100,366 research outputs found
At the C-T boundary: Investigating Abruzzese complementation
No full textThe present article explores the complementizer system of Abruzzese. This system apparently features as many as three different complementizers, and is hence richer than the usual double-complementizer systems found in southern Italian dialects. While a richly articulated conception of the left periphery is demonstrated to provide a simple explanation for the various forms and distribution of two of the Abruzzese complementizers, the same set of structural assumptions are shown to run into severe difficulties when applied to the supposed third Abruzzese complementizer. Evidence is adduced to demonstrate that this element is best viewed, not as a complementizer, but, rather, as a T-element lexicalizing modal features associated with the embedded verb. This is an important finding since it demonstrates how a fine structural interpretation of the C-domain can lead to novel and enlightening analyses of traditional categories, even those traditionally assigned to the complementizer class. At the same time, the analysis highlights how current cartographic assumptions about the fine structure of the C-domain do not necessarily have to be directed towards, or lead to, the discovery of new functional categories and/or candidates for their lexicalization but, rather, can be profitably exploited to throw light on the structure of the T-domain without the postulation of additional functional structure. © 2010 Elsevier B.V
Rethinking microvariation in Romance demonstrative systems
No full textThis article explores the formal and functional organization of Romance
demonstrative systems, providing a detailed empirical overview of the vast microvariation
attested in standard and non-standard Romance varieties. Despite highlighting a
considerable number of distinct demonstrative systems based on different
superficial person contrasts, it is argued that the underlying number of systems can
effectively be reduced to a much smaller number of systems based on a finite number
of options. In particular, it is argued that the feature geometric analysis of person
developed by Harley & Ritter (2002) makes some specific predictions about the
range and types of person combinations, and hence by implication also the types
and natural classes of demonstrative systems, that are cross-linguistically available.
Adopting these assumptions, it is argued that these differing person feature
specifications can be profitably modelled in terms of a set of hierarchically-organized
interrelated parametric options in accordance with much recent work developed
within the ReCoS group
Exploring Microvariation in Verb-Movement Parameters within Daco-Romanian and across Daco-Romance
No full textThis article reviews some of the principal patterns of morphosyntactic variation within Daco-Romanian and across Daco-Romance in support of a distinction between low vs high V-movement grammars variously distributed in accordance with diatopic variation (Daco-Romance: west vs east, Aromanian: north vs south), diachronic and diagenerational variation (Megleno-Romanian) and endogenous vs exogenous factors (Istro-Romanian). This approach, which builds on the insights of the Borer–Chomsky conjecture, assumes that the locus of parametric variation lies in the lexicon and the (PF-)lexicalization of specific formal feature values of individual functional projections, in our case the clausal heads T and v and the broad cartographic areas that they can be taken to represent. In this way, our analysis locates the relevant dimensions of (micro)variation among different Daco-Romance varieties in properties of T and v. In particular, we show that the feature values of these two heads are not set in isolation, inasmuch as parameters form an interrelated network of implicational relationships: the given value of a particular parameter entails the concomitant activation of associated lower-order parametric choices, whose potential surface effects may consequently become entirely predictable, or indeed render other parameters entirely irrelevant. In this way we can derive properties such as verb–adverb order, auxiliary selection, retention vs loss of the preterite, the availability of a dedicated preverbal subject position, the distribution of DOM, and the different stages of Jespersen’s Cycle across Daco-Romance quite transparently, based on the relevant strength of T and v in individual sub-branches and sub-dialects
Latin
No full textClosely related to Oscan-Umbrian and the Sabellian dialects of central Italy, Latin is considered a member of that important branch of the IE language family traditionally termed ‘Italic’. This branch of Indo-European appears, in turn, to share a number of similarities exclusive to itself and Celtic, and together with the latter, Germanic, Greek, Hittite and Tocharian, forms what are called the centum dialects. It will not be inappropriate, we believe, to clarify, albeit briefly, this widely held view, commonly found in most current handbooks, which may at first seem puzzling. For instance, an immediate comparison between, say, a Latin text and a text written in another Italic dialect or language will clearly reveal two or more fundamentally different and mutually unintelligible languages. Undoubtedly, the degree of un intelligibility is far greater, for example, than that between Modem Italian and Spanish or Portuguese. In fact, if we look beyond the unmistakable superficial differences, there emerge ‘obvious’ similarities between Latin and OscoUmbrian, as identified by the historical-comparative method, including among others the following:
