Syntactic Ergativity in Tongan: Resumptive Pronoun Revisited
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Chapter 6 Morphological Split
Chapter 6 Morphological Split Chapter 6 Morphological Split: Accusative Behaviour of Pronouns As mentioned in the previous chapters, Tongan shows a morphological split based on types of nouns. Specifically, full NP’s are divided into ERG and ABS, while pronouns show an accusative pattern: S and A appear as a subject pronoun, while O is realised in a distinct form. We will argue, however, that the accusative pattern does not mean that the pronouns receive NOM in the subject position and ACC in the object position. Rather, it is due to the fact that pronominal subjects are realised as clitics in Tongan. We will argue that the form of a subject clitic reflects the theta-role it bears and not the case. In particular, we will argue that despite the identical phonological form, a subject clitic receives ERG when it refers to A, and ABS when it refers to S. In §6.1, we will look at the data that demonstrate the apparent accusative pattern, which Tongan pronouns show. Our data demonstrate another peculiar property of the Tongan pronouns, namely, the compulsory word order alternation. In §6.2, we will argue that the SVO order results from the fact that the subject pronouns are clitics attached to T. We will also argue that object pronouns are full pronouns. Object clitics are not part of the lexical inventory of Tongan. In §6.3, we will develop the hypothesis that the subject clitics in Tongan are theta-role absorbers in the sense of Aoun (1985) and therefore, are arguments. This hypothesis explains why the pronouns in Tongan show an accusative pattern. -
I PREPOSITION STRANDING and PIED-PIPING in YORUBA FOCUS CONSTRUCTIONS by © Joseph Ajayi a Thesis Submitted to the School Of
PREPOSITION STRANDING AND PIED-PIPING IN YORUBA FOCUS CONSTRUCTIONS by © Joseph Ajayi A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Department of Linguistics Memorial University of Newfoundland July 2019 St John’s Newfoundland i ABSTRACT The thesis examines P-stranding and pied-piping in focus constructions in Yoruba language, one of the Benue-Congo languages spoken in Western part of Nigeria. This research is unique given the fact that while existing literature and theories on P-stranding and pied-piping have solely hammered cross- linguistic differences, the thesis discovers intra-linguistic features of P-stranding and pied-piping in Yoruba. According to literature, a language is either a P-stranding or pied-piping one. On the contrary, Yoruba exhibits both P-stranding and pied-piping features in similar environments in focus constructions. It is discovered that a number of prepositions can only strand while some others can solely pied-pipe. The thesis further examines another behavioral patterns of prepositions in Yoruba focus constructions. Interestingly and quite strangely, it is discovered that some prepositions drop, or pied-pipe with the occurrence of resumptive pronouns in Yoruba focus. These multifarious behavioral patterns of prepositions in Yoruba focus pose a great challenge as to how to account for these patterns within the existing literature and theories which rather deal with P-stranding as cross-linguistic affairs. The thesis, however, tackles this challenge by extracting two different theories to account for these preposition features in Yoruba focus as each of the theories (Abels 2003 Phase Theory and Law 1998 Incorporation Thoery) cannot, in isolation, capture the features. -
Two Reflexive Markers in Slavic
Russ Linguist (2010) 34: 203–238 DOI 10.1007/s11185-010-9062-7 Two reflexive markers in Slavic Два маркера возвратности в славянских языках Dorothee Fehrmann · Uwe Junghanns · Denisa Lenertova´ Published online: 22 September 2010 © The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract The paper deals with lexical types of the reflexive marker in Slavic. On the one hand, this exponent shows up in a range of expressions associated with diverse in- terpretations. On the other hand, the properties within the various types are not homo- geneous across the Slavic languages. The challenge consists in finding a unified analysis for the constructions and their varying properties, accounting for the marker with as few construction-specific assumptions as possible. In this paper, we will argue that two lexical