bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Chapter 3. Metaphor identification in Dutch discourse
Authors: Pasma Tryntje
Published: March 2014

This chapter describes the application of the Metaphor Identification Procedure (Pragglejaz Group 2007) to a corpus of Dutch texts. It explains how this method can be used for identifying metaphorically used words in natural discourse, and how it works for Dutch. Although the original method has been developed on the basis of the English language, it is also applicable to languages other than English. What has to be kept in mind when applying it to other languages, however, is that some language-specific features and tools have to be explicated in more detail. This chapter illustrates MIP in relation to Dutch, and describes Dutch language tools, as well as lexico-grammatical features relevant to the identification of metaphorically used words.
Chapter 5. Metaphor variation across L1 and L2 speakers of English
Authors: Johansson Falck Marlene
Published: March 2014

English and Swedish, which are both Germanic languages spoken in similar cultures in the Western World, display many similarities with regard to the conceptual metaphors reflected in them. However, the way that the same conceptual metaphor is linguistically instantiated in both languages may be somewhat different. This chapter is a corpus-based analysis of metaphorical ‘path’, ‘road’, and ‘way’ sentences in English produced by speakers with British English as their first language (L1) and Swedish university students with English as their second language (L2). The aim is to see how these L2 speakers of English deal with differences at the level of linguistic metaphor in the two languages, and find out how important this level of organization really is.
Chapter 15. A computational exploration of creative similes
Authors: Veale Tony
Published: March 2014

The syntactic form of explicit as-similes provides a ready-made infrastructure for linguistic creativity that writers and speakers can exploit with remarkable freedom. This chapter adopts a computational approach to similes, asking: what kinds of knowledge must a computational agent possess so as to recognize the ironic intent of a humorous comparison and to what degree is this intent telegraphed to the audience by the use of specific markers or support structures? Using automated means to collect two very large corpora of similes, one that favours the conventional and one that favours the creative use of similes, the chapter describes the characteristics of similes used with ironic intent and the role played by ‘about’ as a scaffolding structure for creative similes.
Putting grammaticalization to the iconicity test
Authors: Bouissac Paul
Published: March 2014

This chapter questions the premises of the theory of grammaticalization which claims that “abstract” grammatical morphemes derive from “concrete” lexical items through a process of phonetic and semantic attrition. This theory generally assumes that language is grounded in iconicity. Thus, questioning the latter also puts the former to a test. The first section presents arguments against the notion of lexical “concreteness”. The second raises the issue of whether the “abstractness” of grammar is an artifact of pedagogical discourse or truly reflects the nature of grammatical relations. The third part proposes to frame the problems that gave rise to the notion of grammaticalization in an utterance-based perspective inspired by the cognitivist approach to language. The conclusion attempts to explain why contemporary linguistics has taken the form of a mosaic of theories that are often difficult to reconcile.
Eco-Iconicity in the poetry and poem-groups of E.E. Cummings
Authors: Terblanche Etienne , Webster Michael
Published: March 2014

If in iconicity “form mimes meaning”, then in eco-iconicity formal elements like syntax, word division, visual placement on the page, the use of white spaces, and what might be called a transformational semantics all work together to mime the dynamic processes of the ecosystem. The poet’s lower-case persona inhabits insubstantial air as a voice, and then sinks in a moment of transcendence into a star. In addition, the star is iconically present within the air and on the page. Moreover, the poem ends not with the period, but with white space, resisting closure. In this paper, we will show how Cummings uses devices like these to emphasize and enact dynamic transformations in, between, and among poems, positing “meaning” as a continual process, transformation, and co- incidence of “now” moments of being. By means of a heightened iconic precision, Cummings persuades the reader to become aware again of his or her original ecological being.
Liberature
Authors: Bazarnik Katarzyna
Published: March 2014

The paper defines liberature (Pol. liberatura) as a distinct literary genre whose constitutive feature is an organic unity of the linguistic content with its material form. It discusses the difference of the postulated genre from “the artist’s book” in which the emphasis lies on the visual rather than textual component. Through a discussion of works of Bryan Stanley Johnson, Stéphane Mallarmé, James Joyce and contemporary Polish writers, Zenon Fajfer and Katarzyna Bazarnik, it addresses the question of iconic qualities of liberature, and places the concept in the context of earlier theoretical reflection, especially, Carl Darryl Malmgren’s notion of iconic space in the novel. In particular, iconic compositional space can be identified as a touchstone for the liberatic character of a literary work.
Iconicity and the grammar–lexis interface
Authors: Glynn Dylan
Published: March 2014

This study examines the proposal in Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, Talmy 2000) that grammatical classes are iconically motivated. The discussion follows a case-study to test this hypothesis. Using found data, we examine the productivity of a range of grammatical classes across Dutch, English, and German. The study bases its analysis on the lexical concept of precipitation. The perceptual and universal nature of such a concept should be a best-case scenario for the iconic motivation of grammatical classes. However, despite this, the test case produces mixed results. Although the hypothesis is not disproved, we reveal how it cannot, alone, explain the vagaries of lexical – class grammaticality.
Double negation and iconicity
Authors: De Cuypere Ludovic , van der Auwera Johan , Willems Klaas
Published: March 2014

