bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Expressing regret and avowing belief
Authors: Atlas Jay D.
Published: March 2014

This essay reconceptualizes the relationship of mental-act, mental-state, and speech-act verbs. It shows that ‘believe’ can be used as a mental-activity, quasi-performative verb and not just a mental-state verb, illustrates the explanatory value of distinguishing performative from quasi-performative verbs, and draws the implications of the new taxonomy of verbs for Moore’s Paradox. Quasi-performative, mental activity verbs can express (manifest) or create mental-states just as performative speech-act forms like ‘I promise’ can create obligations. The arguments employ methods first used by Jerrold Sadock (1974) in his classic work Toward a Linguistic Theory of Speech Acts. I adapt his syntactical arguments that appeal to the properties of expositive adverbials in sentences with verbs of communication to the case, which Sadock did not discuss, of the mental-state verb ‘believe’ and show that ‘believe’ has more than mental-state uses; it is also a mental-activity verb that has properties that, following Hunter (1990), I call ‘quasi-performative’. I also use the adverbial for the last time to distinguish ‘believe’ from a performative verb. Likewise I extend Sadock’s arguments for the case of performative communication verbs embedded in factive sentences, e.g. in ‘regret’ sentences, to show that ‘believe’ has performative-like uses. I also employ Sadock’s observations on the relation between stative-verb sentences and related pseudo-cleft sentences to show that ‘believe’ and ‘regret’ have non-stative uses. I discuss the views of Donald Davidson and Zeno Vendler on the difference between mental state-verbs and mental event-verbs. And I conclude with the implications of this new characterization of ‘believe’ for the classic problem of Moore’s Paradox.
Pseudo-apologies in the news
Authors: Gruber M. Catherine
Published: March 2014

This paper examines two pseudo-apologies in the news. Apologies have been defined as involving acceptance of responsibility for an offense and an acknowledgment of its wrongfulness. In contrast, pseudo-apologies index a stance lacking in remorse. This examination of a deviant type of apology reveals some of the limits that mediation imposes on more prototypical apologies: the more a speaker is viewed as attending to the interests of parties other than the offended party/ies, the greater the detriment to the apology. We propose that the polysemy of I’m sorry (and, via association, I apologize), which can serve as both apology and expression of sympathy, provides the functional structure for the pseudo-apologies examined here.
Towards an intonational-illocutionary interface
Authors: Bagchi Tista
Published: March 2014

Sentence – or rather, utterance – intonation poses an interesting conceptual challenge for any linguistic theory that assumes a rigid separation of phonological and pragmatic representations (as assumed in current Minimalist theory), as does the interaction of structure with speech act (examined in detail by Sadock 1974). This paper seeks to demonstrate that intonation and illocutionary force all too often correlate with one another, with or without the mediation of syntactic form, and argues that this correlation warrants the hypothesis of an interface between intonation and illocutionary force, with both matches and mismatches, in continuation of the automodular view of language advocated by Sadock (1991 et seq.). Citing evidence from child language, dialectal variation, and autism research in Bangla and Hindi, besides research on Norwegian intonation and pragmatic particles (Fretheim 1993), the paper claims that an account in terms of a direct intonational-illocutionary interface proves to have the advantage of economy.
Atkan Aleut “unclitic” pronouns and definiteness
Authors: Woodbury Anthony C.
Published: March 2014

Atkan Aleut has non-subject pronominals that are attracted to a position just before the verb but do not fuse with it. This clitic like behavior, termed unclitic, is modeled using a version of the automodular or autolexical analysis proposed by Sadock (1991). The unclitic pattern is proposed as the explanation for a set of apparent counterexamples in the puzzling word-order-and-‘definiteness’ paradigms first presented by Bergsland & Dirks (1981: 31–33) and commented on by Fortescue (1987), Leer (1988), and Sadock (2009)
Aleut case matters
Authors: Merchant Jason
Published: March 2014

Aleut shows a remarkable alternation in its case and agreement patterns: roughly put, one pattern appears when a non-subject argument is syntactically unexpressed in a predicate, and the other pattern appears otherwise. This paper is devoted to an attempt to provide a coherent analysis for this alternation: the missing argument is analyzed as a pro which must move into a local relation with the highest T; in this position, it triggers additional agreement on the verb, and blocks normal case assignment to the subject (which then gets a different case). This movement is analogous to that of (potentially long) clitic movement, and its effects on the case and agreement patterns is shown to be similar to the wh-agreement pattern in Chamorro.
An automodular perspective on the frozenness of pseudoclefts, and vice versa
Authors: Ross Háj
Published: March 2014

