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Bridging theoretical modelling and advanced empirical techniques is
a central aim of current linguistic research. The progress in
empirical methods contributes to the precise estimation of the
properties of linguistic data and promises new ways for justifying
theoretical models and testing their implications. The
contributions to the present collective volume take up this
challenge and focus on the relevance of empirical results achieved
through up-to-date methodology for the theoretical analysis and
modelling of argument structure. They tackle issues of argument
structure from different perspectives addressing questions related
to diverse verb types (unaccusatives, unergatives, (di)transitives,
psych verbs), morpho-syntactic operations (prefixation, simple vs.
particle verbs), case distinctions (dative vs. accusative, case vs.
prepositions), argument and voice alternations (dative vs.
benefactive alternation, active vs. passive), word order
alternations and the impact of animacy, agentivity, and eventivity
on argument structure. The volume will be of interest to
theoretical linguists, psycholinguists, and corpus linguists
interested in the syntax of argument structure and its modelling
using precise empirical methods.
This Handbook represents the development of research and the
current level of knowledge in the fields of syntactic theory and
syntax analysis. Syntax can look back to a long tradition.
Especially in the last 50 years, however, the interaction between
syntactic theory and syntactic analysis has led to a rapid increase
in analyses and theoretical suggestions. This second edition of the
Handbook on Syntax adopts a unifying perspective and therefore does
not place the division of syntactic theory into several schools to
the fore, but the increase in knowledge resulting from the fruitful
argumentations between syntactic analysis and syntactic theory. It
uses selected phenomena of individual languages and their
cross-linguistic realizations to explain what syntactic analyses
can do and at the same time to show in what respects syntactic
theories differ from each other. It investigates how syntax is
related to neighbouring disciplines and investigate the role of the
interfaces especially the relationship between syntax and
phonology, morphology, compositional semantics, pragmatics, and the
lexicon. The phenomena chosen bring together renowned experts in
syntax, and represent the consensus reached as to what has to be
considered as an important as well as illustrative syntactic
phenomenon. The phenomena discuss do not only serve to show
syntactic analyses, but also to compare theoretical approaches with
each other.
Syntactic dependencies are often non-local: They can involve two
positions in a syntactic structure whose correspondence cannot be
captured by invoking concepts like minimal clause or
predicate/argument structure. Relevant phenomena include
long-distance movement, long-distance reflexivization,
long-distance agreement, control, non-local deletion, long-distance
case assignment, consecutio temporum, extended scope of negation,
and semantic binding of pronouns. A recurring strategy pursued in
many contemporary syntactic theories is to model cases of non-local
dependencies in a strictly local way, by successively passing on
the relevant information in small domains of syntactic structures.
The present volume brings together eighteen articles that
investigate non-local dependencies in movement, agreement, binding,
scope, and deletion constructions from different theoretical
backgrounds (among them versions of the Minimalist Program, HPSG,
and Categorial Grammar), and based on evidence from a variety of
typologically distinct languages. This way, advantages and
disadvantages of local treatments of non-local dependencies become
evident. Furthermore, it turns out that local analyses of non-local
phenomena developed in different syntactic theories (spanning the
derivational/declarative divide) often may not only share identical
research questions but also rely on identical research strategies.
The volume explores the syntax of nominalizations, focusing on
deverbal and deadjectival nominalizations, but also discussing the
syntax of genitives and the syntax of distinct readings of
nominalizations. The volume investigates the morpholgy-syntax
interface as well as the semantics-syntax interface in the domain
of nominalizations. The theoretical frameworks include distributed
morphology, and minimalist syntax. Data from a variety of languages
are taken into consideration, e.g. Hebrew, Bulgarian, Serbian,
French, Spanish, German and English.
The volume explores the semantics of nominalizations from different
theoretical points of view: formal and lexical semantics,
cognitive-functional grammar, lexical-functional grammar, discourse
representation theory. Data from a variety of languages are taken
into account, including Hungarian, Italian, French, German and
English. The papers discuss the semantics of distinct readings of
nominalizations and meaning differences observed between competing
affixes.
