Italian Syntax and Universal Grammar

Italian Syntax and Universal Grammar PDF Author: Guglielmo Cinque
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521475139
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
This volume of essays offers a wide-ranging comparative analysis of Italian syntax.

Italian Syntax and Universal Grammar

Italian Syntax and Universal Grammar PDF Author: Guglielmo Cinque
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521475139
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
This volume of essays offers a wide-ranging comparative analysis of Italian syntax.

A Theory of Syntax

A Theory of Syntax PDF Author: Norbert Hornstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521449707
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Discusses a topical set of issues in syntactic theory, including a number of original proposals at the cutting edge of research in this area. The book provides a theory of the basic grammatical operations and suggests that there is only one that is distinctive to language.

The Null Subject Parameter

The Null Subject Parameter PDF Author: M. Jaeggli
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400925409
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description


Universal Grammar in the Reconstruction of Ancient Languages

Universal Grammar in the Reconstruction of Ancient Languages PDF Author: Katalin É. Kiss
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110902222
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
Philologists aiming to reconstruct the grammar of ancient languages face the problem that the available data always underdetermine grammar, and in the case of gaps, possible mistakes, and idiosyncracies there are no native speakers to consult. The authors of this volume overcome this difficulty by adopting the methodology that a child uses in the course of language acquisition: they interpret the data they have access to in terms of Universal Grammar (more precisely, in terms of a hypothetical model of UG). Their studies, discussing syntactic and morphosyntactic questions of Older Egyptian, Coptic, Sumerian, Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, Classical Greek, Latin, and Classical Sanskrit, demonstrate that descriptive problems which have proved unsolvable for the traditional, inductive approach can be reduced to the interaction of regular operations and constraints of UG. The proposed analyses also bear on linguistic theory. They provide crucial new data and new generalizations concerning such basic questions of generative syntax as discourse-motivated movement operations, the correlation of movement and agreement, a shift from lexical case marking to structural case marking, the licensing of structural case in infinitival constructions, the structure of coordinate phrases, possessive constructions with an external possessor, and the role of event structure in syntax. In addition to confirming or refuting certain specific hypotheses, they also provide empirical evidence of the perhaps most basic tenet of generative theory, according to which UG is part of the genetic endowment of the human species - i.e., human languages do not "develop" parallel with the development of human civilization. Some of the languages examined in this volume were spoken as much as 5000 years old, still their grammars do not differ in any relevant respect from the grammars of languages spoken today.

Subject Inversion in Romance and the Theory of Universal Grammar

Subject Inversion in Romance and the Theory of Universal Grammar PDF Author: Aafke Hulk
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198032560
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The Romance Languages document remarkable variations in subject word order in different constructions, and have various restrictions in their occurrence. No consensus has emerged on what the paramaters are for such variations. This volume does not attempt to create a consensus, but tries to represent and bring into dialogue the different sides of the debate.

Subject Inversion in Romance and the Theory of Universal Grammar

Subject Inversion in Romance and the Theory of Universal Grammar PDF Author: Aafke Hulk Professor of French Linguistics University of Amsterdam
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195349547
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
The Romance Languages document remarkable variations in subject word order in different constructions, and have various restrictions in their occurrence. No consensus has emerged on what the paramaters are for such variations. This volume does not attempt to create a consensus, but tries to represent and bring into dialogue the different sides of the debate.

Grammatical Categories

Grammatical Categories PDF Author: M. Rita Manzini
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139500430
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Grammatical categories (e.g. complementizer, negation, auxiliary, case) are some of the most important building blocks of syntax and morphology. Categorization therefore poses fundamental questions about grammatical structures and about the lexicon from which they are built. Adopting a 'lexicalist' stance, the authors argue that lexical items are not epiphenomena, but really represent the mapping of sound to meaning (and vice versa) that classical conceptions imply. Their rule-governed combination creates words, phrases and sentences - structured by the 'categories' that are the object of the present inquiry. They argue that the distinction between functional and non-functional categories, between content words and inflections, is not as deeply rooted in grammar as is often thought. In their argumentation they lay the emphasis on empirical evidence, drawn mainly from dialectal variation in the Romance languages, as well as from Albanian.

Anaphora in Celtic and Universal Grammar

Anaphora in Celtic and Universal Grammar PDF Author: R. Hendrick
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400927193
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
This book is based in large part on fieldwork that I conducted in Brittany and Wales in 1983 and 1985. I am thankful for a Fulbright Award for Research in Western Europe and a Faculty Development Award from the University of North Carolina that funded that fieldwork. lowe a less tangible, but no less real, debt to Steve Anderson, G. M. Awbery, Steve Harlow and Jim McCloskey whose work initially sparked my interest, and led me to undertake this project. I want to thank Joe Emonds and Alec Marantz who read portions of Chapter 3 and 5. I am particularly grateful though to Kathleen Flanagan, Frank Heny and two anonymous referees who read a dyslexic and schizophrenic manuscript, providing me with criticisms that improved this final version considerably. The Welsh nationalist community in Aberstwyth and its Breton coun terpart in Quimper helped make the time I spent in Wales and Brittany productive. I am indebted to Thomas Davies, Partick Favreau, Lukian Kergoat, Sue Rhys, John Williams and Beatrice among others for sharing their knowledge of their languages with me. Catrin Davies and Martial Menard were especially patient and helpful. Without their assistance this work would have been infinitely poorer. I am hopeful that this book will help stimulate more interest in the Celtic languages and culture, and assist, even in a small way, those in Wales and Brittany who struggle to keep their language and culture strong.

The Parametrization of Universal Grammar

The Parametrization of Universal Grammar PDF Author: Gisbert Fanselow
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027282439
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
In this volume the subject of parametrization is addressed from various, though interrelated perspectives, ranging from learnability, the form and nature of parametrization, the role of the interface between morphology and syntax and the parameters of X-bar syntax, to the lexical parametrization hypothesis.

L2 Acquisition and Creole Genesis

L2 Acquisition and Creole Genesis PDF Author: Claire Lefebvre
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027253021
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
In this volume, second language (L2) acquisition researchers and creolists engage in a dialogue, focusing on processes at work in L2 acquisition and creole genesis. The volume opens with an overview of the relationship between L2 acquisition and pidgins/creoles (Siegel). The first group of papers addresses current language contact at a societal or an individual level (Smith; Terrill and Dunn; Bruhn de Garavito and Atoche; Liceras et al.; Muller). The second section focuses on processes characterizing various stages of L2 acquisition and creole genesis: relexification and transfer from the L1 and their role in the initial state (Sprouse; Schwartz; Kouwenberg; Aboh; Ionin). Chapters in the third section discuss processes involved in developing grammars, namely, reanalysis and restructuring (Sanchez; Brousseau and Nikiema; Steele and Brousseau). The final section concentrates on fossilization and the end state (Cornips and Hulk; Montrul; Lardiere). Between them, the chapters cover lexical, morphological, phonological, semantic and syntactic properties of interlanguage grammars and creole grammars.