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This chapter discusses the historical syntax, morphosyntax, and semantics of the developments of auxiliary verb constructions. It begins with an overview of the original structures that gave rise to the patterns themselves, specifically the constructions that give rise to the various inflectional subtypes of auxiliary verb constructions from the perspective of their diachronic relation to serial verb constructions, verb plus clausal complement structures, and clause-chaining formations. Thus, the five inflectional macro-patterns of auxiliary verb constructions attested across the languages of the world are to be explained by their diverse heterogeneous constructional source pool. The particular configurations of combinations of source verbs of differing valence and morphosyntactic properties yield the diverse set of functional constructions attested. This chapter also discusses in brief the historical semantic processes of grammaticalization reflected in the development of auxiliary verb constructions, classifying different typical paths of lexical to functional semantic specialization. It is shown that the semantic-pragmatic paths of development of the specific sub-types of lexical classes of predicates into indexes of functional categories follow particular and relatively straightforward shifts and specializations with respect to individual classes of auxiliaries in the process of their grammaticalization.

This chapter focuses on the morphosyntax of special clitics. Starting from the classic descriptive generalizations of Zwicky, Klavans, Kaisse, and others about the locations in which these are found, the chapter asks what kind of theory might be responsible for getting them there. The chapter concludes that morphology and not syntax furnishes the appropriate context for understanding them. Special clitics, that is, constitute a morphology of phrases — a suggestion that has often been made.

This chapter is an introduction to the proposed radically modular model of grammar. It compares this model to other models of grammar, focusing on the relationships between syntax and morphology and between morphosyntax and morphophonology.

This chapter reviews the literature on linguistic abilities in English-speaking older children, adolescents, and adults with Williams syndrome (WS) regarding morphosyntax, phonology, lexical semantics and pragmatics, and in those speaking other languages. The evidence for the status of different linguistic skills in individuals with WS is evaluated with reference to the current theoretical debate about the contribution of neurodevelopmental disorders to the understanding of typical cognitive organization. The chapter shows the neuroconstructivist approach and that the use of developmental trajectories have advanced current knowledge of the linguistic profile in this population. Links between brain abnormalities and resulting phenotypic outcomes are also discussed.

English -ify and Telugu -inc have similar distributional profiles, both instantiating the ‘little light verb’ v of Chomsky. But while -ify is heavily exploited as an intermediary between a Telugu verbal root and English verbal inflection in English/Telugu codeswitching, performing a switch at the light v level, ‘light switches’ in the opposite direction, employing Telugu -inc as an intermediary between an English verbal root and Telugu verbal morphology, are out of the question. We seek to answer this asymmetry in English/Telugu codeswitching. Our analysis capitalizes on the difference between English-ify and Telugu -inc: while occupying the same structural position in the tree (v), the two morphemes differ; -inc, an incorporator, creates a complex X⁰ category which, in codeswitching cases in which the verbal root is English, is not ‘language uniform’. We show that this ban on head-internal switches is a phonological constraint on codeswitching. When ‘light switches’ featuring the ‘little light verb’ v are blocked by this constraint, switching with the aid of a ‘lexical light verb’ V (‘do’) is available as a last resort; when ‘light switches’ employing v are successful, economy considerations block the structurally more complex alternative of switching at the ‘lexical light verb’ level.

The primary hypothesis of functionalist or usage-based linguistics is that language use shapes grammar. The recognized mechanism by which this language-shaping process occurs is frequent repetition. This chapter discusses three types of repetition or frequency effects that have been identified as important in phonology and morphology and demonstrates that these same effects are operative in the shaping of the grammar of larger units, that is, in syntax. Two effects of token frequency are reducing effect and conserving effect, which interact with a third effect due to type frequency. This chapter illustrates how the reducing effect and the conserving effect that arise from token frequency can be applied to the constructions of morphosyntax. Similarly, the effect of type frequency on productivity is illustrated for a syntactic construction.

This chapter examines the acquisition of two aspects of sign language morphosyntax: verb agreement and word order. For each of these areas, it asks whether the theories developed on the basis of spoken languages make the right predictions for sign language. If there are differences between sign languages and spoken languages, what would the reasons be? In neither of these areas is the work completed, and areas for further study in both are suggested.

