Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
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Complement raising, extraction and adposition stranding in Dutch
Get PDFIn Dutch, adpositions can be stranded, typically if their complement is an R-pronoun. The complement usually appears in the left part of the Mittelfeld or in the Vorfeld. In HPSG this is canonically modeled in terms of extraction, making use of nonlocal devices such as SLASH and BIND. This paper argues that the extraction analysis is indeed appropriate for cases in which the complement is realised in the Vorfeld, but proposes an alternative for the cases in which the complement is realised in the Mittelfeld. The new treatment is based on argument inheritance, as complement raising in the Mittelfeld involves a middle distance dependency rather than a long distance dependency
Language description and the lexicon: Verbs of wearing in two Oaxacan languages
Get PDFVerbs of wearing show unusual linking properties in two languages of Oaxaca: San Dionisio Ocotepec Zapotec and Copala Triqui. Several distinct lexical types must be recognized, and their linking to grammatical relation is not predictable on general principles
The polyfunctionality of Coptic Egyptian relative complementisers
Get PDFThe present study is concerned with the complex ways in which alternating relative complementisers in Coptic are employed as a morphological flagging device for unbounded dependencies in various types of relative clause constructions and wh questions. We shall argue in particular that the alternation in shape is locally conditioned by properties of the complement (TAME) and the antecedent noun (definiteness), which can be modelled via selectional features such as COMPS and MOD, plus the prosodic status of right-adjacent material (phrase vs. clitic). We shall show that all applicable conditions carry over from relatives to wh in-situ, suggesting to model the polyfunctionality of these complementisers in terms a systematic alternation between resumptive SLASH and in-situ QUE dependencies, modelled in terms of a lexical rule.
Furthermore, we shall discuss the status of unbounded dependencies and argue that the pervasiveness of resumption with relatives and ex-situ wh arguments can be attributed to the absence of gap-synsem on ARG-ST . We shall argue that apparent subject “gaps” in relative constructions are of a highly local nature, best to be understood in terms of subcategorisation for a finite VP complement. Finally, we shall show that the ban on argument gaps does not carry over to wh ex-situ adjuncts, providing additional motivation for maintaining a systematic distinction between these two types of extraction
Obligatory control and event structure in Kavalan
Get PDFThe embedded verb of so-called object-control verbs in Kavalan must be affixed with the causative marker pa-. It is argued that such control predicates in Kavalan like pawRat ‘force’ feature an internal Logophoric Center in its complement clause and this property of logophoricity is absent in other control predicates. Moreover, control predicates that do not take a causativized verb complement like paska ‘try’ and tud ‘teach’ are restructuring predicates and are thus devoid of a Fin head in their complement that can be linked to an internal Logophoric Center. In contrast, the TP and CP of the complement of pawRat ‘force’-type predicates are still projected and active. The causativization of the embedded verb in a control sentence cannot be explained by a purely syntactic or semantic account of obligatory control. Instead, a comprehensive and satisfactory explanation for Kavalan obligatory control must take into account how event structure and Logophoric Center are encoded in Syntax
VP idioms in Norwegian: A subconstructional approach
Get PDFThis paper presents a brief overview of idiomatic expressions in the Norwegian LFG grammar NorGram and shows how the rich lexical information of the LFG grammar can be reused in an HPSG-like grammar with a radically different approach to alternating argument frames. Rather than accounting for idioms by means of special idiom lexical entries, which is the standard approach in LFG and HPSG, a constructional approach is taken where the verbs of the idioms are left underspecified with regard to whether they are idioms or not. A hierarchy of subconstruction types is assumed, which for each piece of evidence provided by the words and rules of the sentence, narrows down the possible frames of the verb to just one
Negation in Nanti: Syntactic evidence for head and dependent negators
Get PDFIn this paper we argue that, despite a lack of morphological markers on its negators, Nanti shows syntactic evidence for two negation strategies in the main clause: head negation and modifier negation. The head negator motivates the construction of a hierarchy of forms, and the interaction of the main clause negators motivates an additional head feature. We then extend the analysis to a previously unconsidered negator in the language. Finally, our analysis is implemented and tested in a grammar based on the LinGO Grammar Matrix
Degree adverbs in Mauritian
Get PDFIn Mauritian, degree words exhibit an extreme syntactic polymorphism in combining with all major categories. When two forms coexist, *mari* (\u27very\u27) and *boukou* (\u27a lot\u27), they select the predicate they modify on semantic more than syntactic criteria. We analyse degree words as adverbs with a double syntactic function: as complements in postverbal position (since they can by themselves trigger the short verbal form) and as adjuncts otherwise. We extend our analysis to inequality comparatives, *pli / plis* (\u27more\u27) and *mwin / mwins* (\u27less\u27) which are also polymorphic, with a double life as adjunct and complement
On the analysis of English exhaustive conditionals
Get PDFSo-called ˋˋExhaustive Conditionals\u27\u27 (ECs, also known as ˋˋUnconditionals\u27\u27) have been an important focus of recent research. We develop an HPSG analysis of governed ECs (e.g. ˋno matter how intelligent the students are ...\u27), sketch an approach to ungoverned ECs (e.g. ˋhowever intelligent the students are...\u27), and evaluate three possible analyses of reduced ECs (e.g. ˋno matter how intelligent the students ...\u27, ˋhowever intelligent the students...\u27)
Deconstructing SYNtax
Get PDFThere are at least two distinct ways of conceiving of syntax: the set of rules that enable speakers and listeners to combine the meaning of expressions (compositional syntax), or the set of formal constraints on the combinations of expressions (formal syntax). The question that occupies us in this paper is whether all languages include a significant formal syntax component or whether there are languages in which most syntactic rules are exclusively compositional. Our claims are (1) that Oneida (Northern Iroquoian) has almost no formal syntax component and is very close to a language that includes only a compositional syntax component and (2) that the little formal syntax Oneida has does not require making reference to syntactic features
Predication and NP structure in an omnipredicative language: The case of Khoekhoe
Get PDFWe examine noun phrases and predication in Khoekhoe, a Central Khoisan language, arguing that members of all open word classes can function equally and without derivation as predicates, and that predicative use is primary and referential use is derived syntactically by relativization. We then present a formal HPSG analysis, in which members of all open word classes enter the syntax as predicates and in which all argument NPs are derived in a uniform manner as projections of pronominal elements, modified by relative clauses, building on Sag\u27s (1997) analysis of English relative clauses. We will then argue that, additionally, DPs may project directly to clauses, yielding a second predication structure