Typological research suggests that double negation - the use of two negative markers to denote one negative meaning - is a popular strategy amongst a wide variety of languages. This paper focuses on two types of double negation. The first type, exemplified by Fr. Je ne chante pas ‘I don’t sing’, consists of a discontinuous sentence negator. The second type consists of a sentence negator and a negative indefinite pronoun or adverb as in I don’t see nothing. Iconicity is in the first type related to the language change known as Jespersen’s Cycle leading towards the double negative structure. The second type is arguably one of two possible strategies to avoid the less iconic use of a negative indefinite pronoun.
Iconicity in sign languages
Authors: Demey Eline , Van Herreweghe Mieke , Vermeerbergen Myriam
Published: March 2014

Sign languages are visual-gestural communication systems with a great potential for iconic structures and indeed, in sign languages iconicity is pervasive, both on the lexical and the grammical levels. However, in early sign language research the role of iconicity was downplayed in order to stress the similarities in structure between sign languages and spoken languages. For some authors, on the other hand, iconicity has been a reason for claiming that sign languages are organised in a fundamentally different way from spoken languages. Looking at sign languages from a phonological perspective, important questions remain unanswered in both these approaches. In this paper we try to provide answers to two questions. First, does iconicity play a part in the linguistic structure of sign languages and are sign language users aware of it? Second, what is the status of the sublexical elements in sign languages, and more specifically, should they be considered as phonemes or as morphemes? In the first section of the paper we shall explore the various forms of iconicity in sign languages, using the framework of Taub’s Analogue Building Model (2001). In the second and third sections we shall confront two approaches of sign language phonology, Cuxac’s sign language differential view with a focus on iconicity as the fundamental organising principle (1996, 2000) and the more spoken language compatible concepts of phonetic and semantic implementation by Van der Kooij (2002). These two accounts are the point of departure for the fourth section in which we shall put forward a proposal of an iconic superstructure which addresses iconicity in both the spoken and signed modalities and which offers an answer to both above-mentioned questions.
Restructuring and clausal architecture in Kannada
Authors: Agbayani Brian , Shekar Chandra
Published: March 2014

In this paper we discuss restructuring and clausal architecture in Kannada, a Dravidian language. We show that Kannada uses mono-clausal lexical/VPlevel restructuring, as proposed in Wurmbrand (2001, 2004) for German, and argue that embedded non-finite clauses are invariably “restructured” VPs. This lexical/VP-level restructuring is quite widespread in Kannada and is the only type of restructuring that this language allows. We show that tense/Agreement, though morphologically rich in this language is syntactically inert in that it does not license case or motivate NP raising. Moreover, both infinitival and finite clauses exhibit “VP-like” behavior.We further argue that these facts require a new typology for clausal architecture.
Wh-movement, interpretation, and optionality in Persian
Authors: Karimi Simin , Taleghani Azita H.
Published: March 2014

We examine the syntactic behavior of wh-arguments and wh-adjuncts in Persian, a wh-in-situ language that exhibits (seemingly) optional wh-movement. We show that the two types of wh-phrases have distinct internal structures that are responsible for their different syntactic behavior. The analysis indicates that wh-movement has an effect on the semantic output of the derivation, and thus wh-scrambling is not a semantically vacuous operation. We finally show that the wh-feature must be in a local Agree relation with a wh-operator in Spec/CP to allow scope marking and sentence typing. This last claim predicts that an intervening polarity item would block the Agree relation, a prediction that is borne out empirically.
Structure preservingness, internal Merge, and the strict locality of triads
Authors: Koster Jan
Published: March 2014

This paper examines Emonds’ Structure Preserving Hypothesis, and suggests that the insight behind this hypothesis survives reformulation in terms of recent minimalist theory: each structure created by internal merge can also, independently, be created by external merge. As before, this makes movement (as expressed by its successor concept “internal merge”) redundant. From a meta-theoretical perspective, merge has the same formas other local relations, such as “displacement”, reflexivization and agreement. This suggests a generalization in terms of triads: linguistic relations can only affect sisters and/or their immediately dominating node. Variables can be eliminated by successive chaining of triads.
Using description to teach (about) prescription
Authors: Lobeck Anne
Published: March 2014

In the spirit of Emonds’ (1986) article, Grammatically Deviant Prestige Constructions, I propose a way to heighten students’ awareness of language by applying the tools of descriptive linguistic analysis to prescriptive grammatical rules. Students are then able tomake informed decisions about prestige usage (Emonds’ PU), and to critique (and undermine) the role of prestige usage in linguistic discrimination.
‘More complicated and hence, rarer’
Authors: Newmeyer Frederick J.
Published: March 2014