This paper is a try at building a bridge between a vexing topic – the architecture of emphatic sentences in English (and by induction, of all languages) – and the automodular theory of our old pal Jerry Sadock, a theory which I understand way too little of. I beg forbearance at the outset for my misunderstandings, and I only hope that the end of the bridge about emphatic sentences will be clearly enough enunciated that people who know more about automodularity will be able to see where I get to in crossing the Great Water between us, so that they, starting with a clear idea of the ins and outs of their machinery and tools, will be able to proceed towards what a dyed-in-the-wool (i.e. a non-recovering) transformationalist like myself finds to be of central importance.
Case conflict in Greek free relatives
Authors: Spyropoulos Vassilios
Published: March 2014

Case matching effects involve situations where a nominal element appears in a case that is not predicted by its syntactic status in its clause, but rather matches the case requirements of an external element. Such constructions pose serious problems for syntactic accounts of case in terms of a syntactic Case feature, because they involve a situation of case conflict/mismatch. In this article, I address the issue of case assignment/realization by examining case attraction phenomena in Greek free relative clauses. In particular, I suggest an analysis that builds on the idea that case categories are not primitives, but rather they can be decomposed in bundles of features and I propose a division of labour between narrow syntax and Morphological Structure as far as case assignment/realization is concerned. Case assignment takes place in narrow syntax as a licensing device (abstract case), but it refers only to those features that are relevant to the distinction between structural and inherent case. The full specification of the case feature bundle takes place in the Morphological Structure as a result of the application of specific case assignment algorithms defined in terms of case domains and hierarchies. At a theoretical level, such a hypothesis has the benefit of incorporating the insights about the role of case determination at Morphological Structure, as well as maintaining the well-established notion of abstract case as a licensing device of narrow syntax.
Determiner and Noun phrase coordination in modern Greek
Authors: Kazana Despina
Published: March 2014

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of scope of definite determiner in MG coordinate animate and inanimate nouns. In MG coordinate nouns, a single definite determiner scopes over both coordinate nouns only if the latter refers to the same individual. An exception occurs when the coordinate nouns display semantic or morphological relatedness, a phenomenon which allows the conjuncts to refer to different individuals and still be modified by a common definite determiner. King and Dalrymple (2004) have proposed a syntactic theory on determiner and Noun Phrase coordination combining the nature of agreement features and the distinction between distributive and nondistributive features in coordinate nouns. The aim of this paper is to present and account for the MG data using the aforementioned theory in order to capture these unexpected patterns that occur in definite determiner and NP-coordination in MG.
Production and comprehension in context
Authors: Bouma Gerlof
Published: March 2014

Freezing refers to a loss of word order freedom found across typologically very different languages. It occurs when argument identifying mechanisms such as agreement and case do not sufficiently distinguish verbal arguments. Word order can in such situations be said to be exceptionally used to unambiguously distinguish the arguments. In the optimality-theoretic literature it has been shown that a bidirectional grammar can elegantly capture this word order freezing.
Bidirectional optimality-theoretic grammar, however, does not typically deal well with ambiguity and optionality. This leads to problems in modeling word order, where these two types of variation do appear. In this paper, I will show that by adopting a notion of grammaticality in Optimality Theory we shall call stratified strong bidirectionality and by looking more seriously at the role of the context and argument markedness in comprehension, we can successfully model both word order freezing and word order freedom in bidirectional Optimality Theory.
Bayesian interpretation and Optimality Theory
Authors: Zeevat Henk
Published: March 2014

The paper explores the consequences of reinterpreting OT pragmatics of Zeevat (2009) as a Bayesian account of natural language interpretation, not unlike Bayesian accounts of vision. In such accounts, a model of the most probable interpretations in the context is combined with a model of NL production to give the most probable interpretation of a given form. It is argued that pragmatics can be equated with the model of probability maximisation of interpretations while “grammar” can be equated with the human capacity of mapping thoughts to utterances or any theoretical model of that capacity. The Bayesian model by itself does not give communicative success, it is merely a better model for estimating the most probable interpretation. It is essential that the speaker also estimates the most probable interpretation of her utterance, to see if the hearer will get her right. This allows alternative formulations with an increased probability of being understood as intended. One claim of this paper is that this self-monitoring is partially automatised and accounts for such phenomena as particle insertion and word order freezing. The simplest brain architecture is as two associative processes, one leading from forms to interpretations, the other from intentions to forms that can inhibit each other. A form that in the interpretation process does not assign the strongest activation to the speaker intention is inhibited, an interpretation that does not most strongly activate the form is inhibited. This dual inhibition model assigns a natural temporal structure to the development of linguistic skills. The production skills must be good before they can contribute to communicative success in their role of inhibiting interpretation. Similarly, the interpretational skills must be well developed before they can be useful role in production.
Noun inflectional classes in Maceratese
Authors: Paciaroni Tania
Published: March 2014

