Author: Werner Abraham
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027227669
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
This book takes up a variety of general syntactic topics, which either yield different solutions in German, in particular, or which lead to different conclusions for theory formation. One of the main topics is the fact that languages that allow for extensive scrambling between the two verbal poles, V-2 and V-last, need to integrate discourse functions like thema and rhema into the grammatical description. This is attempted, in terms of Minimalism, thus extending the functional domain. Special attention is given to the asymmetrical scrambling behavior of indefinites vs. definites and their semantic interpretation. Related topics are: Transitive expletive sentences, types of existential sentences with either BE or HAVE, the that-trace phenomenon and its semantics, negative polarity items, ellipsis and gapping, passivization, double negation all of which have extensive effects both on distributional behavior and semantic disambiguation, reaching far beyond effects observable in English with its rigid, 'un-scrambable' word order.
Issues in Formal German(ic) Typology
Author: Werner Abraham
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027227669
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
This book takes up a variety of general syntactic topics, which either yield different solutions in German, in particular, or which lead to different conclusions for theory formation. One of the main topics is the fact that languages that allow for extensive scrambling between the two verbal poles, V-2 and V-last, need to integrate discourse functions like thema and rhema into the grammatical description. This is attempted, in terms of Minimalism, thus extending the functional domain. Special attention is given to the asymmetrical scrambling behavior of indefinites vs. definites and their semantic interpretation. Related topics are: Transitive expletive sentences, types of existential sentences with either BE or HAVE, the that-trace phenomenon and its semantics, negative polarity items, ellipsis and gapping, passivization, double negation all of which have extensive effects both on distributional behavior and semantic disambiguation, reaching far beyond effects observable in English with its rigid, 'un-scrambable' word order.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027227669
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
This book takes up a variety of general syntactic topics, which either yield different solutions in German, in particular, or which lead to different conclusions for theory formation. One of the main topics is the fact that languages that allow for extensive scrambling between the two verbal poles, V-2 and V-last, need to integrate discourse functions like thema and rhema into the grammatical description. This is attempted, in terms of Minimalism, thus extending the functional domain. Special attention is given to the asymmetrical scrambling behavior of indefinites vs. definites and their semantic interpretation. Related topics are: Transitive expletive sentences, types of existential sentences with either BE or HAVE, the that-trace phenomenon and its semantics, negative polarity items, ellipsis and gapping, passivization, double negation all of which have extensive effects both on distributional behavior and semantic disambiguation, reaching far beyond effects observable in English with its rigid, 'un-scrambable' word order.
Studies on Old High German Syntax
Author: Katrin Axel
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027233769
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
Printbegrænsninger: Der kan printes 10 sider ad gangen og max. 40 sider pr. session
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027233769
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
Printbegrænsninger: Der kan printes 10 sider ad gangen og max. 40 sider pr. session
Scrambling and the Survive Principle
Author: Michael T. Putnam
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027291969
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
Languages with free word orders pose daunting challenges to linguistic theory because they raise questions about the nature of grammatical strings. Ross, who coined the term Scrambling to refer to the relatively ‘free’ word orders found in Germanic languages (among others) notes that “... the problems involved in specifying exactly the subset of the strings which will be generated ... are far too complicated for me to even mention here, let alone come to grips with” (1967:52). This book offers a radical re-analysis of middle field Scrambling. It argues that Scrambling is a concatenation effect, as described in Stroik’s (1999, 2000, 2007) Survive analysis of minimalist syntax, driven by an interpretable referentiality feature [Ref] to the middle field, where syntactically encoded features for temporality and other world indices are checked. The purpose of this book is to investigate the syntactic properties of middle field Scrambling in synchronic West Germanic languages, and to explore, to what possible extent we can classify Scrambling as a ‘syntactic phenomenon’ within Survive-minimalist desiderata.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027291969
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
Languages with free word orders pose daunting challenges to linguistic theory because they raise questions about the nature of grammatical strings. Ross, who coined the term Scrambling to refer to the relatively ‘free’ word orders found in Germanic languages (among others) notes that “... the problems involved in specifying exactly the subset of the strings which will be generated ... are far too complicated for me to even mention here, let alone come to grips with” (1967:52). This book offers a radical re-analysis of middle field Scrambling. It argues that Scrambling is a concatenation effect, as described in Stroik’s (1999, 2000, 2007) Survive analysis of minimalist syntax, driven by an interpretable referentiality feature [Ref] to the middle field, where syntactically encoded features for temporality and other world indices are checked. The purpose of this book is to investigate the syntactic properties of middle field Scrambling in synchronic West Germanic languages, and to explore, to what possible extent we can classify Scrambling as a ‘syntactic phenomenon’ within Survive-minimalist desiderata.
