Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
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Minimizer negative polarity items in non-negative contexts
Full text linkMinimizer strong NPIs such as ˋˋlift a finger\u27\u27 are known to be more restricted in their occurrence than weak NPIs like ˋˋever\u27\u27. Sedivy 1990 points to contexts with a ˋˋnegative side message\u27\u27 in which ˋˋlift a finger\u27\u27 can occur but ˋˋever\u27\u27 cannot. The paper provides a short overview over the relevant contexts and proposes an extension of a representational theory of NPI licensing with the following components: First, an utterance content is introduced that enriches the primary truth-conditional content by conventional implicatures and generalized conversational implicatures. Second, ˋˋever\u27\u27-type NPIs can be licensed by weak NPI licensors, but only in the primary truth-conditional meaning of an utterance. ˋˋLift-a-finger\u27\u27-type NPIs can only be licensed in the scope of negation, but the licensing can be checked at the representation of the enriched meaning of an utterance
The gradual erosion of NPI-hood with need verbs in Germanic
Full text linkThis talk addresses the puzzle why there are different ˋneed\u27 verbs in Germanic languages, which all are lexically polysemous and which all display some extent of negative polar behaviour. Whereas all the uses of Dutch ˋhoeven\u27 are negative polar, Modern Swedish ˋbehöva\u27 is mostly distributionally unrestricted and only in its epistemic uses negative polar. Data suggest that this is a result of a gradual erosion of NPI-hood. The diverging behaviour of ˋneed\u27-verbs in Germanic languages can be most accurately managed assuming that lexical polysemy involves type hierarchy in which the different uses inherit from an abstract entry that defines semantics all these uses share. Moreover, it is concluded that if there is an NPI feature it is mandatorily inherited to all to its descendants. In languages such as Dutch this feature has scope over all uses, in languages such as Modern Swedish. it only bears scope over the epistemic uses
Three improvements to the HPSG model theory
Full text linkThe aim of this paper is to propose three improvements to the HPSG model theory. The first is a solution to certain formal problems identified in Richter 2007. These problems are solved if HPSG models are rooted models of utterances and not exhaustive models of languages, as currently assumed. The proposed solution is compatible with all existing views on the nature of objects inhabiting models. The second improvement is a solution to “Höhle’s Problem”, i.e., the problem of massive spurious ambiguities in models of utterances. The third is a formalisation of Yatabe\u27s (2004) analysis of the coordination of unlike categories, one that requires a second-order extension of the language for stating HPSG grammars
Gluing idioms back together: A phraseo-combinatorial analysis
Full text linkThe formal analysis of idioms has been oscillating between approaches that emphasize the unit-like character of idioms and approaches that focus on the autonomy of the idioms\u27 parts. In this paper, we summarize the main arguments for and against these two positions to then propose an account that tries to capture and combine the insights and advantages of both types of analysis. The resulting theory is heavily influenced by the approach taken in Riehemann (2001)
Verbs of deception, point of view and polarity
Full text linkThe Dutch and German verbs wijsmaken/weismachen \u27make wise\u27 have an idiomatic interpretation as verbs of deception \u27to fool\u27. As such, they have the unusual property of being contrafactive (presupposing the falsity of their complement). With second person or generic pronoun subjects, under negation and with future orientation, they are used to express disbelief on the part of the entity denoted by the indirect object. A corpus study shows this secondary use to be especially prominent in Dutch. It depends on the availability of the point of view of experiencer and is most common with first person dative objects
Imperatives and negation in Romance languages: Verbalisation, de-verbalisation and marking
Full text linkThe topic of this paper is the expression of negative directives in several Romance languages. The majority of Romance languages do not express negative directives by adding (pre-verbal) negation to the positive imperative form, but by using a different verb form (infinitive, subjunctive or something else), to which negation is attached. The present analysis shows that (some) directive verbal forms in Romance lost some hallmarks of their verbhood. The phenomenon is taken as witnessing different stages of de-verbalisation. De-verbalisation makes directive verb forms similar to interjections. The variation documented in the Romance imperatives with respect to the compatibility/incompatibility with negation may thus seen as tendencies of different degrees of the imperatives to come closer either to the verb, or to the interjection. In the context of these tendencies, the incompatibility between negation and imperatives may be explained through the concept of marking. Put briefly, imperatives require to be marked by negation but negation is or is not able to mark them
The Welsh of Jesus and Job: Verb-second in Middle Welsh
Full text linkMiddle Welsh is a VSO language with the verb before the subject in all kinds of finite clause. However, positive declarative main clauses normally show verb-second order with a constituent of some kind before the finite verb. There are questions about the nature of this restriction. There are also questions about subject-initial sentences, which show surprising agreement properties, whether the subject is a topic or a focused constituent. All these questions can be given plausible answers within HPSG
Negation and its bearing on creole genesis
Full text linkFor the past 20 years, the question of a ˋˋcreole prototype\u27\u27 has been at the center of heated debates. Among features that are claimed to be typical of creole formation is the placement of negation, which usually appears preceding tense, aspect and mood markers (e.g. McWhorter 2018). In this paper, I examine diachronic data, in particular, French compound tenses and show that the position of negation in at least French-related creoles is nothing but the result of regular grammaticalization given input. As such the expression of negation typically exemplifies coalescence of the already grammaticalized negator pas into an inflectional exponent in the creoles
On a family of Welsh constructions
Full text linkResearch on unbounded dependency constructions (UDCs) has focused mainly on
the properties that are shared by all UDCs, but a satisfactory theory of syntax also needs to
capture the properties that distinguish specific UDCs and the properties that are shared by some but
not all of them. Three Welsh unbounded dependency constructions – wh-interrogatives, free relatives,
and cleft sentences – are of interest here because they show a challenging array of similarities and
the differences. However, given a slightly expanded hierarchy of phrase types, HPSG can capture both
the similarities and the differences in this area
What does being a noun or a verb mean?
Full text linkThe indigenous languages of North America have played a critical role in discussions of the universality of part-of-speech distinctions. In this paper, we show that Oneida does not include a grammatical distinction between nouns and verbs. Rather, Oneida inflecting lexical items are subject to two cross-cutting semantic classifications, one that concerns the sort of entities they describe, the other the sort of semantic relation they include in their content. Labels such as ‘noun\u27 and ‘verb\u27 can still be used for cross-linguistic comparison, as the semantic partition of lexical items corresponds to canonical nouns and verbs according to morphologists and some typologists. But the meta-grammatical status of these labels is quite distinct from the status of corresponding labels in Indo-European languages like English