3,507 research outputs found
Wh-Islands: A View from Correspondence Theory
No full textThis paper discusses a family of restrictions on syntactic extraction, so-called wh-islands. The analysis will be based on the OT syntax model developed in Vogel (2004a,b) which focuses on the correspondence between semantic, syntactic and phonological representations, in the spirit of work by Jackendoff (1997), Williams (2003) and Culicover & Jackendoff (2005). I will argue that the wh-island restriction results from the impossibility to establish a perfect semantics-syntax mapping in the relevant structures. The resulting constraint violations add up to yield the wh-island effect. Exceptions to the wh-island restrictions in English are argued to be prosodically licensed.
Section 2 introduces the model I am using, and presents examples of some accounts of ineffability which I developed elsewhere. That section also introduces the basics of my treatment of wh-movement. Section 3 develops the account of wh-islands. Section 4 discusses the exceptions to the wh-island restriction that we see in English, and extends my account to handle these cases. The OT implementation of this account is presented in Section 5.The definitive version of this paper is published in Modeling Ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory. It is available at https://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=212Vogel, R. (2009). Wh-Islands: A View from Correspondence Theory. In C. Rice (Ed.), Ungrammaticality in Optimality Theory. Oakville, CT:Equinox Pub. Ltd, 2009ISBN-13 9781845532154 (published book
The interaction of syntax, prosody, and discourse in licensing French wh-in-situ questions
No full textThe current experiment addresses the proposal by Cheng & Rooryk (2000) that wh-in-situ questions in French are marked by an obligatory rising contour, which is the result of an intonation morpheme [Q: ] in C. Twelve native French speakers participated in a production study in which they produced the target interrogatives, along with a range of similar sentences. While most participants were perceived to assign wh-in-situ questions a sentence-final rise, a minority was not. Moreover, the rise associated with wh-in-situ was smaller than the rise exhibited in yes-no questions, which C&R claim to be licensed by the same morpheme. Given that these two results are unexpected under C&R’s account, we conducted a further acoustic analysis of the productions, which revealed that for sentences lacking a sentence-final rise, the the in situ wh-word had an elevated high pitch accent. A statistical analysis shows a negative correlation between the height of the pitch accent assigned to the wh-word and the presence and height of the sentence-final rise, indicating that instead of the sentence-final rise for wh-in-situ questions being optional, it may instead be variable and predictable by focus placed on the wh-word, for discourse reasons. We discuss three possibilities for the status of the intonation morpheme concerning yes-no and wh-questions and the role of information structure in French wh-in-situ questions.Peer reviewed
Wh-doublets in Cantonese
No full textM.Phil.This thesis examines grammatical features of the wh-reduplication (namely “whdoublets”) in Cantonese, which has not been well documented in existing literature on Cantonese grammar. From previous descriptive works on this phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese (e.g. Yu 1964; Bai 2008; Xu 2010), three major claims are reviewed through Cantonese data: (i) wh-doublets have non-interrogative use; (ii) wh-doublets are used in reported speech; and (iii) wh-doublets have plural interpretation. First, I show that the wh-doublet is different from other wh-interpretations in terms of distribution and interpretation. It cannot simply be treated as a resulting form of stuttering or self-repair, and it is important to study this phenomenon independently. Second, wh-doublets are licensed in quotative context. More precisely, they can appear inside a quotation, with the presence of