Aspects of Slavic Linguistics
Author: Olav Mueller-Reichau
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110517876
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
The present volume offers a selection of papers on current issues in Slavic languages. It takes stock of the past 20 years of linguistic research at the Department of Slavic Studies at Leipzig University. Within these two decades, the scientific writing, teaching, and organization done in this Department strengthened the mode of research in formal description of Slavic languages, formed another center for this kind of linguistic research in the world, and brought about a remarkable amount of scientific output. The authors of this volume are former or present members of the Department of Slavic studies or academic friends. Based on the data from East, West, and South Slavic languages, the papers tackle issues of all grammatical subdisciplines in current models of description, compare parts of the grammars of Slavic languages, explain categories and phrases in Slavic languages that do not exist in present-day Indogermanic languages of Western Europe, and propose ways how to update the standard of lexicography in still less described Slavic languages. A study of language competence is dedicated to the actual requests on heritage speakers and shows how their abilities can be evaluated.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110517876
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Book Description
The present volume offers a selection of papers on current issues in Slavic languages. It takes stock of the past 20 years of linguistic research at the Department of Slavic Studies at Leipzig University. Within these two decades, the scientific writing, teaching, and organization done in this Department strengthened the mode of research in formal description of Slavic languages, formed another center for this kind of linguistic research in the world, and brought about a remarkable amount of scientific output. The authors of this volume are former or present members of the Department of Slavic studies or academic friends. Based on the data from East, West, and South Slavic languages, the papers tackle issues of all grammatical subdisciplines in current models of description, compare parts of the grammars of Slavic languages, explain categories and phrases in Slavic languages that do not exist in present-day Indogermanic languages of Western Europe, and propose ways how to update the standard of lexicography in still less described Slavic languages. A study of language competence is dedicated to the actual requests on heritage speakers and shows how their abilities can be evaluated.
Triggers
Author: Anne Breitbarth
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 311019743X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 503
Book Description
The concept of 'trigger' is a core concept of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. The idea that certain types of movement are triggered by some property of the target position is at least as old as the notion that the movement of noun phrases to the subject position is triggered by their need to receive nominative case. In more recent versions of syntactic theory, triggering mechanisms are thought to regulate all of movement. Furthermore, a quite narrow range of triggering mechanisms is permitted. As is to be expected, such a restrictive approach meets a variety of difficulties. Specifically, the question is whether all triggering elements required to cover displacement of all kinds in natural language can be independently motivated. Further, how can a trigger theory, which crucially relies on the idea that all movement is obligatory, deal with apparently optional movement processes? Are features an adequate means to express the triggering function in all cases? More radically, are all movement phenomena really the result of the checking of trigger features? And what about apparent triggering factors that are 'external' to syntax such as prosody - can they be captured in a rigid trigger theory? In other words, could certain aspects of triggered movement be due to interface conditions? Such is the range of questions addressed by the fourteen contributions to this book. They cover a considerable range of languages (including Afrikaans, Breton, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Gungbe, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kiswahili, Romanian). These papers present materials, both empirical and theoretical, that will not fail to have considerable impact on the further development of the concept of trigger in syntactic theory.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 311019743X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 503
Book Description
The concept of 'trigger' is a core concept of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. The idea that certain types of movement are triggered by some property of the target position is at least as old as the notion that the movement of noun phrases to the subject position is triggered by their need to receive nominative case. In more recent versions of syntactic theory, triggering mechanisms are thought to regulate all of movement. Furthermore, a quite narrow range of triggering mechanisms is permitted. As is to be expected, such a restrictive approach meets a variety of difficulties. Specifically, the question is whether all triggering elements required to cover displacement of all kinds in natural language can be independently motivated. Further, how can a trigger theory, which crucially relies on the idea that all movement is obligatory, deal with apparently optional movement processes? Are features an adequate means to express the triggering function in all cases? More radically, are all movement phenomena really the result of the checking of trigger features? And what about apparent triggering factors that are 'external' to syntax such as prosody - can they be captured in a rigid trigger theory? In other words, could certain aspects of triggered movement be due to interface conditions? Such is the range of questions addressed by the fourteen contributions to this book. They cover a considerable range of languages (including Afrikaans, Breton, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Gungbe, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kiswahili, Romanian). These papers present materials, both empirical and theoretical, that will not fail to have considerable impact on the further development of the concept of trigger in syntactic theory.