This chapter explores the structure of noun inflection in the variety of Macerata (Area Mediana) which shows some distinctive properties with respect to standard Italian, such as internal inflection and a higher number of noun inflectional classes. Based on a description of the primary linguistic data and on the examination of old texts, it focuses on the need for morphological features appropriate for describing this variety, with special attention to their interrelationships and to their relation with phonological and morphosyntactic features. In trying to shed light on this inflectional complexity, a ‘canonical’ approach is taken; inflectional class features and their change are evaluated starting from the most canonical classes in the Maceratese system.
Participles and nominal aspect
Authors: Remberger Eva-Maria
Published: March 2014

This paper emphasizes the strong and weak points of the analyses of the Latin perfect and future participles proposed so far. Relying on traditional historical studies, I show that diachronic developments can explain certain grammatical features also in synchronic morphological structure and that the development of the Latin participles can be modelled unproblematically in a DM-approach. I propose a functional segmentation of participles which concentrates on the interpretative value of the aspectual feature that is morphophonologically realised by -t-. I argue that this feature, at least in Latin, was still nominal in nature and that even in the modern Romance varieties, this aspectual meaning of past participles can clearly be distinguished from what is usually called verbal perfectivity.
Modifying suffixes in Italian and the Autonomy of Morphology
Authors: Necker Heike
Published: March 2014

This study addresses restrictions concerning morphological modification in modern spoken Italian – the formation of diminutives, augmentatives and pejoratives by means of modifying suffixes (MS). Three purely morphological restrictions have been found (Necker 2005, 2006): (i) de-adjectival nouns with the suffix -ità; (ii) nouns with -ismo; (iii) adverbs formed with the suffix -mente cannot be modified by means of MS. In recent communication technologies (blogs, chat-rooms etc.), a number of apparent counter-examples are found, e.g. possibilitina. Should these be regarded as derived formations, they would break the above-mentioned restrictions. We advance the hypothesis that the base of e.g. possibilitina, is perceived as a simplex word, rather than as complex and derived, and that a morphological constraint can apply only if the base is perceived as internally structured.
Italian brand names – morphological categorisation and the Autonomy of Morphology
Authors: Zilg Antje
Published: March 2014

Formation principles of Italian brand names in the food market have been described on the basis of a corpus comprising 950 brand names collected in a field research (Zilg 2006). The analysis of the morphological structure of brand names focuses on the question whether these names can be captured using traditional word-formation concepts and criteria and, if this is the case, which word-formation types are productive. The term “adspeak affixoids” is introduced to describe a creation method at the interface of derivation and compounding. Furthermore, the high combinability of (modifying) suffixes and stems is analysed. Finally, the author tries to answer the question whether morphology acts autonomously with regard to brand names.
Number agreement in Basque
Authors: Etxeberria Urtzi , Etxepare Ricardo
Published: March 2014

This paper argues that Basque non-agreeing quantifiers are conceptually measures and that measures head their own functional projection in the expanded structure of the Noun Phrase. This functional projection is placed in-between the Classifier Phrase (where division occurs) and the Number Phrase (where counting occurs), following Borer (2005). The distinction we make between the measuring field (in Measure Phrase position) and the counting field (in NumP position) affects referentiality; in fact, agreement and reference only become relevant upon reaching NumP – not before that position, i.e. not in Measure Phrase position. We also show that non-agreeing quantifiers are sensitive to the nature of the predicates they associate with.
Synchronic ubiquity of the Basque article -a: A look from diachrony
Authors: Manterola Julen
Published: March 2014

The Basque definite article -a is used in more contexts than the articles in neighboring languages. This extensive use is problematic for synchronic analysis; this article will offer a diachronic perspective of the problem. Non-referential noun phrases (mass nouns and plural expressions in particular) in object position will be analyzed, showing that in old Basque they lacked the definite article; the extensive use of -a/-ak in these contexts in modern Basque will be related to the spread into non-referential expressions of the genitive plural declension mark -en, which shares its diachronic origin with the definite article -a.
Perception verb complements in Basque
Authors: Arteatx Iñigo
Published: March 2014

In this paper, I argue that the uninflected complements of verbs of perception in Basque are aspectual phrases (AspPs), adapting a proposal by Felser (1998, 1999) to the specific properties of Basque perception complements. With that aim in mind, I will first describe the basic syntactic and semantic properties that non-inflected perception verb complements have in Basque. Then, I will critically review some of the previous proposals that have been entertained for the analysis of those contructions in that language. Finally, I will show that Felser’s analysis, once some of the specific morphosyntactic properties of Basque are factored out, represents the best possible account of the structure of those complements.
Augmented structure preservation and the Tensed S Constraint
Authors: Emonds Joseph E.
Published: March 2014