quotative markers or within the scope of clause-taking predicates, which can be generalized as syntactic or pragmatic means to introduce quotative contexts. The necessary quotativity shows that the use of whdoublets always involves another context. Third, although many typological findings support the argument that reduplicative constructions tend to trigger plural interpretations, the grammaticality judgment survey conducted in this study provides evidence against the necessary plurality of wh-doublets. Native speakers generally accept both singular and plural interpretations for wh-doublets, which is different from the common descriptions in the past literature. From these observations on the Cantonese wh-doublet, the issue of iconicity regarding reduplicative constructions is also discussed.While the quotative use of wh-doublets poses challenge to the traditional view that quantification into quotations is impossible, I adopt the intensional semantic system in Heim and Kratzer (1998), together with Sudo’s (2013) metalinguistic quantification, to spell out the lexical meaning of the Cantonese wh-doublet and derive the semantic computation with other linguistic elements. This analysis captures two main properties: (i) the use of wh-doublets implies that the matrix subject being reported has access to a particular entity; and (ii) the wh-doublet itself is an indefinite that ranges over linguistic expressions.本文旨在探討廣東話重疊疑問詞的語法特徵。鑑於文獻並未有對此現象作出深究，本文評論過往對普通話同一現象的描述性研究（于細良1964、白雁2008、徐默凡2010 等）所持的三大主張：（一） 重疊疑問詞有非疑問用法，（二）重疊疑問詞一般用於複述句，（三）重疊疑問詞有複數意思。透過廣東話例子，本文表明重疊疑問詞在語法分佈及意思理解上都有別於其他疑問詞用法，亦非口吃或自我修正的結果，而是「疑問詞」另一非疑問用法。本文亦提出重疊疑問詞被允准出現於引述語境中，準確來說，它能出現在引述句子中、在引述標記的情況中或在補語子句的轄域中。這些允准條件都能被視為引入引述語境的句法或語用手段，而其引述的必要性顯示重疊疑問句經常涉及另一語境。雖然很多類型學研究支持重疊結構傾向獲得複數意思這個觀點，而過去文獻均表示重疊疑問詞有複數意思，但本研究語感調查則得到相反的證據，母語使用者一般允許重疊疑問詞單數和複數的理解。除以上對廣東話重疊疑問詞的觀察，本文探討重疊結構的象似性議題。此外，重疊疑問詞的引述用法對引述句不能進行量化的傳統論述引起難題。本文結合Heim 及Kratzer (1998) 的內涵語義系統與Sudo (2013) 的元語言量化理論，說明廣東話重疊疑問詞的詞義，並結合其他語言部分作語義運算。此分析嘗試解釋兩個特點：（一）使用重疊疑問詞暗示被引述的主語能擷取某個特定個體的資訊，（二）重疊疑問詞是只限於語言表達式的不定指詞。Wong, Hok Yuen.Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2018.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-123).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on 11, August, 2020)
Modal existential wh-constructions
No full textThis dissertation is a thorough investigation of the syntax, semantics, and typology of modal existential wh-constructions – the last major type of wh-construction (next to questions and relative clauses) that is still relatively poorly understood. The author argues that their proper analysis enhances our understanding of a variety of richly discussed issues, including the syntax-semantics of argument structure, event structure, existential predicates, wh-movement, covert modality, and obligatory control.
The author argues for a radically new approach to modal existential wh-constructions. His core idea is that they are not ordinary objects of the verb which they are selected by (a predicate expressing the state of existence or availability, or a complex predicate leading to such a state), as previously assumed, but rather constitute an additional independent argument. This argument is an integral part of the complex event structure of the matrix verb – its “event extension” – and as such characterizes possible developments of the state or event denoted by the matrix predicate. The proposed analysis accounts for many apparently unmotivated properties of these constructions, including their highly restricted scope, modality, and syntactic distribution on the one hand, and a relative freedom of their internal syntactic shape on the other. The analysis also reveals a previously unobserved but remarkably tight relationship between modal existential wh-constructions and English purpose clauses.
This dissertation is of interest to theoretically and typologically oriented linguists working on wh-constructions, purpose clauses, existential sentences, event structure, and modality. On a more general level, it deals with issues at the syntax-semantics and syntax-pragmatics interface.
