On the Typology of Wh-questions

On the Typology of Wh-questions PDF Author: Lisa Lai Shen Cheng
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780815328872
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Offers an explanation for a long-standing question in the typological distinction among languages with respect to formation of interrogatives which use questions words such as "who" and "what." Proposes that the availability of question particles and the properties of question words contribute to the typological distinctions found, and argues that the availability of question particles correlates with the lack of fronting of question words. Of interest to scholars working on interrogatives, syntactic theory, comparative syntax, Chinese syntax, and typology. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

On the Typology of Wh-questions

On the Typology of Wh-questions PDF Author: Lisa Lai Shen Cheng
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780815328872
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book Here

Book Description
Offers an explanation for a long-standing question in the typological distinction among languages with respect to formation of interrogatives which use questions words such as "who" and "what." Proposes that the availability of question particles and the properties of question words contribute to the typological distinctions found, and argues that the availability of question particles correlates with the lack of fronting of question words. Of interest to scholars working on interrogatives, syntactic theory, comparative syntax, Chinese syntax, and typology. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Unique Focus

Unique Focus PDF Author: Marina Stoyanova
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027291527
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
This monograph focuses on an interesting typological property shared by four languages: the ungrammaticality of multiple wh-questions in Irish, Berber, Italian and Somali. It contains a broad discussion of data related to the grammar of wh-questions, a comparative analysis of wh-constructions in the four languages, and a theoretical account for the observed phenomenon. The analysis is based on the minimalist syntax theory as developed by Chomsky since 1995. It takes up the standard assumption that wh-phrases are typical representatives of elements bearing new information, in theoretical terms referred to as information focus. Most importantly, in the languages without multiple wh-questions the information focus is licensed in a unique syntactic position. The basic claim is that languages with unique focus are languages without multiple wh-questions. The analysis makes possible the classification of the languages without multiple wh-questions into the crosslinguistic typology of wh-constructions. Furthermore, this book is a contribution to the better understanding of information structure in natural languages, especially of focusing phenomena.

Multiple Wh-Fronting

Multiple Wh-Fronting PDF Author: Cedric Boeckx
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027296464
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Typological differences in the formation of multiple Wh-questions are well-known. One option is fronting all Wh-phrases to the sentence periphery. The contributions to this volume all explore this option from a number of perspectives. Topics covered include finer investigations of the “classic” multiple Wh-fronting languages (such as the South Slavic languages Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian), extensions to less well studied languages (Basque, Malagasy, Persian, Yiddish), explorations for languages that don’t obviously fall into this category (German, Hungarian), peripheral effects (optionality of fronting, Superiority vs. Anti-Superiority etc.), interface issues (with semantics, pragmatics, and phonology), and simply theoretical approaches aiming to capture the mechanisms involved in multiple Wh-fronting strategies. The theoretical framework adopted throughout is the Minimalist Program, viewed from different angles. This volume brings together some of the leading experts on the syntax of Wh-questions and offers up-to-date analyses of the topic. It will be indispensable for scholars investigating multiple Wh-questions, and will find an appropriate audience in advanced students and faculty alike.

The Copy Theory of Movement

The Copy Theory of Movement PDF Author: Norbert Corver
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027292302
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This volume brings together papers which address issues regarding the copy theory of movement. According to this theory, a trace is a copy of the moved element that is deleted in the phonological component but is available for interpretation at L(ogical) F(orm). Thus far, the bulk of the research on the copy theory has mainly focused on interpretation issues at LF. The consequences of the copy theory for syntactic computation per se and for the syntax–phonology mapping, in particular, have received much less attention in the literature, despite its crucial relevance for the whole architecture of the model. As a contribution to fill this gap, this volume congregates recent work that deals with empirical and conceptual consequences of the copy theory of movement for the inner working of syntactic computations within the Minimalist Program, with special emphasis on the syntax–phonology mapping.

The Morphology and Syntax of Topic and Focus

The Morphology and Syntax of Topic and Focus PDF Author: Liliana Sánchez
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255520
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This book presents an innovative analysis that relates informational structure, syntax and morphology in Quechua. It provides a minimalist account of the relationship between focus, topic, evidentiality and other left-peripheral features and sentence-internal constituents marked with suffixes that have been previously considered of a pragmatic nature. Intervention effects show that these relationships are also of a syntactic nature. The analysis is extended to morphological markers that appear on polarity sensitive items and wh-words. The book also provides a brief overview of the main characteristics of Quechua syntax as well as additional bibliographical information.