Many grammatical phenomena occur only in “root clauses,” i.e., main clauses and a limited type of embedded clauses called indirect discourse. Among these are certain transformational movements. Earlier generative studies stipulate that root transformational movements are simply exempt from constraints on landing sites of movements.
Two recent more restrictive theories remedy this. Rizzi (1997) restricts landing sites to SPEC and head positions of specially labeled projections such as TopP and FocP. Emonds (2004) proposes rather that such root projections (“Discourse Shells”) have no labels. This essay argues that root movements are then subject, like all others, to Structure Preservation, and that their landing sites are better conceived as SPECs and heads of “label-less” or a-categorial projections. Keywords: discourse shell; dislocation; focus movement; German Verb-second; head movement; left periphery; rightward movement; root transformation; structure-preservation; tensed-S constraint; topicalization
The syntax of MCP
Authors: Haegeman Liliane
Published: March 2014

This paper proposes that the restricted distribution of MCP follows from locality conditions on movement. The focus is the well-known absence of argument fronting in English adverbial clauses, but the account extends naturally to other clause types and to other MCP. Underlying most syntactic accounts of the distributional restrictions on MCP is the intuition that certain clause types cannot fully exploit their left-peripheral space. This intuition is directly expressed in configurational terms in what I will be calling ‘truncation’ accounts which postulate that a segment of the articulated left periphery is unavailable. In this paper I develop an intervention-based account for MCP. In this account the effect of ‘truncation’ is no longer stated as a primitive but is syntactically derived.
Parenthetical main clauses – or not?
Authors: de Vries Mark
Published: March 2014

Syntactic and semantic characteristics canonically associated with main clauses do not always go together. This paper discusses two puzzling construction types from this perspective: appositive relative clauses (ARCs) and quasi-relatives. I argue that ARCs and appositions are related, and that relativization as such and parenthesis are independent effects. Specifically, an analysis of attributive construal as restrictive relativization of an abstract specific indefinite head explains the syntactically subordinated status of ARCs; on the other hand, the semantic main clause effects attested in ARCs are due to their construal as parenthetical specifications of the anchor, comparable to identificational appositions. Like ARCs, quasi-relatives seem to involve an E-type link with the anchor, but they lack a relative operator, and qualify as main clauses that are either coordinated to the host at the sentence level or inserted as regular parentheticals.
Crossing the lake
Authors: Brandner Ellen , Salzmann Martin
Published: March 2014

The Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in south-western Germany are structurally very similar. This seems to extend to the motion verb construction where the motion verb is obligatorily followed by an element gi/go followed by an infinitive. Upon closer inspection, however, intriguing asymmetries emerge. We account for these differences by treating gi/go as belonging to different syntactic categories. This synchronic difference in categorization can be related to different historical developments, as proposed by Lötscher (1993): both elements go back to the preposition gen ‘towards’ and developed into a functional head with purpose/goal semantics that combines with a non-finite verbal projection. We will show that while gi in Bodensee-Alemannic still heads this functional projection, go in Swiss German has been reanalyzed as a verbal element and is now integrated into the Verb Raising and Verb Projection Raising system.
Conditional clauses, Main Clause Phenomena and the syntax of polarity emphasis
Authors: Danckaert Lieven , Haegeman Liliane
Published: March 2014

This paper addresses two properties of conditional clauses: (i) their incompatibility with Main Clause Phenomena (MCP), exemplified by English argument fronting, and (ii) the unavailability of Speaker Oriented Adverbs (Ernst 2009) (SpOAs). The paper elaborates the hypothesis (Bhatt & Pancheva 2002, 2006) that conditionals are derived by operator movement: the absence of MCP then follows from locality conditions. Adopting the cartographic approach to SpOAs (Cinque 1999), we propose that the operator which derives conditionals originates in SpecMoodirrealis. This implementation of the movement derivation accounts for the unavailability of SpOAs. The final part of the paper extends the range of MCP: it shows that polarity emphasis is not a homogeneous phenomenon: certain expressions of emphatic polarity are MCP and hence unavailable in conditionals, while others are not restricted to root domains.
Deriving reconstruction asymmetries in Across The Board by means of asymmetric extraction + ellipsis
Authors: Salzmann Martin
Published: March 2014

Zurich German is among the languages that can combine resumptive and gap derivations in Across The Board (ATB) contexts. There is clear evidence in Zurich German that gap and resumptive relatives involve different derivations: while gap relatives involve movement, resumptive relatives involve base-generation. I will argue that the combination of gaps and resumptives in ATB can be compared with well-established cases of asymmetric LF-movement in coordination and thus calls for a representational definition of the CSC. I will then extend asymmetric extraction to bona fide cases of ATB. Evidence for asymmetric extraction comes from reconstruction asymmetries between the two conjuncts: Reconstruction into the first conjunct is systematic while reconstruction into the second is only partial. This pattern is argued to follow from an ellipsis operation that deletes the extracted elements in the second conjunct under identity with those in the first. The reconstruction asymmetries are the result. of mismatches between the two conjuncts that are independently known to be tolerated in ellipsis. By means of a derivational implementation based on Agree ellipsis is adequately restricted. The present analysis thus reduces ATB to independently available operations and offers a uniform perspective on seemingly diverse phenomena.
A constraint on remnant movement
Authors: Hunter Tim
Published: March 2014