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Dit proefschrift is een grondige studie van de syntaxis, semantiek en typologie van modale existentiële wh-constructies – het laatste hoofdtype van wh-constructies (naast vraagzinnen en relatiefzinnen) dat tot nu toe onderbelicht is gebleven. De auteur beargumenteert dat een goede analyse van deze constructies ook tot een beter begrip leidt van een veelheid aan vraagstukken die gerelateerd zijn aan de syntaxis en semantiek van argumentstructuur, event-structuur, existentiële predicaten, wh-verplaatsing, coverte modaliteit en verplichte controle.
De auteur bepleit een radicaal nieuwe analyse van modale existentiële wh-constructies. Het kernidee is dat ze niet, zoals eerder werd aangenomen, een gewoon object zijn van het werkwoord waardoor ze geselecteerd worden (een predicaat dat een bestaanstoestand uitdrukt of een toestand van beschikbaarheid, of een complex predicaat dat tot zo’n toestand leidt), maar juist een toegevoegd onafhankelijk argument. Zo’n argument is een integraal onderdeel van de complexe event-structuur van het matrixwerkwoord – de “event-extensie” – en als zodanig karakteriseert het de mogelijke ontwikkelingen van de toestand of gebeurtenis zoals gedenoteerd door dat werkwoord. De voorgestelde analyse verklaart verscheidene ogenschijnlijk ongemotiveerde eigenschappen van modale existentiële wh-constructies, inclusief hun beperkte bereik, modaliteit en syntactische distributie aan de ene kant, en hun relatieve vrijheid wat betreft de interne syntactisch opbouw aan de andere kant. De analyse onthult ook een tot nu toe onbekende maar opmerkelijk nauwe relatie tussen modale existentiële wh-constructies en “purpose clauses” zoals in het Engels.
Dit proefschrift is van belang voor theoretisch en typologisch georiënteerde taalkundigen die geïnteresseerd zijn in wh-constructies, purpose clauses, existentiële zinnen, event-structuur en modaliteit. Op een meer algemeen niveau behandelt het kwesties die betrekking hebben op de interfaces tussen de syntaxis, semantiek en pragmatiek.
Shang gu Han yu zhong yun lü zhi yue de yi wen ci yu ji ju fa: Prosodically constrained wh-expressions and syntax in archaic Chinese.
No full text疑問詞語及疑問句是漢語研究的重要方面。傳統研究以及生成語法研究對疑問詞語和疑問句的句法做了大量研究。Feng(1995)指出韻律控制句法是語言的一個重要機制。在此基礎上，本文從韻律─句法接口入手，首次對上古漢語中韻律制約的疑問詞語及句法現象進行綜合的研究。基於韻律的層級結構，本文從三個不同韻律層級探京韻律單位及其對應的韻律規則對疑問詞語及句法的制約作用。第一章首先回顧二十多年來韻律句法學的研究，並對全文的理論背景進行介紹，最後概述本文的研究目的、主要觀點及研究方法。第二章討論韻素音步導致的疑問詞「胡*ga」與「何*gal」的句法對立。本章指出「何*gal」是標準形式，「胡*ga」比「何*gal」少一個韻素/-l/，是特定語音環境下出現的弱化形式。這導致「胡*ga」比「何*gal」受到更多的句法限制。第三章指出上古漢語中雙音節音步導致單雙音節疑問詞在不同的句法位置出現對立。在焦點重音、雙音節音步和核心重音的共同制約下，單音節疑問詞必須與相鄰成分組成雙音節音步。在非論元位置，單音節疑問詞變為雙音節疑問詞。但論元位置疑問詞己與動詞組合為雙音節，因此論元位置的單音節疑問詞沒有變為雙音節。這也導致在歷時演變中，論元位置的疑問詞晚於非論元位置疑問詞進行「雙音化」。第四章集中討論一個重要的疑問結構「何/奚+(以)+XP+為」。本文首次指出狀語「何/奚為」通過「分配删略」生成表層結構「何/奚+(以)+XP+為」。而且本文更進一步指出是語調需要轉化為句末語氣詞的韻律要求迫使「何/奚為」進行「分配删略」。第五章對全文進行總結，指出上述問題的討論，不僅為探索上古漢語特指疑問句的句法生成機制提供了新的材料和現象，而且它們豐富了我們對上古漢語面貌的認識。Wh-words and syntax of wh-questions are significant topics in Chinese linuistics.They have received a lot of attention from traditionaland generative studies.Feng (1995) proposed that prosodically-constrained syntax is a crucial mechanism. Based on this hypothesis, this paper will conduct an original and extensive research into phenomena of prosodically-constrained wh-morphology and syntax in Archaic Chines from prosody-syntax interface.Based on Prosodic Hierachy Theory, this paper will explore different prosodic units and prosodic rules in different hierarchies impose constraints on morphology and syntax of wh-words and wh-questions.The first chapter will review the history of prosodic-syntax research in the past twenty years, and then introduce the theoretical background of the whole paper. The research purpose, main points and methodology of this paper will be presented in the last section.The second chapter will discuss the syntactic contrast between HU/*ga/and HE/*gal/ in Archaic Chinese results from the restrictions of bimoraic feet. This paper will argue that HE/*gal/ is analysed as a underlying form while HU/*ga/ represents a weak form. This will induce that HU/*ga/, with only one mora, is more constrictive than HE/*gal/ which has more mora .The third chapter will point out that disyllabic foot results in the syntactic contrast between monosyllabic and disyllabic wh-words in Archaic Chinese. For the requirements of the focus stress , disyllabic feet and NSR (Nuclear Stress Rule), monosyllabic wh-words, weak forms bearing focus stress, will be substitued for