1,721,413 research outputs found
Reflexivity in Meadow Mari: Binding and Agree
Full text linkAccording to the Canonical Binding Theory (Chomsky 1981), anaphors must be bound in their local domain and pronominals must be free. The discovery of “long-distance anaphors” (e.g. Thrainsson 1976, Giorgi 1984), which violate the locality condition, induced the search for independent criteria. Giorgi (1984:310) proposed a widely adopted criterion: “pronouns can have split antecedents and anaphors cannot”. Recent minimalist binding theories derive this property of anaphors from the way a dependency on the antecedent is established which makes it intrinsic to binding. However, this leads to an important problem, since some languages have elements that i) may be locally bound and, hence, look like anaphors; yet ii) allow split antecedents which is a property of pronouns (e.g. Japanese and Korean, Katada 1991, Kasai 2000). In this paper I analyze the data of another such language, namely Meadow Mari (Uralic), and show that such facts require a modular approach to binding (see Reuland 2011). I further argue that here the left periphery contains the relevant factor
"Variación sintáctica en las construcciones pasivas: las preposiciones introductoras del agente"
No full textEl presente trabajo constituye un estudio diacrónico acerca de la pérdida de la preposición de como introductora del complemento agente y la subsiguiente propagación de la preposición por en construcciones pasivas perifrásticas con ser. Además de presentar datos cuantitativos acerca de la distribución de ambas preposiciones, se llevan a cabo unos análisis estadísticos para medir la influencia de la naturaleza del agente pasivo sobre la selección de la preposición. Las hipótesis que se someten a prueba en esta parte, fundadas en distintas jerarquías lingüisticas, permiten descubrir a través de qué contextos por extiende su uso a expensas de de
Pseudorelative, gerundi e infiniti nelle varietà romanze: affinità (solo) superficiali e corrispondenze strutturali
Full text linkThe main topic of this dissertation is a comparison among sentential predicative constructions in the Romance languages. Whereas Pseudo-relative clauses are almost universally used in the Romance domain (with some parametrical differences), predicative gerunds and prepositional infinitives, the other two sentential predicative constructions, are restricted to some varieties. This comparative view, which takes into account both the different Romance varieties and the different constructions, is missing in previous studies on this topic.
The aim of my work consists in filling this gap and in comparing these three constructions among them and with respect to the bare infinitive, which has been considered sometimes as another predicative structure like the Pseudo-relative clause. Finally, I will analyse the use of gerundive (and parallel infinitival clauses) in the Ladin varieties, where a highly conservative nature is displayed, as is already shown by the fact that this type of clauses is maintained - within Italy - only in Ladin and in Sardinian.
The thesis defended in this dissertation is that Pseudo-Relatives, predicative gerunds and prepositional infinitives are to be all analysed as predicative Small Clauses. Each of these constructions can enter three different syntactical structures, depending on the context, as proposed in Cinque (1992) and as shown by numerous tests. Gerunds and predicative infinitives seem to have a particularly close structural correspondence, the only difference consisting in verb movement: when the verb raises above a phonetically empty position located in CP, the incorporation of the two elements takes place generating the gerundial form. When the verb cannot move to the preposition, the result is a prepositional infinitive, the preposition a being realised. This analysis does not hold for the Ladin data, though, because the gerunds and the prepositional infinitives of these varieties show some differences with respect to the corresponding constructions in the other Romance varieties. This peculiar behavior in Ladin exactly matches the one observed in bare infinitive clauses with perception verbs. Therefore, I hypothesize that Ladin gerunds and prepositional infinitives enter the so-called 'ECM' structure, like the bare infinitives of the main Romance languages.