The aim of this paper is to assess the empirical fit of a constraint on remnant movement that is derived as a consequence of a certain reformulation of the mechanisms underlying syntactic movement. The constraint arises from the similarity between remnant movement configurations, on the one hand, and configurations of the sort that produce “freezing effects” on the other; the reformulated system disallows the latter, and imposes a condition on the former that appears quite restrictive. I show here, however, that a large portion of the uses of remnant movement in the literature work within the bounds predicted by this unusual constraint, including analyses of data concerning VP-fronting, German “incomplete category fronting”, verb-second, and SOV and VSO word orders.
‘Phasing’ contrast at the interfaces
Authors: Frascarelli Mara , Ramaglia Francesca
Published: March 2014

This paper is concerned with the interpretation of markedness at the interfaces. Special attention is given to the analysis of (specific types of) Topic constituents, aimed to show the feature-compositional nature of discourse categories. In particular, the notion of contrast is addressed, showing that discourse features are systematically associated with specific functional heads and require validation through Agree to obtain interpretation at the interfaces. In this line of analysis, the notion of phase proves to play a crucial role insofar as the syntactic visibility of embedded discourse-semantic features is dependent on their location in the edge or head (as opposed to the complement position) within the hosting phase. Keywords: contrast; conversational dynamics; givenness; phase; syntax-prosody interface
Binding at the syntax-information structure interface
Authors: Lahousse Karen
Published: March 2014

This article argues for a cartographic analysis of binding, which preserves a syntactic approach in terms of c-command and incorporates information structure. We claim that an extensive account of the binding effects must integrate a sentence structural configuration where Topic always projects at the left periphery of the clause. This hypothesis accounts for the same connectivity effects in specificational pseudoclefts and reverse pseudoclefts as Heycock and Kroch’s (2002) analysis, as well as for those that remain unexplained in their work. Moreover, our proposal adequately deals with a vast array of binding cases which are not accounted for by standard Binding Theory. Keywords:﻿﻿ topic; cartography; connectivity effects; pseudoclefts; binding
On ‘focus movement’ in Italian
Authors: Bianchi Valentina
Published: March 2014

In this paper I discuss optional movement of focus constituents to the left periphery of the clause in Italian. Restricting my discussion to corrective exchanges – where focus occurs in a reply that denies the preceding assertion – I show that the fronted position and the ‘low’ position are not completely equivalent, in that certain contexts disallow the former, but allow the latter. I sketch out a characterization of two distinct interpretations for the focus structure: a truly corrective interpretation, and a merely contrastive one. Finally, I briefly consider the consequences of these findings for the general view of the syntax–semantics interface. Keywords:﻿﻿ focus movement; contrastive focus; correction; syntax-pragmatics interface
Low, high and higher applicatives
Authors: Öztürk Balkız
Published: March 2014

Pylkkänen (2002, 2008) proposes that cross-linguistically there are two types of applicative constructions: high applicatives selecting a VP as their complement and low applicatives requiring a DP in their complement position. In this study, we will show that Pazar Laz presents evidence for a third type of applicative construction, which we call higher applicatives. We will argue that these applicatives specifically select an agentive vP as their complement, where the applied argument that is introduced by the applied head is coindexed with an implicit agent introduced in Spec, vP. Keywords: applicatives; Pazar Laz
Vocalic adjustments under positional markedness in Catalan and other Romance languages
Authors: Jiménez Jesús , Lloret Maria-Rosa
Published: March 2014

While in a wide range of phonological theories preservation under prominence is a well noticed effect, there are few explanations for the accumulation of prominent properties in a particular position. Both tendencies, however, as well as their interaction, are particularly suited to formal expression within Optimality Theory. The aim of this paper is to show that the word-initial position is a site of vowel preservation (Positional Faithfulness) and a point of attraction of salient features (Positional Markedness). The focus is on the less familiar effect of get-together prominent elements in order to shed new light on several vocalic adjustments that have been unsatisfactorily explained in the traditional literature of Romance languages. Key Words: Vowel change; epenthesis; prominence; Positional Faithfulness; Positional Markedness; Optimality Theory; Catalan; Romance languages.
On sloppy readings, ellipsis and pronouns
Authors: Quer Josep , Rosselló Ximenes Joana
Published: March 2014

