Author: Josef Bayer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description

Author: Josef Bayer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401712727
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Directionality and Logical Form provides a detailed treatment of the syntax of focusing particles, such as only and even in a cross-linguistic perspective. The derivation of logical forms is shown to be under the control, not only of the ECP and subjacency, but also of directionality of government and the particular word-order parameter that holds in a given language: head-final languages systematically disallow certain derivations or readings that are available in head-initial languages. The reason is that heads that deviate in their selection properties from canonical head-finality project a directionality barrier. Various strategies are explored by which this barrier can be circumvented. Although the theory is developed mainly on the basis of the head position in German, it can be directly used to explain constraints on the scope of Wh-in-situ in Bengali and closely related languages. Audience: Syntacticians and semanticists interested in parametric variation, as well as linguists working on Germanic and/or Indo-Aryan languages.

Author: Mark Steedman
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262692687
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
This book covers topics in formal linguistics, intonational phonology, computational linguistics, and experimental psycholinguistics, presenting them as an integrated theory of the language faculty. In this book Mark Steedman argues that the surface syntax of natural languages maps spoken and written forms directly to a compositional semantic representation that includes predicate-argument structure, quantification, and information structure without constructing any intervening structural representation. His purpose is to construct a principled theory of natural grammar that is directly compatible with both explanatory linguistic accounts of a number of problematic syntactic phenomena and a straightforward computational account of the way sentences are mapped onto representations of meaning. The radical nature of Steedman's proposal stems from his claim that much of the apparent complexity of syntax, prosody, and processing follows from the lexical specification of the grammar and from the involvement of a small number of universal rule-types for combining predicates and arguments. These syntactic operations are related to the combinators of Combinatory Logic, engendering a much freer definition of derivational constituency than is traditionally assumed. This property allows Combinatory Categorial Grammar to capture elegantly the structure and interpretation of coordination and intonation contour in English as well as some well-known interactions between word order, coordination, and relativization across a number of other languages. It also allows more direct compatibility with incremental semantic interpretation during parsing. The book covers topics in formal linguistics, intonational phonology, computational linguistics, and experimental psycholinguistics, presenting them as an integrated theory of the language faculty in a form accessible to readers from any of those fields.

Author: Dorothee Beerman
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027227381
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Symmetries and asymmetries have always played an important role in linguistic theorizing. From the early works on potentially universal properties of transformational processes, differences between rightward and leftward movement processes were noted and constituted a challenge to theories of conditions on transformations. The upward boundedness of extraposition rules vs. the successive cyclic character of question word movement, for example, remains a vexing problem. An idea which has gained considerable prominence in the most recent syntactic work, in particular Noam Chomsky's 'Minimalist Program' and Richard Kayne's 'Antisymmetry' proposal, is that rightward movement simply does not exist. This means, in essence, that what looks like an element that has been moved rightward is either base-generated in its surface position, or it is actually moved leftward but all its surrounding materials have been moved leftward even further. Clearly, these radical proposals have generated a large number of new analyses of the relevant phenomena, and they have fostered considerable controversy about the viability and desirability of this type of approach. The present volume brings together a representative group of articles discussing a variety of aspects of (apparent) rightward movement processes, including considerations having to do with parsing, and representing the various opposing lines of thought on this matter. Empirically, they cover a wide array of constructions (extraposition, scrambling, quantifier-floating, etc.) and languages ( American Sign Language, Bengali, Dutch, French, Frisian, German, Hindi, Japanese, Marathi, etc.).

Author: Martin Everaert
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405178418
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 3285

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*** Pre-Order The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, second edition, publishing December 2017. Find out more at www.companiontosyntax.com *** This long-awaited reference work marks the culmination of numerous years of research and international collaboration by the world’s leading syntacticians. There exists no other comparable collection of research that documents the development of syntax in this way. Under the editorial direction of Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk, this 5 volume set comprises 70 case studies commissioned specifically for this volume. The 80 contributors are drawn from an international group of prestigious linguists, including Joe Emonds, Sandra Chung, Susan Rothstein, Adriana Belletti, Jim Huang, Howard Lasnik, and Marcel den Dikken, among many others. A unique collection of 70 newly-commissioned case studies, offering access to research completed over the last 40 years. Brings together the world’s leading syntacticians to provide a large and diverse number of case studies in the field. Explores a comprehensive range of syntax topics from an historical perspective. Investigates empirical domains which have been well-documented and which have played a prominent role in theoretical syntax at some stage in the development of generative grammar. Serves as a research tool for not only theoretical linguistics but also the various forms of applied linguistics. Contains an accessible alphabetical structure, with an index integral to each volume featuring keywords and key figures. Each multi-volume set is also accompanied by a CD Rom of the entire Companion. Like the prestigious Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics series, this multi-volume work, in the new The Wiley Blackwell Companions to Linguistics series, can be relied upon to deliver the quality and expertise with which Blackwell Publishing’s linguistics list is associated.

Author: Uli Lutz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027282404
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Extraction has traditionally been one of the main topics in generative grammar, and it retains this status in current variants of the theory. German provides a good testing ground for traditional as well as current theories of extraction. The nine contributions to this volume document the recent lively discussions on the adequate analyses of extraction constructions, on the impact of extraction on semantic interpretation, and, above all, on the question of which constructions are to be analysed as extractions and which not. Uli Lutz gives an overview of extraction theory. Marga Reis challenges the standard analysis of extraction from verb-second clauses and opts for a parenthetic analysis. Franz d’Avis confronts current approaches to wh-islands with the facts in German and investigates the semantic properties of topicalization from wh-clauses. Sigrid Beck derives various negative island effects from a constraint on Logical Form. Jürgen Pafel relates the differences between two kinds of extraction from noun phrases to the structure of the noun phrases. Daniel Büring and Katharina Hartmann argue for the traditional analysis of extraposition as rightward movement, based on a detailed comparison with alternative accounts. Gereon Müller derives the peculiar restrictions on extraposition from a theory of improper movement. Hubert Haider defends his analysis of extraposition as a base-generated construction against his critics. Chris Wilder develops a minimalist account of extraposition and takes extraposition and coordination ellipsis to be instances of the same process.