The goal of this book is twofold. On the one hand we want to offer
a discussion of some of the more important properties of the
nominal projection, on the other hand we want to provide the reader
with tools for syntactic analysis which apply to the structure of
DP but which are also relevant for other domains of syntax. In
order to achieve this dual goal we will discuss phenomena which are
related to the nominal projection in relation to other syntactic
phenomena (e.g. pro drop will be related to N-ellipsis, the
classification of pronouns will be applied to the syntax of
possessive pronouns, N-movement will be compared to V-movement, the
syntax of the genitive construction will be related to that of
predicate inversion etc.). In the various chapters we will show how
recent theoretical proposals (distributed morphology,
anti-symmetry, checking theory) can cast light on aspects of the
syntax of the NP. When necessary, we will provide a brief
introduction of these theoretical proposals. We will also indicate
problems with these analyses, whether they be inherent to the
theories as such (e.g. what is the trigger for movement in
antisymmetric approaches) or to the particular instantiations. The
book cannot and will not provide the definitive analysis of the
syntax of noun phrases. We consider that this would not be
possible, given the current flux in generative syntax, with many
new theoretical proposals being developed and explored, but the
book aims at giving the reader the tools with which to conduct
research and to evaluate proposals in the literature. In the
discussion of various issues, we will apply the framework that is
most adequate to deal with problems at hand. We will therefore not
necessarily use the same approach throughout the discussion. Though
proposals in the literature will be referred to when relevant, we
cannot attempt to provide a critical survey of the literature. We
feel that such a survey would be guided too strongly by theoretical
choices, which would not be compatible with the pedagogical
purposes this book has. The book is comparative in its approach,
and data from different languages will be examined, including
English, German, Dutch (West-Flemish), Greek, Romance, Semitic,
Slavic, Albanian, Hungarian, Gungbe.
This volume explores the progress of cross-linguistic research into
the structure of complex nominals since the publication of
Chomsky's 'Remarks on Nominalization' in 1970. In the last 50 years
of research into the division of labour between the mental lexicon
and syntax, the specific properties of nominalized structures have
remained a particularly central question. The chapters in this
volume take stock of developments in this area and offer new
perspectives on a range of issues, including the representation of
morphological complexity in the syntax, the correlation of nominal
affixes with different types of nominalizations, and the modelling
of non-compositional meaning within syntactic approaches to word
formation. Crucially, the contributors base their analyses on data
from typologically diverse languages, such as Archi, Greek, Hiaki,
Icelandic, Mebengokre, Turkish, and Udmurt, and explore the
question of whether, cross-linguistically, nominalizations have a
uniform core to their structure that can be syntactically
described.
This volume contains contributions dealing with the syntax,
morphology, semantics, and diachronic development of the Perfect
and the components it is built on across languages. The volume
brings these aspects together, working towards a comprehensive
theory of the Perfect which takes into consideration the interfaces
between the various components of the grammar. Issues addressed
include: the temporal vs. aspectual character of the perfect, the
contribution of adverbial modification, the structure of the
perfect participle.
This book is an exploration of the syntax of external arguments in
transitivity alternations from a cross-linguistic perspective. It
focuses particularly on the causative/anticausative alternation,
which the authors take to be a Voice alternation, and the formation
of adjectival participles. The authors use data principally from
English, German, and Greek to demonstrate that the presence of
anticausative morphology does not have any truth-conditional
effects, but that marked anticausatives involve more structure than
their unmarked counterparts. This morphology is therefore argued to
be associated with a semantically inert Voice head that the authors
call 'expletive Voice'. The authors also propose that passive
formation is not identical across languages, and that the
distinction between target vs. result state participles is crucial
in understanding the contribution of Voice in adjectival passives.
The book provides the tools required to investigate the
morphosyntactic structure of verbs and participles, and to identify
the properties of verbal alternations across languages. It will be
of interest to theoretical linguists from graduate level upwards,
particularly those specializing in morphosyntax and typology.
The phenomenon of unaccusativity is a central focus for the study
of the complex properties of verb classes. The Unaccusative
Hypothesis, first formulated in 1978, claimed that there are two
classes of intransitive verbs, the unaccusative (Jill arrived) and
the unergative or agentive (Jill sings). The hypothesis has
provided a rich context for debating whether syntactic behaviour is
semantically or lexically determined, the consequence of syntactic
context, or a combination of these factors. No consensus has been
reached. This book combines new approaches to the subject with
several papers that have achieved a significant status even though
formally unpublished. Among the issues the authors address are: the
determination of the unaccusative class of verbs, the problem of
unaccusativity diagnostics, the implications of special morphology
for the structural representation of unaccusatives and the status
of the external thematic role, the properties guiding the
unergative versus unaccusative distinction in acquisition, and the
properties of second-language lexicon.
This book investigates the nature and properties of roots, the core
elements of word meaning. In particular, chapters examine the
interaction of roots with syntactic structure, and the role of
their semantic and morpho-phonological properties in that
interaction. Issues addressed in the book include the semantics and
phonology of roots in isolation and in context; the categorial
specification of roots; and the role of phases in word formation.
Internationally recognized scholars approach these topics from a
variety of theoretical backgrounds, drawing on data from languages
including German, Hebrew, and Modern Greek. The book will be of
interest to linguistics students and researchers of all theoretical
persuasions from graduate level upwards.
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