Small Phrase Layers

Author : Satu Manninen
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027227888
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Small Phrase Layers written by Satu Manninen and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph examines the structure and properties of Finnish manner adverbials. The central idea is that, instead of AdvPs, DPs, APs, PPs, NumPs and InfinitivalPs, manner adverbials have the form of either kPs or pPs, and they are licensed as unique specifiers of a manner-related small vP. Secondly, because ”obligatory” and ”optional” manner adverbials are merged as specifiers of one and the same small vP, the computational system of language sees no difference between them. This is why ”obligatory” and ”optional” manner adverbials often behave in exactly the same way with regard to syntactic operations such as movement. Thirdly, the author shows that, although all arguments and VP-internal adverbials are merged as specifiers of a unique small vP, this hierarchical structure need not always be reflected in an unambiguous linear order: in many languages VP-internal manner, place and time adverbials are allowed to permute freely because they have no features which would need checking by the features of a higher functional head, and because their original Spec,vP positions are ”invisible” to the Linear Correspondence Axiom. Although the argumentation and analyses are mainly supported by Finnish data, the author also shows how they can be applied to other languages. The book also contains an extensive introduction to Finnish, to help readers unfamiliar with the language to follow the discussion.

Author : Tabea Ihsane
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027290725
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Layered DP written by Tabea Ihsane and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2008-06-12 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines argumental un-NPs and du/des-NPs in French: nominals with the indefinite article and with the so-called ‘partitive article’ respectively. The main aim is to account for the different interpretations of these indefinites and to determine how interpretation and structure are related. This study thus concerns the syntax-semantics interface, with an emphasis on the composition of the left periphery and the inflectional domain of the indefinites mentioned. It is realized in the framework of generative grammar and in a cartographic approach. A crucial proposal put forward in this book is that indefinites of different semantic types are associated with different left peripheries. The analysis further suggests that the inflectional domain of these indefinites may comprise three discrete functional projections encoding the features [count], [quantity] and [number]. Interestingly, these results seem to extend to a selection of bare nouns in Romance and Germanic languages.

Author : Balk?z Öztürk
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027294453
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Case, Referentiality and Phrase Structure written by Balk?z Öztürk and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2005-04-26 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proposes that the two “independent” conditions on argumenthood, namely, case and referentiality, are strongly correlated and have to be associated with each other in syntax as syntactic features. It shows that languages exhibit variation in the way this association is implemented in their syntax, which presents an explanation for the differences observed in their phrase structure in terms of (non-)configurationality. Thus, this book not only presents an innovative overarching theory for case and referentiality, but also aims to bring a new look at the issues of (non-)configurationality. It specifically argues for parameterization of functional categories associated with case and referentiality, which has certain implications not only for the acquisition but also for the diachronic development of functional categories. Providing rich comparative data from typologically different languages such as Turkish, Chinese, Hungarian, English and Japanese, this book is of particular interest to typologists as well.

Author : Antonia Petronella Sleeman
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027255547
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Noun Phrase in Romance and Germanic written by Antonia Petronella Sleeman and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the recurrent questions in historical linguistics is to what extent languages can borrow grammar from other languages. It seems for instance hardly likely that each 'average European' language developed a definite article all by itself, without any influence from neighbouring languages. It is, on the other hand, by no means clear what exactly was borrowed, since the way in which definiteness is expressed differs greatly among the various Germanic and Romance languages and dialects. One of the main aims of this volume is to shed some light on the question of what is similar and what is different in the structure of the noun phrase of the various Romance and Germanic languages and dialects, and what causes this similarity or difference.

Author : Marit Julien
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9789027233516
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nominal Phrases from a Scandinavian Perspective written by Marit Julien and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph presents a new model of the internal syntax of nominal phrases. The model is mainly based on Scandinavian, since with the wide range of variation that Scandinavian displays in the nominal domain, despite the close genetic relationship between the different varieties, Scandinavian is particularly well-suited for explorations into nominal syntax. Among the topics covered are the basic syntactic structure of nominal phrases, definiteness, adjective phrases, possessors, relative clauses, and nominal predicates. The model is however meant to be a tool for analysing the nominal phrases of any language. While the base-generated structure is taken to be universally uniform, the model allows for variation in the feature makeup of individual elements, in the phonological realisation of the features, and in the movements that may or may not apply. Hence, as shown in the final chapter, patterns found in languages outside of Scandinavian can also be accounted for within the model.

