William Croft
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198299554
- eISBN:
- 9780191708091
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198299554.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
The fundamental question of syntactic theory is: what is the nature of a speaker’s grammatical knowledge? But an equally fundamental question is hardly discussed: is there a general method to ...
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The fundamental question of syntactic theory is: what is the nature of a speaker’s grammatical knowledge? But an equally fundamental question is hardly discussed: is there a general method to demonstrate the existence of the syntactic categories and elements that are the basic units of syntactic theory? The standard method is distributional analysis, the employment of different constructions as arguments (tests) for an analysis. But distributional analysis shows that one cannot establish universal basic syntactic categories and relations, because of mismatches among the tests within and across languages. So theorists engage in methodological opportunism, using different tests in different languages and ignoring conflicting results across tests in the same language. But this is empirically invalid. This chapter argues that we must abandon the belief that atomic categories and relations are the primitives of syntactic theory. Instead, constructions are the primitives of syntactic theory — a radical version of construction grammar.Less
The fundamental question of syntactic theory is: what is the nature of a speaker’s grammatical knowledge? But an equally fundamental question is hardly discussed: is there a general method to demonstrate the existence of the syntactic categories and elements that are the basic units of syntactic theory? The standard method is distributional analysis, the employment of different constructions as arguments (tests) for an analysis. But distributional analysis shows that one cannot establish universal basic syntactic categories and relations, because of mismatches among the tests within and across languages. So theorists engage in methodological opportunism, using different tests in different languages and ignoring conflicting results across tests in the same language. But this is empirically invalid. This chapter argues that we must abandon the belief that atomic categories and relations are the primitives of syntactic theory. Instead, constructions are the primitives of syntactic theory — a radical version of construction grammar.
Peter W. Culicover and Ray Jackendoff
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199271092
- eISBN:
- 9780191709418
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199271092.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter focuses on the historical and conceptual development of mainstream generative grammar. The principles of argumentation in mainstream syntax are discussed. The history of modern ...
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This chapter focuses on the historical and conceptual development of mainstream generative grammar. The principles of argumentation in mainstream syntax are discussed. The history of modern mainstream syntactic theory is reviewed, showing that most of the machinery of mainstream generative grammar — classical transformational grammar, GB Theory, Principles and Parameters Theory, and the Minimalist Program — is a consequence of four fundamental axioms.Less
This chapter focuses on the historical and conceptual development of mainstream generative grammar. The principles of argumentation in mainstream syntax are discussed. The history of modern mainstream syntactic theory is reviewed, showing that most of the machinery of mainstream generative grammar — classical transformational grammar, GB Theory, Principles and Parameters Theory, and the Minimalist Program — is a consequence of four fundamental axioms.
Peter W. Culicover and Ray Jackendoff
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199271092
- eISBN:
- 9780191709418
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199271092.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This book offers a perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between ...
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This book offers a perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between rule systems and lexicon. It argues that the balance struck by mainstream generative grammar is wrong. It puts forward a new basis for syntactic theory, drawing on a wide range of frameworks, and charts new directions for research. In the past four decades, theories of syntactic structure have become more abstract and syntactic derivations have become more complex. The book traces this development through the history of contemporary syntactic theory, showing how much it has been driven by theory-internal rather than empirical considerations. It develops an alternative that is responsive to linguistic, cognitive, computational, and biological concerns. At the core of this alternative is the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis: the most explanatory syntactic theory is one that imputes the minimum structure necessary to mediate between phonology and meaning. A consequence of this hypothesis is a richer mapping between syntax and semantics than is generally assumed. Through analyses of grammatical phenomena, some old and some new, the book demonstrates the empirical and conceptual superiority of the Simpler Syntax approach.Less
This book offers a perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between rule systems and lexicon. It argues that the balance struck by mainstream generative grammar is wrong. It puts forward a new basis for syntactic theory, drawing on a wide range of frameworks, and charts new directions for research. In the past four decades, theories of syntactic structure have become more abstract and syntactic derivations have become more complex. The book traces this development through the history of contemporary syntactic theory, showing how much it has been driven by theory-internal rather than empirical considerations. It develops an alternative that is responsive to linguistic, cognitive, computational, and biological concerns. At the core of this alternative is the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis: the most explanatory syntactic theory is one that imputes the minimum structure necessary to mediate between phonology and meaning. A consequence of this hypothesis is a richer mapping between syntax and semantics than is generally assumed. Through analyses of grammatical phenomena, some old and some new, the book demonstrates the empirical and conceptual superiority of the Simpler Syntax approach.
