Configuring Topic and Focus in Russian

Configuring Topic and Focus in Russian PDF Author: Tracy Holloway King
Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications
ISBN: 9781881526629
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
This work examines word order. More accurately, it is the ordering of constituents that is discussed since prepositional phrases and most noun phrases form syntactic constituents and the encoding of topic and focus in Russian. As has long been observed, word order in Russian encodes specific discourse information: with neutral intonation, topics precede discourse-neutral constituents which precede foci. King extends this idea to show that word order encodes different types of topic and focus in a principled manner.

Configuring Topic and Focus in Russian

Configuring Topic and Focus in Russian PDF Author: Tracy Holloway King
Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications
ISBN: 9781881526629
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
This work examines word order. More accurately, it is the ordering of constituents that is discussed since prepositional phrases and most noun phrases form syntactic constituents and the encoding of topic and focus in Russian. As has long been observed, word order in Russian encodes specific discourse information: with neutral intonation, topics precede discourse-neutral constituents which precede foci. King extends this idea to show that word order encodes different types of topic and focus in a principled manner.

The Syntax of Topic, Focus, and Contrast

The Syntax of Topic, Focus, and Contrast PDF Author: Ad Neeleman
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 1614511454
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
This book addresses how core notions of information structure (topic, focus and contrast) are expressed in syntax. The authors propose that the syntactic effects of information structure come about as a result of mapping rules that are flexible enough to allow topics and foci to be expressed in a variety of positions, but strict enough to capture certain cross-linguistic generalisations about their distribution. In particular, the papers argue that only contrastive topics and contrastive foci undergo movement and that this is because such movement has the function of marking the scope of contrast. Several predications are derived from this proposal: such as that a focus cannot move across a topic – whether the latter is in situ or not. Syntactic and semantic evidence in support of this proposal is presented from a wide range of languages (including Dutch, English, Japanese, Korean and Russian) and theoretical consequences explored. The first chapter not only outlines its theoretical aims, but also provides an introduction to information structure. As a consequence, the book is accessible to advanced students as well as professional linguists.

The Syntax of Russian

The Syntax of Russian PDF Author: John F. Bailyn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521885744
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
An essential guide to Russian syntax, which examines major syntactic structures and grammatical puzzles of the language.

A Phase-based Approach to Russian Free Word Order

A Phase-based Approach to Russian Free Word Order PDF Author: Marina Dyakonova
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Russian language
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description


Configuring Topic and Focus in Russian

Configuring Topic and Focus in Russian PDF Author: Tracy Holloway King
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Russian language
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description


Syntax - Theory and Analysis. Volume 1

Syntax - Theory and Analysis. Volume 1 PDF Author: Tibor Kiss
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110394235
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 894

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Book Description
This Handbook represents the development of research and the current level of knowledge in the fields of syntactic theory and syntax analysis. Syntax can look back to a long tradition. Especially in the last 50 years, however, the interaction between syntactic theory and syntactic analysis has led to a rapid increase in analyses and theoretical suggestions. This second edition of the Handbook on Syntax adopts a unifying perspective and therefore does not place the division of syntactic theory into several schools to the fore, but the increase in knowledge resulting from the fruitful argumentations between syntactic analysis and syntactic theory. It uses selected phenomena of individual languages and their cross-linguistic realizations to explain what syntactic analyses can do and at the same time to show in what respects syntactic theories differ from each other. It investigates how syntax is related to neighbouring disciplines and investigate the role of the interfaces especially the relationship between syntax and phonology, morphology, compositional semantics, pragmatics, and the lexicon. The phenomena chosen bring together renowned experts in syntax, and represent the consensus reached as to what has to be considered as an important as well as illustrative syntactic phenomenon. The phenomena discuss do not only serve to show syntactic analyses, but also to compare theoretical approaches with each other.

Aspects of the Grammar of Focus

Aspects of the Grammar of Focus PDF Author: Przemysław Tajsner
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783631579558
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
The book examines the aspects of focus within the recent minimalist paradigm. Focus is viewed here as a grammar's response to the requirements of the systems external to (narrowly defined) language. Thus, the properties of focus are explored at the two interfaces: syntax-phonology and syntax-semantics. The book surveys some recent views on the interface and left-periphery status of focus. With respect to the semantics of focus, the book argues for its tripartite division into: information, non-exhaustive identification, and exhaustive identification. It further contains a proposal of the phase-based derivation of sentences featuring focus in English, and finally, offers an account of Polish, in which focus interestingly correlates with the phenomenon of scrambling.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax PDF Author: Guglielmo Cinque
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195136519
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 990

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Book Description
Its twenty-one commissioned chapters serve two functions: they provide a general and theoretical introduction to comparative syntax, its methodology, and its relation to other domains of linguistic inquiry; and they also provide a systematic selection of the best comparative work being done today on those language groups and families where substantial progress has been achieved." "This volume will be an essential resource for scholars and students in formal linguistics."--Jacket.

A Comprehensive Russian Grammar

A Comprehensive Russian Grammar PDF Author: Terence Wade
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444351494
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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Book Description
The third edition of Terence Wade’s A Comprehensive Russian Grammar, newly updated and revised, offers the definitive guide to current Russian usage. Provides the most complete, accurate and authoritative English language reference grammar of Russian available on the market Includes up-to-date material from a wide range of literary and non-literary sources, including Russian government websites Features a comprehensive approach to grammar exposition Retains the accessible yet comprehensive coverage of the previous edition while adding updated examples and illustrations, as well as insights into several new developments in Russian language usage since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

Alternatives to Cartography

Alternatives to Cartography PDF Author: Jeroen van Craenenbroeck
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 311020603X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
In the 1980s generative grammar recognized that functional material is able to project syntactic structure in conformity with the X-bar-format. This insight soon led to a considerable increase in the inventory of functional projections. The basic idea behind this line of theorizing, which goes by the name of cartography, is that sentence structure can be represented as a template of linearly ordered positions, each with their own syntactic and semantic import. In recent years, however, a number of problems have been raised for this approach. For example, certain combinations of syntactic elements cannot be linearly ordered. In light of such problems a number of alternative accounts have been explored. Some of them propose a new (often interface-related) trigger for movement, while others seek alternative means of accounting for various word order patterns. These alternatives to cartography do not form a homogeneous group, nor has there thus far been a forum where these ideas could be compared and confronted with one another. This volume fills that gap. It offers a varied and in-depth view on the position taken by a substantial number of researchers in the field today on what is presumably one of the most hotly debated and controversial issues in present-day generative grammar.