Author: Veneeta Dayal
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401148082
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
Locality in WH Quantification argues that Logical Form, the level that mediates between syntax and semantics, is derived from S-structure by strictly local movement. The primary data for the claim of locality at LF is drawn from Hindi but English data is used in discussing the semantics of questions and relative clauses. The book takes a cross-linguistic perspective showing how the Hindi and English facts can be brought to bear on the theory of universal grammar. There are several phenomena generally thought to involve long-distance dependencies at LF, such as scope marking, long-distance list answers and correlatives. In this book they are handled by explicating novel types of local relationships that interrogative and relative clauses can enter. Amore articulated semantics is shown leading to a simpler syntax. Among other issues addressed is the switch from uniqueness/maximality effects in single WH constructions to list readings in multiple WH constructions. These effects are captured by adapting the treatment of WH expressions as quantifying over functions to the cases of multiple WH questions and correlatives. List readings due to functional dependencies are systematically distinguished from those that are based on plurality.

Author: Urs Egli
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027276528
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
This book contains a selection of the papers given at an international conference at the University of Konstanz (Germany) in 1991. All contributions relate to the assumption that lexical knowledge plays a central role in the organization of language, inasmuch as the components or modules of grammar come together and interact in the lexicon. Originating in various traditions of linguistic thought, however, the individual papers reflect differing interests and are based upon different conceptions of the lexicon, its status and interfaces. There is the position of current generative linguistics, which aims at accounting for structural properties of the lexicon within syntactic theory. There is also the perspective of model-theoretical semantics, where borderline phenomena between lexical semantics and the semantics of sentence and text receive particular attention. Still another group of papers directly discusses problems of lexical semantics, focussing on representational and conceptual aspects of word meanings. The notion of a two-level semantics as well as cross-linguistic analyses are characteristic of these contributions. The book closes with a comparative and historical study of lexical evolution.

Author: Arnim von Stechow
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110203367
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 941

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Book Description
During the past 20 years the investigation into meaning of natural languages has emerged into one of the most active disciplines in theoretical linguistics. The different traditions of linguistics, philosophy of language and philosophical logic converged in the paradigm of truth conditional semantics, which now plays a central role in the cognitive sciences. From empirical research in particular languages more principal questions arise of how the speaker succeeds in expressing particular types of meaning by use of formal combination of signs. The theories developed to cope with the question assume that for a hearer, the meaning of a complex expression must be "computable", and therefore, modern theoretical semantics uses formal algebraic methods to construct the meaning compositionally in view of syntactic structur. Furthermore, meaning need to be "anchored" in the experience available to hearer. In order to deal with this, theoretical semantics extensivly uses the concept of truth conditions, which roughly explain how a world must be structured in order to be matched by certain linguistic expressions. Semantic analyses are complemented by context theory and the theory of speech acts. Thus, linguistic meaning must be related to human cognitive capacities, and therefore, theoretical semantics is tightly connected with philosophical logic as well as cognitive sciences in general. The aim of this handbook is to represent the body of theoretical knowledge which has evolved in the international research of the last two decades. Some of the theories can now be termed "classical" in that they belong to the commonly accepted base of theoretical semantics. Other theories are still disputed, and there areproblems still to be solved - as normal in a more developed science. The authors, who are leading experts in the field of semantics, try to balance the accepted and the questionable results. It goes without saying that each author hold a particular position in this respect. Some articles are written in English, some in German. Since semantics is considered to be a subfield of linguistics, the articles are arranged due to linguistic points of view. In the first 5 chapters (comprising 15 articles) the common principles of semantics are presented: ontological foundations of semantics, composition of meaning, problems of use (context, speech acts, and lexical base of meaning. The next 5 chapters (comprising 25 articles) are concerned with semantic phenomena, theories and problems which are specific for a particular class of linguistic expressions. These are arranged according to parts of speech: nouns, functional categories, verbs, adjectives and so on.This division does not reflect a theoretical position by itself, however it allows one to recognize problems connected with one another. Some more general questions are discussed in more than one article, in different perspective and vicinity. The Handbook is complemented by a service article on formal methods in semantics, followed by a comprehensive bibliography including about 1700 entries, and both a subject and a name index. This handbook is indispensable for all research in linguistics and neighboring disciplines (philosophy of language, cognitive sciences). Some of the articles can serve as basic literature for classes of advanced students.

Author: André Meinunger
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027299188
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
The book focuses on the syntactic behavior of argument noun phrases depending on their discourse status. The main language of consideration is German, but it is shown that the observations can be carried over to other languages. The claim is that discourse-new arguments remain inside the VP where they are base generated. The hierarchy of argument projection is claimed to be fix within and across languages. With the major attention to direct objects it is then argued that discourse-old, here called topical noun phrases undergo raising to agreement projections. This movement can be realized differently: scrambling, object agreement, clitic-doubling, differences in morphological case and stress pattern turn out to be analyzable as one underlying phenomenon. It is furthermore shown that many so-called subject:object asymmetries boil down to topic:non-topic differences, for example with respect to extraction. Thus, irrespectively of the argumental status discourse-new constituents do not act as barriers whereas topical arguments create (weak) islands.