E. Phoevos Panagiotidis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199584352
- eISBN:
- 9780191594526
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584352.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
After a brief overview of the two main topics of the volume, subject extraction and the categorial nature of complementisers, this introductory chapter discusses the significance of phase theory and ...
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After a brief overview of the two main topics of the volume, subject extraction and the categorial nature of complementisers, this introductory chapter discusses the significance of phase theory and of postulating a complementiser field for addressing and analyzing these two areas of inquiry. A presentation of the volume's chapters follows, along with a conclusion.Less
After a brief overview of the two main topics of the volume, subject extraction and the categorial nature of complementisers, this introductory chapter discusses the significance of phase theory and of postulating a complementiser field for addressing and analyzing these two areas of inquiry. A presentation of the volume's chapters follows, along with a conclusion.
Francis Jeffry Pelletier
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199654277
- eISBN:
- 9780191746048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654277.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter investigates the rationale for having the lexical categories or features mass and count. Some theories make the features be syntactic; others make it be semantic. It is concluded here ...
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This chapter investigates the rationale for having the lexical categories or features mass and count. Some theories make the features be syntactic; others make it be semantic. It is concluded here that none of the standard accounts of their function actually serve the purpose for which they are adopted, and that we should instead remove these features from the lexicon and have lexical nouns be neither +mass nor +count. But on the other hand, if every lexical noun could be characterized by both +mass and +count, then various of the desiderata would be captured. So we conclude that lexical nouns should be neither +mass nor +count, and both +mass and +count. Although this investigation is carried out in English, the moral holds for any ‘number marking’ language. Furthermore, the resulting theory is the one that is naturally congenial to classifier languages, showing a hithertofore unnoticed similarity between the two language classes. (However, languages that are of neither type … such as Dene Su ̨łiné, Yudja, and Karitianan … require some totally distinct vision of a mass-count distinction.)Less
This chapter investigates the rationale for having the lexical categories or features mass and count. Some theories make the features be syntactic; others make it be semantic. It is concluded here that none of the standard accounts of their function actually serve the purpose for which they are adopted, and that we should instead remove these features from the lexicon and have lexical nouns be neither +mass nor +count. But on the other hand, if every lexical noun could be characterized by both +mass and +count, then various of the desiderata would be captured. So we conclude that lexical nouns should be neither +mass nor +count, and both +mass and +count. Although this investigation is carried out in English, the moral holds for any ‘number marking’ language. Furthermore, the resulting theory is the one that is naturally congenial to classifier languages, showing a hithertofore unnoticed similarity between the two language classes. (However, languages that are of neither type … such as Dene Su ̨łiné, Yudja, and Karitianan … require some totally distinct vision of a mass-count distinction.)
Edmund T. Rolls
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199233151
- eISBN:
- 9780191696596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233151.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
This chapter discusses emotion and sets a framework for approaching the relation between affective state and consciousness. It describes multiple routes to action, some of which involve implicit or ...
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This chapter discusses emotion and sets a framework for approaching the relation between affective state and consciousness. It describes multiple routes to action, some of which involve implicit or unconscious emotional processing, and one of which involves multiple-step planning that leads to a higher-order syntactic theory of consciousness.Less
This chapter discusses emotion and sets a framework for approaching the relation between affective state and consciousness. It describes multiple routes to action, some of which involve implicit or unconscious emotional processing, and one of which involves multiple-step planning that leads to a higher-order syntactic theory of consciousness.
Oliver Bond, Greville G. Corbett, and Marina Chumakina
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198747291
- eISBN:
- 9780191809705
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198747291.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Language Families
Agreement is a typologically common syntactic phenomenon that should be at the core of the design of every model of syntax. Even the straightforward examples of agreement are puzzling for ...
