The Quotative Complementizer Says “I'm Too Baroque for That” 1 Introduction
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Alignment in Syntax: Quotative Inversion in English
Alignment in Syntax: Quotative Inversion in English Benjamin Bruening, University of Delaware rough draft, February 5, 2014; comments welcome Abstract This paper explores the idea that many languages have a phonological Align(ment) constraint that re- quires alignment between the tensed verb and C. This Align constraint is what is behind verb-second and many types of inversion phenomena generally. Numerous facts about English subject-auxiliary inversion and French stylistic inversion fall out from the way this Align constraint is stated in each language. The paper arrives at the Align constraint by way of a detailed re-examination of English quotative inversion. The syntactic literature has overwhelmingly accepted Collins and Branigan’s (1997) conclusion that the subject in quotative inversion is low, within the VP. This paper re-examines the properties of quotative inversion and shows that Collins and Branigan’s analysis is incorrect: quotative inversion subjects are high, in Spec-TP, and what moves is a full phrase, not just the verb. The constraints on quotative inver- sion, including the famous transitivity constraint, fall out from two independently necessary constraints: (1) a constraint on what can be stranded by phrasal movement like VP fronting, and (2) the aforemen- tioned Align constraint which requires alignment between V and C. This constraint can then be seen to derive numerous seemingly unrelated facts in a single language, as well as across languages. Keywords: Generalized Alignment, quotative inversion, subject-in-situ generalization, transitivity restric- tions, subject-auxiliary inversion, stylistic inversion, verb second, phrasal movement 1 Introduction This paper explores the idea that the grammar of many languages includes a phonological Align(ment) con- straint that requires alignment between the tensed verb and C. -
The Morphosyntax of Jejuan – Ko Clause Linkages
The Morphosyntax of Jejuan –ko Clause Linkages † Soung-U Kim SOAS University of London ABSTRACT While clause linkage is a relatively understudied area within Koreanic linguistics, the Korean –ko clause linkage has been studied more extensively. Authors have deemed it interesting since depending on the successive/non-successive interpretation of its events, a –ko clause linkage exhibits all or no properties of what is traditionally known as coordination or subordination. Jejuan –ko clauses may look fairly similar to Korean on the surface, and exhibit a similar lack of semantic specification. This study shows that the traditional, dichotomous coordination-subordination opposition is not applicable to Jejuan –ko clauses. I propose that instead of applying a-priori categories to the exploration of clause linkage in Koreanic varieties, one should apply a multidimensional model that lets patterns emerge in an inductive way. Keywords: clause linkage, –ko converb, Jejuan, Jejueo, Ceycwu dialect 1. Introduction Koreanic language varieties are well-known for their richness in manifestations of clause linkage, much of which is realised by means of specialised verb forms. Connecting to an ever-growing body of research in functional-typological studies (cf. Haspelmath and König 1995), a number of authors in Koreanic linguistics have adopted the term converb for these forms (Jendraschek and Shin 2011, 2018; Kwon et al. 2006 among others). Languages such as Jejuan (Song S-J 2011) or Korean (Sohn H-M 2009) make extensive use of an unusually high number of converbs, connecting clauses within a larger sentence structure which may correspond to * This work was supported by the Laboratory Programme for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2016-LAB-2250003), the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme of the Arcadia Fund (IGS0208), as well as the British Arts and Humanities Research Council. -
The Whether Report
Hugvísindasvið The Whether Report: Reclassifying Whether as a Determiner B.A. Essay Gregg Thomas Batson May, 2012 University of Iceland School of Humanities Department of English The Whether Report: Reclassifying Whether as a Determiner B.A. Essay Gregg Thomas Batson Kt.: 0805682239 Supervisor: Matthew Whelpton May, 2012 Abstract This paper examines the use of whether in complement clauses for the purpose of determining the exact syntactic and semantic status of whether in these clauses. Beginning with a background to the complementizer phrase, this paper will note the historical use of whether, and then examine and challenge the contemporary assertion of Radford (2004) and Newson et al. (2006) that whether is a wh-phrase. Furthermore, this paper will investigate the preclusion of whether by Radford and Newson et al. from the complementizer class. Following an alternative course that begins by taking into account the morphology of whether, the paper will then examine two research papers relevant to whether complement clauses. The first is Adger and Quer‘s (2001) paper proposing that certain embedded question clauses have an extra element in their structure that behaves as a determiner and the second paper is from Larson (1985) proposing that or scope is assigned syntactically by scope indicators. Combining the two proposals, this paper comes to a different conclusion concerning whether and introduces a new proposal concerning the syntactic structure and semantic interpretation of interrogative complement clauses. Table of Contents 1. -