disyllabic forms. Terefore a contrast will emerge between wh-words in argument and non-argument positions. At the same time the substitute will result in the appearance of disyllabicity of wh-words in argument positions is later than ones in non-argument positions through the process of diachronic change.The fourth chapter will focus on an essential wh-question construction in Archaic Chinese - [HE/XI+(YI)+XP+WEI]. This paper will first propose that adjunct HE/XI generates that structure through the syntactic operation "Distributed Deletion". In addition, we first argue that the syntactic operation is activated by a prosodic request that intonations have to be transformed into sentence-final particls in the intonational phrases.The fifth chapter will summarize the whole paper. It is suggested that demonstrations above will not only offer some novel phenomena of syntactic mechanisms for wh-questions in Archaic Chinese, but also will offer a distinctive perspective of Archaic Chinese.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.李果.Parallel title from added title page.Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 247-263).Abstracts also in English.Li Guo
Processing covert dependencies: an SAT study on Mandarin wh-in-situ questions
No full textIn wh-in-situ languages like Mandarin Chinese, in which the wh-phrase remains in a canonical argument position in wh-questions, syntactic theories generally posit that a covert dependency between the in-situ position and a clause-initial syntactic operator must nonetheless hold at logical form. Wh-in-situ languages and wh-fronted languages are in this way abstractly similar. This paper investigates whether the processing of Mandarin wh-in-situ questions indeed involves constructing a long-distance dependency. Using the multiple-response speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) paradigm, we show that Chinese wh-in-situ questions incur more processing costs than their non-wh counterparts. Furthermore, the length of the covert dependency affects only processing accuracy, but not processing speed. This pattern suggests a content-addressable memory process underlying the construction of wh-in-situ dependencies, similar to overt long distance dependencies in English. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Study on Chinese English Learners’ Acquisition of Wh-Movement Constraints
No full textThis paper mainly investigates Chinese university students’ acquisition of constraints on English Wh-movement, with the aim of providing some evidence of the accessibility of universal grammar (UG) in second language acquisition (SLA). One UG principle, the Subjacency Principle, puts constraints on English Wh-movement and this is the major study point of the present study. The author selects a certain number of Chinese university students as participants and carries out a grammaticality judgment test. Since there does not involve Wh-movement in Chinese language, and Chinese students have no access to the Subjacency Principle during their daily studies, then if it happens that the subjects shows certain degree of obedience to this principle, a conclusion could be drawn that UG is still accessible and operative in SLA. Abroad, numerous linguistic researchers in the field of SLA have done studies concerning the Subjacency Principle, while in China, scarce similar studies have been made. The author firstly checks Chinese participants’ acceptance of grammatical long-distance Wh-movement and their rejection of ungrammatical Wh-movement with violations of the Subjacency principle, with the latter one as the major point. The discussion of the study is focused on the participant’s responses to varying degrees of Subjacency violations. The experimental results show that the Chinese subjects have demonstrated a certain degree of acceptance of the long-distance Wh-movement and of rejection of Subjacency violations. Therefore, the author concludes that UG is still available and operative in SLA, while the extent to which it is accessible still requires to be further studied
Phasehood of Wh-Questions in Modern Standard Arabic
No full textabstract: Wh-questions have been widely discussed in different languages such as English, Mandarin Chinese, Italian, and Russian, but little attention has been paid to the structure of wh-questions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Thus, this dissertation attempts to analyze the structure of wh-questions using the current frameworks: Minimalism and Cartography.
