4,703 research outputs found
As interrogativas do português brasileiro: perguntas e respostas
Full text linkTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística.Descrição e análise do comportamento sintático das sentenças interrogativas do português brasileiro (PB) a partir do modelo Princípios e Parâmetros da gramática gerativa. Busca confrontar suas duas versões concorrentes: a Teoria de Regência e Vinculação e o Programa Minimalista, procurando mostrar de que maneira cada uma delas lida com os fenômenos relacionados às interrogativas do PB. Parte da classificação usual das sentenças interrogativas em WH (não-polares) e polares e divide o estudo das interrogativas WH do PB em três partes em função da posição relativa do operador WH, contemplando as interrogativas com WH deslocado, com WH múltiplo e com WH in situ. Os principais fenômenos tratados em relação às interrogativas WH do PB são a inversão Verbo-Sujeito, as estruturas com que/é que, o Efeito de Superioridade, a distinção D-linked/não-D-linked proposta por Pesetsky (1987) e a permanência do sintagmas WH in situ também em LF. O estudo das interrogativas polares do PB, classificadas em Yes/No (Y/N) e Alternativas (esta última incluindo as perguntas A-não-A), se baseou no tipo de resposta que podem receber
Syntactic Computation as Labelled Deduction: WH a case study
No full textThis paper addresses the question "Why do WH phenomena occur with the particular cluster of properties observed across languages -- long-distance dependencies, WH-in situ, partial movement constructions, reconstruction, crossover etc." These phenomena have been analysed by invoking a number of discrete principles and categories, but have so far resisted a unified treatment.
The explanation proposed is set within a model of natural language understanding in context, where the task of understanding is taken to be the incremental building of a structure over which the semantic content is defined. The formal model is a composite of a labelled type-deduction system, a modal tree logic, and a set of rules for describing the process of interpreting the string as a set of transition states. A dynamic concept of syntax results, in which in addition to an output structure associated with each string (analogous to the level of LF), there is in addition an explicit meta-level description of the process whereby this incremental process takes place.
This paper argues that WH-related phenomena can be unified by adopting this dynamic perspective. The main focus of the paper is on WH-initial structures, WH in situ structures, partial movement phenomena, and crossover phenomena. In each case, an analysis is proposed which emerges from the general characterisatioan of WH structures without construction-specific stipulation.Articl
Expletives as features
No full textExpletives have always been a central topic of theoretical debate and subject to different analyses within the different stages of the Principles and Parameter theory (see Chomsky 1981, 1986, 1995; Lasnik 1992, 1995; Frampton and Gutman 1997; among others). However, most analyses center on the question how to explain the behavior of expletives in A-chains (such as there in English or Þad in Icelandic). No account relates wh-expletives (as one finds them in so-called partial wh-movement constructions in languages such as Hungarian, Romani, and German) to expletives in Achains. In this paper, I argue that the framework of the Minimalist Program opens up the possibility of accounting for expletive-associate relations in A-/A'-chains in a unified manner. The main idea of the unitary analysis is that an expletive is an overtly realized feature bundle that is (sub)extracted from its associate DP. There in an expletive-associate chain is a moved D-feature which orginates inside the associate DP. Similarily, in A'-chains, the whexpletive originates as a focus-/wh-feature in the wh-phrase with which it is associated. This analysis provides evidence for the feature-checking theory in Chomsky (1995). The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 contains the discussion of expletive there. In section 3 I suggest an analysis for whexpletives, and I also explore whether this analysis can be extended to relations between X°-categories such as auxiliary and participle complexes
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No full textWH-INDEFINITES IN CHINESE AND THEIR STATUS
No full textWh-indefinites in Chinese have received great attention and discussion in the literature. This thesis investigates the status of Chinese wh-indefinites and their behaviors in the so-called donkey sentence. A typical example of wh-indefinite will be like the following:
(4) Ta bu xiang zai shuo shenme le
he not want again say what LE
\ue2He does not want to say anything again.\ue2
\ue4\ubb\ue4\ub8\ue6\ub3\ue5\ue8\uaa\uaa\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue4\uba\ue3
In this thesis, accounts of wh-indefinites as variables, polarity items and quantifiers from Huang (1982), Li (1992), Cheng (1991, 1994) and Lin (1996, 1998) are provided and this thesis discusses the problems each account presents. Countering Li\ue2s (1992) work, this work argue that wh-indefinite like zenmeyang \ue2how\ue2 and weishenme \ue2why\ue2 cannot be directly treated as variables since they feature variables only if they appear after an auxiliary (under which situation they will express purpose or method) in a donkey sentence according to Tsai (1999, 2000), see the following examples:
(5) a. Akiu hui wei (le) shenme cizhi wo jiu hui wei (le) shenme cizhi\ue3
Akiu will for LE what resign I then will for LE what resign
\ue2If Akiu will resign for the purpose x, I will then also resign for the purpose x.\ue2
\ue9\ubfQ\ue6\ue7\uba\uef\ubc\ue4\uba\uef\ubc\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue8\ube\uad\ue8\ub7\uef\ubc\ue6\ue5\ub0\ub1\ue6\ue7\uba\uef\ubc\ue4\uba\uef\ubc\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue8\ube\uad\ue8\ub7\ue3
b. *Akiu wei (le) shenme hui cizhi wo jiu wei (le) shenme hui cizhi
Akiu for LE what will resign I then will LE what will resign
Intended \ue2If Akiu will resign because of the reason x, I will then also resign because of the reason x.
*\ue9\ubfQ\ue7\uba\ue4\uba\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue6\ue8\ube\uad\ue8\ub7\uef\ubc\ue6\ue5\ub0\ub1\ue7\uba\ue4\uba\ue4\ubb\ue9\uba\ubc\ue6\ue8\ube\uad\ue8\ub7\ue3
(Tsai\ue2s 2000, 15 glossed and translated by the author)
Avoiding treating wh-indefinites as variables, we may treat them as quantifiers according to Huang\ue2s observation. But Huang\ue2s (1982) quantifier account of wh-indefinites is also rejected because I observe that wh-indefinites do not exhibit island sensitivity. Then we are led to another treatment: treating wh-indefinites as polarity items because they are sensitive to polarity environment. Aside from the sensitivity to polarity environment, Lin\ue2s (1996) work argues that wh-indefinites are licensed as polarity items if the sentence is subject to NEEC- non-entailment of existence condition. NEEC tells us that if (part of) a sentence does not have the existential import of object; wh-words can be licensed as wh-indefinites. This faces challenge because there are cases presupposing existential import yet the wh-indefinite is licensed.
In chapter 3, two types of donkey sentences are identified in Cheng and Huang\ue2s (1996) work and are accounted with different approaches-Unselective Binding and E-type analysis. Though accepting their viewpoint generally, Lin (1996) makes a distinction between one-case and multi-case reading and opens the possibility of universal interpretation in ruguo-conditionals. Later I introduce Indirect binding approach to account both types of donkey sentences. Indirect Binding argues that some quantified expression plays the role as associating the indefinite with the anaphoric element in donkey sentences:
(6) [Everyone who ti keeps a dogj]i like itj.
The example here captures the very basic idea of Indirect Binding: the chunk of expression, which has the indefinite a dog in its scope, c-commands the pronoun it and hence relates it to the indefinite. I extend it to the analysis of Chinese donkey sentences and discover that although Indirect Binding does not target at a particular status, the condition that the indirect binder must c-command the indefinite seems to suggest that c-commanding is the way of licensing a wh-indefinite, which echoes Li\ue2s and Cheng\ue2s analyses.
In Chapter 4, I introduce wh-indefinites in Japanese and Korean respectively and conclude that quantificational force comes from the environment but not from wh-indefinites themselves, countering Huang (1982). Finally, I suggest that licensing a wh-word as a wh-indefinite is through being c-commanded by the relevant operators. It is so because of Li\ue2s and Cheng\ue2s observation of wh-indefinites licensing and also of a condition in Indirect Binding that indirect binders must c-command the indefinite in order to have it as in its scope, as I have mentioned. This thesis then provides a viewpoint that perhaps, wh-indefinites can be treated uniformly as polarity items considering that Indirect Binding approach explains their behavior in donkey sentences. This thesis also opens the door for analyzing wh-indefinites in donkey sentences under Indirect Binding in other languages.