Language Documentation and Description
Language Documentation and Description ISSN 1740-6234 ___________________________________________ This article appears in: Language Documentation and Description, vol 10: Special Issue on Humanities of the lesser-known: New directions in the description, documentation and typology of endangered languages and musics. Editors: Niclas Burenhult, Arthur Holmer, Anastasia Karlsson, Håkan Lundström & Jan-Olof Svantesson The Wichita pitch phoneme: a first look DAVID S. ROOD Cite this article: David S. Rood (2012). The Wichita pitch phoneme: a first look. In Niclas Burenhult, Arthur Holmer, Anastasia Karlsson, Håkan Lundström & Jan-Olof Svantesson (eds) Language Documentation and Description, vol 10: Special Issue on Humanities of the lesser-known: New directions in the description, documentation and typology of endangered languages and musics. London: SOAS. pp. 113-131 Link to this article: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/116 This electronic version first published: July 2014 __________________________________________________ This article is published under a Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial). The licence permits users to use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article provided that the author is attributed as the original creator and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes i.e. research or educational use. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ______________________________________________________ EL Publishing For more EL Publishing articles and services: Website: http://www.elpublishing.org Terms of use: http://www.elpublishing.org/terms Submissions: http://www.elpublishing.org/submissions The Wichita pitch phoneme: a first look David S. Rood 1. Introduction Wichita is a polysynthetic language currently spoken fluently by only one person, Doris Jean Lamar, who is in her mid-80s and lives in Anadarko, Oklahoma, USA. -
Linguistics 21N - Linguistic Diversity and Universals: the Principles of Language Structure
Linguistics 21N - Linguistic Diversity and Universals: The Principles of Language Structure Ben Newman March 1, 2018 1 What are we studying in this course? This course is about syntax, which is the subfield of linguistics that deals with how words and phrases can be combined to form correct larger forms (usually referred to as sentences). We’re not particularly interested in the structure of words (morphemes), sounds (phonetics), or writing systems, but instead on the rules underlying how words and phrases can be combined across different languages. These rules are what make up the formal grammar of a language. Formal grammar is similar to what you learn in middle and high school English classes, but is a lot more, well, formal. Instead of classifying words based on meaning or what they “do" in a sentence, formal grammars depend a lot more on where words are in the sentence. For example, in English class you might say an adjective is “a word that modifies a noun”, such as red in the phrase the red ball. A more formal definition of an adjective might be “a word that precedes a noun" or “the first word in an adjective phrase" where the adjective phrase is red ball. Describing a formal grammar involves writing down a lot of rules for a language. 2 I-Language and E-Language Before we get into the nitty-gritty grammar stuff, I want to take a look at two ways language has traditionally been described by linguists. One of these descriptions centers around the rules that a person has in his/her mind for constructing sentences. -
Word Order, Parameters and the Extended COMP
Alice Davison, University of Iowa [email protected] January 2006 Word order, parameters, and the Extended COMP projection Abstract The structure of finite CP shows some unexpected syntactic variation in the marking of finite subordinate clauses in the Indic languages, which otherwise are strongly head-final.. Languages with relative pronouns also have initial complementizers and conjunctions. Languages with final yes/no question markers allow final complementizers, either demonstratives or quotative participles. These properties define three classes, one with only final CP heads (Sinhala), one with only initial CP heads (Hindi, Panjabi, Kashmiri) and others with both possibilities. The lexical differences of final vs initial CP heads argue for expanding the CP projection into a number of specialized projections, whose heads are all final (Sinhala), all initial, or mixed. These projections explain the systematic variation in finite CPs in the Indic languages, with the exception of some additional restrictions and anomalies in the Eastern group. 1. Introduction In this paper, I examine two topics in the syntactic structure of clauses in the Indic languages. The first topic has to do with the embedding of finite clauses and especially about how embedded finite clauses are morphologically marked. The second topic focuses on patterns of linear order in languages, parameters of directionality in head position. The two topics intersect in the position of these markers of finite subordinate clauses in the Indic languages. These markers can be prefixes or suffixes, and I will propose that they are heads of functional projections, just as COMP is traditionally regarded as head of CP. The Indic languages are all fundamentally head-final languages; the lexically heads P, Adj, V and N are head-final in the surface structure, while only the functional head D is not. -
