bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A comparative perspective on intensive reflexives
Authors: Cohen Dana
Published: March 2014

Position variability is one of the defining properties of intensive reflexives (IRs). This distributional pattern often leads to isomorphic, even polysemous treatments. This paper presents a unified account of IRs based on the examination of IRs in English and Hebrew. The proposed analysis establishes a single core function for the expression, the establishment of comparison. This core function involves a set of relations (inclusion, exclusion and scalarity) that bear the status of conversational implicatures in this construction. It is argued that the choice of IR position marks scope differences and signals variations in information structure. Despite various morpho-syntactic differences between the languages, the proposed analysis is shown to account for the function of IRs in English
and Hebrew alike.
Focus types and argument asymmetries
Authors: Skopeteas Stavros , Fanselow Gisbert
Published: March 2014

The effects of focus on syntax differ across languages: some languages encode focus in situ, while in other languages focus induces an array of constructions that deviate from the canonical configuration, such as non-canonical orders or clefts. This article presents semi-spontaneously produced data from American English, Québec French, Hungarian, and Georgian which shows that speakers of these languages select different structures under identical discourse conditions. The observed cross-linguistic differences are accounted for by means of grammatical properties of the object languages that hold independently of information structure. This account leads to the conclusion that a non-compositional mapping between information structural concepts and structural configurations is an unnecessary complication of the grammatical model.
Topicality in L1-acquisition
Authors: Hauser-Grüdl Nicole
Published: March 2014

Although the study of human information structure has become a major field of linguistic interest, little research has examined topicality in L1-acquisition. Those studies dealing with topicality in child speech almost all focus on the question if children do or do not possess the adult ability to correctly identify and encode topics. The child’s performance of encoding topical information is thus classified as “correct” if it corresponds to the adult norm or as “deficient” in case it doesn’t. Such a way of interpreting the data does not consider that children’s topic-marking may follow its own rules, which are based on a different understanding of children of what a topic is. This latter possibility will be discussed in this article for the domain of null subjects in child French and German.
On the foundations of the contrastive study of information structure
Authors: Breul Carsten
Published: March 2014

The paper presents some ideas on the delineation of a more specific contrastive approach to information structure analysis within the larger and more loosely circumscribed comparative area. It will be argued that this delineation can be effected by emphasising the methodological role of the notion tertium comparationis. Ontological and methodological aspects of contrastive information structure analysis will be discussed, and benefits of taking a specifically contrastive approach to information structure will be pointed out. Finally, some lines of argumentation and observations from the preceding chapters of the present volume that can be construed as instances of contrastive information structure analysis will be briefly recapitulated.
Types of transitivity, intransitive objects, and untransitivity – and the logic of their structural designs
Authors: Abraham Werner
Published: March 2014

This discussion is on diathetic derivative relations between verbs and their distribution between the syntactic component and the lexicon. We investigate whether or not the lexicon of verbs can be based on derivative relations such that there is only one basic type of verb – let us assume, transitive verbs –, which lie at the base of all other verbs. The conclusion will be that, on the basis of a few cross-linguistic patterns, such a division of work can indeed be achieved. The main criterion to motivate essential differences is aspect (or Aktionsart as applied on German, which is not an aspect language in the Slavic sense) in terms of perfectivity vs. imperfectivity.
The interaction of transitivity features in the sinhala involitive
Authors: Beavers John , Zubair Cala
Published: March 2014

The Sinhala volitive/involitive contrast is characterized by verb stem and subject case marking alternations, and broadly indicates the volitionality/non-volitionality of the subject, plus other co-varying features. While superficially a high/low transitivity split à la Hopper and Thompson (1980), we argue that the distinction actually emerges from the interaction of just two factors: a realis/irrealis mode contrast relating to expectations of certain event participants and an independent semantic case system (building on Inman 1993). Co-variation of other semantic features – including volitionality – follows directly from their interaction with semantic case and modality. Explaining this transitivity split through the interaction of language-specific elements, our analysis refines recent Optimality Theoretic approaches to transitivity (Malchukov 2005, 2006) by partly obviating the need for separate, transitivity-specific constraints and constraint rankings.
Transitivity in Chinese experiencer object verbs
Authors: Verhoeven Elisabeth
Published: March 2014

This article discusses semantic and syntactic properties of experiencer object constructions in Chinese. Cross-linguistically, experiencer object verbs have been shown to display some special semanto-syntactic properties which distinguish them from canonical transitive verbs. This has led to the conclusion that experiencer objects are non-canonical objects or even (quirky) subjects in many languages. The present paper investigates the characteristics of experiencer object verbs in Chinese using a number of tests that have been applied cross-linguistically to identify the status of these verbs and their objects. It turns out that in contrast to experiencer object verbs in languages like German or English, Chinese experiencer object verbs display all the semanto-syntactic properties of canonical transitive verbs.
Grammatical transitivity vs. interpretive distinctness
Authors: Schlesewsky Matthias , Choudhary Kamal Kumar , Bornkessel-Schlesewsky Ina
Published: March 2014