The existing syntactic accounts of null arguments typically rely either on the specific licensing conditions for different types of empty categories such as pro and (topic-)bound variables, or else on different kinds of ellipsis. In trying to address the radical argument drop character of Catalan Sign Language (LSC), this paper critically reassesses the two main trends in the analysis of this phenomenon in East Asian languages and their extensions to American Sign Language (ASL). Both hybrid and uniform approaches to empty arguments turn out to be unable to account for the non-negligible differences observed across East Asian and sign languages. Most importantly, the availability of sloppy readings for empty arguments as a criterion to identify ellipsis vis-à-vis empty pronouns is shown to be empirically incorrect on the basis of fresh data from Catalan and English. After intensive research in this domain over the years, a satisfactory theory of null arguments that does justice to the wealth of crosslinguistic variation is still lacking.
The oblique genitive in English
Authors: Payne John
Published: March 2014

The English oblique genitive construction, illustrated by examples such as a friend of the Prime Minister’s, has variously been analysed as a conditioned variant of the subject-determiner construction (the Prime Minister’s friend), as a conditioned variant of the of-oblique (a friend of the Prime Minister), or as an equivalent of the partitive (one of the Prime Minister’s friends). Alternatively, the oblique genitive has also been treated as an independent construction which in different ways competes with the rest. In this paper, using both the British National Corpus and web-based examples, we examine the extent of variation permitted by the oblique genitive, and conclude that its treatment as an independent construction is the correct one.
A Mozart sonata and the Palme murder
Authors: Koptjevskaja-Tamm Maria
Published: March 2014

This paper focuses on Swedish nominal compounds with a personal proper name as their first component (PropN-compounds), e.g. en Mozart+sonat ‘a Mozart sonata’ or Palme+mord-et ‘the Palme murder’ (‘Palme+murder-the’). Although these expressions have so far hardly appeared in the scientific discourse on possession, they do in fact constitute an important resource for expressing possession in the broadest sense in Swedish and, further, in Germanic. For instance, many PropN-compounds are more or less synonymous with nominals modified by preposed s-genitives and/or by postposed prepositional phrases, i.e. by the two constructions that make up the core of adnominal possession in Swedish. In the present paper I will be mostly interested in the structure and meanings/uses of PropN-compounds, in particular, as compared to the other “possessive” constructions in Swedish.
Possessive clitics and ezafe in Urdu
Authors: Bögel Tina , Butt Miriam
Published: March 2014

In this paper we compare two ways of expressing possession in the Indo-Aryan language Urdu. While the genitive case marker can be analyzed as a clitic in a relatively straightforward way, the ezafe construction poses a challenge when it comes to its classification as either a phrasal affix or clitic. Samvelian (2007) analyzes Persian ezafe as a phrasal affix that is generated within the morphological component, rejecting a postlexical analysis. After taking a look at the data for both constructions, we challenge Samvelian’s view of ezafe and explore the possibilities for the interplay of phonology, morphology and syntax to resolve the tension between the lexical/affixal properties of clitics and their behavior as an independent syntactic item. In addition to the syntactic representation, we invoke postlexical prosodic phonology to cover all the properties of clitics in general and ezafe in particular. Thus, we show that it is not necessary to distinguish between phrasal affixes and clitics.
On the syntax of the accusative/dative alternation in spatial PPs in Norwegian dative dialects
Authors: Åfarli Tor A.
Published: March 2014

This paper investigates the systematic alternations between accusative and dative case that is found with spatial prepositions in Norwegian dative dialects. This case alternation is correlated with directional and locative interpretations respectively, and is a phenomenon well known from other (Germanic) languages. The paper argues that the dative/locative type is the default version of any given alternating preposition, and that the accusative/directional version only occurs when the preposition is the head of a small clause predicate PP in the complement domain of the verb phrase. In that case, the accusative/directional property is imposed by a selecting resultative head in the aspectual structure of the verb phrase. In the absence of a resultative head, a PP may be a small clause predicate in the complement domain of the verb phrase and still retain its default locative/dative properties. Thus, it is correctly predicted that we find presentational sentences with both stative and activity verbs taking a locative/dative PP as a small clause predicate.
Non-finite adjuncts in French
Authors: Helland Hans Petter
Published: March 2014

In this paper, I discuss the morphological build-up of the French gérondif en + V-ant and compare it to the present participle V-ant. On the basis of this discussion, en is to be treated as a prepositional complementizer just as de and à with infinitives. Arguments are given for a recategorization process of en from preposition to complementizer. The analysis is supported by facts from binding, agreement and cliticization. This means that the French gérondif, besides being verbal in nature, enters into clausal constructions just like the present participles. This conclusion enables us to revise some of the arguments in the literature for the gérondif as a mono-morphemic structure.
Two indirect passive constructions in Japanese
Authors: Deguchi Masanori
Published: March 2014

