DOCSLIB.ORG

Order and Structure in Syntax II Subjecthood and Argument Structure

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Order and structure in syntax II Subjecthood and argument structure Edited by Michelle Sheehan Laura R. Bailey language Open Generative Syntax 2 science press Open Generative Syntax Editors: Elena Anagnostopoulou, Mark Baker, Roberta D’Alessandro, David Pesetsky, Susi Wurmbrand In this series: 1. Bailey, Laura R. & Michelle Sheehan (eds.). Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure. 2. Sheehan, Michelle & Laura R. Bailey (eds.). Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure. Order and structure in syntax II Subjecthood and argument structure Edited by Michelle Sheehan Laura R. Bailey language science press Michelle Sheehan & Laura R. Bailey (ed.). 2018. Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure (Open Generative Syntax 2). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/115 © 2018, the authors Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-96110-028-6 (Digital) 978-3-96110-029-3 (Hardcover) DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1115573 Source code available from www.github.com/langsci/115 Collaborative reading: paperhive.org/documents/remote?type=langsci&id=115 Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Birgit Jänen, Alec Shaw, Iana Stefanova, Felix Kopecky, Sebastian Nordhoff. Michelle Sheehan Proofreading: Antonio Machicao y Priemer, Daniela Kolbe-Hanna, Eran Asoulin, George Walkden, Ikmi Nur Oktavianti, Lea Schäfer, Natsuko Nakagawa, Neal Whitman, Melanie Röthlisberger, Steve Pepper, Teresa Proto, Timm Lichte, Valeria Quochi Fonts: Linux Libertine, Arimo, DejaVu Sans Mono Typesetting software:Ǝ X LATEX Language Science Press Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin, Germany langsci-press.org Storage and cataloguing done by FU Berlin Language Science Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. This book is dedicated to Anders Holmberg in recognition not only of his significant contribution to the field of syntax, but also of his support, guidance and friendship to the editors and the contributors to this volume. Contents Introduction: Order and structure in syntax Laura R. Bailey and Michelle Sheehan vii I Papers 1 On the softness of parameters: An experiment on Faroese Höskuldur Thráinsson 3 2 The role of locatives in (partial) pro-drop languages Artemis Alexiadou & Janayna Carvalho 41 3 Expletives and speaker-related meaning Ciro Greco, Liliane Haegeman & Trang Phan 69 4 Places Tarald Taraldsen 95 5 Flexibility in symmetry: An implicational relation in Bantu double object constructions Jenneke van der Wal 115 6 Defective intervention effects in two Greek varieties and their implications for φ-incorporation as Agree Elena Anagnostopoulou 153 7 First Person Readings of MAN: On semantic and pragmatic restrictions on an impersonal pronoun Verner Egerland 179 8 Who are we – and who is I? About Person and SELF Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson 197 9 New roles for Gender: Evidence from Arabic, Semitic, Berber, and Romance Abdelkader Fassi Fehri 221 10 Puzzling parasynthetic compounds in Norwegian Janne Bondi Johannessen 257 II Squibs 11 On a “make-believe” argument for Case Theory Jonathan David Bobaljik 277 12 Semantic characteristics of recursive compounds Makiko Mukai 285 13 Expletive passives in Scandinavian – with and without objects Elisabet Engdahl 289 14 The null subject parameter meets the Polish impersonal -NO/-TO construction Małgorzata Krzek 307 15 Ellipsis in Arabic fragment answers Ali Algryani 319 16 Anaphoric object drop in Chinese Patrick Chi-wai Lee 329 17 Icelandic as a partial null subject language: Evidence from fake indexicals Susi Wurmbrand 339 Index 347 vi Introduction: Order and structure in syntax Laura R. Bailey and Michelle Sheehan University of Kent and Anglia Ruskin University Hierarchical structure and argument structure are two of the most pervasive and widely studied properties of natural language.1 The papers in this set of two vol- umes further explore these aspects of language from a range of perspectives, touching on a number of fundamental issues, notably the relationship between linear order and hierarchical structure and variation in subjecthood properties across languages. The first volume focuses on issues of word order and itsre- lationship to structure. This second volume focuses on argument structure and subjecthood in particular. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of the content of the 10 papers and seven squibs relating to argument structure and subjecthood, drawing out important threads and questions which they raise. Many of the contributions in this volume deal with subjects other than canon- ical referential DPs, such as expletives with some referential meaning, non-DP subjects, pronouns in pro-drop languages, or impersonal subjects of one kind or another. Together they provide a snapshot of cross-linguistic variability in sub- jecthood. Thráinsson’s contribution considers evidence from Faroese that the possibility of quirky subjects is parametrically connected to other surface prop- erties by a deep parameter, and ultimately argues that parameters must be ‘soft’. Greco, Haegeman & Phan consider the status of overt expletives in Vietnamese and what this implies for the null subject parameter. Their expletives are not like the canonical ones as they have some discourse meaning. ‘Non-expletive’ exple- tives also appear in the contribution from Alexiadou & Carvalho, who argue that locative subjects in some partial pro-drop languages are expletive-like, while in 1All of the papers in this volume were written on the occasion of Anders Holmberg’s 65th birth- day in recognition of the enormous contribution he has made to these issues. Laura R. Bailey & Michelle Sheehan. 2018. Introduction: Order and structure in syntax. In Michelle Sheehan & Laura R. Bailey (eds.), Order and structure in syn- tax II: Subjecthood and argument structure, vii–ix. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1116787 Laura R. Bailey and Michelle Sheehan others they are referential. Taraldsen’s chapter also discusses locative subjects, arguing that the PP subjects found in Norwegian are genuine subjects and move to canonical subject position. Similarly, Anagnostopoulou uses her contribution to argue for a difference between Movement and Agree, arguing that some phe- nomena which have been argued to involve Agree actually involve movement of the subject to Spec,TP. Both Egerland and Sigurðsson and the squibs from Engdahl and Krzek focus on the interpretation of certain kinds of subjects. Sigurðsson discusses those in- stances of we that cannot be said to include the speaker, and argues for a version of Ross’s performative hypothesis, similar to that defended by Wiltschko (vol. 1). Egerland focuses on first-person impersonal pronouns such as German man and Italian si and argues that a plural interpretation is lexically specified in some lan- guages, and must be the interpretation in certain contexts. Krzek returns to null subject languages with a squib on null impersonal subjects in Polish, while Eng- dahl discusses expletive passive constructions and (un)expected word orders in the Scandinavian varieties. Wurmbrand’s squib focuses on the status of Icelandic in relation to the null subject parameter. Based on the behaviour of fake index- icals, she argues that Icelandic is indeed a partial null subject language, despite its exceptional behaviour in certain respects. A number of the contributions focus on object arguments rather than sub- jects. Van der Wal presents data from Bantu languages and shows that they differ with respect to their symmetry and case-licensing properties in ditransitive con- structions. She further proposes a novel implicational hierarchy to capture the observed patterns and provides a formalization of this in terms of sensitivity to topicality. It is the absence of ditransitives that fuels Bobaljik’s squib, as he notes that Icelandic does not allow ECM distransitives despite lacking the adjacency condition supposed to ban them. This in turn means that Case Theory cannot explain this systematic gap. Lee’s squib deals with object drop in Chinese, and returns to the theme of non-specific arguments with indefinite antecedents. Al- gryani combines the themes of ellipsis and answers to questions with a proposal for fragment answers in Arabic. Fassi Fehri focuses on the role of gender features on all arguments, arguing that a combination of properties means that gender has a range of meanings including diminutive and evaluative, among others. Lastly, two of the squibs are about the properties of compounds: recursive ones in the case of Mukai, while Johannessen discusses the class of parasynthetic compounds in Norwegian of the type brown-eyed, whose heads do not surface alone as adjectives. viii 1 Introduction: Order and structure in syntax This volume, like the first, provides new data and analysis based onawide range of languages. In all these papers, the influence of the work of Anders Holmberg can be observed, from the typology of null subject languages and the status of expletive, locative and generic subjects to the syntax of ditransitives and the status of V2. ix Part I Papers Chapter 1 On the softness of parameters: An experiment on Faroese Höskuldur Thráinsson University
Recommended publications
  • Dec 0 1 2009 Libraries