This chapter begins by describing the Lao language wherein depictive expressions are predominantly verbal. Since the Lao language is a typical isolating language, lacking inflectional morphosyntactic categories such as case-marking and agreement, verbs are distributionally defined, and there is no difference between finite and non-finite verb forms. Thus, it suggests that the distinction between a primary and a secondary predicate can only be constructed with the secondary predicate as an adjunct in the sense that it can be omitted without changing the basic semantics of the primary predication. While having the secondary predicate in this sense, Lao does not have a particular depictive construction involving verbs, since not only depictive but also resultative and adverbial meanings can be conveyed by unmarked verbs functioning as secondary predicates. This chapter addresses pragmatic restrictions on specific combinations of primary and secondary predicate, associated to the relevance and/or conventionality of the combination.

Head Raising and Affix Hopping are combined into one parameterized operation, Combine, which subsumes Merge as well, and the boundary between syntax and morphosyntax is dissolved. Mirroring of semantics in (morpho)syntax is shown to be relative to the parameters of Combine. Analyses are provided for “bracketing paradoxes” in morphology and operations on theta structure in syntax.

This chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine the changes that occurred in the morphosyntax of the speech of the populations of the formerly Latin-speaking regions, which led to the wide typological variation witnessed in the Romance languages and dialects written and spoken today and in the past. Among Romance linguists of all theoretical persuasions, there is general recognition that, in the passage from Latin to Romance, the morphosyntax of the emerging languages underwent significant changes in three fundamental areas of the grammar involving: the nominal group; the verbal group; and the sentence.

The principal differences in the morphosyntax of Latin and Romance have long been, albeit somewhat simplistically, viewed as representing two opposite poles of a syntheticity-analyticity continuum. This synthetic-analytic dichotomy points to a Sapirian ‘drift’ from the predominantly synthetic structures of Latin towards the characteristically analytic structures of Romance or, ‘a tendency for syntax to take over a number of functions previously within the domain of morphology’ such that ‘an element of meaning previously conveyed by a stem and an affix is now expressed by a syntagm, that is, a combination of two or more elements that would traditionally be labelled words’. This traditional interpretation of the synthesis-analysis cycle proves, however, problematic on a number of accounts, as does the fundamental typological distinction on which it crucially rests.

This chapter highlights some of the advantages that can be gained from adopting the head-/dependent-marking distinction in understanding a number of the fundamental changes in the morphosyntax of Latin and Romance. It notes how this typological distinction can be profitably married together with the results of the previous chapters. In particular, the claim regarding the emergence of functional structure in the passage from Latin to Romance developed in Chapter 4 provides a principled explanation for the gradual rise of head-marking in Romance, since it is precisely the availability of these functional head positions in the grammar which enables the Romance languages to spell out overtly and index the formal properties of their associated dependents. By the same token, the gradual demise of a Latin XP/Specifier-syntax, manifested in the movement operations of phrasal dependents to argument (roll-up) and left-peripheral positions (edge-movement), in favour of a Romance X/Head-syntax, manifested in the gradual rise of head-movement operations and the direct lexicalization of different functional head positions, developed in Chapter 5, provides the necessary analytic tools to interpret the gradual shift away from dependent-marking (specifier-syntax) to head-marking (head-syntax).

This chapter discusses a number of core changes in the transition from Latin to Romance, in relation to an ongoing and as of yet unresolved conflict between two competing alignments in the marking of arguments. It shows that, in the passage from Latin to Romance there has been, to some extent, a largely still unresolved oscillation between two coexistent morphosyntactic alignments. Starting from a largely nominative/accusative orientation, most robustly attested in the nominal system, there is considerable evidence to suggest that Latin and subsequently Romance increasingly developed a series of novel active/stative splits at the level of the verbal group, the sentence, and ultimately the nominal group.

The chapter presents studies on the semantics and syntax of motion events, the semantics of spatial terms engaging reference systems (e.g. above, below, right, left), and those expressing both physical and abstract spatial relationships (e.g. in, on, under). People with WS show rich knowledge of all these aspects of spatial language. Importantly, however, the chapter also finds similar rich knowledge in young normally developing children by the age of 4 or 6. Combined with evidence from the broader literature on vocabulary, morphosyntax, syntax, and syntax-semantics interactions, the chapter suggests that people with WS fully acquire those aspects of language that are normally acquired early but fail to acquire those aspects of language that are normally acquired later. This profile echoes that for spatial functions, consistent with a hypothesis of slow development followed by arrest in WS, for both systems. The last chapter spells out this hypothesis.