Emonds (1980) conjectured that in one limited domain there is a robust correlation between the complexity of a syntactic derivation and the rarity of the sentence type produced by that derivation. Other scholars, however, have hypothesized a more general correlation complexity and rarity which is not well motivated. In the three major historical periods of transformational syntax, we find typologically rare sentence types derived by means of simple operations and typologically common sentence types with complex derivations. By investigating syntactic complexity, I speculate that, in general, we cannot expect to see correlations between complexity and rarity, since implicational and frequency-based typological generalizations do not belong to the realm of I-language.
Minimalism vs. organic syntax
Authors: Vainikka Anne , Young-Scholten Martha
Published: March 2014

In this paper, we discuss Minimalism versus Organic Grammar, and define Organic Grammar for syntax (Organic Syntax) as an alternative to theMinimalist Program. We argue that language learners gradually acquire a Master Tree for a particular language that ends up including all possible functional projections for that language. Further, we provide a reanalysis of recent data from child vs. adult L2 acquisition of root infinitives using our own theory.
Location and locality
Authors: van Riemsdijk Henk , Huijbregts M.A.C.
Published: March 2014

We examine spatial semantics, take notions such as location and change of location to be basic, and address the question of whether these notions are reflected in syntax and morphology. We state that there are indeed languages in which there is a direct grammatical correlate of location and path. Accordingly, we take the abstract structure of a spatial phrase in the verbal domain to be [V’ Vo [PP DIRo [P’ LOCo [N’ No ]]]]. The goal of this paper is to present new evidence for such a structure based on locality considerations. A robust notion of locality (heads involved in a syntactic relation R must be hierarchically adjacent) provides the following predictions: vR(V,PDIR), vR(PDIR,PLOC), vR(PLOC,N), *R(V,PLOC), *R(PDIR,N), *R(V,N).
Adpositions, particles and the arguments they introduce
Authors: Svenonius Peter
Published: March 2014

Spatial relations, and certain other relations among entities and events, are expressed in many languages by caseless, tenseless words that grammarians often call prepositions or postpositions (adpositions). In this article I make some general observations about these words and their role in providing thematic content and licensing to DP arguments. I refer generally to adpositions and related complementless particles as members of category P, and compare the category P to V, suggesting that they share some similarities in argument structure, but that the temporal dimension of V distinguishes it fundamentally from P.
Argument features, clausal structure and the computation
Authors: Sigur∂sson Halldór Ármann
Published: March 2014

This paper claims that case is vP-internally interpretable and that high NP-movement is driven by (minimally) two other ‘forces’: Person checking in a position higher than Tense, and EPP (Fin) checking in a still higher position, ‘Spec,IP’. This is evidenced by ‘low’ nominatives, quirky agreement, Stylistic Fronting and expletivedistribution. Another central claim of the paper is that grammar interprets event features in relation to speech features. In particular, Person drives NP-movement because it computes event participants (cased ?-roles) in relation to speech participants, much as Tense links event time to speech time. As evidenced by both tense interpretation and pronoun interpretation, the finite clause is a Speech Phrase, SP, containing syntactic speech features.
On theta role assignment by feature checking
Authors: Bagchi Tista
Published: March 2014

Given the dominant role of the generalized syntactic operation of feature checking in contemporary Minimalist theory, the question arises as to whether feature checking is the primary mechanism whereby argument DPs get assigned their rightful theta roles in any syntactic derivation. This paper revisits the proposal, adopted either directly or indirectly in recent literature (Manzini and Roussou 2000, Fanselow 2001), that argument DPs in a sentence get theta roles assigned to them through a checking mechanism for theta features in keeping with the spirit of Minimalist theory (Chomsky 1995, 1999, 2000). It seeks to point out that, while the arguments presented by Fanselow (2001) against the movement analysis of scrambling of argument DPs in German are mostly valid, they do not conclusively establish that such argument DPs are necessarily assigned theta roles through a checking mechanism for theta features. In particular, it is demonstrated in this paper that there are problems with Fanselow’s arguments against scrambling as movement based on scrambled DPs as islands for movement and on parasitic gaps, and that, moreover, an account of scrambling as discourse-function-driven movement along the lines of, e.g., Kidwai (2000) has not been taken into account by these arguments against scrambling as movement. Furthermore, the operation Attract proposed by Manzini and Roussou (2000) as being driven by argument DPs and directed at predicates, it is argued, does not need to be based on a feature-checking account of theta-role assignment. Finally, it is pointed out that serious problems with motivating the operation Merge between predicate expressions and argument DPs arise under a feature-checking account of theta role assignment, and that wh-movement, in particular, can be accounted for only in costlier terms under such an account. The paper presents additional arguments, in terms of the nature of lexical entries in the lexicon component of the faculty of language (notably with reference to lexical decomposition) and the role of argument structure at LF (the conceptual-intentional interface level), that theta-features – if they exist at all – are features of a very different kind from the usual kind of features that are involved in the operations Move and Agree.
7. Object clitic doubling constructions and topicality in Bulgarian
Authors: Guentchéva Zlatka
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses the phenomenon of clitic doubling as it is manifested in formal Bulgarian. It presents certain properties of clitic doubling constructions, including some rules describing clitic placement, examining the distinction between the object constituents in initial and final position on the one hand, and between clitic doubling and “left-dislocated” constructions on the other. On this basis, it then scrutinizes the interaction of clitic doubling with constituent order and information structure.
9. Clitic reduplication constructions in Bulgarian
Authors: Krapova Iliyana , Cinque Guglielmo
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses clitic reduplication constructions in Bulgarian. In contrast to traditional analyses, it distinguishes clitic doubling proper, which is restricted to clauses with psych and physical perception predicates, from other constructions that involve reduplication of an argument by a clitic, notably, left and right dislocation, focus movement, and the hanging topic construction. Several properties of clitic doubling proper are identified, among which obligatory doubling of quantifiers, wh-phrases, and focus phrases. These are argued to be the distinguishing features of this construction in Bulgarian, given the cross-linguistic evidence from Romance and other languages.
11. Rethinking the Clitic Doubling parameter: The inverse correlation between clitic doubling and participle agreement
Authors: Tsakali Vina , Anagnostopoulou Elena
Published: March 2014

