual languages occupy thousands of pages. Recent work in linguistics, however, has tried to argue that despite all appearances to the contrary, the human biological capacity for language may be reducible to a small inventory of core cognitive competencies. The most radical version of this view has emerged from the Minimalist Program: The claim that language consists of only the ability to generate recursive structures by a computational mechanism. On this view, all other properties of language must result from the interaction at the interfaces of that mechanism and other mental systems not exclusively devoted to language. Since language could then be described as the simplest recursive system satisfying the requirements of the interfaces, one can speak of the Minimalist Equation: Interfaces + Recursion = Language. The question whether all the richness of language can be reduced to that minimalist equation has already inspired several fruitful lines of research that led to important new results. While a full assessment of the minimalist equation will require evidence from many different areas of inquiry, this volume focuses especially on the perspective of syntax and semantics. Within the minimalist architecture, this places our concern with the core computational mechanism and the (LF-)interface where recursive structures are fed to interpretation. Specific questions that the papers address are: What kind of recursive structures can the core generator form? How can we determine what the simplest recursive system is? How can properties of language that used to be ascribed to the recursive generator be reduced to interface properties? What effects do syntactic operations have on semantic interpretation? To what extent do models of semantic interpretation support the LF-interface conditions postulated by minimalist syntax?
Interfaces in Language 3
Author: Vikki Janke
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443865761
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 195
Book Description
This third volume of the Interfaces in Language series brings together a collection of papers which were presented at the University of Kent’s Interfaces in Language 3 conference of May 2011. In line with the conference’s title, applications which held true to the interface theme were invited, yet no restrictions were placed on the way in which ‘interface’ was interpreted. A range of talks were thus included, some of which conformed to established demarcations within the discipline, others of which flouted them entirely and unashamedly. All were welcome. The result was a heterogeneous set of talks, interspersed with and complemented by lively discussions, confirming that the interdisciplinary setting staged was a successful way of cultivating discussion between linguists who might otherwise not cross paths. The papers chosen for publication here include both diachronic and synchronic approaches to language, generative and non-generative frameworks, as well as typological and theory-driven perspectives. The result can only be described as an eclectic mix. We invite the reader to decide upon its success.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443865761
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 195
Book Description
This third volume of the Interfaces in Language series brings together a collection of papers which were presented at the University of Kent’s Interfaces in Language 3 conference of May 2011. In line with the conference’s title, applications which held true to the interface theme were invited, yet no restrictions were placed on the way in which ‘interface’ was interpreted. A range of talks were thus included, some of which conformed to established demarcations within the discipline, others of which flouted them entirely and unashamedly. All were welcome. The result was a heterogeneous set of talks, interspersed with and complemented by lively discussions, confirming that the interdisciplinary setting staged was a successful way of cultivating discussion between linguists who might otherwise not cross paths. The papers chosen for publication here include both diachronic and synchronic approaches to language, generative and non-generative frameworks, as well as typological and theory-driven perspectives. The result can only be described as an eclectic mix. We invite the reader to decide upon its success.
Language Change at the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Author: Chiara Gianollo
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110352303
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368
Book Description
Bringing together diachronic research from a variety of perspectives, notably typology, formal syntax and semantics, this volume focuses on the interplay of syntactic and semantic factors in language change - an issue so far largely neglected both in (mostly lexical) historical semantics as well as historical syntax, but recently brought into focus by grammaticalization theory as well as Minimalist diachronic syntax. The contributions draw on data from numerous Indo-European languages including Vedic Sanskrit, Middle Indic, Greek as well as English and German, and discuss a range of phenomena such as change in negation markers, indefinite articles, quantifiers, modal verbs, argument structure among others. The papers analyze diachronic evidence in the light of contemporary syntactic and semantic theory, addressing the crucial question of how syntactic and semantic change are linked, and whether both are governed by similar constraints, principles and systematic mechanisms. The volume will appeal to scholars in historical linguistics and formal theories of syntax and semantics.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110352303
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368
Book Description
Bringing together diachronic research from a variety of perspectives, notably typology, formal syntax and semantics, this volume focuses on the interplay of syntactic and semantic factors in language change - an issue so far largely neglected both in (mostly lexical) historical semantics as well as historical syntax, but recently brought into focus by grammaticalization theory as well as Minimalist diachronic syntax. The contributions draw on data from numerous Indo-European languages including Vedic Sanskrit, Middle Indic, Greek as well as English and German, and discuss a range of phenomena such as change in negation markers, indefinite articles, quantifiers, modal verbs, argument structure among others. The papers analyze diachronic evidence in the light of contemporary syntactic and semantic theory, addressing the crucial question of how syntactic and semantic change are linked, and whether both are governed by similar constraints, principles and systematic mechanisms. The volume will appeal to scholars in historical linguistics and formal theories of syntax and semantics.