In this study, I examine two indirect passive constructions in Japanese. Indirect passives are also known as “affective” passives since a participant in the encoded event is somehow affected. The two indirect passives discussed here crucially differ in the way the participant is affected. It is generally affected negatively with the rare-passive (hence, the “adversative” passive). In contrast, it is always affected positively with the morau-passive (hence, the “benefactive” passive). On the basis of this difference, I scrutinize the very notion of adversity and examine how the sense of adversity comes about for the rare-passive. I then discuss why adversity never arises for the morau-passive, and a benefactive reading instead obtains.
Clisis revisited
Authors: Fernández-Rubiera Francisco José
Published: March 2014

This paper contributes to the literature that discusses the trigger for enclisis and proclisis alternations. Empirically, this article presents new data from Asturian, a Western Iberian Romance language which, unlike Galician and European Portuguese, exhibits enclisis also in finite embedded contexts. I argue that this empirical evidence supports an analysis of enclisis/proclisis alternations in terms of syntactic A′- or X0-movement to Finiteness0. I illustrate the different interpretations that enclisis/proclisis alternations give rise to in the finite embedded context in Asturian, and I show how they are naturally captured by the proposed analysis. Moreover, the unavailability of embedded enclisis in Galician and European Portuguese can be easily explained, ultimately relating to differences in the complementizer system in this group of languages.
Pronominal markers in Cajun French
Authors: Girard Lomheim Francine Alice
Published: March 2014

This article examines subject and object pronominal markers in Cajun French, a mainly oral variety of French spoken in Southwestern Louisiana. The data show that although Cajun shares a certain amount of features with other colloquial and dialectal French varieties, it cannot be analyzed along quite the same lines. I will show that it has come further than these varieties in the grammaticalization process of its pronominal markers towards affixal agreement markers, and that they are even in the process of being reduced to nothing and replaced by strong forms.
Reflexive verbs and the restructuring of clitic clusters
Authors: Meklenborg Salvesen Christine
Published: March 2014

In Old French, all clitic clusters containing objects observed the order ACC–DAT. During the 15th and 16th centuries this order was changed into DAT–ACC in cases where objects of the 1st and 2nd person were involved. This change took place rather abruptly. In this paper I will argue that increased use of reflexive forms provoked a change in the order in these clitic clusters. More specifically, I will argue that clusters involving 1st and 2nd person argumental clitics form true clusters in Modern French (in the sense of Pescarini (2012)), whereas they formed split clusters in the old language.
(Pseudo)clefts at the syntax-prosody-discourse interface
Authors: Frascarelli Mara , Ramaglia Francesca
Published: March 2014

This paper proposes an interface approach to (pseudo)cleft constructions, in which their semantic, syntactic, discourse and intonational properties are examined in a cross-linguistic perspective. Following most influential studies, the relevant constructions are analyzed as specificational copular sentences, in which the two major constituents – a (free) relative DP and the (to be) focused phrase – are merged in a SC structure. However, based on formal evidence and discourse considerations, we take the clefted constituent to be merged as the predicate of the relevant construction, thus departing from the general view. Finally, (pseudo)clefts are also shown to imply a Topic strategy. This proposal is substantiated by intonational investigation, showing a crucial correlation between tonal events and the information-structural articulation activated by clefting. Keywords: Focus; interface; (pseudo)clefts; specificational copular sentences; (different types of) Topic(s)
Cleft partitionings in Japanese, Burmese and Chinese
Authors: Hole Daniel , Zimmermann Malte
Published: March 2014

The article presents the first comparative overview and analysis of clefting and related focusing strategies involving clauses with nominalizers in three (South) East Asian languages: Japanese, Burmese, and Mandarin Chinese. The three languages exhibit parametric variation as to whether focusing requires the overt partitioning into a focused cleft constituent and a background clause with a nominalizer (Mandarin) or not (Japanese, Burmese). A major finding is that syntactic partitioning is brought about in two different ways in the languages under discussion: Base-generated clefts (Japanese, Burmese) vs. movement clefts (Japanese, Mandarin). Semantically, cleft structures come with an exhaustive interpretation in all three languages. We hypothesize that, crosslinguistically, syntactic partitioning is a necessary, though not a sufficient condition for exhaustiveness effects with focus. Keywords: Cleft; exhaustiveness; partitioning; shì…de-cleft; nominalizer; East Asian; South East Asian; Mandarin Chinese; Burmese; Japanese
Chapter 1. A tale of two paradigms
Authors: MacWhinney Brian
Published: March 2014