This study focuses on the parameters that regulate the cross-linguistic distribution of clitic doubling and attempts to derive the availability of object clitic doubling on the basis of the systematic link between clitic doubling and participle agreement. The claim to be defended is that the presence of participial agreement determines the availability of clitic doubling: Participle Agreement excludes Clitic Doubling and vice versa (language internally as well as construction-specifically). The analysis relies crucially on the checking relations of phi-features that hold in clitic-languages. We argue that the presence of participle agreement in clitic-languages induces split-checking, which forces associates of the clitic to be null (pro). When no split-checking is required, a language may optionally be a clitic doubling language. The theory that emerges allows us to account for the clitic omission stage that occurs in child language. L1 learners undergo a stage (up to the age of 3) in which they are unable to establish split-checking relations between an XP and the functional heads involved. As a result, in languages in which such operations are required, clitic omission will arise.
A unified syntactic analysis of Italian and Luganda nouns
Authors: Ferrari-Bridgers Franca
Published: March 2014

In this paper, I propose a unified syntactic analysis of Luganda and Italian simple nouns. I argue that Italian and Luganda nouns are formed in the syntax via merge and move operations. More specifically, I show that in both languages all nouns are formed via the merger of the nominalizer head [n] with a nominal stem [LP] yielding the nominal structure [nP [n [LP]]] and that syntactic movement is necessary in the noun formation process of Italian nouns to derive the correct morpheme order.

In order to prove that the structure [nP [n [LP]]] is representative for both languages, I demonstrate that the nominalizer head [n] corresponds to both the Italian gender feature and the Luganda class feature and that, therefore, gender and class are the same feature. The data analysis in sections (2) and (3) of this paper supports the claim that gender and class are the same feature because of their identical inflectional and derivational functions. At the inflectional level, gender and class trigger VP and DP agreement and at the derivational level gender and class function as n-marked heads whose merger with an XP yields a noun.
On the syntactic flexibility of formal features
Authors: Zeijlstra Hedde
Published: March 2014

This paper argues that the set of formal features that can head a functional projection is not predetermined by UG, but is derived through L1 acquisition. I formulate a hypothesis that says that every functional category F is realised as a semantic feature [F] unless there are overt doubling effects in the L1 input with respect to F, in which case this feature is then analysed as a formal feature [i/uF]. In the first part of the paper, I provide a theoretical motivation for this hypothesis, and in the second, I test the proposal with a case study, namely the cross-linguistic distribution of Negative Concord (NC). I demonstrate that negation in NC languages must be analysed as a formal feature [i/uneg], whereas negation in Double Negation languages remains a semantic feature [neg] (always interpreted as a negative operator). This paves the way for an explanation of NC in terms of syntactic agreement. In the third part, I argue that the application of the hypothesis to the phenomenon of negation yields two predictions that can be tested empirically. First, I demonstrate how this hypothesis predicts that negative heads (Neg°) can be available only in NC languages; second, that independent change of the syntactic status of negative markers can trigger a change with respect to the occurrence of NC in a particular language. Both predictions are shown to be correct. Finally, I outline the consequences of the proposal presented here for the syntactic structure of the clause and also for the way in which parameters are associated with lexical items.
Expletives, datives, and the tension between morphology and syntax
Authors: Kayne Richard S.
Published: March 2014

