Local Modelling of Non-Local Dependencies in Syntax

Local Modelling of Non-Local Dependencies in Syntax PDF Author: Artemis Alexiadou
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 311029477X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 532

Book Description
Syntactic dependencies are often non-local: They can involve two positions in a syntactic structure whose correspondence cannot be captured by invoking concepts like minimal clause or predicate/argument structure. Relevant phenomena include long-distance movement, long-distance reflexivization, long-distance agreement, control, non-local deletion, long-distance case assignment, consecutio temporum, extended scope of negation, and semantic binding of pronouns. A recurring strategy pursued in many contemporary syntactic theories is to model cases of non-local dependencies in a strictly local way, by successively passing on the relevant information in small domains of syntactic structures. The present volume brings together eighteen articles that investigate non-local dependencies in movement, agreement, binding, scope, and deletion constructions from different theoretical backgrounds (among them versions of the Minimalist Program, HPSG, and Categorial Grammar), and based on evidence from a variety of typologically distinct languages. This way, advantages and disadvantages of local treatments of non-local dependencies become evident. Furthermore, it turns out that local analyses of non-local phenomena developed in different syntactic theories (spanning the derivational/declarative divide) often may not only share identical research questions but also rely on identical research strategies.

Remnant Movement

Remnant Movement PDF Author: Günther Grewendorf
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501500503
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
This book addresses two crucial problems associated with the phenomenon of Remnant Movement: First, what evidence can be brought to bear in favor of, or opposing, Remnant Movement analyses of linguistic phenomena? Secondly, what does the presence or absence of Remnant Movement in the syntax tell us about constraints imposed by Universal Grammar on syntactic operations?

Syntax - Theory and Analysis

Syntax - Theory and Analysis PDF Author: Tibor Kiss
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110377403
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 815

Book Description
The handbook offers an overview of syntactic theory and analysis, in terms of different theories, different languages, and different methods. The Handbook presents the state of art in syntactic analysis, also dealing with the methodology employed, and the rules of argumentation required to achieve such analyses for a wide range of phenomena.

Agreement Beyond the Verb

Agreement Beyond the Verb PDF Author: Chumakina
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019289756X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
This book explores unusual patterns of agreement, one of the most intriguing and theoretically challenging aspects of human language. Agreement is typically thought to reflect a structural relationship between a verb and its arguments within the clause, and all major theories of agreement have been developed with the centrality of this relationship in mind. But beyond the verb, items belonging to practically every other part of speech have been found to function as agreement targets, including adpositions, adverbs, converbs, nouns, pronouns, complementizers, and other conjunctions. Data on these targets provide rich insights into the structural domains in which agreement operates, demonstrating that unusual targets can be associated with unexpected domains that are independent of the agreement domain of the verb. Following an introduction to the typology of unusual targets and unexpected domains across the world's languages, the chapters in this volume provide detailed treatments of a wide range of rare and complex agreement phenomena in seven languages, belonging to five different language families of Eurasia and the Pacific. The contributions are all based on novel data collected by the authors, which detail the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties of agreement on non-verbal targets within the clause.

Adverbials and the Phase Model

Adverbials and the Phase Model PDF Author: Petr Biskup
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255601
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
This monograph addresses two issues, phases and adverbials. It proposes that there is a correlation between the phase structure, the tripartite quantificational structure and the information structure of the sentence. This correlation plays an important role not only in referential and information-structural properties of arguments and the verb but also in adverbial properties. For instance, the study shows that certain sentence adverbials can occur in the sentence-final position in the vP phase when they represent the extreme value with respect to the set of focus alternatives. The proposed correlation also becomes important in anaphoric relations with respect to adjuncts. Only an R-expression spelled out and interpreted in the CP phase of an adjunct clause can corefer with the coindexed pronoun. The study also discusses adverbial ordering and shows that the relative order of certain adverbials can be reversed if they occur in different phases. The monograph will appeal to syntacticians and linguists interested in the relationship between syntax and its interfaces.

Type-Logical Syntax

Type-Logical Syntax PDF Author: Yusuke Kubota
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262360799
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Book Description
A novel logic-based framework for representing the syntax-semantics interface of natural language, applicable to a range of phenomena. In this book, Yusuke Kubota and Robert Levine propose a type-logical version of categorial grammar as a viable alternative model of natural language syntax and semantics. They show that this novel logic-based framework is applicable to a range of phenomena--especially in the domains of coordination and ellipsis--that have proven problematic for traditional approaches.

Cross-Linguistic Studies of Imposters and Pronominal Agreement

Cross-Linguistic Studies of Imposters and Pronominal Agreement PDF Author: Chris Collins
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199336873
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Imposters are third person DPs that are used to refer to the speaker/writer or addressee, such as : (i) Your humble servant finds the time before our next encounter very long. (ii) This reporter thinks that the current developments are extraordinary. (iii) Daddy will be back before too long. (iv) The present author finds the logic of the reply faulty. This volume explores verbal and pronominal agreement with imposters from a cross-linguistic perspective. The central questions for any given language are: (a) How do singular and plural imposters agree with the verb? (b) When a pronoun has an imposter antecedent, what are the phi-features of the pronoun? The volume reveals a remarkable degree of variation in the answers to these questions, but also reveals some underlying generalizations. The contributions describe imposters in Bangla, Spanish, Albanian, Indonesian, Italian, French, Romanian, Mandarin and Icelandic.

Labels and Roots

Labels and Roots PDF Author: Leah Bauke
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501502131
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
This volume provides in-depth exploration of the issues of labeling and roots, with a balance of empirical and conceptual/theoretical analyses. The papers explore key questions that must ultimately be addressed in the development of generative theories: how do theories of labels and roots relate to syntax-internal computation, to semantics, to morphology, and to phonology?

Syntax - Theory and Analysis

Syntax - Theory and Analysis PDF Author: Tibor Kiss
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110363704
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 652

Book Description
The handbook offers an overview of syntactic theory and analysis, in terms of different theories, different languages, and different methods. The Handbook presents the state of art in syntactic analysis, also dealing with the methodology employed, and the rules of argumentation required to achieve such analyses for a wide range of phenomena.

Locality in Grammar

Locality in Grammar PDF Author: Xiaoshi HU
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040010091
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 173

Book Description
Locality in Grammar: From Narrow Syntax to Interfaces investigates the operation of locality conditions in syntax and semantics from a cross-linguistic perspective. It is claimed that there are two different types of locality conditions. One is the Generalized Minimality Condition (GMC), and the other is the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC). This book demonstrates that these locality conditions play different roles in different computational components of human language, and, therefore, cannot be unified as one constraint as proposed in the literature. The main idea of the book is that the two different locality conditions are sensitive to the difference between syntactic derivation and semantic interpretation and that of overt and covert syntactic derivations. Further investigation shows a more fine-grained distinction must be made between syntactic computations. It is true that GMC does not constrain overt syntactic derivations and PIC does not play a role in semantic interpretations; however, they both regulate covert syntactic computations. This book will inform postgraduate students and scholars in the field of linguistics.