(a) Phonetics: *2 > a, *ew > ou, */, *r > ol, or, *m, > em, en, *-s-> -z-, *-t/t-> -ss-, *-t > -d, the word-initial voiced aspirates *bh, *dÄ, *gh become voiceless fricatives, and the assimilation of words of the syllabic pattern *p . . . kw > kw . . . kw
sj-pdf-1-lrt-10.1177_14771535211055703 – Supplemental Material for Gaze correlates of view preference: Comparing natural and urban scenes
No full textSupplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-lrt-10.1177_14771535211055703 for Gaze correlates of view preference: Comparing natural and urban scenes by A Batool, P Rutherford, P McGraw, T Ledgeway and S Altomonte in Lighting Research & Technology</p
Negation and Verb-Movement in Romance: New Perspectives on Jespersen's Cycle
No full textIn this article we bring to light one additional factor underlying so-called Jespersen's Cycle (JC) in Romance which has to date gone unnoticed, namely the varying position of the finite verb within the IP. More specifically, we show that there exists an empirical correlation between the availability of clause-medial/high verb-movement and Stages II-III of JC in which a postverbal negator is licensed. Drawing on novel data, we demonstrate that this correlation holds not only across modern Romance varieties, but also across early varieties. Formally, we explain this link between negation and verb-movement from the (in)active status of the T-domain and the consequent (im)possibility of donating a [Neg] feature to the lower v-VP domain. Although verb-movement in itself is not a sufficient condition to trigger a shift towards Stages II-III negation, we argue that it is a necessary one, a fact which explains the peculiar distribution of negation strategies across the Romània
sj-pdf-1-lrt-10.1177_1477153520981572 – Supplemental Material for View preference in urban environments
No full textSupplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-lrt-10.1177_1477153520981572 for View preference in urban environments by A Batool, P Rutherford, P McGraw, T Ledgeway and S Altomonte in Lighting Research & Technology</p
THE FINAL STRONGHOLD OF THE INFINITIVE: (SILENT) MODALS IN ROMANIAN AND SOUTHERN ITALY
No full textRomanian and the Romance and Greek varieties of the extreme south of Italy show various degrees of diachronic and diatopic microvariation in the loss and retreat of the infinitive, whilst displaying at the same time a high degree of overall structural uniformity in their parallel preservation of the (bare) infinitive in: (1) restructuring contexts; (2) infinitival relatives; and (3) negative imperatives. On the surface, there is nothing a priori to suggest that these three contexts should be connected in any way. Yet the discussion below demonstrates how these three uses can be reduced to a single structural explanation which views the infinitive as a reduced clausal constituent (viz. v-VP) generated in a monoclausal structure selected in all cases by a modal, temporal or aspectual auxiliary which is phonologically overt in (1), but oscillates between overt and covert phonological realizations in (2) and (3) in accordance with crosslinguistic variation. The result is a unified analysis which allows us to capture the distribution of (bare) infinitival complementation in all the relevant varieties quite simply in terms of a so-called restructuring configuration in line with Hill’s (2013a,b, 2017) intuition that the Romanian (and more generally Balkan) bare infinitive instantiates a monoclausal structure selected by a T-related auxiliary
Sensitivity to second-order motion as a function of temporal frequency and eccentricity
No full textAbstractThere is considerable evidence that second-order motion, such as motion consisting of a drifting contrast modulation, is detected separately from first-order motion. Some previous studies have shown that the rate at which sensitivity declines as either drift speed or eccentricity increases is the same for both types of motion. However, these studies have used second-order motion stimuli based on static noise carriers, which we have shown (Smith & Ledgeway, 1997) may be inappropriate because they can give rise to local first-order artifacts. By using dynamic noise carriers, we isolate the second-order motion mechanism and show that its temporal response is much worse than that of the first-order system but that its rate of sensitivity loss with increasing stimulus eccentricity is indeed similar to that of the first-order motion system
Patterns of infinitival and finite complementation in Griko and Salentino
No full textAnche se caratterizzati da diversi gradi di microvariazione diacronica e diatopica
relativa al progressivo declino e all’eventuale perdita dell’infinito, il griko e il salentino mostrano,
in generale, un alto grado di uniformità strutturale nella conservazione dell’infinito
nei contesti a ristrutturazione (1), nelle relative infinitivali (2) e nell’imperativo negativo (3).
