Author: Bingjun Yang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316513416
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 251
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Book Description
As a gateway to central questions in linguistics, non-finiteness is unavoidable in both typological studies and aspects of natural language processing, such as text segmentation and annotation. This study presents a 'process relation framework' to explain the more complex, previously unaccounted for, instances of non-finiteness in clause structure.
Author: Rajesh Bhatt
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110197340
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 215
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Book Description
This book investigates the distribution and interpretation of Covert Modality. Covert Modality is modality which we interpret but which is not associated with any lexical item in the structure that we are interpreting. This dissertation investigates a class of environments that involves covert modality. Examples of covert modality include wh-infinitival complements, infinitival relative clauses, purpose clauses, the 'have to' construction, and the 'is to' construction (cf. 1): 1a. Tim knows [how to solve the problem]. ("Tim knows how one/he could/should solve the problem.") 1b. Jane found [a book to draw cartoons in] for Sara. ("Jane found a book for Sara one could/should draw cartoons in.") 1c. [The man to fix the sink] is here. ("The man whose purpose is to fix the sink is here.") 1d. Sue went to Torino [to buy a violin]. ("Sue went to Torino so that she could buy a violin.") 1e. Bill has to reach Philadelphia before noon. ("Bill must reach Philadelphia before noon.") 1f. Will is to leave tomorrow. ("Will is scheduled/supposed to leave tomorrow.") The interpretation of (1a-f) involves modality; however, there is no lexical item that seems to be the source of the modality. What (1a-f) have in common is that they involve infinitivals. This book addresses the following questions about covert modality: what is the source of this modality, what are its semantic properties, why are some but not all infinitival relatives modal, and why are all infinitival questions modal? The infinitival [+wh] Complementizer is identified as the source of the covert modality. The apparent variability of the force of this modality is related to the particular semantics of this Complementizer. Infinitival relatives that receive a non-modal interpretation are analyzed as being reduced relatives and thus not involving the infinitival [+wh] Complementizer.
Author: Carsten Breul
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027227928
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 450
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Book Description
The notion of focus structure in this work refers to the distinction between categorical, thetic and identificational sentences. The central claim is that the syntactic representation of every sentence has to encode which of these types of focus structure is realized. This claim is discussed in great detail with respect to syntax, intonation and semantics within the framework of the Minimalist Program. It is shown that the incorporation of focus structure into syntax offers new perspectives for a solution of vexing problems in syntax and semantics. For example, fronting (preposing, 'topicalisation') is treated as a syntactic operation which clearly belongs to core grammar, i.e. is not optional or 'stylistic'; the semantic notion of quantifier raising is dispensed with in favour of a focus structural treatment of phenomena which gave rise to it. The book appeals to generative linguists and to functional linguists who do not believe in an unbridgeable gap between the formal and functional analysis of language.
Author: Artemis Alexiadou
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255245
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 417
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Book Description
The present volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 21st and 22nd Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop held at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Stuttgart. The contributions provide insightful discussions of several topics of current interest for syntactic theory on the basis of comparative data from a wide range of contemporary and historical Germanic languages. The theoretical issues explored include: the left periphery, with a number of contributions touching on the pros and contras of cartographic accounts; different aspects of word order and how it arises from movement and clause structure; the interplay of thematic relations and case theory with the realization of DPs; and the treatment of finiteness and modal structures. This book is of interest to syntacticians working in a comparative perspective and to advanced undergraduates.
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.
Author: Isabelle Bril
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027287589
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 642
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Book Description
This collective volume explores clause-linkage strategies in a cross-linguistic perspective with greater emphasis on subordination. Part I presents some theoretical reassessment of syntactic terminologies and distinctive criteria for subordination, as well as typological methods based on sets of variables and statistics allowing cross-linguistic comparability. Part II deals with strategies relating to clause-chaining, conjunctive conjugations, converbial constructions, masdars. Part III centers on the interaction between the syntax, pragmatics, and semantics of clause-linking and subordination, in relation to informational structure, to referential hierarchy, and correlative constructions. Part IV presents insights in the clause-linking and subordinating functions of some T.A.M. markers, verbal inflectional morphology and conjugation systems, which may also interact with informational hierarchy, via the backgrounding effects and lack of illocutionary force of some aspect and mood forms. The volume is of particular interest to linguists and typologists working on clause-linkage systems and on the interface between syntax, pragmatics, and semantics.
Author: Josep Quer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501511807
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 896
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Book Description
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. Current grammatical knowledge about particular sign languages is fragmentary and of varying reliability, and it appears scattered in scientific publications where the description is often intertwined with the analysis. In general, comprehensive grammars are a rarity. The SignGram Blueprint is an innovative tool for the grammar writer: a full-fledged guide to describing all components of the grammars of sign languages in a thorough and systematic way, and with the highest scientific standards. The work builds on the existing knowledge in Descriptive Linguistics, but also on the insights from Theoretical Linguistics. It consists of two main parts running in parallel: the Checklist with all the grammatical features and phenomena the grammar writer can address, and the accompanying Manual with the relevant background information (definitions, methodological caveats, representative examples, tests, pointers to elicitation materials and bibliographical references). The areas covered are Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Syntax and Meaning. The Manual is endowed with hyperlinks that connect information across the work and with a pop-up glossary. The SignGram Blueprint will be a landmark for the description of sign language grammars in terms of quality and quantity.
Author: Paola Cotticelli-Kurras
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111335666
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 527
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Book Description
This book deals with the category of converbs, whose denomination refers to a set of structures which cross-linguistically are not comparable. Specifically, we tackle the following topics: (1) converbs and related constructions as areal features, distinguishing between a general coordinating and subordinating type of converb; (2) converbs in the context of linguistic families, particularly in the Indo-European domain, displaying different non-finite structures to express the adverbial domain; (3) converbial constructions and competing construction types, (4) the diachronic typology of converbs and their source constructions.
Author: Cornelius Hasselblatt
Publisher: Helmut Buske Verlag
ISBN: 3967692779
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 207
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Book Description
Originalia - Viviana Ballaera: Klasse(n) Geschmack! Kulinarischer Geschmack als Ausdruck sozialer Differenzierung in Helsinki - Anja Behnke: 'Clause chaining' im Ob-Jenissej Gebiet - Maria Brykina, Josefina Budzisch: If only Selkup had an optative ... (A corpus study of the lV-form in Selkup dialects) - Svetlana Edygarova: The Udmurt language between 1920 and 1950 - Ekaterina Georgieva: Syntactic correlates of (non-)finiteness in Udmurt - Beáta Wagner-Nagy, Susann Fischer: Word order in Selkup Diskussion und Kritik - Benjamin Schweitzer: Irmeli Hautamäki, Laura Piippo, Helena Sederholm (Hrsgg.): Avantgarde Suomessa. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 2021 (Tietolipas 267)
Author: Lisa Lim
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027202524
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 129
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Book Description
When considering the structure of New Englishes which have evolved in – multilingual, mostly post-colonial – contexts of Asia (thus, Asian Englishes), the significant factors to be considered are: 1) the variety/ies of the English lexifier that entered the local context; 2) the nature of transmission of English to the local population; and 3) the local, i.e. substrate, languages of the community in which the New English emerges. This third factor is the focus of the five papers in this volume: they investigate the structure of Asian varieties of English by exploring the relationship between the typological profile of substrate languages in the specific linguistic ecology and the grammatical features of the emerging contact variety of English.The contributions to this volume were originally published in English World-Wide 30:2 (2009).