In the late 1990s, Chomsky established the Minimalist Program which aims to describe the clause structure in as simple and economic mechanism as possible, and he advanced his famous research program to include phase theory, which aims to restrict the syntactic operations. On the other side, Rizzi (1997, 2001) proposed the Cartographic approach. In this approach, Rizzi attempted to analyze the left periphery domain in detail, and suggested the split CP hypothesis. Following those two approaches, Ginsburg (2009) and Totsuka (2015) unified them into one approach and suggested that ForceP, TopicP, and IntP are phasal domain while FocusP, FinP, and WhP are not. An overview of the Chomskyan model and Rizzi’s approach has been provided in Chapter 2. Also, this dissertation discussed the unified approach by Ginsburg (2009) and Totsuka (2015).
In addition to the overview of the general frameworks, this dissertation discussed the clause structure such as the word order, left periphery domain (i.e., CP), and resumption in MSA. Furthermore, Chapter 2 presented the earlier studies on the wh-questions in MSA and highlighted the major gap which this dissertation attempts to fill. In these studies the structure of wh-questions in MSA were mis-analyzed because the surface structure of the nine wh-questions might look the same, but, in fact, they are not. Therefore, this dissertation attempts to (re)study the structure of wh-questions with taking into consideration the resumption and [definiteness].
In Chapter 3, the methodology and corpus analysis, which is used in collecting the wh-questions in MSA, are discussed. Finally, Chapter 4 analyzed the corpus findings based on the unified approach by Ginsburg (2009) and Totsuka (2015) and showed some evidence that man ‘who’ and ayy ‘which’ questions in MSA are in phasal phrase (i.e., IntP) while the rest of wh-questions are not.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation English 201
Interfacing information and prosody: French wh-in-situ questions
No full textWe present experimental evidence bearing on Cheng and Rooryck’s (2000) proposal that French wh-in-situ questions are licensed by an intonational morpheme also present in yes-no questions and their claim that such questions are ungrammatical without a rising contour. While most participants produced a rising contour, not all did; when they did, the slope was not as steep as in yes-no questions. Our findings support C&R’s proposal, admitting the central role of information structure. We support a view of question formation in French in which information structure, syntax, and prosody form a tight relationship: the shape of the syntactically-designated contour is affected by pragmatic information. We present a theoretical account appealing to movement through givenness-marking that explains the observed pitch compression
Dynamics of Network Formation Processes in the Co-Author Model
No full textThis article studies the dynamics in the formation processes of a mutual consent network in game theory setting: the Co-Author Model. In this article, a limited observation is applied and analytical results are derived. Then, 2 parameters are varied: the number of individuals in the network and the initial probability of the links in the network in its initial state. A simulation result shows a finding that is consistent with an analytical result for a state of equilibrium while it also shows different possible equilibria.Dynamics, Network, Game Theory, Model,Simulation, Equilibrium, Complexity
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