Tag Questions in Conversation

Tag Questions in Conversation PDF Author: Ditte Kimps
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027264333
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This monograph deals with variable tag questions. These are utterances with a variable interrogative tag, like It's peculiar writing, isn't it, and the semi-variable tag innit, such as Nice, innit. The aim is to provide a corpus-based, comprehensive semantic-pragmatic typology of British English tag questions. Compared to existing descriptions, the proposed typology is novel in three ways. Firstly, whereas almost all existing typologies are single-layered classifications, the functions of tag questions are categorized into two parallel dimensions of interpersonal meaning: the speech function and the stance layer. Secondly, semantic generalizations are proposed for clusters of grammatical, intonational and conversational properties. Thirdly, the bottom-up description is based on a sizeable amount of authentic, spontaneous conversations, which are analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Unique Focus

Unique Focus PDF Author: Marina Stoyanova
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027255068
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
This monograph focuses on an interesting typological property shared by four languages: the ungrammaticality of multiple wh-questions in Irish, Berber, Italian and Somali. It contains a broad discussion of data related to the grammar of wh-questions, a comparative analysis of wh-constructions in the four languages, and a theoretical account for the observed phenomenon. The analysis is based on the minimalist syntax theory as developed by Chomsky since 1995. It takes up the standard assumption that wh-phrases are typical representatives of elements bearing new information, in theoretical terms referred to as information focus. Most importantly, in the languages without multiple wh-questions the information focus is licensed in a unique syntactic position. The basic claim is that languages with unique focus are languages without multiple wh-questions. The analysis makes possible the classification of the languages without multiple wh-questions into the crosslinguistic typology of wh-constructions. Furthermore, this book is a contribution to the better understanding of information structure in natural languages, especially of focusing phenomena.

Quantification

Quantification PDF Author: Lisa Matthewson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 0080453503
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
This volume presents articles by formal linguists on quantification in (relatively) understudied languages. The ten contributions provide analysis of quantificational phenomena in languages from nine different families: Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian, Na-Dene, Austronesian, Basque, Quechua, Otomanguean, Bantu, and Chadic. Approximately half of the papers present systematic overviews of quantificational phenomena in the respective languages; the remainder of the papers present theoretical analyses of specific quantificational constructions. The cross-linguistic focus of this volume enables standard theories of quantification to be challenged by languages other than those for which they were originally designed. The volume as a whole also uncovers a number of cross-linguistically common properties in the realm of quantification. The research presented here forms part of a growing trend towards formal study of understudied languages. This is a process which will ultimately lead us to a greatly enriched understanding of the universal human language faculty. The authors are all experts on their respective languages, most with many years field experience. All the authors have theoretical expertise in the area of quantification. This book will be of interest to semanticists and syntacticians working on quantification, to specialists in the languages discussed, and to semantic and syntactic fieldworkers. * This volume presents articles on quantification in (relatively) understudied languages * The authors are all experts on their respective languages

Approaches to Language Typology

Approaches to Language Typology PDF Author: Masayoshi Shibatani
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 9780198238669
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
Language typology is concerned with the construction of theoretical frameworks capable of delimiting the range of human languages and of capturing constraints on cross-linguistic variation. This text offers accounts of the theoretical foundations and findings of leading scholars in this field.

International Encyclopedia of Linguistics

International Encyclopedia of Linguistics PDF Author: William Frawley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195139771
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 2198

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Book Description
The International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2nd Edition encompasses the full range of the contemporary field of linguistics, including historical, comparative, formal, mathematical, functional, and philosophical linguistics with special attention given to interrelations within branches of linguistics and to relations of linguistics with other disciplines. Areas of intersection with the social and behavioral sciences--ethnolinguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and behavioral linguistics--receive major coverage, along with interdisciplinary work in language and literature, mathematical linguistics, computational linguistics, and applied linguistics.Longer entries in the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, ranging up to four thousand words, survey the major fields of study--for example, anthropological linguistics, history of linguistics, semantics, and phonetics. Shorter entries treat specific topics within these fields, such as code switching, sound symbolism, and syntactic features. Other short entries define and discuss technical terms used within the various subfields or provide sketches of the careers of important scholars in the history of linguistics, such as Leonard Bloomfield, Roman Jakobson, and Edward Sapir.A major portion of the work is its extensive coverage of languages and language families. From those as familiar as English, Japanese, and the Romance languages to Hittite, Yoruba, and Nahuatl, all corners of the world receive treatment. Languages that are the subject of independent entries are analyzed in terms of their phonology, grammatical features, syntax, and writing systems. Lists attached to each article on a language group or family enumerate all languages, extinct or still spoken, within that group and provide detailed information on the number of known speakers, geographical range, and degree of intelligibility with other languages in the group. In this way, virtually every known language receives coverage.For ease of reference and to aid research, the articles are alphabetically arranged, each signed by the contributor, supported by up-to-date bibliographies, line drawings, maps, tables, and diagrams, and readily accessible via a system of cross-references and a detailed index and synoptic outline. Authoritative, comprehensive, and innovative, the 2nd edition of the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics will be an indispensable addition to personal, public, academic, and research libraries and will introduce a new generation of readers to the complexities and concerns of this field of study.