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Agreement is a typologically common syntactic phenomenon that should be at the core of the design of every model of syntax. Even the straightforward examples of agreement are puzzling for syntacticians, because agreement involves both redundancy and arbitrariness. The indirect relationship between semantics and sentence structure expressed by agreement is thus a significant source of syntactic complexity, exacerbated by great diversity of its morphological expression. While syntactic theories all attempt to account for the role of syntax in grammar, there are inevitable differences in the principles and theoretical mechanisms underlying each model. To assess and compare the operability of syntactic theories, an independent evaluation tool is essential. Our chosen source of data, Archi, presents a rare case of a language whose agreement system challenges major claims found in three mainstream syntactic theories: Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and Minimalism.Less
Agreement is a typologically common syntactic phenomenon that should be at the core of the design of every model of syntax. Even the straightforward examples of agreement are puzzling for syntacticians, because agreement involves both redundancy and arbitrariness. The indirect relationship between semantics and sentence structure expressed by agreement is thus a significant source of syntactic complexity, exacerbated by great diversity of its morphological expression. While syntactic theories all attempt to account for the role of syntax in grammar, there are inevitable differences in the principles and theoretical mechanisms underlying each model. To assess and compare the operability of syntactic theories, an independent evaluation tool is essential. Our chosen source of data, Archi, presents a rare case of a language whose agreement system challenges major claims found in three mainstream syntactic theories: Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and Minimalism.
Nikolaus P. Himmelmann and Eva F. Schultze-Berndt (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199272266
- eISBN:
- 9780191709975
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272266.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
Depictive secondary predicates such as ‘raw’ in ‘George ate the fish raw’ are important for current issues in syntactic and semantic theory, in particular predication theory, phrase structure ...
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Depictive secondary predicates such as ‘raw’ in ‘George ate the fish raw’ are important for current issues in syntactic and semantic theory, in particular predication theory, phrase structure theories, issues of control and grammatical relations, and verbal aspect. This book approaches depictive secondary predication from a cross-linguistic point of view. It traces all the relevant phenomena and brings together critical surveys and new contributions on their morphosyntactic and semantic properties. It particularly considers similarities and differences between secondary predicates and other types of adjuncts, including adverbials of manner, comparison, quantity, and location. The book's approach is theory-neutral and pragmatic: it draws on insights and research traditions ranging from the minimalist program to semantic maps methodology.Less
Depictive secondary predicates such as ‘raw’ in ‘George ate the fish raw’ are important for current issues in syntactic and semantic theory, in particular predication theory, phrase structure theories, issues of control and grammatical relations, and verbal aspect. This book approaches depictive secondary predication from a cross-linguistic point of view. It traces all the relevant phenomena and brings together critical surveys and new contributions on their morphosyntactic and semantic properties. It particularly considers similarities and differences between secondary predicates and other types of adjuncts, including adverbials of manner, comparison, quantity, and location. The book's approach is theory-neutral and pragmatic: it draws on insights and research traditions ranging from the minimalist program to semantic maps methodology.
Cedric Boeckx and Norbert Hornstein
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262062787
- eISBN:
- 9780262273152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262062787.003.0009
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
This chapter examines how the analysis of resumptive pronouns affects syntactic theory, with an emphasis on superiority, reconstruction, and islands in Lebanese Arabic multiple-wh constructions in ...
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This chapter examines how the analysis of resumptive pronouns affects syntactic theory, with an emphasis on superiority, reconstruction, and islands in Lebanese Arabic multiple-wh constructions in relation to the minimalist program. It argues that the quantified noun phrase subject of the complement clause can bind the pronoun contained in the fronted wh-phrase in cases where the resumptive pronoun occurs in a non-island context. It also considers the absence of reconstruction effects for resumptive pronouns inside islands and suggests that the copy theory of movement, which follows from the Inclusiveness Condition, is not compatible with the minimal link analysis of superiority (via either shortest move or attract).Less
This chapter examines how the analysis of resumptive pronouns affects syntactic theory, with an emphasis on superiority, reconstruction, and islands in Lebanese Arabic multiple-wh constructions in relation to the minimalist program. It argues that the quantified noun phrase subject of the complement clause can bind the pronoun contained in the fronted wh-phrase in cases where the resumptive pronoun occurs in a non-island context. It also considers the absence of reconstruction effects for resumptive pronouns inside islands and suggests that the copy theory of movement, which follows from the Inclusiveness Condition, is not compatible with the minimal link analysis of superiority (via either shortest move or attract).