The Role of Complementizers in Verb Classification in Thai Amara Prasithrathsint Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, Thailand [email protected]
Paper presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS XVII), August 31-September 2, 2007, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, U.S.A. The Role of Complementizers in Verb Classification in Thai Amara Prasithrathsint Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, Thailand [email protected] ABSTRACT A complementizer is defined here as a function word that marks a complement clause, which is an argument of a matrix verb; for example, that in I think that he will leave tomorrow is a complementizer, and that he will leave tomorrow is a complement clause, which is an argument of the matrix verb think. A review of previous literature related to complementizers in Thai shows that there has been no study focusing particularly on them. Most studies treat them as elements in other phenomena, such as parts of speech, embedding, subordinate clauses, etc. Despite the important role complementizers play in forming complex sentences in Thai, their syntactic behavior is still obscure. Besides, there is dispute as to which words should be analyzed as complementizers and what conditions their occurrence. The purpose of this study is to identify complementizers in Thai and find out the conditions of their occurrence. Based on an approximately three-million-word corpus of current Thai, the findings show that there are three complementizers in Thai: thifli, wafla, and hafly. They are grammaticalized words from the noun thifli ‘place’, the verb wafla ‘to say’, and the verb hafly ‘to give’, respectively. The occurrence of each of the complementizers depends on the type of verb in the matrix clause. -
RC HUMS 392 English Grammar and Meaning Complements
RC HUMS 392 English Grammar and Meaning Complements 1. Bill wanted/intended/hoped/said/seemed/forgot/asked/failed/tried/decided to write the book. 2. Bill enjoyed/tried/finished/admitted/reported/remembered/permitted writing the book. 3. Bill thought/said/forgot/remembered/reported/was sad/discovered/knew that he wrote the book. 4. Bill asked/wondered/knew/discovered/said why he wrote the book. There are four different types of complement (noun clause, either subject or object – the ones above are all object complements): respectively, they are called infinitive, gerund, that-clause, and embedded question. These types, and their structures and markers (like to and –ing) are often called complementizers. Other names for these types include for-to complementizer (infinitive), POSS-ing (or ACC-ing) complementizer (gerund), inflected (or tensed) clause (that), or WH- complementizer (embedded question). Which term you use is of no concern; they’re equivalent. Infinitives and gerunds are often called non-finite clauses, while questions and that-clauses are called finite clauses, because of the absence or presence of tense markers on the verb form. That-clauses and questions must have a fully-inflected verb, in either the present or past tense, while infinitives and gerunds are not marked for tense. Non-finite complements often do not have overt subjects; these may be deleted either because they’re indefinite or under identity. Very roughly speaking, infinitives refer to states, gerunds to events or activities, and that-clauses to propositions, but it is the identify and nature of the matrix predicate governing the complement (i.e, the predicate that the complement is the subject or object of) that determines not only what kind of thing the complement refers to, but also whether there can be a complement at all, and which complementizer(s) it can take, if so. -
The Sociolinguistics of a Short-Lived Innovation: Tracing the Development of Quotative All Across Spoken and Internet Newsgroup Data
Language Variation and Change, 22 (2010), 191–219. © Cambridge University Press, 2010 0954-3945/10 $16.00 doi:10.1017/S0954394510000098 The sociolinguistics of a short-lived innovation: Tracing the development of quotative all across spoken and internet newsgroup data I SABELLE B UCHSTALLER Newcastle University J OHN R. RICKFORD,ELIZABETH C LOSS T RAUGOTT,THOMAS W ASOW AND A RNOLD Z WICKY Stanford University ABSTRACT This paper examines a short-lived innovation, quotative all, in real and apparent time. We used a two-pronged method to trace the trajectory of all over the past two decades: (i) Quantitative analyses of the quotative system of young Californians from different decades; this reveals a startling crossover pattern: in 1990/1994, all predominates, but by 2005, it has given way to like. (ii) Searches of Internet newsgroups; these confirm that after rising briskly in the 1990s, all is declining. Tracing the changing usage of quotative options provides year-to-year evidence that all has recently given way to like. Our paper has two aims: We provide insights from ongoing language change regarding short-term innovations in the history of English. We also discuss our collaboration with Google Inc. and argue for the value of newsgroups to research projects investigating linguistic variation and change in real time, especially where recorded conversational tokens are relatively sparse. An earlier version of this paper was presented at NWAV 35 (New Ways of Analyzing Variation) at Ohio State University in Columbus. We are grateful for comments from the audience, in particular to John V. Singler and Mary Bucholtz. -