The modern study of language, particularly as practiced in the Anglophone community, can be viewed as the tale of two competing paradigms: Universal Grammar (UG) and emergentism. These two paradigms take fundamentally different positions on these eight core issues: competence-performance, the centrality of recursion, the sudden evolution of language, the genetic control of language, the idea that speech is special, critical periods for language learning, neurological modules supporting language, and the poverty of the stimulus to the language learning. For researchers in the UG tradition, the vision of a recent evolution of language triggered by mutation in a few select genes predicts the formation of language modules, structures supporting recursion, and critical periods. Emergentists view language evolution as a gradual process based on dozens of mutations that impact general purpose cognitive and physiological mechanisms in many flexible ways. For emergentists, recursion and competence are not hard-wired facilities, but emergent abilities. Because of its greater complexity, the articulation of the emergentist position has depended heavily on advances in computer technology and the growth of multimedia databases, imaging technology, neural network modeling, and methods for dynamic assessment.
Chapter 7. Linguistic relativity in first language acquisition
Authors: Hickmann Maya
Published: March 2014

The relationship between language and cognition is perhaps one of the oldest questions in the history of social and cognitive sciences. This question is presently at the center of lively debates in light of a growing number of cross-linguistic studies suggesting that language-specific factors could have an impact on language acquisition and even more generally on cognitive organization. This chapter illustrates some results in the domain of space, with particular attention to the expression of motion in two languages (French and English) that lexicalize spatial information in different types of structures (Talmy 2000). The synthesis of these results shows striking cross-linguistic differences in how adults and children (two to ten years) express different types of voluntary and caused motion events in a variety of situations, indicating that typological constraints affect how children organize information from the youngest age onwards. The discussion points to ongoing research that further explores the language-cognition interface in order to examine the potentially deeper impact of language-specific factors on speakers’ conceptual representations of space.
Second language gap processing of Japanese scrambling under a Simpler Syntax account
Authors: Hara Masahiro
Published: March 2014

This self-paced reading study provides evidence of second language (L2) learners’ ability to perform syntactic gap processing while reading sentences with scrambling in Japanese. Due to the verb-finality of Japanese, syntactic gap processing occurs before the verb’s argument structure information becomes available. The two scrambling conditions included in the study were constructed by dislocating the direct object of a double object construction either a short distance (short scrambling) or farther away (long scrambling) from its canonical pre-verbal position. Both conditions involve syntactic gap processing at the pre-verbal position; however, there is greater difficulty narrowing syntactic predictions at the pre-verbal position in the long than in the short scrambling condition (Nakatani & Gibson, 2008). The study included advanced Korean and Chinese learners and native speakers of Japanese (24 participants per group). The Korean learners showed a reading slowdown at the pre-verbal gap-implicating region in the short scrambling condition but not in the long scrambling condition as the latter apparently overtaxed their cognitive resources. The Chinese learners exhibited no evidence of syntactic gap processing in either scrambling condition. The article proposes a unified account under Simpler Syntax (Culicover & Jackendoff, 2005) of how learners process short- and long-distance scrambling. The account allows for the view that under a high computational demand, learners’ gap processing may result in structurally underspecified but nevertheless legitimate representation of an input string, which is accomplished by making adjustments in the syntax–semantics interface rules and without overreliance on semantic–pragmatic information.
Translation ambiguity
Authors: Tokowicz Natasha , Degani Tamar
Published: March 2014

Translation ambiguity occurs when a word in one language can be translated in more than one way into another language. This cross-language phenomenon comes from several sources of within-language ambiguity including lexical ambiguity, polysemy, and near-synonymy. We review the existing research on translation ambiguity, including its consequences for vocabulary learning, for lexical processing (e.g., translation performance), and for meaning representation. When possible, we discuss how the impact of translation ambiguity is affected by or interacts with the source of the ambiguity (i.e., near-synonymy vs. lexical ambiguity) and L2 proficiency level.
The Russian Auden and the Russianness of Auden
Authors: Friedberg Nila
Published: March 2014

One of Joseph Brodsky’s primary mentors, W.H. Auden constituted a key influence on the Russian poet. At the same time, Brodsky found Auden extremely difficult to translate. Rendering Auden’s “Stop all the Clocks” in Russian, Brodsky does not preserve Auden’s form, opting instead for iambic hexameter, a meter not frequently used by Russian poets in Brodsky’s time. I argue that the difficulty of translating Auden is that “Stop All the Clocks” recalls too much the Russian dol’nik – for the post-emigration Brodsky, the most “neutral” meter. Thus, problems in translation can arise not only because of prosodic differences between poets and languages, but even when two poets happen to be metrically similar, because a translator may seek through formal distinctiveness to pay homage to the author of the original. I further show that Brodsky’s metrical choice, i.e., iambic hexameter, is not accidental and represents a complex blend of semantic links to various poets and texts, including an echo of Brodsky’s own earlier poem devoted to his mentor Anna Akhmatova. What is the function of rhythm in poetry? What esthetic ends are served by the formal patterns […]? No doubt the formal organization of meter is determined in a complex way by the interacting demands of esthetic function and linguistic form. But how? Kiparsky (1977: 246)