This dissertation is relevant for the comparative Romance research field, where a comparison among different predicative constructions has never been proposed before. Moreover, I show that Ladin varieties are also syntactically conservative. Further interesting points for future research can be found in a new analysis of the gerunds (not only the predicative ones) as the result of an incorporation process involving both a non-finite verb and a zero preposition. Finally, my account reveals that the traditional analysis interpreting the Romance bare infinitives as ECM structures cannot account for all the characteristics of this construction in the Romance languages
Pronominal anaphoric strategies in the West Saxon dialect of Old English
Full text linkBuilding on previous studies that have discussed pronominal referencing in Old English (Traugott 1992; van Gelderen 2013; van Kemenade & Los 2017), the present study analyses the pronominal anaphoric strategies of the West Saxon dialect of Old English based on a quantitative and qualitative study of personal and demonstrative pronoun usage across a selection of late (post c. AD 900) Old English prose text types. The historical data discussed in the present study provide important additional support for modern cognitive and psycholinguistic theory. In line with the cognitive/psycholinguistic literature on the distribution of pronouns in Modern German (Bosch & Umbach 2007), the information-structural properties of referents rather than the grammatical role of the pronoun's antecedent most accurately explain the personal pronoun vs demonstrative pronoun contrast in the West Saxon dialect of Old English. The findings also highlight how issues pertaining to style, such as the author–writer relationship, text type, subject matter and the conventionalism propagated by text tradition, influence anaphoric strategies in Old English
Multifunctionality: The Internal and External Syntax of D- and W-Items in German and Dutch
No full textThis dissertation investigates the phenonemon of multifunctionality, i.e. the ability of a linguistic element such as a word or a morpheme to acquire a number of different functions depending on the syntactic environment in which it surfaces. The author approaches multifunctionality from two perspectives. The first perspective is concerned with the question of what theoretical framework serves best to account for multifunctionality phenomena. Comparing a number of different frameworks in Generative Grammer, the author proposes an innovative eclectic approach that combines fundamental insights from Minimalism, Distributed Morphology, the Exo-Skeletal Model, Nanosyntax and the Universal Spine Hypothesis. The second perspective is concerned with the empirical domain. The author uses d- and w-items from German and Dutch as a case study on multifunctionality and investigates both the internal structure of these elements and the individual syntactic environments in which they surface. It is shown that all the investigated elements can be analyzed with one functional sequence. It is only the topmost head of the sequence in which they differ. In the lower domain of the sequence, the author proposes to analyze gender morphology of pronominally used d- and w-tems as an expression of mass classification. Gender is consequently not regarded as a purely grammatical semantically empty category but as a tool to create mass distinctions. This hypothesis is supported with both synchonic and diachronic data. With respect to the multifunctional behavior of d- and w-items in German and Dutch, the author shows that each function can be derived from the syntactic configuration in which the individual element surfaces. This study is of relevance to scholars working on multifunctionality phenomena, comparative Germanic syntax and morphology, pronouns, gender, temproal and spatial adverbs, as well as fundamental issues in Generative Grammar
The Lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact in Old English by Sara M. Pons-Sanz. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.
Full text linkLanguage and Imagination: Evolutionary explorations
No full textThis article provides a functional analysis of the conditions for language to emerge, and analyzes its rolein imagination. It starts with some initial reflections on imagination and its evolutionary beginnings in relation to the role of working memory and tool use by chimpanzees and humans up to modernity. It then presents an analysis of what it takes to develop language, and how language gives rise to higher orders of imagination. An important theme in the discussion is which of the changes in the development leading to language may have been gradual and which changes must reflect a discontinuity. It concludeswith a paradoxical property of imagination: One part of our mind is able to imagine and create systems that another part of our mind is unable to deal with. It shows how this tension manifests itself in the notion of an impossible language, but crucially also in conceptions of human society at large
A Native Origin for Present-Day English they, their, them
Full text linkIt is commonly held that Present-Day English they, their, them are not descended from Old English but derive from the Old Norse third-person plural pronouns þeir, þeira, þeim. This paper argues that the early northern English orthographic and distributional textual evidence agrees with an internal trajectory for the ‘þ-’ type personal pronouns in the North and indicates an origin in the Old English demonstratives þā, þāra, þām. The Northern Middle English third-person plural pronominal system was the result of the reanalysis from demonstrative to personal pronoun that is common cross-linguistically in Germanic and non-Germanic languages alike
De rol van codewisseling in conversaties, zowel in gesproken taal als in gesprekken op internet.
Full text linkIn onderzoek naar codewisseling waren conversationele aspecten lange tijd ondergeschikt aan grammaticale analyses. Werk van o.a. Auer heeft daar verandering in gebracht. In dit artikel wordt ingegaan op de manier van analyseren die Auer voorstelt in zijn inleiding (Auer 1998) waarbij hij het conversationele niveau centraal stelt in tegenstelling tot Myers-Scotton (o.a. 1993b) die de bredere sociolinguïstische context als uitgangspunt voor haar analyses hanteert. Ter illustratie wordt een voorbeeld van gesproken taal besproken dat op verschillende manieren geanalyseerd kan worden (gebaseerd op Auer 1998). Vervolgens wordt uitgelegd aan de hand van korte besprekingen van Turks/Nederlandse en Marokkaans (Arabisch)/Nederlandse internetdata hoe voor de verschillende migrantengemeenschappen codewisseling verschillende functies vervult als gemarkeerde of ongemarkeerde manier van communiceren
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