Asymmetry in Grammar

Asymmetry in Grammar PDF Author: Anne-Marie Di Sciullo
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027227799
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Asymmetry in Grammar: Syntax and Semantics brings to fore the centrality of asymmetry in DP, VP and CP. A finer grained articulation of the DP is proposed, and further functional projections for restrictive relatives, as well as a refined analyses of case identification and presumptive pronouns. The papers on VP discuss further asymmetries among arguments, and between arguments and adjuncts. Double-object constructions, specificational copula sentences, secondary predicates, and the scope properties of adjuncts are discussed in this perspective. The papers on CP propose a further articulation of the phrasal projection, justifications for Remnant IP movement, and an analysis of variation in clause structure asymmetries. The papers in semantics support the hypothesis that interpretation is a function of configurational asymmetry. The type/token information difference is further argued to correspond to the partition between the upper and lower level of the phrase. It is also proposed that Point of View Roles are not primitives of the pragmatic component, but are head-dependent categories. Configurationality is further argued to be required to distinguish contrastive from non-contrastive Topic. Compositionality is proposed to explain cross-linguistic variations in the selectional behavior of typologically different languages. The papers in syntax include contributions from Antonia Androutsopoulou and Manuel Español-Echevarría, Dana Isac, Edit Jakab, Cedric Boeckx, Julie Anne Legate, Maria Cristina Cuervo, Jacqueline Guéron, Niina Zhang, Thomas Ernst, Manuela Ambar, Jean-Yves Pollock, Anna Maria Di Sciullo, Ilena Paul and Stanca Somesfalean. The papers on semantics include contributions of Greg Carlson,Peggy Speas and Carol Tenny, Chungmin Lee, and James Pustejovsky.

Narrow Syntax and Phonological Form

Narrow Syntax and Phonological Form PDF Author: Gema Chocano
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027233738
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
'Scrambling', the kind of word order variation found in West Germanic languages, has been commonly treated as a phenomenon completely unrelated to North Germanic 'Object Shift'. This book questions this view and defends a unified analysis on the basis of strictly syntactic and phonological evidence. Given that its main conclusions are drawn from German data, it also sheds light on several problematic aspects of the grammar of this language, which have traditionally resisted a principled account. Prominent among these are: the inconsistent behaviour of German coherent infinitives with respect to extraction of their internal arguments; the existence of a less 'liberal' type of 'Scrambling' within topicalised VPs; the link between reordering possibilities and headfinalness; the asymmetry exhibited by monotransitive and ditransitive structures with respect to the interaction between 'Scrambling' and the unmarked word order, and, finally, certain anomalies in the reordering of the lower arguments of ditransitive predicates that assign inherent case.

Sentential Form and Prosodic Structure of Catalan

Sentential Form and Prosodic Structure of Catalan PDF Author: Ingo Feldhausen
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255512
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
This monograph presents an experimental and theoretical inquiry into the role of sentential form and variation in the prosodic structure of Catalan. The empirical section examines intonational phrasing across sentence forms, including SVO structures with either nominal or sentential objects and structures involving clitic left- and right-dislocations. The results show variation in phrasing that depends on syntactic factors and non-syntactic factors such as topic-hood and prosodic binarity. The theoretical section uses Stochastic Optimality Theory to model the variation and frequency distributions associated with the observed prosodic patterns. Various syntactic and non-syntactic factors are represented by alignment constraints, which play a major role in Catalan, and by constraints that limit size and those that limit the overall amount of prosodic structure. This study represents a combined approach to prosody and syntax and is of particular relevance for theoretical and empirical linguists interested in the relationship between these domains both in Catalan and other languages.

On Information Structure, Meaning and Form

On Information Structure, Meaning and Form PDF Author: Kerstin Schwabe
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027292647
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 582

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Book Description
This collection of articles offers a new and compelling perspective on the interface connecting syntax, phonology, semantics and pragmatics. At the core of this volume is the hypothesis that information structure represents the common interface of these grammatical components. Information structure is investigated here from different theoretical viewpoints yielding typologically relevant information and structural generalizations. In the volume's introductory chapter, the editors identify two central approaches to information structure: the formal and the interpretive view. The remainder of the book is organized accordingly. The first part examines information structure and grammar, concentrating on generalizations across languages. The second part investigates information structure and pragmatics, concentrating on clause structure and context. Through concrete analyses of topic, focus, and related phenomena across different languages, the contributors add new and convincing evidence to the research on information structure.