Keywords\uef\ubc Wh-indefinite, polarity item, variable, quantifier, donkey phenomenon, Indirect Bindin
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
Scrambling in German and Japanese: adjunction versus multiple specifiers
No full textThis paper argues that short (clause-internal) scrambling to a pre-subject position has A properties in Japanese but A'-properties in German, while long scrambling (scrambling across sentence boundaries) from finite clauses, which is possible in Japanese but not in German, has A'-properties throughout. It is shown that these differences between German and Japanese can be traced back to parametric variation of phrase structure and the parameterized properties of functional heads. Due to the properties of Agreement, sentences in Japanese may contain multiple (Agro- and Agrs-) specifiers whereas German does not allow for this. In Japanese, a scrambled element may be located in a Spec AgrP, i.e. an A- or L-related position, whereas scrambled NPs in German can only appear in an AgrP-adjoined (broadly-L-related) position, which only has A'-properties. Given our assumption that successive cyclic adjunction is generally impossible, elements in German may not be long scrambled because a scrambled element that is moved to an adjunction site inside an embedded clause may not move further. In Japanese, long distance scrambling out of finite CPs is possible since scrambling may proceed in a successive cyclic manner via embedded Spec- (AgrP) positions. Our analysis of the differences between German and Japanese scrambling provides us with an account of further contrasts between the two languages such as the existence of surprising asymmetries between German and Japanese remnant-movement phenomena, and the fact that unlike German, Japanese freely allows wh-scrambling. Investigation of the properties of Japanese wh-movement also leads us to the formulation of the "Wh-cluster Hypothesis", which implies that Japanese is an LF multiple wh-fronting language
Modal wh-indefinites in Mandarin
Full text linkMandarin wh-indefinites have been long been analyzed as Negative Polarity Items (Huang 1982; Cheng 1991; Li 1992; Lin 1998; Xie 2007) that cannot occur in positive sentences. In this paper, we challenge this view by presenting naturally-occurring examples in various positive contexts. We find that in these positive contexts, wh-indefinites are usuallyassociated with an “ignorance” or “indifference” inference, similar to modal indefinites like Spanish alg´un and German irgendein (Alonso-Ovalle andM´endez-Benito 2010, Aloni and Port 2010). We propose to analyze Mandarin wh-indefinites in the alternatives-&-exhaustificaiton framework (contra Giannakidou 2018), where they trigger individual alternatives (contra Chierchia and Liao 2015), and the various inferences arise through the interaction between exhaustificationand modals
Mandarin wh-conditionals: A dynamic question approach
No full textMandarin has a special construction widely known as a ‘wh-conditional’, in which both the antecedent clause and the consequent clause are wh-clauses. Wh-conditionals are of interest to linguists because the wh-expressions in a wh-conditional must co-refer. How to make sense of the fusion of a conditional and two wh-clauses, as well as the nature of the co-reference relation, have been long-standing issues. Two competing approaches have been advanced to shed light on wh-conditionals: the indefinite approach (Cheng and Huang in Nat. Lang. Semant. 4(2):121–163, 1996; Chierchia in J. East Asian Linguist. 9: 1–54, 2000; a.o.), which treats wh-expressions as indefinites that exhibit dynamic potentials, and the question-categorial approach (Xiang in Interpreting questions with non-exhaustive answers, Ph.D. thesis, 2016; Xiang in Linguist. Philos., 2020a; Liu in Varities of alternatives, Ph.D. thesis, 2016; Liu in Varieties of alternatives: Focus particles and wh-expressions in Mandarin, 2017), which treats wh-clauses as questions denoting functions of various types (or categories). Both approaches face nontrivial challenges, but at the same time have unique advantages each. The goal of this paper is to devise an alternative approach that borrows insights from these two approaches but avoids their shortcomings. On the one hand, the proposed analysis treats wh-clauses as questions. On the other hand, it recognizes the dynamic potential of interrogative wh-expressions, i.e., their ability to introduce discourse referents. A wh-conditional is analyzed as quantification over the values of these discourse referents, which creates the impression of co-reference of the wh-expressions involved (via unselective binding). To the extent that the present analysis is on the right track, it extends the application of the dynamic potential of wh-expressions beyond anaphora
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
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