The Position of the Subject in Spanish and Clausal Structure

The Position of the Subject in Spanish and Clausal Structure PDF Author: Maria Pilar Ron
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In chapter 3, I argue that topicalization and negative fronting, which exhibit the order OV(S), are instances of a focus fronting rule that moves a constituent to SpecSigmaP. By contrast, clitic left-dislocated structures, which may also exhibit the order OV(S), are instances of base-adjunction to SigmaP.

The Position of the Subject in Spanish and Clausal Structure

The Position of the Subject in Spanish and Clausal Structure PDF Author: Maria Pilar Ron
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In chapter 3, I argue that topicalization and negative fronting, which exhibit the order OV(S), are instances of a focus fronting rule that moves a constituent to SpecSigmaP. By contrast, clitic left-dislocated structures, which may also exhibit the order OV(S), are instances of base-adjunction to SigmaP.

The Clausal Structure of Spanish

The Clausal Structure of Spanish PDF Author: Francisco Ordonez
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135715610
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This work studies various aspects of word order and clause structure in Spanish that have proved problematic for syntactic theory. These aspects are explored theoretically in light of the antisymmetry approach of Kayne (1994) and empirically by examining parallel structures in related languages. For example, the author uses antisymmetry to critique the traditional understanding of post-verbal subjects, which have assumed a right-adjunction approach. However, he provides empirical as well as theoretical reasons to believe that a combination of leftward movements constitutes a better alternative. Likewise, the study uses a number of combined theoretical and empirical arguments to provide new and more constrained analyses of overt wh -movement and pre-verbal subjects. It shows that the obligatory post-verbal positioning of overt subjects cannot be explained by recourse to a required overt head movement of the verb. Instead, the author explains this restriction by proposing that overt subjects, which are always topicalized in Spanish, conflict with the feature specifications of wh -complementizers. Finally, the author relates the obligatory topicalized nature of pre-verbal subjects in Spanish to a proposal that person agreement morphemes on the verb should be considered arguments that receive the subject theta-role. This book will be of interest to syntacticians and comparitivists, as well as scholars of Romance languages.

Clausal Architecture and Subject Positions

Clausal Architecture and Subject Positions PDF Author: Sabine Mohr
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027233523
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This book offers a comparative study of the Germanic languages. It promotes a new approach to the OV vs. VO classification, according to which all clauses have a universal base where the internal argument is always merged in SpecVP. Word order differences and their correlates result from an interaction of checking conditions, the EPP and different types of verb movement, and from parametric variation concerning the location of the subject of predication in the I- or in the C-system. In the discussion of a range of impersonal constructions in German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Icelandic, the Mainland Scandinavian languages and English, it is shown that crosslinguistic variation as regards, e.g., the distribution of the expletive in impersonal passives and the occurrence of a Definiteness Effect in Transitive Expletive Constructions is mainly due to the choice of different kinds of 'expletive' elements (each associated with different featural make-ups which force them to show up in different positions), namely true expletives, event arguments and quasi-arguments, whereas expletive pro is shown not to exist.

Verb Movement

Verb Movement PDF Author: David Lightfoot
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521456616
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Work on the movement of phrase categories, mostly Noun Phrases, has been a central element of syntactic theorizing almost since the earliest work on generative grammar. Work on the movement of lexical elements, heads, has been much less central until recent years. Verb movement is now, however, the center of current research in syntax. Parallel to the theoretical interest has been the attention focused on the description of verb-second languages and on the movement operations that place the verb in its "second" position. This volume represents the latest work from many of the leading researchers in an important field, and draws on analyses from a wide range of languages. It will have a significant impact on its field.

Adverb Licensing and Clause Structure in English

Adverb Licensing and Clause Structure in English PDF Author: Dagmar Haumann
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027233691
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
This monograph provides an in-depth investigation of the structural integration and the licensing of adverbs in relation to clause structure, with special emphasis on the structural implementation of the relation between the position and interpretation of adverbs. The book substantiates the hypothesis that the licensing of adverbs within and across the three layers of the clause is contingent on specifier-head agreement and that variation in the linear order of adverbs and other elements of the clause follows from the interplay of a small number of factors. The central claims made are: functional projections hosting adverbs are not confined to the inflectional and complementizer layer of the clause, but also play a central role in the shaping of the lexical layer; postverbal adverbs are realized within a semantically empty verbal projection and licensed under specifier head agreement by proxy; and adverbs that occur within the complementizer layer of the clause do so by either move or merge.