Case, Referentiality and Phrase Structure

Case, Referentiality and Phrase Structure PDF Author: Balk?z Öztürk
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027294453
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This book proposes that the two “independent” conditions on argumenthood, namely, case and referentiality, are strongly correlated and have to be associated with each other in syntax as syntactic features. It shows that languages exhibit variation in the way this association is implemented in their syntax, which presents an explanation for the differences observed in their phrase structure in terms of (non-)configurationality. Thus, this book not only presents an innovative overarching theory for case and referentiality, but also aims to bring a new look at the issues of (non-)configurationality. It specifically argues for parameterization of functional categories associated with case and referentiality, which has certain implications not only for the acquisition but also for the diachronic development of functional categories. Providing rich comparative data from typologically different languages such as Turkish, Chinese, Hungarian, English and Japanese, this book is of particular interest to typologists as well.

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.

Advances in Comparative Germanic Syntax

Advances in Comparative Germanic Syntax PDF 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.

Minimalist Essays on Brazilian Portuguese Syntax

Minimalist Essays on Brazilian Portuguese Syntax PDF Author: Jairo Nunes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255253
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
This collection of papers discusses some of the major syntactic properties of Brazilian Portuguese from a minimalist perspective. The volume focuses on movement and empty category issues and brings new empirical material on a variety of topics (null subjects and finite control, possessive and existential constructions, factive constructions, relative clauses, null objects and stress shift, preposition duplication, VP topicalization, and ellipsis). The book is of interest to a wide spectrum of linguists working on theoretical and comparative syntax.

Prominence in Austronesian

Prominence in Austronesian PDF Author: Bethwyn Evans
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110730812
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
The cognitive concept of prominence is increasingly seen as key to understanding the organisation of grammar. This volume explores the encoding of prominence in languages from across the Austronesian family. The contributions show how prominence is relevant to understanding asymmetries at different levels of grammatical structure, from discourse and information structure to argument expression and socio-pragmatics. Moreover, common themes across contributions point to crosslinguistic tendencies that underpin the conventionalisation of communicative patterns for coordinating interlocutors' attention, and to points of departure for further crosslinguistic exploration of how grammatical asymmetries can be explained in terms of prominence.

The Structure of Stative Verbs

The Structure of Stative Verbs PDF Author: Antonia Rothmayr
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255261
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
This book explores the nature of stative verbs, their eventuality structure, and the patterns of argument realization. The study shows that there is no single class of stative verbs. Rather, several distinct groups of verbs are found: Verbs that undergo a systematic stative/eventive ambiguity; verbs that allow for a stative reading only; and verbs that seem to have an intermediate status (verbs of position and verbs of internal causation). The study concludes that there is a discrete boundary between stative and eventive verbs, excluding any intermediate status. Stativity arises because the aspectual operators DO and BECOME are absent in the lexical-semantic structure. Eventivity arises if one of these is present. A minimalist view on argument realization and event structure completes the book: Theta features on the arguments are checked against the aspectual heads within the verb phrase.

Deconstructing Constructions

Deconstructing Constructions PDF Author: Christopher S. Butler
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027289603
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
This collection of papers brings together contributions from experts in functional linguistics and in Construction Grammar approaches, with the aim of exploring the concept of construction from different angles and trying to arrive at a better understanding of what a construction is, and what roles constructions play in the frameworks which can be located within a multidimensional functional-cognitive space. At the same time, the volume has a historical dimension, for instance in plotting the developments which led to recent models. The book is organised in three sections: the first deals with particular theoretical issues, the second is devoted to the recent Lexical Constructional Model, and the third presents a number of analyses of specific constructions. The volume thus makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the relationship between functionalist and constructionist models.