types of the reflexive marker—argument blocking and argument binding—are sufficient to cover all constructions and their cross-Slavic variation. Аннотация Данная статья посвящена лексическим типам маркера возвратности в славянских языках. Этот маркер употребляется в предложениях разного типа, свя- занных с рядом интерпретаций. Однако, выясняется, что свойства отдельных типов в славянских языках не гомогенные. Задача состоит в том, чтобы разработать мак- The research is part of the project ‘Microtypological variation in argument structure and morphosyntax’ funded by the German Research Foundation (research group FOR 742 ‘Grammar and Processing of Verbal Arguments’ at the University of Leipzig). Thanks are due to Hagen Pitsch who participated in the initial discussion and data elicitation. Earlier versions of the paper have been presented at the Workshop ‘Macrofunctionality and Underspecification’ in Wittenberg (August 2009), the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Slavic Linguistics Society in Zadar (September 2009), the Workshop ‘Verbargumente in Semantik und Syntax’ in Göttingen (January 2010), and the ‘Workshop on Slavic Syntax and Semantics’ at the 33rd GLOW Colloquium in Wrocław (April 2010). -
Minimal Pronouns1
1 Minimal Pronouns1 Fake Indexicals as Windows into the Properties of Bound Variable Pronouns Angelika Kratzer University of Massachusetts at Amherst June 2006 Abstract The paper challenges the widely accepted belief that the relation between a bound variable pronoun and its antecedent is not necessarily submitted to locality constraints. It argues that the locality constraints for bound variable pronouns that are not explicitly marked as such are often hard to detect because of (a) alternative strategies that produce the illusion of true bound variable interpretations and (b) language specific spell-out noise that obscures the presence of agreement chains. To identify and control for those interfering factors, the paper focuses on ‘fake indexicals’, 1st or 2nd person pronouns with bound variable interpretations. Following up on Kratzer (1998), I argue that (non-logophoric) fake indexicals are born with an incomplete set of features and acquire the remaining features via chains of local agreement relations established in the syntax. If fake indexicals are born with an incomplete set of features, we need a principled account of what those features are. The paper derives such an account from a semantic theory of pronominal features that is in line with contemporary typological work on possible pronominal paradigms. Keywords: agreement, bound variable pronouns, fake indexicals, meaning of pronominal features, pronominal ambiguity, typologogy of pronouns. 1 . I received much appreciated feedback from audiences in Paris (CSSP, September 2005), at UC Santa Cruz (November 2005), the University of Saarbrücken (workshop on DPs and QPs, December 2005), the University of Tokyo (SALT XIII, March 2006), and the University of Tromsø (workshop on decomposition, May 2006). -
Why and How to Distinguish Between Pro and Trace∗
Why and how to distinguish between pro ∗ and trace DALINA KALLULLI University of Vienna [email protected] Starting from a well-known observation, namely that in a language like Hebrew there is no free alternation between traces and (overt) resumptive pronouns, this paper aims to demonstrate that even in languages with seemingly little or no resumption such as English, the distinction between a putatively null resumptive pronoun and trace is equally material. More specifically, I contend that positing a resumptive (i.e. bound variable) pro also in English-like languages is not only theoretically appealing for various reasons (a.o. ideas in Hornstein 1999, 2001, Boeckx & Hornstein 2003, 2004, Kratzer 2009), but also empirically adequate (as conjectured e.g. in Cinque 1990). The central claim of this paper however is that resumption is restricted to (sometimes concealed) relatives. Applying this proposal to languages like English, the distinction drawn between (resumptive or bound variable) pro and trace accounts for phenomena as diverse as lack of superiority effects, lack of weak crossover in appositives, lack of Principle C effects in relative clauses, and so-called ATB movement phenomena. 1. Introduction Doron (1982) observed that in Hebrew, when a trace in a relative clause is c- commanded by a quantified expression, the sentence is ambiguous between a ‘single- individual’ and a ‘multiple-individual’ reading, as shown in (1), but if the trace position is filled by a resumptive pronoun, the multiple-individual interpretation is not available, as shown in (2). (1) ha-iSa Se kol gever hizmin hodeta lo the-woman Op every man invited thanked to-him a. -