    Dec 0 1 2009 Libraries

    Constraining Credences MASSACHUS TS INS E OF TECHNOLOGY by DEC 0 12009 Sarah Moss A.B., Harvard University (2002) LIBRARIES B.Phil., Oxford University (2004) Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the ARCHIVES MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Apn1 2009 © Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2009. All rights reserved. A uthor ..... ......... ... .......................... .. ........ Department of Linguistics and Philosophy ... .. April 27, 2009 Certified by...................... ....... .. .............. ......... Robert C. Stalnaker Laure egckefeller Professor of Philosophy Thesis Supervisor Accepted by..... ......... ............ ... ' B r I Alex Byrne Professor of Philosophy Chair of the Committee on Graduate Students Constraining Credences by Sarah Moss Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. April 27, 2009 This dissertation is about ways in which our rational credences are constrained: by norms governing our opinions about counterfactuals, by the opinions of other agents, and by our own previous opinions. In Chapter 1, I discuss ordinary language judgments about sequences of counterfactuals, and then discuss intuitions about norms governing our cre- dence in counterfactuals. I argue that in both cases, a good theory of our judg- ments calls for a static semantics on which counterfactuals have substantive truth conditions, such as the variably strict conditional semantic theories given in STALNAKER 1968 and LEWIS 1973a. In particular, I demonstrate that given plausible assumptions, norms governing our credences about objective chances entail intuitive norms governing our opinions about counterfactuals. I argue that my pragmatic accounts of our intuitions dominate semantic theories given by VON FINTEL 2001, GILLIES 2007, and EDGINGTON 2008.
  • Logophoricity in Finnish

    Logophoricity in Finnish

    Open Linguistics 2018; 4: 630–656 Research Article Elsi Kaiser* Effects of perspective-taking on pronominal reference to humans and animals: Logophoricity in Finnish https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2018-0031 Received December 19, 2017; accepted August 28, 2018 Abstract: This paper investigates the logophoric pronoun system of Finnish, with a focus on reference to animals, to further our understanding of the linguistic representation of non-human animals, how perspective-taking is signaled linguistically, and how this relates to features such as [+/-HUMAN]. In contexts where animals are grammatically [-HUMAN] but conceptualized as the perspectival center (whose thoughts, speech or mental state is being reported), can they be referred to with logophoric pronouns? Colloquial Finnish is claimed to have a logophoric pronoun which has the same form as the human-referring pronoun of standard Finnish, hän (she/he). This allows us to test whether a pronoun that may at first blush seem featurally specified to seek [+HUMAN] referents can be used for [-HUMAN] referents when they are logophoric. I used corpus data to compare the claim that hän is logophoric in both standard and colloquial Finnish vs. the claim that the two registers have different logophoric systems. I argue for a unified system where hän is logophoric in both registers, and moreover can be used for logophoric [-HUMAN] referents in both colloquial and standard Finnish. Thus, on its logophoric use, hän does not require its referent to be [+HUMAN]. Keywords: Finnish, logophoric pronouns, logophoricity, anti-logophoricity, animacy, non-human animals, perspective-taking, corpus 1 Introduction A key aspect of being human is our ability to think and reason about our own mental states as well as those of others, and to recognize that others’ perspectives, knowledge or mental states are distinct from our own, an ability known as Theory of Mind (term due to Premack & Woodruff 1978).
  • Feature Clusters

    Feature Clusters

    Chapter 2 Feature Clusters 1. Introduction The goal of this Chapter is to address certain issues that pertain to the properties of feature clusters and the rules that govern their co-occurrences. Feature clusters come as fully specified (e.g. [+c+m] associated with people in (1a)) and ‘underspecified’ (e.g. [-c] associated with acquaintances in (1a)). Such partitioning of feature clusters raises the question of the implications of notions such as ‘underspecified’ and ‘fully specified’ in syntactic and semantic terms. The sharp contrast between the grammaticality of the middle derivation in (1b) and ungrammaticality of (1c) takes the investigation into rules that regulate the co-realization of feature clusters of the base-verb (1a). Another issue that is discussed in this Chapter is the status of arguments versus adjuncts in the Theta System. This topic is also of importance for tackling the issue of middles in Chapter 4 since – intriguingly enough – whereas (1c) is not an acceptable middle derivation in English, (1d) is. (1a) People[+c+m] don’t send expensive presents to acquaintances[-c] (1b) Expensive presents send easily. (1c) *Expensive presents send acquaintances easily. (1d) Expensive presents do not send easily to foreign countries. In section 2 of this Chapter, the properties of feature clusters with respect to syntax and semantics are examined. Section 3 sets the background for Section 4 by addressing the issue of conditions on thematic roles that have been assumed in the literature. Section 4 deals with conditions that govern the co-occurrences of feature clusters in the Theta System. The discussion in section 4 will necessitate the discussion of adjunct versus argument status of certain phrases.
  • (2012) Perspectival Discourse Referents for Indexicals* Maria