Superficialmente, non c’è a priori nessun motivo per cui dovremmo aspettarci la distribuzione
dell’infinito proprio in questi tre contesti strutturali. Tuttavia, il presente articolo mette in
evidenza come questi tre usi dell’infinito possano essere ricondotti ad una singola spiegazione
strutturale. Secondo tale interpretazione, l’infinito costituirebbe un complemento proposizionale
ridotto (ovvero un v-VP) generato all’interno di una struttura monofrasale e selezionato in tutti i casi da un ausiliare di tipo modale, temporale o aspettuale, fonologicamente esplicito
in (1), ma soggetto a oscillazione tra realizzazioni fonologiche esplicite ed implicite in (2)-(3),
in funzione della variazione interlinguistica. Ne consegue un’analisi unitaria che tiene conto
della distribuzione della complementazione infinitivale in entrambe le varietà, ora interpretabile
come un chiaro esempio di una configurazione detta a ristrutturazione. Allo stesso modo
tale analisi ci offre anche un’evidente spiegazione della distribuzione della complementazione
finita e infinitivale nei dialetti salentini con il predicato causativo fare. Il primo tipo di
complementazione codifica il tipo causativo detto faire-infinitif, in cui il soggetto viene messo
in primo piano a livello pragmatico e viene perciò strutturalmente proiettato, mentre la complementazione
infinitivale realizza il tipo causativo detto faire-par, in cui il soggetto passa in
secondo piano e non viene strutturalmente proiettato, spiegando così la selezione dell’infinito,
in quanto tipica espressione morfosintattica dei costituenti proposizionali ridotti. D’altro canto,
il comportamento eccezionale del griko, il quale impiega esclusivamente la complementazione
finita, e dei dialetti salentini della provincia di Brindisi, i quali impiegano esclusivamente
la complementazione infinitivale, rappresenta un caso di variazione lessicale idiosincratica nella
distribuzione della complementazione finita e infinitivale, chiaramente soggetta a notevole
nanovariazione nelle diverse varietà greche e romanze del Salento.Griko and Salentino show various degrees of diachronic and diatopic microvariation
in the retreat and loss of the infinitive, whilst displaying at the same time a high degree
of overall structural uniformity in their parallel preservation of the infinitive in: (1) restructuring
contexts; (2) infinitival relatives; and (3) negative imperatives. On the surface, there is
nothing a priori to suggest that these three contexts should be connected in any way. Yet this
article demonstrates how these three uses can be reduced to a single structural explanation
which views the infinitive as a reduced clausal constituent (viz. v-VP) generated in a monoclausal
structure selected in all cases by a modal, temporal or aspectual auxiliary which is
phonologically overt in (1), but oscillates between overt and covert phonological realizations
in (2) and (3) in accordance with crosslinguistic variation. The result is a unified analysis
which allows us to capture the distribution of infinitival complementation in all the relevant
varieties quite simply in terms of a so-called restructuring configuration in which the
infinitive invariably instantiates a monoclausal structure selected by a T-related auxiliary.
At the same time, this analysis also offers us a highly natural explanation of the distribution
of finite and infinitival complementation in Salentino after causative make. The former is
aligned with the faire-infinitif type, in which the subject is pragmatically foregrounded and
structurally projected, and the latter with the faire-par type, in which the subject is pragmatically
backgrounded and not structurally projected, hence the selection of the infinitive
which is the typical morphosyntactic expression of reduced clausal constituents. By contrast,
the exceptional behaviour of Griko on the one hand, which exclusively employs finite
complementation, and the Salentino dialects of the province of Brindisi on the other, which
exclusively employ infinitival complementation, simply represent cases of idiosyncratic lexical
variation in the distribution of finite and infinitival complementation which is subject to
considerable nanovariation across the Greek and Romance varieties of Salent
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