Verbal Prepositions and Argument Structure
Author: Mai Ellin Tungseth
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027255044
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
This book investigates different types of verb-PP combinations and examines the types of meanings which arise when the argument structure of the PP fuses with the verbal argument structure. Focussing mainly on data from Norwegian, the book investigates three different empirical domains of PP-VP combinations and concludes that the arising interpretations result from a combination of the fine-grained structure of the PP, the structure of the verb phrase, and the different modes of combination. The book sheds new light on the syntax-semantics interplay while adding new insight about the properties of the category P in Norwegian. The book also contributes to the debate between Lexicalism and Constructionism, and it concludes that a moderate Constructionist model with a fine-grained syntactic structure determining interpretation is best equipped to handle the enormous flexibility of verb-prepositional phrase combinations of the types explored.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027255044
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
This book investigates different types of verb-PP combinations and examines the types of meanings which arise when the argument structure of the PP fuses with the verbal argument structure. Focussing mainly on data from Norwegian, the book investigates three different empirical domains of PP-VP combinations and concludes that the arising interpretations result from a combination of the fine-grained structure of the PP, the structure of the verb phrase, and the different modes of combination. The book sheds new light on the syntax-semantics interplay while adding new insight about the properties of the category P in Norwegian. The book also contributes to the debate between Lexicalism and Constructionism, and it concludes that a moderate Constructionist model with a fine-grained syntactic structure determining interpretation is best equipped to handle the enormous flexibility of verb-prepositional phrase combinations of the types explored.
Beyond Coherence
Author: Vera Lee-Schoenfeld
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027291977
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
The overarching theme of this volume is one of the central concerns of syntactic theory: How local is syntax, and what are the measures of syntactic locality? It is argued here that movement and anaphoric relations are governed by a unified concept of locality: the phase. On an empirical level, Beyond Coherence brings together three strands of research on German syntax: ‘coherence’, the study of (reduced) infinitive constructions; the possessor dative construction, with a dative nominal playing the dual role of possessor and affectee; and binding, the distribution of anaphors and pronominals. These apparently disparate areas of research intersect in that the locality constraints on the possessor dative construction and binding allow the two phenomena to serve as probes for infinitival clause size. Offering a Minimalist ‘possessor raising’ and phase-based binding account, this work culminates in a discussion of the phase as the key to the various opacity effects observed in the book.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027291977
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
The overarching theme of this volume is one of the central concerns of syntactic theory: How local is syntax, and what are the measures of syntactic locality? It is argued here that movement and anaphoric relations are governed by a unified concept of locality: the phase. On an empirical level, Beyond Coherence brings together three strands of research on German syntax: ‘coherence’, the study of (reduced) infinitive constructions; the possessor dative construction, with a dative nominal playing the dual role of possessor and affectee; and binding, the distribution of anaphors and pronominals. These apparently disparate areas of research intersect in that the locality constraints on the possessor dative construction and binding allow the two phenomena to serve as probes for infinitival clause size. Offering a Minimalist ‘possessor raising’ and phase-based binding account, this work culminates in a discussion of the phase as the key to the various opacity effects observed in the book.
The Rise of Agreement
Author: Eric Fuss
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027228055
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
This book investigates the historical paths leading from pronouns to markers of verbal agreement and proposes a unified formal account of this grammaticalization process. In opposition to beliefs widely held in the literature, it is argued that new agreement formatives can be coined in a multitude of syntactic environments. Still, the individual paths toward agreement are shown to exhibit a set of underlying similarities which are attributed to universal principles that govern the reanalysis of pronominal clitics as exponents of verbal agreement across languages. It is claimed that syntactic principles impose only a set of necessary conditions on the reanalysis in question, while its ultimate trigger is morphological in nature. More specifically, it is argued that the acquisition of inflectional morphology is governed by blocking effects which operate during language acquisition and promote the grammaticalization of new markers if this change serves to replace 'worn-out', underspecified forms with new, more specified candidates.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027228055
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
This book investigates the historical paths leading from pronouns to markers of verbal agreement and proposes a unified formal account of this grammaticalization process. In opposition to beliefs widely held in the literature, it is argued that new agreement formatives can be coined in a multitude of syntactic environments. Still, the individual paths toward agreement are shown to exhibit a set of underlying similarities which are attributed to universal principles that govern the reanalysis of pronominal clitics as exponents of verbal agreement across languages. It is claimed that syntactic principles impose only a set of necessary conditions on the reanalysis in question, while its ultimate trigger is morphological in nature. More specifically, it is argued that the acquisition of inflectional morphology is governed by blocking effects which operate during language acquisition and promote the grammaticalization of new markers if this change serves to replace 'worn-out', underspecified forms with new, more specified candidates.