    (2012) Perspectival Discourse Referents for Indexicals* Maria

    To appear in Proceedings of SULA 7 (2012) Perspectival discourse referents for indexicals* Maria Bittner Rutgers University 0. Introduction By definition, the reference of an indexical depends on the context of utterance. For ex- ample, what proposition is expressed by saying I am hungry depends on who says this and when. Since Kaplan (1978), context dependence has been analyzed in terms of two parameters: an utterance context, which determines the reference of indexicals, and a formally unrelated assignment function, which determines the reference of anaphors (rep- resented as variables). This STATIC VIEW of indexicals, as pure context dependence, is still widely accepted. With varying details, it is implemented by current theories of indexicali- ty not only in static frameworks, which ignore context change (e.g. Schlenker 2003, Anand and Nevins 2004), but also in the otherwise dynamic framework of DRT. In DRT, context change is only relevant for anaphors, which refer to current values of variables. In contrast, indexicals refer to static contextual anchors (see Kamp 1985, Zeevat 1999). This SEMI-STATIC VIEW reconstructs the traditional indexical-anaphor dichotomy in DRT. An alternative DYNAMIC VIEW of indexicality is implicit in the ‘commonplace ef- fect’ of Stalnaker (1978) and is formally explicated in Bittner (2007, 2011). The basic idea is that indexical reference is a species of discourse reference, just like anaphora. In particular, both varieties of discourse reference involve not only context dependence, but also context change. The act of speaking up focuses attention and thereby makes this very speech event available for discourse reference by indexicals. Mentioning something likewise focuses attention, making the mentioned entity available for subsequent dis- course reference by anaphors.
  • Minimal Pronouns, Logophoricity and Long-Distance Reflexivisation in Avar

    Minimal Pronouns, Logophoricity and Long-Distance Reflexivisation in Avar

    Minimal pronouns, logophoricity and long-distance reflexivisation in Avar* Pavel Rudnev Revised version; 28th January 2015 Abstract This paper discusses two morphologically related anaphoric pronouns inAvar (Avar-Andic, Nakh-Daghestanian) and proposes that one of them should be treated as a minimal pronoun that receives its interpretation from a λ-operator situated on a phasal head whereas the other is a logophoric pro- noun denoting the author of the reported event. Keywords: reflexivity, logophoricity, binding, syntax, semantics, Avar 1 Introduction This paper has two aims. One is to make a descriptive contribution to the crosslin- guistic study of long-distance anaphoric dependencies by presenting an overview of the properties of two kinds of reflexive pronoun in Avar, a Nakh-Daghestanian language spoken natively by about 700,000 people mostly living in the North East Caucasian republic of Daghestan in the Russian Federation. The other goal is to highlight the relevance of the newly introduced data from an understudied lan- guage to the theoretical debate on the nature of reflexivity, long-distance anaphora and logophoricity. The issue at the heart of this paper is the unusual character of theanaphoric system in Avar, which is tripartite. (1) is intended as just a preview with more *The present material was presented at the Utrecht workshop The World of Reflexives in August 2011. I am grateful to the workshop’s audience and participants for their questions and comments. I am indebted to Eric Reuland and an anonymous reviewer for providing valuable feedback on the first draft, as well as to Yakov Testelets for numerous discussions of anaphora-related issues inAvar spanning several years.
  • Pronominal Typology & the De Se/De Re Distinction