Language Change at the Interfaces
Author: Nicholas Catasso
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027257876
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
This volume offers an up-to-date survey of linguistic phenomena at the interfaces between syntax and prosody, information structure and discourse – with a special focus on Germanic and Romance – and their role in language change. The contributions, set within the generative framework, discuss original data and provide new insights into the diachronic development of long-burning issues such as negation, word order, quantifiers, null subjects, aspectuality, the structure of the left periphery, and extraposition. The first part of the volume explores interface phenomena at the intrasentential level, in which only clause-internal factors seem to play a significant role in determining diachronic change. The second part examines developments at the intersentential level involving a rearrangement of categories between at least two clausal domains. The book will be of interest for scholars and students interested in generative accounts of language change phenomena at the interfaces, as well as for theoretical linguists in general.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027257876
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
This volume offers an up-to-date survey of linguistic phenomena at the interfaces between syntax and prosody, information structure and discourse – with a special focus on Germanic and Romance – and their role in language change. The contributions, set within the generative framework, discuss original data and provide new insights into the diachronic development of long-burning issues such as negation, word order, quantifiers, null subjects, aspectuality, the structure of the left periphery, and extraposition. The first part of the volume explores interface phenomena at the intrasentential level, in which only clause-internal factors seem to play a significant role in determining diachronic change. The second part examines developments at the intersentential level involving a rearrangement of categories between at least two clausal domains. The book will be of interest for scholars and students interested in generative accounts of language change phenomena at the interfaces, as well as for theoretical linguists in general.
Resumptive Pronouns at the Interfaces
Author: Alain Rouveret
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027208220
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 439
Book Description
"This volume is based on a round table on resumptive pronouns which was held at the UFR de Linguistique, Universite Paris-Diderot, on June 21 and 22, 2007."
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027208220
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 439
Book Description
"This volume is based on a round table on resumptive pronouns which was held at the UFR de Linguistique, Universite Paris-Diderot, on June 21 and 22, 2007."
Syntactic Complexity across Interfaces
Author: Andreas Trotzke
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1614517908
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
Syntactic complexity has always been a matter of intense investigation in formal linguistics. Since complex syntax is clearly evidenced by sentential embedding and since embedding of one clause/phrase in another is taken to signal recursivity of the grammar, the capacity of computing syntactic complexity is of central interest to the recent hypothesis that syntactic recursion is the defining property of natural language. In the light of more recent claims according to which complex syntax is not a universal property of all living languages, the issue of how to detect and define syntactic complexity has been revived with a combination of classical and new arguments. This volume contains contributions about the formal complexity of natural language, about specific issues of clausal embedding, and about syntactic complexity in terms of grammar-external interfaces in the domain of language acquisition.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1614517908
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
Syntactic complexity has always been a matter of intense investigation in formal linguistics. Since complex syntax is clearly evidenced by sentential embedding and since embedding of one clause/phrase in another is taken to signal recursivity of the grammar, the capacity of computing syntactic complexity is of central interest to the recent hypothesis that syntactic recursion is the defining property of natural language. In the light of more recent claims according to which complex syntax is not a universal property of all living languages, the issue of how to detect and define syntactic complexity has been revived with a combination of classical and new arguments. This volume contains contributions about the formal complexity of natural language, about specific issues of clausal embedding, and about syntactic complexity in terms of grammar-external interfaces in the domain of language acquisition.
Language Acquisition at the Interfaces
Author: Jiyoung Choi
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527509818
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
This volume is a collection of papers presented at the 12th Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition Conference held at the University of Nantes, France, in 2015. Language acquisition, a field of inquiry that has witnessed continuous growth during the past four decades, is central to building a detailed understanding of the human amazing capacity to develop language. The papers gathered here reflect the current research in the field of first, second and heritage language acquisition, addressing a variety of topics in syntax, semantics, phonology and their interfaces, from a wide range of languages such as Tashlhiyt Berber, English, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, European Portuguese, Heritage Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Heritage Sign Language, and Yudja. This volume will thus serve as a valuable reference guide to all scholars interested in (first/second/bilingual) language acquisition, multilingualism, heritage languages, sign language, language pathology and impairment, and experimental research in linguistics.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527509818
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
This volume is a collection of papers presented at the 12th Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition Conference held at the University of Nantes, France, in 2015. Language acquisition, a field of inquiry that has witnessed continuous growth during the past four decades, is central to building a detailed understanding of the human amazing capacity to develop language. The papers gathered here reflect the current research in the field of first, second and heritage language acquisition, addressing a variety of topics in syntax, semantics, phonology and their interfaces, from a wide range of languages such as Tashlhiyt Berber, English, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, European Portuguese, Heritage Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Heritage Sign Language, and Yudja. This volume will thus serve as a valuable reference guide to all scholars interested in (first/second/bilingual) language acquisition, multilingualism, heritage languages, sign language, language pathology and impairment, and experimental research in linguistics.
Polynesian Syntax and Its Interfaces
Author: Lauren Clemens
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198860838
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
This volume brings together current research in theoretical syntax and its interfaces in the Polynesian language family. Chapters offer in-depth analyses of a range of theoretical issues of particular interest for comparative syntactic research, such as ergativity and case systems, negation, and the left periphery.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198860838
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 355
Book Description
This volume brings together current research in theoretical syntax and its interfaces in the Polynesian language family. Chapters offer in-depth analyses of a range of theoretical issues of particular interest for comparative syntactic research, such as ergativity and case systems, negation, and the left periphery.