Gustar Verbs, Unaccusatives and the Impersonal Passive
ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 321-330, March 2012 © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/jltr.3.2.321-330 Teaching Subject Position in Spanish: Gustar Verbs, Unaccusatives and the Impersonal Passive Roberto Mayoral Hernández University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA Email: [email protected] Abstract—This paper explores a misunderstood and frequently ignored topic in the literature dealing with teaching Spanish as an L2: subject position (Vanpatten & Cadierno, 1993). Native speakers of English, and other languages whose subjects have a fixed position in the sentence, find it difficult to acquire the patterns that govern subject placement in Spanish, which may either precede or follow the verb. This difficulty is due in part to cross-linguistic differences associated to the argument structure of certain expressions, but it is also caused by the inadequate treatment of this topic in many textbooks and dictionaries. Subject inversion, i.e. the placement of the subject in postverbal position, is not a random phenomenon, and its occurrence is often limited to specific constructions. This paper examines three structures that are frequently associated with postverbal subjects: verbs of psychological affection, the impersonal passive and unaccusative verbs. Several communicative task-based activities are also presented, in order to ensure that L2 learners of Spanish are able to recognize postverbal subjects as a common phenomenon. Index Terms—unaccusative verbs, impersonal passive, subject position, Spanish, verbs of psychological affection I. INTRODUCTION The variable position of the subject argument in Spanish is a largely ignored topic in textbooks and grammars for learners of Spanish as a non-native language. -
RESUMPTIVE PRONOUNS in TUKI* 1. Introduction
Studies in African Linguistics Volume 21, Number 2, August 1990 RESUMPTIVE PRONOUNS IN TUKI* Edmond Biloa University of Southern California and University of Yaounde I, Cameroun This paper argues that in Tuki, gaps construed with WH- or topicalized phrases are null resumptive pronouns rather than WH-traces. Gaps alternate with overt resumptive pronouns. Structures with a gap parallel analogous structures with overt resumptive pronouns with regard to subjacency viola tions and violations of the Condition on Extraction Domains of Huang [1982], coordination tests, and weak crossover phenomena: gaps and overt pronominals fail to produce weak crossover violations, unlike structures with quantified NP's. Moreover, both the gaps and the overt resumptive pronouns license parasitic gaps, further strengthening the analogy. 1. Introduction This paper reveals that gaps in Tuki WH-constructions should be analyzed as null resumptive pronouns which do not involve movement rather than variables left * I am much indebted for providing helpful comments and reviewing drafts of this paper to Joseph Aoun, Carol Georgopoulos, Hajime Hoji, Osvaldo Jaeggli, Kenneth Safir, and Peter Sells. Thanks also go to Maria Luisa Zubizarreta with whom I have discussed in class material included here. Portions of this material were presented at the 20th Conference on African Linguistics at the University of Illinois. Thanks to the participants and to Joan Bresnan in particular for her encouragements. Errors are my responsibility. We have made use of the following symbols in the glosses: f1 = future tense one marker Neg = negation marker OM = object marker pI = past tense one marker p2 = past tense two marker SM = subject marker 212 Studies in African Linguistics 21 (2), 1990 by "Move Alpha". -
Resumptive and Bound Variable Pronouns in Tongan