    Pronominal Typology & the De Se/De Re Distinction

    Pronominal Typology & the de se/de re distinction Pritty Patel-Grosz 1. Introduction This paper investigates how regular pronominal typology interfaces with de se and de re interpretations, and highlights a correlation between strong pronouns (descriptively speaking) and de re interpretations, and weak pronouns and de se interpretations. In order to illustrate this correlation, I contrast different pronominal forms within a single language, null vs. overt pronouns in Kutchi Gujarati, and clitic vs. full pronouns in Austrian Bavarian. I argue that the data presented here provide cross-linguistic comparative support for the idea of a dedicated de se LF as argued for by Percus & Sauerland. The empirical findings in this paper reveal a new observation regarding pronominal typology, namely that stronger pronouns resist a de se construal. Contrastively, the “weaker” a pronoun is (in comparison to other pronouns in the same language), the more likely it is to be interpreted de se. To analyse this, I propose that pronominal strength correlates with structural complexity (in terms of Cardinaletti & Starke 1999), i.e. overt pronouns have more syntactic structure than null pronouns; similarly, non-clitic pronouns have more structure than clitic pronouns. The correlation between de se readings and weakness follows from an analysis in the spirit of Percus & Sauerland (2003a,b), which assumes that de se pronouns are uninterpreted and merely serve to trigger predicate abstraction. Stronger pronouns, which have more structure, can be taken to simply resist being uninterpreted, given that the null hypothesis is that the additional structure has some effect or other on the semantics of the pronoun.
  • Pronouns, Logical Variables, and Logophoricity in Abe Author(S): Hilda Koopman and Dominique Sportiche Source: Linguistic Inquiry, Vol

    Pronouns, Logical Variables, and Logophoricity in Abe Author(S): Hilda Koopman and Dominique Sportiche Source: Linguistic Inquiry, Vol

    MIT Press Pronouns, Logical Variables, and Logophoricity in Abe Author(s): Hilda Koopman and Dominique Sportiche Source: Linguistic Inquiry, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 555-588 Published by: MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4178645 Accessed: 22-10-2015 18:32 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Linguistic Inquiry. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.97.27.20 on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 18:32:27 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hilda Koopman Pronouns, Logical Variables, Dominique Sportiche and Logophoricity in Abe 1. Introduction 1.1. Preliminaries In this article we describe and analyze the propertiesof the pronominalsystem of Abe, a Kwa language spoken in the Ivory Coast, which we view as part of the study of pronominalentities (that is, of possible pronominaltypes) and of pronominalsystems (that is, of the cooccurrence restrictionson pronominaltypes in a particulargrammar). Abe has two series of thirdperson pronouns. One type of pronoun(0-pronoun) has basically the same propertiesas pronouns in languageslike English. The other type of pronoun(n-pronoun) very roughly corresponds to what has been called the referential use of pronounsin English(see Evans (1980)).It is also used as what is called a logophoric pronoun-that is, a particularpronoun that occurs in special embedded contexts (the logophoric contexts) to indicate reference to "the person whose speech, thought or perceptions are reported" (Clements (1975)).
  • Verbal Case and the Nature of Polysynthetic Inflection

    Verbal Case and the Nature of Polysynthetic Inflection

    Verbal case and the nature of polysynthetic inflection Colin Phillips MIT Abstract This paper tries to resolve a conflict in the literature on the connection between ‘rich’ agreement and argument-drop. Jelinek (1984) claims that inflectional affixes in polysynthetic languages are theta-role bearing arguments; Baker (1991) argues that such affixes are agreement, bearing Case but no theta-role. Evidence from Yimas shows that both of these views can be correct, within a single language. Explanation of what kind of inflection is used where also provides us with an account of the unusual split ergative agreement system of Yimas, and suggests a novel explanation for the ban on subject incorporation, and some exceptions to the ban. 1. Two types of inflection My main aim in this paper is to demonstrate that inflectional affixes can be very different kinds of syntactic objects, even within a single language. I illustrate this point with evidence from Yimas, a Papuan language of New Guinea (Foley 1991). Understanding of the nature of the different inflectional affixes of Yimas provides an explanation for its remarkably elaborate agreement system, which follows a basic split-ergative scheme, but with a number of added complications. Anticipating my conclusions, the structure in (1c) shows what I assume the four principal case affixes on a Yimas verb to be. What I refer to as Nominative and Accusative affixes are pronominal arguments: these inflections, which are restricted to 1st and 2nd person arguments in Yimas, begin as specifiers and complements of the verb, and incorporate into the verb by S- structure. On the other hand, what I refer to as Ergative and Absolutive inflection are genuine agreement - they are the spell-out of functional heads, above VP, which agree with an argument in their specifier.
  • 1 the Syntax of Scope Anna Szabolcsi January 1999 Submitted to Baltin—Collins, Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory

    1 the Syntax of Scope Anna Szabolcsi January 1999 Submitted to Baltin—Collins, Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory

    1 The Syntax of Scope Anna Szabolcsi January 1999 Submitted to Baltin—Collins, Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory 1. Introduction This chapter reviews some representative examples of scopal dependency and focuses on the issue of how the scope of quantifiers is determined. In particular, we will ask to what extent independently motivated syntactic considerations decide, delimit, or interact with scope interpretation. Many of the theories to be reviewed postulate a level of representation called Logical Form (LF). Originally, this level was invented for the purpose of determining quantifier scope. In current Minimalist theory, all output conditions (the theta-criterion, the case filter, subjacency, binding theory, etc.) are checked at LF. Thus, the study of LF is enormously broader than the study of the syntax of scope. The present chapter will not attempt to cover this broader topic. 1.1 Scope relations We are going to take the following definition as a point of departure: (1) The scope of an operator is the domain within which it has the ability to affect the interpretation of other expressions. Some uncontroversial examples of an operator having scope over an expression and affecting some aspect of its interpretation are as follows: Quantifier -- quantifier Quantifier -- pronoun Quantifier -- negative polarity item (NPI) Examples (2a,b) each have a reading on which every boy affects the interpretation of a planet by inducing referential variation: the planets can vary with the boys. In (2c), the teachers cannot vary with the boys. (2) a. Every boy named a planet. `for every boy, there is a possibly different planet that he named' b.
  • Chapter 6 Morphological Split

    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.
  • A PROLOG Implementation of Government-Binding Theory

    A PROLOG Implementation of Government-Binding Theory

    A PROLOG Implementation of Government-Binding Theory Robert J. Kuhns Artificial Intelligence Center Arthur D. Little, Inc. Cambridge, MA 02140 USA Abstrae_~t For the purposes (and space limitations) of A parser which is founded on Chomskyts this paper we only briefly describe the theories Government-Binding Theory and implemented in of X-bar, Theta, Control, and Binding. We also PROLOG is described. By focussing on systems of will present three principles, viz., Theta- constraints as proposed by this theory, the Criterion, Projection Principle, and Binding system is capable of parsing without an Conditions. elaborate rule set and subcategorization features on lexical items. In addition to the 2.1 X-Bar Theory parse, theta, binding, and control relations are determined simultaneously. X-bar theory is one part of GB-theory which captures eross-categorial relations and 1. Introduction specifies the constraints on underlying structures. The two general schemata of X-bar A number of recent research efforts have theory are: explicitly grounded parser design on linguistic theory (e.g., Bayer et al. (1985), Berwick and Weinberg (1984), Marcus (1980), Reyle and Frey (1)a. X~Specifier (1983), and Wehrli (1983)). Although many of these parsers are based on generative grammar, b. X-------~X Complement and transformational grammar in particular, with few exceptions (Wehrli (1983)) the modular The types of categories that may precede or approach as suggested by this theory has been follow a head are similar and Specifier and lagging (Barton (1984)). Moreover, Chomsky Complement represent this commonality of the (1986) has recently suggested that rule-based pre-head and post-head categories, respectively.
  • Understanding Core French Grammar

    Understanding Core French Grammar

    Understanding Core French Grammar Andrew Betts Lancing College, England Vernon Series in Language and Linguistics Copyright © 2016 Vernon Press, an imprint of Vernon Art and Science Inc, on behalf of the author. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Vernon Art and Ascience Inc. www.vernonpress.com In the Americas: In the rest of the world: Vernon Press Vernon Press 1000 N West Street, C/Sancti Espiritu 17, Suite 1200, Wilmington, Malaga, 29006 Delaware 19801 Spain United States Vernon Series in Language and Linguistics Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947126 ISBN: 978-1-62273-068-1 Product and company names mentioned in this work are the trademarks of their respec- tive owners. While every care has been taken in preparing this work, neither the authors nor Vernon Art and Science Inc. may be held responsible for any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it. Table of Contents Acknowledgements xi Introduction xiii Chapter 1 Tense Formation 15 1.0 Tenses – Summary 15 1.1 Simple (One-Word) Tenses: 15 1.2 Compound (Two-word) Tenses: 17 2.0 Present Tense 18 2.1 Regular Verbs 18 2.2 Irregular verbs 19 2.3 Difficulties with the Present Tense 19 3.0 Imperfect Tense 20 4.0 Future Tense and Conditional Tense 21 5.0 Perfect Tense 24 6.0 Compound Tense Past Participle Agreement 28 6.1