Passives and Middles in Mainland Scandinavian

Passives and Middles in Mainland Scandinavian PDF Author: Antonio Fábregas
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110670933
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This monograph explores the properties of passive and middle voice constructions in Norwegian and Swedish, concentrating on the linguistic variation related to these two constructions in Mainland Scandinavian. At an empirical level, we provide a detailed discussion of the morphosyntax and semantics of the two main types of passives in both languages, lexical (s-) and periphrasitic (bli-) passives. At a theoretical level, we propose an architecture of the language faculty where exponents play a central role. Exponents are selected to identify the structures generated by the grammar and provide a platform that make these units interpretable by the sensori-motor and conceptual-intentional interfaces. Exponents this play an essential role in determining the well-formedness of linguistic structures. We demonstrate how different syntactic structures identified and lexicalized by exponents in these two languages are capable of capturing the microvariation observed in the voice systems of these two languages in a straightforward way. The amount of linguistic information (i.e., aspect and mood) identified by each exponent in each language determines the types of complements and specifiers that can be integrated into and lexicalized by a given exponent. Although our approach shares certain affinities with other neo-constructionist approaches, a novel proposal we advance in this book is that exponents are housed in an intermediate level of structure that exists between the narrow syntax and its external interfaces. This exponency-level (Ʃ-structure) allows for a more parsimonious theoretical analysis that does not sacrifice descriptive adequacy.

Passives and Middles in Mainland Scandinavian

Passives and Middles in Mainland Scandinavian PDF Author: Antonio Fábregas
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110670933
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This monograph explores the properties of passive and middle voice constructions in Norwegian and Swedish, concentrating on the linguistic variation related to these two constructions in Mainland Scandinavian. At an empirical level, we provide a detailed discussion of the morphosyntax and semantics of the two main types of passives in both languages, lexical (s-) and periphrasitic (bli-) passives. At a theoretical level, we propose an architecture of the language faculty where exponents play a central role. Exponents are selected to identify the structures generated by the grammar and provide a platform that make these units interpretable by the sensori-motor and conceptual-intentional interfaces. Exponents this play an essential role in determining the well-formedness of linguistic structures. We demonstrate how different syntactic structures identified and lexicalized by exponents in these two languages are capable of capturing the microvariation observed in the voice systems of these two languages in a straightforward way. The amount of linguistic information (i.e., aspect and mood) identified by each exponent in each language determines the types of complements and specifiers that can be integrated into and lexicalized by a given exponent. Although our approach shares certain affinities with other neo-constructionist approaches, a novel proposal we advance in this book is that exponents are housed in an intermediate level of structure that exists between the narrow syntax and its external interfaces. This exponency-level (Ʃ-structure) allows for a more parsimonious theoretical analysis that does not sacrifice descriptive adequacy.

Passives and Middles in Mainland Scandinavian

Passives and Middles in Mainland Scandinavian PDF Author: Antonio Fábregas
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110670917
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This monograph explores the properties of passive and middle voice constructions in Norwegian and Swedish, concentrating on the linguistic variation related to these two constructions in Mainland Scandinavian. At an empirical level, we provide a detailed discussion of the morphosyntax and semantics of the two main types of passives in both languages, lexical (s-) and periphrasitic (bli-) passives. At a theoretical level, we propose an architecture of the language faculty where exponents play a central role. Exponents are selected to identify the structures generated by the grammar and provide a platform that make these units interpretable by the sensori-motor and conceptual-intentional interfaces. Exponents this play an essential role in determining the well-formedness of linguistic structures. We demonstrate how different syntactic structures identified and lexicalized by exponents in these two languages are capable of capturing the microvariation observed in the voice systems of these two languages in a straightforward way. The amount of linguistic information (i.e., aspect and mood) identified by each exponent in each language determines the types of complements and specifiers that can be integrated into and lexicalized by a given exponent. Although our approach shares certain affinities with other neo-constructionist approaches, a novel proposal we advance in this book is that exponents are housed in an intermediate level of structure that exists between the narrow syntax and its external interfaces. This exponency-level (Ʃ-structure) allows for a more parsimonious theoretical analysis that does not sacrifice descriptive adequacy.

Morphologically Derived Adjectives in Spanish

Morphologically Derived Adjectives in Spanish PDF Author: Antonio Fábregas
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027260338
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
This is the first book that presents a complete empirical description and theoretical analysis of all major classes of derived adjectives in Spanish, both deverbal and denominal. The reader will find here both a detailed empirical description of the syntactic, morphological and semantic properties of derived adjectives in contemporary Spanish and a cohesive Neo-Constructionist analysis of the syntactic and semantic tools that contemporary Spanish has available to build adjectives from other grammatical categories within a Nanosyntactic-oriented framework. In doing so, this book sheds light on the nature of adjectives as a grammatical category and argues that adjectives are syntactically built by recycling functional heads belonging to other categories. The book will be useful both to researchers in Spanish linguistics or theoretical morphology and to advanced students of Spanish interested in the main ways of building new adjectives through suffixation in this language.