Enoch O. Aboh, Maria Teresa Guasti, and Ian Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199945269
- eISBN:
- 9780199369805
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945269.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This brief introduction attempts to set the current papers, and thus indirectly the nature of Rizzi’s influence on the field, in context. Accordingly, §1 deals with the notion of locality in general ...
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This brief introduction attempts to set the current papers, and thus indirectly the nature of Rizzi’s influence on the field, in context. Accordingly, §1 deals with the notion of locality in general and how this has developed over the past five decades. In §2, we focus more directly on Rizzi’s contributions. Finally, §3 summarises the papers collected here.Less
This brief introduction attempts to set the current papers, and thus indirectly the nature of Rizzi’s influence on the field, in context. Accordingly, §1 deals with the notion of locality in general and how this has developed over the past five decades. In §2, we focus more directly on Rizzi’s contributions. Finally, §3 summarises the papers collected here.
P. H. Matthews
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199681594
- eISBN:
- 9780191760792
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199681594.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Semantics and Pragmatics
This book is a study of the uses of adjectives in different constructions, and of the problems that arise in their analysis, both in terms of syntactic theory and philosophy of grammar. The history ...
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This book is a study of the uses of adjectives in different constructions, and of the problems that arise in their analysis, both in terms of syntactic theory and philosophy of grammar. The history of English has been one in which their uses in the attributive and predicative positions have increasingly diverged. This raises problems in general for the definition of the category, and for analyses that have tried to relate one use to another, by syntactic transformations or other devices. It also raises problems in individual positions, which concern in particular the basic structure of noun phrases and the justification for binary constituents; the status of the copular and its uses in the progressive; the indeterminacy of what were once described as raised constructions; and the function of postmodifying adjectives and adjective phrases in relation to others. The nature of these problems is often as much theoretical, or philosophical, as factual.Less
This book is a study of the uses of adjectives in different constructions, and of the problems that arise in their analysis, both in terms of syntactic theory and philosophy of grammar. The history of English has been one in which their uses in the attributive and predicative positions have increasingly diverged. This raises problems in general for the definition of the category, and for analyses that have tried to relate one use to another, by syntactic transformations or other devices. It also raises problems in individual positions, which concern in particular the basic structure of noun phrases and the justification for binary constituents; the status of the copular and its uses in the progressive; the indeterminacy of what were once described as raised constructions; and the function of postmodifying adjectives and adjective phrases in relation to others. The nature of these problems is often as much theoretical, or philosophical, as factual.
Enoch Oladé Aboh, Maria Teresa Guasti, and Ian Roberts (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199945269
- eISBN:
- 9780199369805
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945269.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
The papers in this collection all deal with the concept of locality in syntactic theory and more specifically relate to the various contributions Luigi Rizzi has made in this connection over the past ...
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The papers in this collection all deal with the concept of locality in syntactic theory and more specifically relate to the various contributions Luigi Rizzi has made in this connection over the past three and a half decades. The authors are all either former students of Rizzi’s or colleagues and friends who have collaborated with him closely over the years. Luigi’s influence on all our work, and on the development of syntactic theory as a whole, has been profound; this volume is a small attempt to recognise and show our gratitude for that influence.Less
The papers in this collection all deal with the concept of locality in syntactic theory and more specifically relate to the various contributions Luigi Rizzi has made in this connection over the past three and a half decades. The authors are all either former students of Rizzi’s or colleagues and friends who have collaborated with him closely over the years. Luigi’s influence on all our work, and on the development of syntactic theory as a whole, has been profound; this volume is a small attempt to recognise and show our gratitude for that influence.
Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190210687
- eISBN:
- 9780190210717
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190210687.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This book takes Chinese to be an ideal testing ground for the cartographic approach due to its robust analyticity, where functional elements typically distribute over the entire span of a sentence in ...
