ADPOSITIONS IN DISTRIBUTED MORPHOLOGY: THE NATURE OF √ROOTS AND CATEGORIAL HEADS By ROBERT JOEL DEACON A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 1 © 2014 Robert Joel Deacon 2 To my Beautiful Wife Family and Friends May God Keep and Bless you In all Ways of Life 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS If the wisdom of the east and west must collide then let it do so in complementary progression. We may then know that what is old is new and new old: “what has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV). That is we do not ever learn anything new but rather remember what has been forgotten (Socrates in Plato’s writings). With every restatement, we discover/remember a little more of how and why things are. I want to thank all those who have helped me through this journey: my parents Robert and Kathrin Deacon, my wife Yukari Nakamura-Deacon, my daughter, who will be joining us soon, and the rest of my family (you know who you are). Without your support, I would not have had the will to press forward. I want to give thanks to my committee members Dr. Brent Henderson, Dr. Youssef Haddad, Dr. Fiona McLaughlin and Dr. Ozlem Yilmaz. This would not have been possible without your wisdom and guidance. I also want to give special thanks to my advisor and Chair Dr. Brent Henderson for guiding, encouraging, and helping to shape the ideas presented here. This would not have been possible without him. Special thanks also to Dr. Youssef Haddad who likewise joined this project early, offering encouragement and insightful criticism. I would not have examined things as deeply without him. I want to also thank my friends and colleagues that I spent time with in discussion, debate and foolishness: Sean and Wi-young (Zoe) Witty; Tyler McPeek; Dong-yi Lin; Lee Ballard; Jimmy Harnsberger; Christian Betzen; Demetris Athienitis; Laura Dawidziuk; Rachel Organes; Jules Gliesche; Sherry Tyrrell Gliesche; Andrew Wilson; Sean Park; Aazam Feiz; Yasuo Uotate; Marc Mathews … thank you! 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 10 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS ..................................................................... 12 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 1 ADPOSITIONS AND CATEGORIZATION .............................................................. 15 1.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 15 1.2 Research Questions ......................................................................................... 19 1.3 The Lexical Category Dilemma ......................................................................... 21 1.3.1 Response to the Lexical Category Dilemma ............................................ 22 1.3.2 Functional and Lexical Categories .......................................................... 23 1.4 The Category Adposition .................................................................................. 25 1.4.1 Traditional Methods for Classifying Adpositions ...................................... 28 1.4.2 Adpositions and Semi-Lexicality .............................................................. 38 1.5 Unifying Adpositional Elements ........................................................................ 40 1.5.1 Syntactic Distribution and Function ......................................................... 41 1.5.2 Adpositional Stacking .............................................................................. 46 1.6 Semantic-Syntactic Function: An Adpositional Unifying Feature ...................... 48 1.6.1 Semantic Function: Transitive Adpositions .............................................. 49 1.6.2 Semantic Function: Additional Meanings ................................................. 51 1.7 Particles and Prepositions ................................................................................ 54 1.7.1 Particles and Figures ............................................................................... 55 1.7.2 Semantic Function: Intransitive Adpositions ............................................ 59 1.7.3 Directional Particles and Results ............................................................. 62 1.7.4 Semantic Function and Stacking ............................................................. 63 1.7.5 Where Adpositions Stand ........................................................................ 66 1.8 Concluding Remarks ......................................................................................... 67 2 DISTRIBUTED MORPHOLOGY: THE LEXICAL FUNCTIONAL DISTINCTION .... 69 2.1 Distributed Morphology ..................................................................................... 69 2.2 The Lexicon ...................................................................................................... 70 2.2.1 The Traditional Lexicon ........................................................................... 70 2.2.2The Lexicon of DM ................................................................................... 75 2.3 The Vocabulary Insertion Mechanisms of DM .................................................. 78 2.3.1 Late Insertion ........................................................................................... 78 5 2.3.2 Associated and Contextual Features ....................................................... 79 2.3.3 Underspecification ................................................................................... 80 2.3.4 The Subset Principle ............................................................................... 81 2.4. L and F Morphemes and Categorial Heads ..................................................... 82 2.4.1 L and F Morphemes and the Derivation .................................................. 83 2.4.2 The Categorial Heads of DM ................................................................... 84 2.5 L and F Morphemes and Semi-Lexical Categories ........................................... 85 2.5.1 L and F Morphemes and Adpositions ...................................................... 85 2.5.2 Adpositions in DM.................................................................................... 86 2.6 Concluding Remarks ......................................................................................... 87 3 √ROOTS, ENCYCLOPEDIC KNOWLEDGE, AND DISTRIBUTED MORPHOLOGY ...................................................................................................... 89 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 89 3.2 Defining the Term √Root ................................................................................... 91 3.3 List A: The Features of a √Root in List A .......................................................... 92 3.3.1 Theoretical Reasons to Associate √Roots with no Features in List A ...... 94 3.3.2 Identifying √Roots: Empirical Reason to not List √Roots with Features ... 96 3.4 √Root Categorization ...................................................................................... 102 3.4.1 Primary Merge: Featureless √Roots entering the Syntax ...................... 102 3.4.2 Special Meanings: Inner vs. Outer Layers ............................................. 105 3.5 Associating √Roots in List A with Features ..................................................... 109 3.5.1 Associating √Roots in List A with Phonological and Class Features ..... 109 3.5.2 Reasons to Associate √Roots in List A with Semantic-Syntactic Features ...................................................................................................... 113 3.6 Categorial Gaps: Limitations on √Roots .......................................................... 116 3.6.1 Categorial Gaps: Accidental Gaps ........................................................ 117 3.6.2 Categorial Gaps: Allomorphy and Gaps ................................................ 121 3.6.3 Categorial Gaps: Possible Limitations on √Roots .................................. 123 3.7 Features vs. No Features ............................................................................... 126 3.7.1 No Features are Optimal ....................................................................... 127 3.7.2 Indices ................................................................................................... 132 3.7.3 Contextual Features .............................................................................. 134 3.7.4 Contextual Features versus Indices ...................................................... 136 3.8 The Encyclopedia ........................................................................................... 138 3.9 Early Insertion and Late Insertion ................................................................... 139 3.10 Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................... 140 4 ADPOSTIONAL FORMS IN ENGLISH AND MANDARIN