Expletive there and its closest counterparts in other languages are not expletives in Chomsky’s sense (merged directly into a sentential Spec position). They are instead instances of deictic elements originating within their associate (in a way that has something in common with Moro 1997 and, more so, with Sabel 2000, though the proposal made here ties expletive there more closely to other instances of there than do these earlier works). The present proposal sheds new syntactic light on the definiteness effect, as well as on the comparative syntax of possessives and existentials. In some languages, e.g., Paduan, an expletive can be “imported” from existential (sub)sentences into possessive (sub)sentences and from there into dative sentences, giving the impression in the last case of syncretism between deictic clitic and dative clitic, but the correct, more syntactic and less morphological, analysis is that in such languages the deictic clitic is notitself a dative clitic, though it cooccurs with a dative clitic that is silent.
Aspect matters in the middle
Authors: Lekakou Marika
Published: March 2014

This paper addresses the variation that the middle construction attests

cross-linguistically. In one class of languges middles behave as passives,

whereas in another class they pattern with unergative structures. My

proposal is that this variation is not accidental, and that it reduces to

variation in the morphosyntax of aspect. I put forward a semantic treatment

of middles as disposition ascriptions to a Patient/Theme argument. I then

show how the morphosyntax of the dispositional generic operator that is

argued to be present in such structures determines the syntactic behaviour

of middles. Genericity may be morphosyntactically encoded by means of

grammatical aspect, in particular in languages where such aspectual

distinctions as perfective/imperfective exist. The proposal is that the level

at which the generic operator is present correlates with the level at which

middles are derived. For instance, in Greek and French, genericity is

morphosyntactically encoded and middles are parasitic on passives. In

such languages, middles are derived in the syntax, in virtue of the availability

in the syntax of the relevant operator. In Germanic languages, by contrast,

aspectual distinctions are not encoded in the morphosyntax, and middles

are syntactically unergative. This is implemented in terms of a presyntactic

derivation.
Topic prominence and null subjects
Authors: Modesto Marcello
Published: March 2014

This chapter presents data from Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish and Chinese

which show that, at least in these languages, phonologically null subjects may be

licensed and identified without the participation of verbal agreement. The analysis

proposed treats those cases of null subjects as elided topics (PF-deleted elements)

and so it relates the presence of null subjects in these languages to a parameter

involving topic prominence. Some implications of the analysis are then discussed,

based on Brazilian Portuguese data.
Object gap constructions
Authors: Botwinik-Rotem Irena
Published: March 2014

The embedded constituent of Hebrew object gap constructions (e.g., the Tough Construction) is nominal rather than verbal, introduced obligatorily by the prepositional element le- (to). I show that the gap in Hebrew is unlikely to be created by Op-movement. Rather, based on the properties of the nominal, I propose that the object gap nominal in Hebrew is formed by Externalization of the internal argument. Departing from the familiar analysis of the English Tough Construction, I argue that to of the English object gap constituent is not a T(ense) head, and that this constituent does not have a subject position. Consequently, I suggest that the English object gap constituent is a projection of to, whose specifier is the landing site for Op-movement.
On child subjects in a partially pro-drop language
Authors: Schaeffer Jeannette , Ben Shalom Dorit
Published: March 2014

In this paper we investigate the production of (null) subjects in the spontaneous speech of 15 monolingual children between the ages of 1;09 and 3;01 acquiring Hebrew, a partially pro-drop language. Our results show that all children behave adultlike regarding the pro-drop part of Hebrew. Furthermore, Root Infinitives appear with underspecified subjects (most of them null), and the majority of the finite verbs requiring an overt subject occur correctly with a specified subject as predicted by Hoekstra & Hyams (1995): 67% for the younger children, and 96% for the older children. The 33% unexplained underspecified subjects with finite verbs in the youngest age group are accounted for by the lack of the pragmatic Concept of Non-Shared Assumptions (Schaeffer 1999).
Hebrew negative polarity Items – šum and af
Authors: Levy Alissa
Published: March 2014

In this paper I am going to examine two negative polarity determiners in Hebrew um and af which are analogous to English any. I show that though, like any, they are licensed in negative environments but not in affirmative ones, they have distributional properties which distinguish them from any. I then explore the semantics of um and af and show that they are not synonymous; they are sensitive to semantic distinctions between different denotations of nouns individuals, sums, quantities and kinds. I argue that um and af are wideners licensed by strengthening as Kadmon & Landman (1993) argue any is. However, the widening involved is not contextual but one which is sensitive to the available denotations for nouns.
On a (wh-)moved Topic in Italian, compared to Germanic
Authors: Cardinaletti Anna
Published: March 2014

