The Syntax of Nonfinite Complementation

The Syntax of Nonfinite Complementation
Title The Syntax of Nonfinite Complementation PDF eBook
Author Željko Božković
Publisher MIT Press
Pages 268
Release 1997
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 9780262522366

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Economy considerations have always played an important role in the generative theory of grammar. Indeed, the very development of the theory has been characterized by natural considerations of simplicity and economy. In the Minimalist Program, the operations of the computational system that produce linguistic expressions must satisfy general considerations of simplicity referred to as Economy Principles. In The Syntax of Nonfinite Complementation: An Economy Approach, the author completes two major research projects that solidify the foundation of the Minimalist Program: the elimination of c-selection and government. He then investigates in detail the nature of the Economy Principles in syntax. The discussion, which focuses on infinitival and participial complements, shows that a number of facts that previously have either not been accounted for or have received unsatisfactory treatment can be explained in a principled way once Economy Principles and, more generally, the Minimalist Program are adopted.

The Syntax of Nonsententials

The Syntax of Nonsententials
Title The Syntax of Nonsententials PDF eBook
Author Ljiljana Progovac
Publisher John Benjamins Publishing
Pages 384
Release 2006-01-01
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 9027233578

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This volume brings the data that many in formal linguistics have dismissed as peripheral straight into the core of syntactic theory. By bringing together experts from syntax, semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, language acquisition, aphasia, and pidgin and creole studies, the volume makes a multidisciplinary case for the existence of nonsententials, which are analyzed in various chapters as root phrases and small clauses (Me; Me First!; Him worry?!; Class in session), and whose distinguishing property is the absence of Tense, and, with it, any syntactic phenomena that rely on Tense, including structural Nominative Case. Arguably, the lack of Tense specification is also responsible for the dearth of indicative interpretations among nonsententials, as well as for their heavy reliance on pragmatic context. So pervasive is nonsentential speech across all groups, including normal adult speech, that a case can be made that continuity of grammar lies in nonsentential, rather than sentential speech.

Nonfinite Structures in Theory and Change

Nonfinite Structures in Theory and Change
Title Nonfinite Structures in Theory and Change PDF eBook
Author D. Gary Miller
Publisher Oxford University Press, USA
Pages 492
Release 2002
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 9780198299608

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This book seeks to answer the questions: why do grammars change, and why is the rate of such change so variable? A principal focus is on changes in English between the Anglo-Saxon and early modern periods. The author frames his analysis in a comparative framework with extended discussions of language change in a wide range of other Indo-European languages. He deploys Chomsky's minimalist framework in a fruitful marriage of comparative and theoretical linguistics within an argument that will be accessible to practitioners in both fields.

The Syntax and Semantics of the Left Periphery

The Syntax and Semantics of the Left Periphery
Title The Syntax and Semantics of the Left Periphery PDF eBook
Author Horst Lohnstein
Publisher Walter de Gruyter
Pages 532
Release 2012-04-17
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 3110912112

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The left periphery of clausal structures has been a prominent topic of research in generative linguistics during the last decades. Closer examination of its properties unfolds a rich array of perspectives like the status of barriers for extraction and government, the articulation of the topic focus structure, the fixation of wh-scope, the marking of clausal types, the interaction of syntactic structure with inflectional morphology as well as the determination of sentence mood and illocutionary force to mention just a few. The purpose of this book is to collect different and relevant studies in this field and to give a general overview of the various theoretical approaches concerned with morphological, syntactic and semantic properties together with the diachronic development of the left periphery.

The Minimalist Syntax of Defective Domains

The Minimalist Syntax of Defective Domains
Title The Minimalist Syntax of Defective Domains PDF eBook
Author Acrisio Pires
Publisher John Benjamins Publishing
Pages 207
Release 2006-10-31
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 9027293155

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This book unifies the analysis of certain non-finite domains, focusing on subject licensing, agreement, and Case and control. It proposes a minimalist analysis of English gerunds which allows only a null subject PRO (TP-defective gerunds), a lexical subject (gerunds as complements of perception verbs), or both types of subjects (clausal gerunds). It then analyzes Portuguese infinitives, showing that the morphosyntactic properties of non-inflected and inflected infinitives correlate with distinct treatments of obligatory and non-obligatory control. It explores these and other phenomena to show that tense and event binding do not correlate with the contrast between control and raising/exceptional case marking (ECM), against null Case theories of control. A Probe-Goal approach to Case and agreement is adopted in combination with a movement analysis of control. The book then investigates diachronic morphosyntactic phenomena involving infinitives, verb movement and cliticization in Portuguese, exploring a cue-based theory of syntactic change grounded in language acquisition.

Infinitives at the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Infinitives at the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Title Infinitives at the Syntax-Semantics Interface PDF eBook
Author Lukasz Jedrzejowski
Publisher Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Pages 372
Release 2017-06-26
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 3110520583

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The major aim of this volume is to investigate infinitival structures from a diachronic point of view and, simultaneously, to embed the diachronic findings into the ongoing theoretical discussion on non-finite clauses in general. All contributions subscribe to a dynamic approach to infinitival clauses by investigating their origin, development and loss in miscellaneous patterns and across different languages.

Syntax in the Treetops

Syntax in the Treetops
Title Syntax in the Treetops PDF eBook
Author Shigeru Miyagawa
Publisher MIT Press
Pages 258
Release 2022-05-03
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 0262543494

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A proposal that syntax extends to the domain of discourse in making core syntax link to the conversational context. In Syntax in the Treetops, Shigeru Miyagawa proposes that syntax extends into the domain of discourse by making linkages between core syntax and the conversational participants. Miyagawa draws on evidence for this extended syntactic structure from a wide variety of languages, including Basque, Japanese, Italian, Magahi, Newari, Romanian, and Spanish, as well as the language of children with autism. His proposal for what happens at the highest level of the tree structure used by linguists to represent the hierarchical relationships within sentences—“in the treetops”—offers a unique contribution to the new area of study sometimes known as “syntacticization of discourse.” Miyagawa’s main point is that syntax provides the basic framework that makes possible the performance of a speech act and the conveyance of meaning; although the role that syntax plays for speech acts is modest, it is critical. He proposes that the speaker-addressee layer and the Commitment Phrase (the speaker’s commitment to the addressee of the truthfulness of the proposition) occur together in the syntactic treetops. In each succeeding chapter, Miyagawa examines the working of each layer of the tree and how they interact.