The Frequency–Grammar Interface
Author: Stefano Rastelli
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027246572
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Speakers and learners, based on memory and experience, implicitly know that certain language elements naturally pair together. However, they also understand, through abstract and frequency-independent categories, why some combinations are possible and others are not. The frequency-grammar interface (FGI) bridges these two types of information in human cognition. Due to this interface, the sediment of statistical calculations over the order, distribution, and associations of items (the regularities) and the computation over the abstract principles that allow these items to join together (the rules) are brought together in a speaker’s competence, feeding into one another and eventually becoming superposed. In this volume, it is argued that a specific subset of both first and second language grammar (termed ‘combinatorial grammar’) is both innate and learned. While not derived from language usage, combinatorial grammar is continuously recalibrated by usage throughout a speaker’s life. In the domain of combinatorial grammar, both generative and usage-based theories are correct, each shedding light on just one component of the two that are necessary for any language to function: rules and regularities.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027246572
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Speakers and learners, based on memory and experience, implicitly know that certain language elements naturally pair together. However, they also understand, through abstract and frequency-independent categories, why some combinations are possible and others are not. The frequency-grammar interface (FGI) bridges these two types of information in human cognition. Due to this interface, the sediment of statistical calculations over the order, distribution, and associations of items (the regularities) and the computation over the abstract principles that allow these items to join together (the rules) are brought together in a speaker’s competence, feeding into one another and eventually becoming superposed. In this volume, it is argued that a specific subset of both first and second language grammar (termed ‘combinatorial grammar’) is both innate and learned. While not derived from language usage, combinatorial grammar is continuously recalibrated by usage throughout a speaker’s life. In the domain of combinatorial grammar, both generative and usage-based theories are correct, each shedding light on just one component of the two that are necessary for any language to function: rules and regularities.
Interfaces to Database Systems (IDS92)
Author: Richard Cooper
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1447134230
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
Despite the volume of research carried out into the design of database systems and the design of user interfaces, there is little cross-fertilization between the two areas. The control of user interfaces to database systems is, therefore, significantly less advanced than other aspects of DBMS design. As database functionality is used in a wider range of areas, such as design applications, the suitability of the user interface is becoming increasingly important. It is, therefore, necessary to begin applying the knowledge developed by HCI researchers to the specialised domain of database systems. This volume contains revised papers from the International Workshop on Interfaces to Database Systems, held in Glasgow, 1-3 July 1992. The workshop aimed to develop an interaction between the design of database systems and user interfaces. It discussed both the production of interfaces tailored to particular applications, and also more general systems within which interfaces can be developed. Some of the papers concentrate on usability aspects, some discuss different interface metaphors, whilst others tackle the question of designing a general conceptual model. The latter topic is of particular importance, as it is only by achieving an abstract model of what the user understands to be in the database that the data can be associated with appropriate interface facilities. Among the contents of the volume are: integrated interfaces to publicly available databases; database query interface for medical information systems; an integrated approach to task oriented database retrieval interfaces; GRADI: a graphical database interface for a multimedia DBMS; cognitive view mechanism for multimedia information systems; a graphical schema representation for object oriented databases; a conceptual framework for error analysis in SQL interfaces; a browser for a version entity relationship database. Interfaces to Database Systems (IDS92) is unique in that it brings together a variety of approaches from the database and HCI research communities. It will provide essential reading for researchers of database systems and also industrial developers of DBMS.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1447134230
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
Despite the volume of research carried out into the design of database systems and the design of user interfaces, there is little cross-fertilization between the two areas. The control of user interfaces to database systems is, therefore, significantly less advanced than other aspects of DBMS design. As database functionality is used in a wider range of areas, such as design applications, the suitability of the user interface is becoming increasingly important. It is, therefore, necessary to begin applying the knowledge developed by HCI researchers to the specialised domain of database systems. This volume contains revised papers from the International Workshop on Interfaces to Database Systems, held in Glasgow, 1-3 July 1992. The workshop aimed to develop an interaction between the design of database systems and user interfaces. It discussed both the production of interfaces tailored to particular applications, and also more general systems within which interfaces can be developed. Some of the papers concentrate on usability aspects, some discuss different interface metaphors, whilst others tackle the question of designing a general conceptual model. The latter topic is of particular importance, as it is only by achieving an abstract model of what the user understands to be in the database that the data can be associated with appropriate interface facilities. Among the contents of the volume are: integrated interfaces to publicly available databases; database query interface for medical information systems; an integrated approach to task oriented database retrieval interfaces; GRADI: a graphical database interface for a multimedia DBMS; cognitive view mechanism for multimedia information systems; a graphical schema representation for object oriented databases; a conceptual framework for error analysis in SQL interfaces; a browser for a version entity relationship database. Interfaces to Database Systems (IDS92) is unique in that it brings together a variety of approaches from the database and HCI research communities. It will provide essential reading for researchers of database systems and also industrial developers of DBMS.