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This book takes Chinese to be an ideal testing ground for the cartographic approach due to its robust analyticity, where functional elements typically distribute over the entire span of a sentence in a discrete and orderly manner. By studying a variety of syntactic constructions in Chinese from a comparative angle, it becomes possible to map out a well-defined topography of relevant syntax-semantics correspondences with such notion as “the height of interpretation”. As a result, we are be able to open a window into the very nature of syntactic cartography, while addressing specific issues such as the distinction between the left periphery and the vP periphery, the syntactic encoding of the information/discourse structure, and the fine structure of prepositional and nominal projections. This book thus not only provides valuable information concerning the typological features of Chinese, but also contributes to our understanding of the inner workings of human language in general.Less
This book takes Chinese to be an ideal testing ground for the cartographic approach due to its robust analyticity, where functional elements typically distribute over the entire span of a sentence in a discrete and orderly manner. By studying a variety of syntactic constructions in Chinese from a comparative angle, it becomes possible to map out a well-defined topography of relevant syntax-semantics correspondences with such notion as “the height of interpretation”. As a result, we are be able to open a window into the very nature of syntactic cartography, while addressing specific issues such as the distinction between the left periphery and the vP periphery, the syntactic encoding of the information/discourse structure, and the fine structure of prepositional and nominal projections. This book thus not only provides valuable information concerning the typological features of Chinese, but also contributes to our understanding of the inner workings of human language in general.
Ur Shlonsky
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190210588
- eISBN:
- 9780190210618
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190210588.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
Functional sequencing has been one of the major empirical goals of the 20-year old cartographic enterprise in Syntax. The papers in this collection extend this goal in several directions. Several ...
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Functional sequencing has been one of the major empirical goals of the 20-year old cartographic enterprise in Syntax. The papers in this collection extend this goal in several directions. Several chapters consider the impact of functional sequence on the semantics and pragmatics of focus. Others discuss the distortion of the functional sequence, as it were, by movement, and the relation between cartographic maps and the case/agreement system. Developments in the cartography of the left periphery of the clause and the noun phrase are the subject of a third group of papers. The determination of the hierarchical order of functional heads by semantic selection and the relation between cartography and labeling are explored in the final section.Less
Functional sequencing has been one of the major empirical goals of the 20-year old cartographic enterprise in Syntax. The papers in this collection extend this goal in several directions. Several chapters consider the impact of functional sequence on the semantics and pragmatics of focus. Others discuss the distortion of the functional sequence, as it were, by movement, and the relation between cartographic maps and the case/agreement system. Developments in the cartography of the left periphery of the clause and the noun phrase are the subject of a third group of papers. The determination of the hierarchical order of functional heads by semantic selection and the relation between cartography and labeling are explored in the final section.
Oliver Bond, Greville G. Corbett, Marina Chumakina, and Dunstan Brown (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198747291
- eISBN:
- 9780191809705
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198747291.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Language Families
Imagine how the discipline of linguistics would be if expert practitioners of different theories met in a collaborative setting to tackle the same challenging data—to test the limits of their model’s ...
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Imagine how the discipline of linguistics would be if expert practitioners of different theories met in a collaborative setting to tackle the same challenging data—to test the limits of their model’s infrastructure and examine how the concrete predictions of their theories differ about the same data. This book represents the result of attempting to achieve this for syntactic theory, using data from Archi (Nakh–Daghestanian, Lezgic), an endangered language with an extremely complex agreement system. We undertake a controlled evaluation of three widely practised syntactic theories, through detailed examination of the theoretical principles underlying the mechanisms that model agreement. Our objective is to assess the tractability and predictive power of these leading models of syntax—Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and Minimalism—using a complete set of data on an agreement system from a language that has not hitherto been analysed in these frameworks.Less
Imagine how the discipline of linguistics would be if expert practitioners of different theories met in a collaborative setting to tackle the same challenging data—to test the limits of their model’s infrastructure and examine how the concrete predictions of their theories differ about the same data. This book represents the result of attempting to achieve this for syntactic theory, using data from Archi (Nakh–Daghestanian, Lezgic), an endangered language with an extremely complex agreement system. We undertake a controlled evaluation of three widely practised syntactic theories, through detailed examination of the theoretical principles underlying the mechanisms that model agreement. Our objective is to assess the tractability and predictive power of these leading models of syntax—Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and Minimalism—using a complete set of data on an agreement system from a language that has not hitherto been analysed in these frameworks.