In this paper, I compare Romance and Germanic left periphery. I show that Italian Resumptive Preposing (RP) differs from both Clitic Left Dislocation (CLLD) and Focalization and shares many properties with fronting phenomena in English (Topicalization, Locative Inversion, Comparative Inversion). RP constituents are (wh-)moved to a high Topic position only available in root contexts and can co-occur with either preverbal pronominal subjects or post-verbal heavy subjects (while CLLD can target a Topic position lower than Focus – Rizzi 1997, Frascarelli and Hinterhölzl 2007 – and does not display any restriction on the subject). The analysis is based on Rizzi and Shlonsky’s (2006) account of English Locative Inversion and will lead us to the discussion of the interaction of Fin and Subj, i.e., the heads which lie at the interface of the I and C layers, and the comprehension of the different restrictions on the occurrence of preverbal subjects in Italian and English/German left-peripheral constructions, ultimately explaining the generalizations arrived at in Cardinaletti (2007).
Reconsidering odd coordination in German
Authors: Kasai Hironobu
Published: March 2014

This paper investigates why the Coordinate Structure Constraint (CSC) is violable in odd coordination in German. Schwartz’s (1998) analysis successfully handles nominal odd coordination but some cases of verbal odd coordination are problematic for his analysis. This paper offers an alternative analysis of verbal odd coordination, under which the CSC is subject to the Principle of Minimal Compliance, proposed by Richards (1998) on independent grounds. Verbal odd coordination involves V-to-C movement in an ATB-way, which allows the computational system to ignore a violation of the CSC. This paper has two theoretical implications. One is that head movement takes place in the narrow syntax. The other one is that the CSC is defended as a syntactic constraint on overt movement.
The syntax and semantics of the temporal anaphor “then” in Old and Middle English
Authors: Trips Carola , Fuß Eric
Published: March 2014

The fact that þa/þonne ‘then’ trigger V2 in OE is commonly accounted for by assuming that these adverbs are operators that trigger V-to-C movement. This paper presents an alternative analysis based on the observation that þa/þonne and pronouns are in complementary distribution in preverbal position. We identify this position as SpecTP, arguing that OE was a discourseconfigurational language where SpecTP was linked to the discourse anchoring of anaphoric/deictic expressions, including pronouns and temporal anaphora such as þa/þonne. Under these assumptions, V2 with these temporal adverbs results from a spec-head relationship in TP. The loss of V2 in the ME period is then attributed to the independent development of a (subject-oriented) EPP-feature in TP and the overall loss of discourse-configurationality.
Jespersen’s Cycle and the issue of prosodic ‘weakness’
Authors: Noel Aziz Hanna Patrizia
Published: March 2014

Jespersen’s Cycle (1917), according to which a negation particle is weakened and therefore later strengthened through an additional element, is a generally accepted explanation in language change. The German data, however, reveals that the weakening of the negation particle preceded the initiation of Jespersen’s Cycle by centuries. The further weakening caused the ineffi cacy of the old negation particle and thus initiated Jespersen’s Cycle. The reduction is demonstrated to result from segmental, prosodic, and syntactic factors. The progressive weakening of the negation particle (PIE *ne > OHG ni > MHG ne > NHG Ø) is due to the fact that its chances of attracting rhythmic stress became increasingly rare.
Holmberg’s Generalization
Authors: Broekhuis Hans
Published: March 2014

Holmberg’s (1999) formulation of Holmberg’s Generalization states that Scandinavian object shift cannot cross any phonologically realized VP-internal material. This correctly predicts that object shift may not apply in, e.g., embedded clauses in Danish: since in these languages V-to-I applies in main clauses only, the main verb occupies a VP-internal position in embedded clauses, and object shift would therefore violate HG. Generally, this is considered the end of the story, but it is not as HG can in principle be satisfied in two ways: either the verb blocks object shift, or object shift pushes the verb up into the I-position. A full explanation therefore requires an answer to the question of why the latter option is not chosen in Danish.
Chapter 6. Stress shift as a diagnostics for identifying empty categories in Brazilian Portuguese
Authors: Nunes Jairo , Santos Raquel S.
Published: March 2014

In this paper we discuss several constructions with null objects in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), based on Santos’s (2002, 2003) arguments that stress shift in BP is blocked by pro, but not by traces. In particular, we show that stress shift provides evidence for an analysis of PP-chopping relatives in terms of pro (Kato & Nunes, this volume) and that it can also distinguish true null objects from parasitic gaps in BP.
Chapter 10. Lack of morphological identity and ellipsis resolution in Brazilian Portuguese
Authors: Nunes Jairo , Zocca Cynthia
Published: March 2014

In this paper we investigate grammatical cases of verbal and nominal ellipsis in which there is no full morphological identity between the antecedent and the elided constituent. We argue that lack of identity in these cases can be captured if inflectional material is hosted by functional categories and valued in the course of the derivation, as in Chomsky’s (2001) Agree-based system.
Tense, finiteness and the survive principle
Authors: Eide Kristin Melum
Published: March 2014