UCLA Working Papers in Linguistics, no. 12, September 2005 Proceedings of AFLA XII, Heinz & Ntelitheos (eds.) RESUMPTIVE AND BOUND VARIABLE PRONOUNS IN TONGAN Randall Hendrick University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [email protected] This paper describes the distribution of bound variable pronouns in Tongan and two classes of resump- tive pronouns that appear in the language (apparent and true resumptives). Bound variable pronouns and apparent resumptive pronouns are given a movement analysis, which is able to explain their com- mon behavior with respect to weak crossover and reconstruction effects. It also allows a derivational explanation for why they do not interact with true resumptive pronouns. 1. INTRODUCTION Pronouns are often viewed as shorthand expressions for their antecedents. This intuition stood behind the pronominalization transformations of the 1960s (cf. Stockwell et al. (1973)) in which a grammatical rule replaced the second occurrence of a DP with an appropriate pronoun. Sub- sequent work challenged this simple view of pronouns in two ways. Firstly, classes of structures were identified in which pronouns were not stylistic circumlocutions for a previously mentioned antecedent, and secondly, the hypothesized pronominalization transformation did not fit with well motivated constraints on movement transformations. Bound variable pronouns (pronouns that have quantified DPs as their antecedents) were taken to illustrate the first point (cf. Partee (1987)). The second point was illustrated by resumptive pronouns (pronouns that recapitulate an initial DP ei- ther in relative clauses or topicalized constructions), which are insensitive to island constraints that restricted wh-movement (e.g. Chomsky (1976)). In place of the transformational account, pronouns were taken to be lexical items inserted into syntactic structures like other lexical items. -
The Unergative-Unaccusative Split: a Study of the Verb DIE 1
The Unergative-Unaccusative Split: A Study of the Verb DIE 1 Nabhidh Kijparnich 2 ABSTRACT This article aims to diagnose the unergative-unaccusative distinction with reference to the verb die which often displays differing behaviours because it can appear in many different syntactic constructions. Particularly, the study seeks to establish whether die is an unergative or an unaccusative verb, using eight diagnostics for unaccusativity (e.g. the one’s way construction, the pseudo-passive construction, the cognate object construction) Results of the study have shown that the verb die stands astride the border between an unergative verb and an unaccusative verb. There is no single reliable diagnostic test for the unergative/unaccusative contrast, which can dictate whether die is either unergative or unaccusative. It is more likely to depend on which diagnostic test is adopted. บทคัดย่อ บทความวิจัยนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อหาสาเหตุความบกพร่องในการแบ่งกริยาอกรรมออกเป็น 2 ประเภท (unergative และ unaccusative) โดยอ้างอิงจากค�าอกรรมกริยา “ตาย” ซึ่งมีลักษณะการ ปรากฏในหน่วยสร้างต่างกัน บทความนี้ยังมุ่งพิสูจน์ว่า “ตาย” เป็นกริยาอกรรมแบบมีผู้กระท�าเป็นประธาน (unergative) หรือแบบมีผู้รับการกระท�าหรืออรรถบทเป็นประธาน (unaccusative) โดยอาศัยแบบทดสอบ วินิจฉัย 8 แบบ (อาทิ หน่วยสร้าง one’s way หน่วยสร้างกรรมวาจกเทียม หน่วยสร้างแบบกรรมที่มีรูป แสดงเหมือนกับค�ากริยา เป็นต้น) ผลการศึกษาพบว่า “ตาย” เป็นได้ทั้งกริยาอกรรมแบบมีผู้กระท�าเป็น ประธานและแบบมีผู้รับการกระท�าหรืออรรถบทเป็นประธาน ฉะนั้นจึงยังไม่ปรากฏว่ามีแบบทดสอบวินิจฉัย ที่ใช้แยกกริยาอกรรมออกเป็น 2 ประเภทอย่างชัดเจน -
The Distinction Between Unaccusative and Unergative Verbs in Turkish: an Offline and an Eye Tracking Study of Split Intransitivity
The Distinction Between Unaccusative and Unergative Verbs in Turkish: An Offline and an Eye Tracking Study of Split Intransitivity Deniz Zeyrek ([email protected]) Cengiz Acartürk ([email protected]) Cognitive Science, Informatics Institute Middle East Technical University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey Abstract investigated, though for example, works on Japanese (e.g. Kishimoto 1996, Hirakawa 1999, Sorace & Shomura 2001) The Unaccusativity Hypothesis (UH) holds that intransitive verbs are divided into two broad classes, namely and Urdu (Ahmet 2010) exist. Therefore, the current paper unaccusatives and unergatives. While there is evidence that investigates yet another non-Indo-European language, the UH holds cross-linguistically, it is known that languages Turkish, which is understudied with respect to the SI both do not divide the intransitives into two uniform groups. We linguistically and from the processing side. We first investigate the unaccusative-unergative distinction in Turkish examine whether native