Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
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Specificational pseudoclefts in English
Get PDFSpecificational pseudoclefts (SPCs) have been a great challenge for a syntactic theory,
because, despite the surface division between the pre- and post-copular elements,
the post-copular ˋpivot\u27 behaves as if it occupied the gap position in the precopular
wh-clause. This paper argues that movement-based or deletion-based syntactic approaches
and purely semantic approaches have problems in dealing with syntactic properties
and connectivity problems of SPCs in English. Observing the parallelism between
SPC pivots and short answers to questions, it proposes an HPSG account based on
a non-deletion-based QDT (Question-in-disguise theory) approach and on the
equative analysis of the specificational copular sentences. The paper shows that
SPCs must be handled by an integrated account of the syntactic, semantic, and
pragmatic properties of the construction, and argues that the connectivity problems
should be approached from such an integrated view
A linear approach to multiple clause embedding
Get PDFIt is generally accepted among psycholinguists that real-time human sentence processing proceeds incrementally from left to right. Recently proposals have been made in the domain of syntax to reduce phenomena which have hitherto been accounted for in terms of linguistic performance to linear structures given at the level of competence. Keeping in line with this tendency in research, this paper tries to reestablish the much discussed relationship between the two aspects of language, competence and performance: the issue of processing difficulty dependent on sorts of multiple clause embedding is addressed by incorporating into HPSG a mechanism reflecting left-to-right processing and memory costs calculated at each processing step
Subjects in fronted German VPs and the problem of case and agreement: Shared argument structures for discontinuous predicates
Get PDFCapturing word order asymmetries in English Left-Peripheral Constructions: A Domain-Based Approach
Get PDFLeft-Peripheral Constructions: A Domain-Based Approach
Even though the word order in English is rather straightforward,
the distributional possibilities of left-peripheral elements like
topic phrases, wh-phrases, and negative operators
(introducing an SAI) are quite intriguing and complex. In
particular, there seems to exist no straightforward way of
capturing the linear order asymmetries of these elements in the
main and embedded clauses. The prevailing analyses have resorted
to movement processes with multiple functional projections. The
goal of this paper is to explore an alternative analysis to such
movement-based analyses. In particular, this paper adopts the
notion of topological fields (DOMAIN) proposed by Kathol (2000,
2001) within the framework of HPSG. The paper shows that within
this DOMAIN system, the distributional possibilities as well as
the asymmetries we find in English left peripheral constructions
can easily follow from the two traditional views: (i) a topic
precedes a focus element, and (ii) in English a wh-phrase
and a complementizer competes with each other for the same
position
Topics First! In- and outside of Bulgarian wh-interrogatives
Get PDFIn Jaeger (to appear) I have described clitic doubling in Bulgarian
wh-interrogatives which constitutes a type of Superiority violation that cannot
be accounted for by any existing analyses. By showing that clitic doubling of
object wh-phrases marks topicality, I raised the hypothesis that many (or maybe
all) so called Superiority effects in Bulgarian are due to topic-fronting of
wh-phrases. Here, I provide further support for this hypothesis and show that
there is also evidence for topic-fronting of non-object wh-phrases. Differences
between colloquial and formal Bulgarian are restricted to how topical objects
have to be realized at the source of the extraction (i.e. the VP), which also
makes the account readily extendable to other multiple fronting languages. The
complex ordering constraints on the left periphery are captured in a Linear
Syntax approach (similar to but different from Kathol 2000)
Phrasal typology and the interaction of topicalization, wh-movement and extraposition
Get PDFEver since Chomsky\u27s "On Wh-Movement" (Chomsky 1977) it has been assumed that topicalization and wh-question formation can be analyzed as instances of the same operation. Leaving certain features aside, this proposal carries over to the analysis of unbounded dependency constructions in HPSG since structurally, topicalization does not differ from wh-question formation in the analysis suggested in Pollard & Sag (1994: 157-163). In the present paper, we challenge this assumption and suggest an alternative analysis of unbounded dependency constructions. Here, topicalization and wh-question formation are considered as structurally different at least in certain languages. They may, however, be structurally identical in other languages. This difference is empirically reflected in patterns of relative clause extraposition. As has been pointed out by Culicover & Rochemont (1990: 28), an extraposed relative clause must not take an antecedent contained in a VP if the VP is topicalized but the relative clause is not
The secret life of focus exponents, and what it tells us about fronted verbal projections
Get PDFThe paper investigates a complex word order phenomenon in German
and the interaction of syntax and information structure it
exemplifies: the occurrence of subjects as part of a fronted
non-finite constituent and particularly the so-called definiteness
effect excluding (many) definite subjects from this position. We
explore the connection between focus projection and the partial
fronting cases and show that it is the subject of those verbs
which allow their subject to be the focus exponent that can be
included as part of a fronted verbal constituent. In combination
with the observation by Webelhuth (1990) that fronted verbal
constituents need to be focused, this provides a natural
explanation of the definiteness effect in terms of the information
structure requirements in these sentences. Interestingly, the
generally ignored exceptions to the definiteness effect are
predicted by our analysis; we show that they involve definite noun
phrases which can bear focus, which allows them to be part of a
fronted verbal constituent. Finally, building on the integrated
grammatical architecture provided in De Kuthy (2002), we formulate
an HPSG theory which captures the interaction of constraints from
syntax, information structure and intonation
A constraint-based approach to information structure and prosody correspondence
Get PDFThis paper provides a constraint-based account of
information-prosody correspondence within the HPSG framework. The
starting point of the paper is Klein\u27s (2000) account of prosodic
constituency in HPSG. However, it departs from the standard
syntactocentric architecture of grammar, and adopts a grammar design
in which syntax, phonology, and information structure are generated
in parallel, with all three applying to a common list of domain
objects. It is shown that this theoretical architecture elegantly
captures many of the various constraints that have been shown to
hold in classical views of grammar
Some empirical issues in the grammar of extraction
Get PDFThis paper compares transformation-based and constraint-based treatments of
unbounded filler-gap dependencies, the latter specifically as articulated in
terms of HPSG, and argues, contrary to the commonly made allegations of
notational variance , that there is purely empirical evidence that is
consistent with only the constraint-based account. Recent proposals to deal
with parasitic gaps in terms of null pronominals and empty operators are unable
to account for the phenomenon of symbiotic gaps, the apparent case mismatches
found in parasitic gap constructions, or (in general) for the well-known
across-the-board effects within coordinate structures
A syntax-semantics interface for tense and aspect in French
Get PDFThis paper proposes an HPSG account of the French tense and aspect system, focussing on the analysis of the passé simple (simple past) and imparfait (imperfective) tenses and their interaction with aspectually sensitive adjuncts. Starting from de Swart\u27s (1998) analysis of the semantics of tense and aspect, I show that while the proposed semantic representations are appropriate, the analysis of implicit aspectual operators as coercion operators is inadequate.
The proposed HPSG analysis relies on Minimal Recursion Semantics to relate standard syntactic structures with de Swart-style semantic representations. The analysis has two crucial features: first, it assumes that the semantic contribution of tense originates in the verb\u27s semantic representation, despite the fact that tense can get wide scope over other semantic elements. Second, it allows the occurrence of implicit aspectual operators to be controlled by the verb\u27s inflectional class, which accounts for their peculiar distribution