George Walkden
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198712299
- eISBN:
- 9780191780837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198712299.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter outlines the aims of the book in more detail. It presents the approach to history that will be taken, as well as details of the syntactic theory adopted, and some discussion of the five ...
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This chapter outlines the aims of the book in more detail. It presents the approach to history that will be taken, as well as details of the syntactic theory adopted, and some discussion of the five main languages investigated: Gothic, Old Norse, Old English, Old High German, and Old Saxon. The chapter argues for a constructivist approach to history, and couples this with a syntactic framework of the kind developed in recent Minimalist theorizing. The texts and corpora that are used as empirical basis for the individual case studies are also discussed.Less
This chapter outlines the aims of the book in more detail. It presents the approach to history that will be taken, as well as details of the syntactic theory adopted, and some discussion of the five main languages investigated: Gothic, Old Norse, Old English, Old High German, and Old Saxon. The chapter argues for a constructivist approach to history, and couples this with a syntactic framework of the kind developed in recent Minimalist theorizing. The texts and corpora that are used as empirical basis for the individual case studies are also discussed.
Theresa Biberauer and George Walkden (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199687923
- eISBN:
- 9780191767319
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199687923.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
Does syntactic change exist? In some sense, it must do: change in constituent order, for instance, is well documented among the world’s languages. However, converging empirical and theoretical ...
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Does syntactic change exist? In some sense, it must do: change in constituent order, for instance, is well documented among the world’s languages. However, converging empirical and theoretical considerations have suggested that apparent instances of syntactic change may be attributable to factors outside syntax proper, such as morphology or information structure. Some even go so far as to propose that there is no such thing as syntactic change, and that all such change in fact takes place in the lexicon or in the phonological component. This volume is a critical investigation of these proposals, drawing on detailed case studies from Germanic, Romance, Chinese, Egyptian, Finnic, Hungarian, and Sámi. It aims to answer such questions as: Can syntactic change arise without an external impetus? How can we tell whether a given change is caused by information-structural or morphological factors? What can ‘microsyntactic’ investigations of changes in individual lexical items tell us about the bigger picture? How universal are the clausal and nominal templates (‘cartography’), and to what extent is syntactic structure more generally subject to universal constraints?Less
Does syntactic change exist? In some sense, it must do: change in constituent order, for instance, is well documented among the world’s languages. However, converging empirical and theoretical considerations have suggested that apparent instances of syntactic change may be attributable to factors outside syntax proper, such as morphology or information structure. Some even go so far as to propose that there is no such thing as syntactic change, and that all such change in fact takes place in the lexicon or in the phonological component. This volume is a critical investigation of these proposals, drawing on detailed case studies from Germanic, Romance, Chinese, Egyptian, Finnic, Hungarian, and Sámi. It aims to answer such questions as: Can syntactic change arise without an external impetus? How can we tell whether a given change is caused by information-structural or morphological factors? What can ‘microsyntactic’ investigations of changes in individual lexical items tell us about the bigger picture? How universal are the clausal and nominal templates (‘cartography’), and to what extent is syntactic structure more generally subject to universal constraints?
Heidi Harley
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199602490
- eISBN:
- 9780191757297
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199602490.003.0006
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter first describes the clinical symptoms of head movement, and then sketches the options available for treatment of a case that has been so diagnosed. It shows that while the basic ...
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This chapter first describes the clinical symptoms of head movement, and then sketches the options available for treatment of a case that has been so diagnosed. It shows that while the basic diagnostics for head movement are fairly clear, at least within broadly Chomskyan approaches to syntactic theory, there is little consensus on the best technology with which to attack it. An overview of the outstanding issues which complicate the discussion is also presented.Less
This chapter first describes the clinical symptoms of head movement, and then sketches the options available for treatment of a case that has been so diagnosed. It shows that while the basic diagnostics for head movement are fairly clear, at least within broadly Chomskyan approaches to syntactic theory, there is little consensus on the best technology with which to attack it. An overview of the outstanding issues which complicate the discussion is also presented.