speakers differentiate between by an offline grammaticality judgment task using a visual unaccusative and unergative verbs via an offline test of analog scale and by running an eye tracking experiment to tap on cognitive processing of split intransitivity. Cluster analyses grammaticality judgment. Then, to capture the real-time indicate that the results of two experiments are broadly processing problems of native speakers with unaccusative compatible, i.e., native speakers represent intransitive verbs in and unergative verbs, we run an eye-tracking experiment. two classes, as the UH predicts. However, the offline experiment results specify uncontrolled process verbs as Split Intransitivity and some diagnostics unaccusative, whereas the eye-gaze data characterize them as unergative. This result lends partial support for Auxiliary Ever since the seminal work of Perlmutter (1978), the Selection Hierarchy. -
A Corpus-Based Study of Unaccusative Verbs and Auxiliary Selection
To be or not to be: A corpus-based study of unaccusative verbs and auxiliary selection Master's Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Department of Computer Science James Pustejovsky, Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master's Degree By Richard A. Brutti Jr. May 2012 c Copyright by Richard A. Brutti Jr. 2012 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT To be or not to be: A corpus-based study of unaccusative verbs and auxiliary selection A thesis presented to the Department of Computer Science Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts Richard A. Brutti Jr. Since the introduction of the Unaccusative Hypothesis (Perlmutter, 1978), there have been many further attempts to explain the mechanisms behind the division in intransitive verbs. This paper aims to analyze and test some of theories of unac- cusativity using computational linguistic tools. Specifically, I focus on verbs that exhibit split intransitivity, that is, verbs that can appear in both unaccusative and unergative constructions, and in determining the distinguishing features that make this alternation possible. Many formal linguistic theories of unaccusativity involve the interplay of semantic roles and temporal event markers, both of which can be analyzed using statistical computational linguistic tools, including semantic role labelers, semantic parses, and automatic event classification. I use auxiliary verb selection as a surface-level indicator of unaccusativity in Italian and Dutch, and iii test various classes of verbs extracted from the Europarl corpus (Koehn, 2005). Additionally, I provide some historical background for the evolution of this dis- tinction, and analyze how my results fit into the larger theoretical framework. -
Unbalanced Coordination and Resumptive Pronouns*
Unbalanced Coordination and Resumptive Pronouns* Taylor Roberts MIT 1. Introduction A strong constraint on movement (e.g., question formation or relativization) is that it may not target an individual conjunct in a conjoined structure, as shown below: (1) a. *[What sofa]i will he put the chair between [some table and ti]? b. *[What table]i will he put the chair between [ti and some sofa]? c. *Whati did [Bill cook what and Fred eat ti]? d. *Whati did [Bill cook ti and Fred eat what]? Rather, extraction must apply across-the-board (Williams 1977, 1978), affecting all of the conjuncts in a coordinate structure: (2) a. [What table and sofa]i will he put the chair between ti? b. Whati did [Bill cook ti and Fred eat ti]? Conjoined phrases thus constitute an island. Ross (1967:98–99) suggested the following constraint: (3) Coordinate Structure Constraint: In a coordinate structure, no conjunct may be moved, nor may any element contained in a conjunct be moved out of that conjunct. Some languages are able to violate this constraint more readily than English by allowing a resumptive pronoun to appear in the position where a gap (the trace of movement) would otherwise be expected. Although resumptive pronouns have been said to be limited to conversational English (Pesetsky 1997:163 n. 24), in an earlier stage of modern English, resumptive pronouns could appear in coordinate structures, a construction in which present day English (PDE) would have a gap. This observation does not hitherto appear to have been made, and several such examples from Swift's Gulliver's Travels are cited below (4–5, 9–12).