Verb Clusters
Author: Katalin É. Kiss
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902729559X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 520
Book Description
Many languages have constructions in which verbs cluster. But few languages have verb clusters as rich and complex as Continental West Germanic and Hungarian. Furthermore the precise ordering properties and the variation in the cluster patterns are remarkably similar in Hungarian and Germanic. This similarity is, of course, unexpected since Hungarian is not an Indo-European language like the Germanic language group. Instead it appears that the clustering, inversion and roll-up patterns found may constitute an areal feature. This book presents the relevant language data in considerable detail, taking into account also the variation observed, for example, among dialects. But it also discusses the various analytical approaches that can be brought to bear on this set of phenomena. In particular, there are various hypotheses as to what is the underlying driving force behind cluster formation: stress patterns, aspectual features, morpho- syntactic constraints? And the analytical approaches are closely linked to a number of questions that are at the core of current syntactic theorizing: does head movement exist or should all apparent verb displacement be reduced to remnant movement, are morphology and syntax really just different sides of the same coin?
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902729559X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 520
Book Description
Many languages have constructions in which verbs cluster. But few languages have verb clusters as rich and complex as Continental West Germanic and Hungarian. Furthermore the precise ordering properties and the variation in the cluster patterns are remarkably similar in Hungarian and Germanic. This similarity is, of course, unexpected since Hungarian is not an Indo-European language like the Germanic language group. Instead it appears that the clustering, inversion and roll-up patterns found may constitute an areal feature. This book presents the relevant language data in considerable detail, taking into account also the variation observed, for example, among dialects. But it also discusses the various analytical approaches that can be brought to bear on this set of phenomena. In particular, there are various hypotheses as to what is the underlying driving force behind cluster formation: stress patterns, aspectual features, morpho- syntactic constraints? And the analytical approaches are closely linked to a number of questions that are at the core of current syntactic theorizing: does head movement exist or should all apparent verb displacement be reduced to remnant movement, are morphology and syntax really just different sides of the same coin?
The Minimalist Syntax of Defective Domains
Author: Acrisio Pires
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027293155
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 207
Book Description
This book unifies the analysis of certain non-finite domains, focusing on subject licensing, agreement, and Case and control. It proposes a minimalist analysis of English gerunds which allows only a null subject PRO (TP-defective gerunds), a lexical subject (gerunds as complements of perception verbs), or both types of subjects (clausal gerunds). It then analyzes Portuguese infinitives, showing that the morphosyntactic properties of non-inflected and inflected infinitives correlate with distinct treatments of obligatory and non-obligatory control. It explores these and other phenomena to show that tense and event binding do not correlate with the contrast between control and raising/exceptional case marking (ECM), against null Case theories of control. A Probe-Goal approach to Case and agreement is adopted in combination with a movement analysis of control. The book then investigates diachronic morphosyntactic phenomena involving infinitives, verb movement and cliticization in Portuguese, exploring a cue-based theory of syntactic change grounded in language acquisition.
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027293155
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 207
Book Description
This book unifies the analysis of certain non-finite domains, focusing on subject licensing, agreement, and Case and control. It proposes a minimalist analysis of English gerunds which allows only a null subject PRO (TP-defective gerunds), a lexical subject (gerunds as complements of perception verbs), or both types of subjects (clausal gerunds). It then analyzes Portuguese infinitives, showing that the morphosyntactic properties of non-inflected and inflected infinitives correlate with distinct treatments of obligatory and non-obligatory control. It explores these and other phenomena to show that tense and event binding do not correlate with the contrast between control and raising/exceptional case marking (ECM), against null Case theories of control. A Probe-Goal approach to Case and agreement is adopted in combination with a movement analysis of control. The book then investigates diachronic morphosyntactic phenomena involving infinitives, verb movement and cliticization in Portuguese, exploring a cue-based theory of syntactic change grounded in language acquisition.