Liliane Haegeman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199858774
- eISBN:
- 9780199979912
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858774.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter provides some background to the book. It first briefly looks at the development of the generative conception of clause structure, with particular reference to the structure assigned to ...
More
This chapter provides some background to the book. It first briefly looks at the development of the generative conception of clause structure, with particular reference to the structure assigned to the so-called left periphery of the clause, that is, the area to the left of the canonical subject position. The second half of the chapter zooms in on the left periphery of the English clause and examines, among other things, to what extent it would be feasible to derive the lineup of the constituents in the English left periphery purely from principles governing information structure. One central theme in the discussion is the question of whether it is necessary to exclude what is referred to as a “lower topic” (i.e., a topic projection dominated by the focus projection) in English. It is shown that it is not necessary to exclude the lower topic projection as such from the English left periphery. Rather, in many cases, the ban on placing constituents in the lower topic position can be derived as a consequence of locality conditions on head movement.Less
This chapter provides some background to the book. It first briefly looks at the development of the generative conception of clause structure, with particular reference to the structure assigned to the so-called left periphery of the clause, that is, the area to the left of the canonical subject position. The second half of the chapter zooms in on the left periphery of the English clause and examines, among other things, to what extent it would be feasible to derive the lineup of the constituents in the English left periphery purely from principles governing information structure. One central theme in the discussion is the question of whether it is necessary to exclude what is referred to as a “lower topic” (i.e., a topic projection dominated by the focus projection) in English. It is shown that it is not necessary to exclude the lower topic projection as such from the English left periphery. Rather, in many cases, the ban on placing constituents in the lower topic position can be derived as a consequence of locality conditions on head movement.
Liliane Haegeman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199858774
- eISBN:
- 9780199979912
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858774.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This book uses the cartographic theory to examine the left periphery of the English clause and compare it to the left-peripheral structures of other languages. The book argues that the dissimilar ...
More
This book uses the cartographic theory to examine the left periphery of the English clause and compare it to the left-peripheral structures of other languages. The book argues that the dissimilar surface characteristics of these languages (primarily English and Romance, but also Gungbe, Hungarian, Hebrew, Dutch, and others) can be explained by universal constraints, and that the same structures apply across the languages. The book focuses on main clause transformations—movement operations that can only take place in main clauses.Less
This book uses the cartographic theory to examine the left periphery of the English clause and compare it to the left-peripheral structures of other languages. The book argues that the dissimilar surface characteristics of these languages (primarily English and Romance, but also Gungbe, Hungarian, Hebrew, Dutch, and others) can be explained by universal constraints, and that the same structures apply across the languages. The book focuses on main clause transformations—movement operations that can only take place in main clauses.
Osamu Sawada and Jun Sawada
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198871217
- eISBN:
- 9780191914225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198871217.003.0011
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter investigates the interpretation of tense in Japanese mirative sentences using nante/towa and considers cross-linguistic variations of mirativity in terms of tense. In Japanese, when ...
More
This chapter investigates the interpretation of tense in Japanese mirative sentences using nante/towa and considers cross-linguistic variations of mirativity in terms of tense. In Japanese, when nante or towa is combined with a proposition that contains the so-called non-past form ru, the sentence becomes ambiguous as having both a non-past (future/present) reading and a past reading. Based on a theory by Sawada and Sawada (2019), we argue that this ambiguity of tense is due to the conventional implicature of nante/towa: nante/towa can take a ‘non-tensed’ proposition p and conventionally implies that (i) p is settled (i.e., p is/was true or predicted to be true) and (ii) the speaker did not expect such p. It will be shown that a basic analysis of nante/towa can apply to the English exclamatory that-clause, which also presents an ambiguity of tense, and at least partially to the Korean mirative tani sentence in which a past-oriented meaning can be represented based on the stem form of a verb.Less
This chapter investigates the interpretation of tense in Japanese mirative sentences using nante/towa and considers cross-linguistic variations of mirativity in terms of tense. In Japanese, when nante or towa is combined with a proposition that contains the so-called non-past form ru, the sentence becomes ambiguous as having both a non-past (future/present) reading and a past reading. Based on a theory by Sawada and Sawada (2019), we argue that this ambiguity of tense is due to the conventional implicature of nante/towa: nante/towa can take a ‘non-tensed’ proposition p and conventionally implies that (i) p is settled (i.e., p is/was true or predicted to be true) and (ii) the speaker did not expect such p. It will be shown that a basic analysis of nante/towa can apply to the English exclamatory that-clause, which also presents an ambiguity of tense, and at least partially to the Korean mirative tani sentence in which a past-oriented meaning can be represented based on the stem form of a verb.