BCGL13, 16-18.12.2020 1 the Syntax of Complementizers
BCGL13, 16-18.12.2020 The syntax of complementizers: a revised version Anna Roussou University of Patras ([email protected]) BCGL 13, The syntax and semantics of clausal complementation 16-18.12.2020 [joint work with Rita Manzini] 1. Setting the scene A clarification: why ‘a revised version’ Roussou (1994), The syntax of complementisers – the investigation of three basic constructions: (a) factive complements and extraction, Greek oti vs factive pu – a definite C (b) that-complements and subject extraction, an agreeing null C (c) na-complements in Greek and the subject dependency (control vs obviation) • Assumptions back then: -- that is an expletive element (Lasnik & Saito 1984, Law 1991) – complementizers in general are expletives -- But in some cases, as in factives, they may bear features for familiarity (Hegarty 1992) or definiteness, or license a definite operator (Melvold 1991) [that-factives are weak islands, pu- factives are strong islands] Some questions a) What is a complement clause? b) What is a complementizer? c) What is the role of the complementizer? d) How is complementation achieved if there is no complementizer? Some potential answers to the questions above a) complement clauses are nominal (the traditional grammarian view): mainly objects, but also subjects; it is a complement or a relative (?) b) not so clear: the lexical item that introduces a clause or the syntactic head C (Bresnan 1972) – in the latter reading, C can be realized by a variety of elements including conjunctions (that, oti, pu, che, etc.), prepositions -
Unity and Diversity in Grammaticalization Scenarios
Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios Edited by Walter Bisang Andrej Malchukov language Studies in Diversity Linguistics 16 science press Studies in Diversity Linguistics Chief Editor: Martin Haspelmath In this series: 1. Handschuh, Corinna. A typology of marked-S languages. 2. Rießler, Michael. Adjective attribution. 3. Klamer, Marian (ed.). The Alor-Pantar languages: History and typology. 4. Berghäll, Liisa. A grammar of Mauwake (Papua New Guinea). 5. Wilbur, Joshua. A grammar of Pite Saami. 6. Dahl, Östen. Grammaticalization in the North: Noun phrase morphosyntax in Scandinavian vernaculars. 7. Schackow, Diana. A grammar of Yakkha. 8. Liljegren, Henrik. A grammar of Palula. 9. Shimelman, Aviva. A grammar of Yauyos Quechua. 10. Rudin, Catherine & Bryan James Gordon (eds.). Advances in the study of Siouan languages and linguistics. 11. Kluge, Angela. A grammar of Papuan Malay. 12. Kieviet, Paulus. A grammar of Rapa Nui. 13. Michaud, Alexis. Tone in Yongning Na: Lexical tones and morphotonology. 14. Enfield, N. J (ed.). Dependencies in language: On the causal ontology of linguistic systems. 15. Gutman, Ariel. Attributive constructions in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. 16. Bisang, Walter & Andrej Malchukov (eds.). Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios. ISSN: 2363-5568 Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios Edited by Walter Bisang Andrej Malchukov language science press Walter Bisang & Andrej Malchukov (eds.). 2017. Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios (Studies in Diversity Linguistics -
Complex Adpositions and Complex Nominal Relators Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto De Lima, Elena Smirnova, Dejan Stosic
Introduction: Complex Adpositions and Complex Nominal Relators Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto de Lima, Elena Smirnova, Dejan Stosic To cite this version: Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto de Lima, Elena Smirnova, Dejan Stosic. Introduction: Complex Adpo- sitions and Complex Nominal Relators. Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto de Lima, Dejan Stosic, Elena Smirnova. Complex Adpositions in European Languages : A Micro-Typological Approach to Com- plex Nominal Relators, 65, De Gruyter Mouton, pp.1-30, 2020, Empirical Approaches to Language Typology, 978-3-11-068664-7. 10.1515/9783110686647-001. halshs-03087872 HAL Id: halshs-03087872 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-03087872 Submitted on 24 Dec 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Public Domain Benjamin Fagard, José Pinto de Lima, Elena Smirnova & Dejan Stosic Introduction: Complex Adpositions and Complex Nominal Relators Benjamin Fagard CNRS, ENS & Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle; PSL Lattice laboratory, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 1 rue Maurice Arnoux, 92120 Montrouge, France [email protected]