Verb Movement and Clause Structure in Old Romanian

Verb Movement and Clause Structure in Old Romanian PDF Author: Virginia Hill
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191056146
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The book provides a formal analysis of root and complement clauses in Old Romanian. Virginia Hill and Gabriela Alboiu examine the combination of Balkan syntactic patterns such as generalized subjunctive complementation on the one hand, and the Romance morphology that supplies complementizers and grammatical mood forms on the other. The consequences of this mixed typology range from root clauses with non-finite verbs to split heads and repeated recycling in clausal complements. The book argues that discourse triggers at the left periphery are responsible for fluctuations in verb movement in finite clauses, while with gerunds and imperatives verb movement follows from functional constraints. It further argues that clausal complements to control and raising verbs systematically display the pattern of the Balkan subjunctive, and that the spell out of these clausal complements has been repeatedly recycled during the development of Romanian. Verb Movement and Clause Structure in Old Romanian presents a new perspective on the manifestation of Balkan Sprachbund properties in the language, and on the nature of parametric differences in relation to other Romance languages. It provides a unified explanation for a range of constructions that have previously been treated as separate phenomena, and places diachronic changes in Romanian in a wider context.

Partitions and Atoms of Clause Structure

Partitions and Atoms of Clause Structure PDF Author: Dominique Sportiche
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134701292
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
This collection brings together some of Dominique Sportiche's best work, including essays that are published here for the first time. The articles discuss the architecture of syntax in natural languages and Sportiche suggests that languages do not differ at all in their syntactic organization. This view takes shape through the analysis of a variety of syntactic configurations and essays examine what it means to be a Subject, how Case marking functions, how it relates to Agreement, and how Pronominal Clitic Constructions should be analyzed.

The World Atlas of Language Structures

The World Atlas of Language Structures PDF Author: Martin Haspelmath
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199255911
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
The World Atlas of Language Structures is a book and CD combination displaying the structural properties of the world's languages. 142 world maps and numerous regional maps - all in colour - display the geographical distribution of features of pronunciation and grammar, such as number of vowels, tone systems, gender, plurals, tense, word order, and body part terminology. Each world map shows an average of 400 languages and is accompanied by a fully referenced description ofthe structural feature in question.The CD provides an interactive electronic version of the database which allows the reader to zoom in on or customize the maps, to display bibliographical sources, and to establish correlations between features. The book and the CD together provide an indispensable source of information for linguists and others seeking to understand human languages.The Atlas will be especially valuable for linguistic typologists, grammatical theorists, historical and comparative linguists, and for those studying a region such as Africa, Southeast Asia, North America, Australia, and Europe. It will also interest anthropologists and geographers. More than fifty authors from many different countries have collaborated to produce a work that sets new standards in comparative linguistics. No institution involved in language research can afford to bewithout it.

Negation in Early English

Negation in Early English PDF Author: Phillip W. Wallage
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108298702
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Informed by detailed analysis of data from large-scale diachronic corpora, this book is a comprehensive account of changes to the expression of negation in English. Its methodological approach brings together up-to-date techniques from corpus linguistics and minimalist syntactic analysis to identify and characterise a series of interrelated changes affecting negation during the period 800–1700. Phillip Wallage uses cutting-edge statistical techniques and large-scale corpora to model changes in English negation over a period of nine hundred years. These models provide crucial empirical evidence which reveals the specific processes of syntactic and functional change affecting early English negation, and identifies diachronic relationships between these processes.

The Syntax of Spanish

The Syntax of Spanish PDF Author: Karen Zagona
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521576840
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
A clear and well-organised introduction to Spanish syntax, assuming no prior knowledge of current theory.