This paper describes how temporal chains are construed in a syntactic structure. The links in T-chains are local T-heads, where every main verb and auxiliary brings its own tense package. The semantic difference between finite and non-finite T-elements consists in the choice of first argument, the speech event S (finite tense) or any preceding verbal event e (non-finite tense). Overt inflectional markings encoding finiteness are a crucial difference between Modern English and Mainland Scandinavian languages (MSc). Middle English, like MSc, encoded finiteness. MSc retained the finiteness distinction but lost the agreement markings; English main verbs lost the finiteness distinction but retained their tense and agreement markings. This development fuelled many syntactic differences between MSc and English, e.g., do-support versus verb-second.
Using the Survive principle for deriving coordinate (a)symmetries
Authors: te Velde John R.
Published: March 2014

This analysis examines the symmetries of coordinate structures, specifically how they can be generated in a minimalist, crash-proof grammar. I show that a phase-based model with selection of lexical items (LIs) before merge must have a matching operation across conjuncts, but this operation is prohibited by this model’s own constraints. An alternative is presented that uses the Survive principle by which LIs are selected as needed for the merge operations of a coordinate structure. This selection process is guided and assisted by algorithms that map certain features from a leading conjunct to the next conjunct undergoing concatenation. With selection on demand and the mapping of features, coordinate symmetries can be generated that otherwise require global operations spanning all the conjuncts such as across-the-board movement. Additionally, the asymmetries that occur in coordinate structures are accounted for as consequences of additional mergers that do not require coordinate matching across conjuncts. Issues related to the limits of working memory can also be addressed.
The proper D connection
Authors: Ghomeshi Jila , Massam Diane
Published: March 2014

We examine the concepts “proper” and “common” to determine how they are encoded in noun phrases. We address the issue of the noun-determiner relation in fixing the value of a noun phrase, arguing that both noun class and determiner features are involved. We suggest that in both definite common and proper noun phrases, NP is topped with a DP. In the former case, the DP contains the overt definite determiner the (in English), which is unmarked for any proper value as well as for number. In the latter, the DP also contains a definite determiner, which is null in English but not in all languages. This determiner has the features [proper] and [singular], which restrict it to appearing with singular NPs with a [name] feature.
Empirical research into the processing of free indirect discourse and the imperative of ecological validity
Authors: Hall Geoff M.
Published: March 2014

This paper uses two principal examples to argue that experimentalist research paradigms in empirical literary research can be suggestive but that results are not easily extrapolatable to actual real world literary reading events, particularly where, as with free indirect discourse (fid), the phenomenon to be investigated is demonstrably complex, multifaceted and highly contingent. More broadly, the paper raises the issue of whether in fact most literary reading is not typically as complicated as fid, in which case complementary or alternative research approaches may be needed. I close by advocating more nuanced qualitative or ethnographic approaches which respect the complexity of the phenomena under investigation to achieve better understanding, even at the possible expense of seductively neat graphs, tables and statistics. As van Peer suggests in my opening epigraph, empirical research at its best can be highly suggestive. My argument is simply that we need always to remember that what we think of as empirical research should not be limited to experimentalist paradigms. The empirical literary research community will be able to say more useful things about fid and the wider complexities of literary reading by complementing more experimentalist work with more contextually sensitive investigations, to the mutual benefit of both.
Foregrounding and feeling in response to narrative
Authors: Miall David S.
Published: March 2014

This chapter provides a framework for considering some of the determinants and implications of readers’ feelings in response to a story by Katherine Mansfield, previously featured in an empirical study of foregrounding (Miall & Kuiken 1994). In additional analyses I focus on feelings that distinguish the story’s episodic structure, its narrative perspective, and phonetic patterns, and consider their effectiveness in post-predicting readers’ data from the 1994 study. Finally, I examine those processes of feeling that may be distinctive to literary response (Miall & Kuiken 2001), and situate the discussion in relation to a theory of readers’ feelings offered by Oatley (2002).
Metaphors and software-assisted cognitive stylistics
Authors: Kimmel Michael
Published: March 2014

This paper reports on an ongoing project on literary metaphor that applies analytical tools from cognitive linguistics (cl) to six English novellas and presents a case study. The project focuses on complex tropes, metaphors, coherence and cohesion in text units as well as text cues that involve the reader at a bodily level. Its hallmark is systematic and multi-level metaphor tagging and analysis with the qualitative coding software ATLAS.ti 5.2. My aim here is to raise three methodological points of increasing specificity. First, I explain the general benefits of a software-assisted qualitative analysis. Second, I present a flexible and powerful approach for metaphor coding (which is extendable to non-literary applications). Third, I illustrate the gains from applying the approach to literature at a descriptive level, then in a more integrative literary analysis, and finally with regard to a novella’s general trends in metaphor use.
Threat and geographical distance: the case of North Korea
Authors: Prasil Jan , Dudusova Maria , Auracher Jan
Published: March 2014