Author : Marit Richardsen Westergaard
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027255288
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Acquisition of Word Order written by Marit Richardsen Westergaard and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within a new model of language acquisition, this book discusses verb second (V2) word order in situations where there is variation in the input. While traditional generative accounts consider V2 to be a parameter, this study shows that, in many languages, this word order is dependent on fine distinctions in syntax and information structure. Thus, within a split-CP model of clause structure, a number of "micro-cues" are formulated, taking into account the specific context for V2 vs. non-V2 (clause type, subcategory of the elements involved, etc.). The micro-cues are produced in children s I-language grammars on exposure to the relevant input. Focusing on a dialect of Norwegian, the book shows that children generally produce target-consistent V2 and non-V2 from early on, indicating that they are sensitive to the micro-cues. This includes contexts where word order is dependent on information structure. The children s occasional non-target-consistent behavior is accounted for by economy principles."

Author : Marcel den Dikken
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9789027228024
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Function of Function Words and Functional Categories written by Marcel den Dikken and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LC number: 2005048395

Author : Casper de Groot
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9027265291
Total Pages : 577 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Uralic Essive and the Expression of Impermanent State written by Casper de Groot and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first book length study into the essive, a relatively unknown case marker like English ‘as (a child)’. It focuses on the distribution of the essive in contemporary Uralic languages with special attention to the opposition between permanent and impermanent state. The volume presents large sets of new data and insights into the use of the essive in nineteen Uralic languages on the basis of a typological linguistic questionnaire. The typological variation is discussed within the linguistic domains of non-verbal main predication, secondary predication, complementation, and manner, temporal, and circumstantial adverbial phrases. The descriptions and analyses are presented in such a way that they are accessible to linguists in general, descriptive and theoretical linguists, and specialists in Uralic and/or linguistic typology. The data and approach offer many starting points for further investigations within but also outside the Uralic language family.

Author : Jordi Fortuny
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027291543
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Emergence of Order in Syntax written by Jordi Fortuny and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2008-01-15 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The syntactic component of the faculty of language is argued to be a rewiring of a few independently motivated components: features, the conjunction of a successive operation of union-formation (‘Merge’) and of derivational records (‘nests’), and principles of analysis. Since nests linearize terminals (Kuratowski 1921), Kayne’s (1994) LCA becomes dispensable. The study of how features are ordered in discontinuous, analytic and syncretic patterns, governed by the Full Interpretation Condition and the Maximize Matching Effects Principle, provides a simple account for several syntactic phenomena, like the C-Infl connection, certain cartographic observations due to Cinque (1999), the A’-status of preverbal subjects in Null Subject Languages (Solà 1992), the alleviation of wh-island effects in English when the embedded wh-phrase is a subject (Chomsky 1986) and the dynamic V2 patterns in double agreement dialects observed by Zwart (1993). The possibility that Comp-trace effects derive from the contraction of the C-Infl discontinuity is explored and subject islands and wh-islands are derived from the Relativized Opacity Principle, an alternative to Chomsky’s PIC.

Author : Michael T. Putnam
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027291969
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Scrambling and the Survive Principle written by Michael T. Putnam and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2007-10-18 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Languages with free word orders pose daunting challenges to linguistic theory because they raise questions about the nature of grammatical strings. Ross, who coined the term Scrambling to refer to the relatively ‘free’ word orders found in Germanic languages (among others) notes that “... the problems involved in specifying exactly the subset of the strings which will be generated ... are far too complicated for me to even mention here, let alone come to grips with” (1967:52). This book offers a radical re-analysis of middle field Scrambling. It argues that Scrambling is a concatenation effect, as described in Stroik’s (1999, 2000, 2007) Survive analysis of minimalist syntax, driven by an interpretable referentiality feature [Ref] to the middle field, where syntactically encoded features for temporality and other world indices are checked. The purpose of this book is to investigate the syntactic properties of middle field Scrambling in synchronic West Germanic languages, and to explore, to what possible extent we can classify Scrambling as a ‘syntactic phenomenon’ within Survive-minimalist desiderata.