The Fine-grained Structure of the Lexical Area

The Fine-grained Structure of the Lexical Area PDF Author: Antonio Fábregas
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 902724720X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
This is the first book that presents a complete description and analysis of the Spanish suffixes that alter the grammatical behaviour of nouns and adjectives without changing their grammatical category, supporting a fine-grained decomposition of the syntactic area where these word classes are defined. In this monograph the reader will find a detailed empirical description of suffixes for gender, mereological properties of nouns, scalar properties of adjectives and a variety of nominal suffixes expressing actions, measures or locations, as well as an integral Neo-Constructionist analysis of the syntactic structure of the resulting formations. Framed within a Nanosyntactic-oriented framework, this book sheds light on the nature of lexical categories and the components of the low syntactic structure of nouns and adjectives. The book will be useful both to researchers in Spanish linguistics or theoretical morphology and to advanced students of Spanish interested in learning more about the expressive devices that nouns and adjectives allow.

Spanish Verbalisations and the Internal Structure of Lexical Predicates

Spanish Verbalisations and the Internal Structure of Lexical Predicates PDF Author: Antonio Fábregas
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000625265
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Spanish Verbalisations and the Internal Structure of Lexical Predicates provides the first comprehensive and empirically detailed theoretical analysis of the different ways in which Spanish builds verbs from nouns and adjectives. This book poses questions about the nature of theme vowels, parasynthesis and the structural relation between the three major lexical word classes from within a Neo-Constructionist framework that highlights the correlations between the syntactic and semantic behaviour of verbs and their morphological make up. Provided within are detailed empirical descriptions of each of the nine major ways of building lexical verbs in Spanish, as well as an integral analysis of those patterns that shows the significance of the contrast between them and their uses to address some foundational questions in morphological theory. Spanish Verbalisations will be of particular interest to researchers in formal linguistics and Spanish. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Principles of Argument Structure

Principles of Argument Structure PDF Author: Chris Collins
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262548275
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
A new theory of argument structure, based on the syntactic operation Merge and presented through an in-depth analysis of properties of the English passive construction. In Principles of Argument Structure, Chris Collins investigates principles of argument structure in minimalist syntax through an in-depth analysis of properties of the English passive construction. He formulates a new theory of argument structure based on the only structure-building operation in minimalist syntax, Merge, which puts together two syntactic objects to form a larger one. This new theory should give rise to detailed cross-linguistic work on the syntactic and semantic properties of implicit arguments. Collins presents an update and defense of his influential 2005 theory of the passive, including a completely original theory of implicit arguments. He makes a direct empirical argument for the Theta-Criterion against various claims that it should be eliminated. He also discusses the conception of voice in syntactic theory, arguing that VoiceP does not introduce external arguments, a position otherwise widely accepted in the field. He shows how the ”smuggling” approach to the passive extends naturally to the dative alternation accounting for a number of striking c-command asymmetries. He compares syntactic and semantic approaches to argument structure, outlining conceptual problems with adopting formal semantics as the basis for a theory of argument structure. The book will be of interest not only to syntacticians and semanticists, but also to typologists investigating the cross-linguistic properties of the passive, psycholinguists and computer scientists working on natural language understanding, and philosophers thinking about the issue of “implicit content.” It includes an appendix that provides common-sense guidelines for doing syntactic research using internet data.

Beyond Emotions in Language

Beyond Emotions in Language PDF Author: Bożena Rozwadowska
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027260761
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
This book sheds new light on the puzzle of psychological predicates in a cross-linguistic perspective by looking at them from a variety of angles at the interfaces between event structure, lexical and viewpoint aspect, syntax and information structure. The individual chapters focus on Polish and Spanish psych verbs, which manifest new overt contrasts that often remain covert in languages such as English, e.g., aspectual distinctions, the peculiarities of dative constructions, or the role of information structure in determining the word order. One of the main contributions of the book lies in positing a new typology of basic event types enriched with the initial boundary events. Moreover, due attention is devoted to dative experiencers as compared to accusative experiencers. Although couched in the generative tradition, the main insights presented in this collection are theory neutral and may be of interest to linguists of all persuasions.

Demoting the Agent

Demoting the Agent PDF Author: Benjamin Lyngfelt
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027233608
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Passives, middles, and other voice phenomena are issues at the core of modern linguistic research. This volume brings together different perspectives on voice different theoretical viewpoints, different languages, and different kinds of voice phenomena. The eleven articles each make a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion, offering new data, new analyses, and bringing new light to long-standing issues. In combination, they present a multi-faceted and yet coherent picture of the topics at hand.

The North Germanic Morphosyntax of Modern English

The North Germanic Morphosyntax of Modern English PDF Author: Joseph Emonds
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031641671
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description


Issues in Formal German(ic) Typology

Issues in Formal German(ic) Typology PDF Author: Werner Abraham
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027297606
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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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.