North Korea is considered by westerners to be a dangerous and unpredictable country and its leader, Kim Jong II, a mad dictator. After its nuclear test in October 2006, nervousness reached a new critical point. Yet first impressions gathered after this test showed that perceptions of this “rogue state” range widely among observers in the West and their Asian counterparts. The present research specifically assesses the fear of subjects from four countries, when confronted with the official press release after the event. Our hypotheses were that the perceived fear of North Korea would differ between subject groups of each country, and that it would increase in correlation to geographical distance. The results confirm the first hypothesis. The second, however, could not be verified.
Interactionist Approaches to Early Language Acquisition
Authors: Plunkett Kim
Published: March 2014

What features of brain processing and neural development support linguistic development in young children? To what extent is the profile and timing of linguistic development in young children determined by a pre-ordained genetic programme? Does the environment play a crucial role in determining the patterns of change observed in children growing up? Recent experimental, neuro-imaging and computational studies of developmental change in children promise to contribute to a deeper understanding of how the brain gets wired up for language. The multi-disciplinary perspectives of cognitive neuroscience, experimental psycholinguistics and neural network modelling are brought to bear on four distinct areas in the study of language acquisition: early speech perception, word recognition, word learning and the acquisition of grammatical inflections. Each area demonstrates how linguistic development can be driven by the interaction of general learning mechanisms, highly sensitive to particular statistical regularities in the input, with a richly structured environment. This interaction provides the necessary ingredients for the emergence of linguistic representations that support mature language processing. Similar epigenetic principles, guiding the emergence of linguistic structure, apply to all these domains, offering insights into the precocity of young infant’s sensitivity to speech contrasts as well as to the complexities of the problem facing the young child learning the Arabic plural.
Acquiring long-distance wh-questions in L1 Spanish
Authors: Gutiérrez Mangado María Juncal
Published: March 2014

In this article we present data from an oral experiment eliciting LD (Long Distance) Wh-questions from a L1 Spanish child aged 4;9 at the beginning of the experiment. The purpose of the experiment was to observe the development of this structure and more specifically to compare the results with those reported in the L1 acquisition of English by Thornton (1990). The results show that the acquisition of LD wh-questions in Spanish, like in L1 English, is characterized by a stage where non-adult structures are produced systematically. These non-adult structures, known as Partial wh-movement and wh-copying, are concluded to reflect UG options since they obey the same characteristics as those in the natural languages which allow them such as Bavarian and Frisian.
4. Diminutives in Greek child language
Authors: Thomadaki Evangelia , Stephany Ursula
Published: March 2014

In this chapter, the emergence and use of the forms and functions of the most frequent diminutive suffixes occurring in the longitudinal data of a Greek monolingual child from age 1;8 to 3;0 are studied and compared to childdirected speech, which is rich in diminutives and hypocoristics. Furthermore, the distinction between pragmatic and semantic functions of diminutives as compared to simple nouns is explored, focussing on the innovative use of a nonstandard suffix in this particular mother-child dyad. Since diminutives occur in a high number of singular and plural forms both type- and tokenwise from 1;9 on, the relation between derivational and inflectional morphology in early child Greek is discussed.
7. A longitudinal study of the acquisition of diminutives in Dutch
Authors: Souman Agnita , Gillis Steven
Published: March 2014

The acquisition of diminutives in the language of three Dutch-speaking children from the Netherlands is described on the basis of longitudinal observational data between the age of 21 and 36 months. It is shown that diminutives occur early, i.e. in the first stage of vocabulary development, and that the frequency of diminutives is high and increases over time. The language of the parents does not shown such a development, but they seem to provide more diminutive lemmas in the first stages of diminutive acquisition. Furthermore, a higher occurrence of diminutives is found in child directed speech than in adult speech. The allomorphs that occur in child directed speech are used with relative similar frequency in child speech, except for certain low frequent ones.
9. Acquisition of diminutives in Hungarian
Authors: Bodor Péter , Barcza Virág
Published: March 2014

The chapter presents a longitudinal study on the acquisition of diminutives in Hungarian from the age of two to three. The analysis shows that the two children in the study followed their own particular paths while acquiring diminutive suffixes. Grammatical productivity did not exert an unequivocal effect on the sequence of acquisition: both children started with unproductive suffixes such as -u and -ó, with the productive -kA and the semi-productive -i, whereas the grammatically most productive -cskA was produced later. Our analysis indicates that matching relevant functions to diminutive suffixes is probably a later development: diminutive suffixes did not convey the semantic meaning of “smallness”; a positive emotional evaluation as a pragmatic value of diminutives was not clearly present in the analyzed conversations either.
Behavioral methods for investigating morphological and syntactic processing in children
Authors: Clahsen Harald
Published: March 2014

While most first language acquisition research to date has focused on the development of children’s linguistic competence, a number of research teams have also investigated the mechanisms children employ to process sentence-level and word-level information in real time, by applying experimental techniques familiar from the adult processing literature to children. This chapter presents an overview of different kinds of behavioral tasks for investigating both morphological and syntactic processing in children focusing on three techniques that we have explored in our own research on children’s on-line language processing: self-paced listening, cross-modal priming, and speeded production.