This chapter examines the role of transitivity in online language comprehension by means of an event-related brain potential (ERP) study on differential object marking in Hindi. Participants read sentences of the form NP1-NP2-Verb; NP1 always bore ergative case, whereas NP2 was either case-marked (with -ko) or not. In addition, both NP1 and NP2 were either human or inanimate. At the verb, we observed a late positivity (P600) for sentences with non-case-marked objects, which was more pronounced for sentences with human objects and for sentences with inanimate subjects. We argue that the P600 reflects processes of pragmatic enrichment that are required when a semantically transitive event is expressed by a syntactically intransitive construction.
The space between one and two
Authors: de Schepper Kees
Published: March 2014

In this paper I will discuss Kemmer’s (1993) middle map, a semantic map covering semantic concepts like Reflexivity, Reciprocity and the Passive. Her claim is that those middle meanings serve as a bridge between the categories of Two-Participant events and One-Participant events, the semantic counterparts of transitive and intransitive verbs, respectively. However, in this paper it will be argued that there is no such bridging function; there is a direct connection between Two-Participant and One-Participant events.
The role of larynx height in the Javanese tense ~ lax stop contrast
Authors: Brunelle Marc
Published: March 2014

Javanese has a phonemic contrast between two series of stops. Tense stops are modern reflexes of Proto-Austronesian voiceless stops while lax stops correspond to former voiced stops. This complex contrast includes acoustic properties such as pitch, voice quality, vowel quality and VOT. Although different acoustic studies have yielded similar results, there is still disagreement over the type of articulatory mechanism(s) responsible for the tense~lax opposition. In this study, a laryngoscopic video of two Javanese speakers recorded by Katrina Hayward in 1994 is reanalyzed to determine if vertical laryngeal position is playing a role in the Javanese stop contrast. Results reveal a consistent lowering of the larynx during lax stops, suggesting similarities with Mainland Southeast Asian register.
Reduplication in Tanjung Raden Malay
Authors: Yanti  , Raimy Eric
Published: March 2014

In this article, we present novel reduplication data from Tanjung Raden Malay (henceforth TR Malay) and provide a formal analysis of all reduplication patterns in TR Malay within Precedence Based Phonology (Raimy 2000, 2009). TR Malay exhibits three patterns of reduplication previously documented in other Malay dialects, such as Standard Indonesian and Riau Indonesian: full reduplication, CV reduplication, and C[6] reduplication. However, Tanjung Raden Malay exhibits six additional patterns. We claim that TR Malay has innovated the additional six patterns, and the three reduplication patterns attested in all varieties of Malay discussed here are the basic patterns. Our analysis puts forth a theory that explains the connections between the six innovated and three common reduplication patterns in Tanjung Raden Malay.
Phonological evidence for the structure of Javanese compounds
Authors: Tang Katrina Schack
Published: March 2014

This paper presents field data from Javanese showing that Noun-Noun and Noun-Adjective compounds in Javanese are phonologically distinct from both non-compound words and phrases. I explore the idea that this behavior can be explained by a syntactic approach in which this difference arises from a distinction between early and late spell-out (Chomsky 1999). I further argue that various phonological approaches to the same data are unable to produce the desired surface forms.
Intonation, information structure and the derivation of inverse VO languages
Authors: Frascarelli Mara
Published: March 2014

The correspondence between grammatical and prosodic boundaries is widely acknowledged in the literature and a number of recent works have studied the syntax–prosody interface and its relation to information structure. In this line of analysis, this paper presents the results of a pioneering interface investigation (based on natural data) on two inverse VO languages, Tagalog and Malagasy.Crucial similarities and important asymmetries provide a contribution to the understanding of intonational properties and to the ongoing debate on word order derivation. In particular, prosodic evidence and information-structural considerations show that the V-initial order is derived through vP (remnant) movement in both languages. This movement, however, is not directly connected with focus, since it also occurs when the vP does not convey new information. A connection with an (extended) EPP requirement is therefore proposed as a property of ‘predicate-fronting’ languages.
The case of possessors and ‘subjects’
Authors: Donohue Cathryn , Donohue Mark
Published: March 2014

Possessors have often been treated as the ‘subjects’ of the DPs in which they appear, being analyzed as surfacing in [spec, DP] by analogy to the standard analysis for clausal subjects in a configurational framework of grammar. In this paper , we present a new descriptive generalization showing that there is in fact much variation in the coding of genitive phrases, and that the simple equation of subjects to possessors fails to capture the range of variation attested cross-linguistically. Examining a broad selection of Austronesian languages, we conclude that an understanding of the systemic oppositions in a particular language is essential to understanding the syncretisms found in that language and that while the subject/possessor syncretisms are widespread, the only clear generalization that can be drawn about possessors in Austronesian is that processors are marked using the ‘default’ case marker.
Possession syntax in Unua DPs
Authors: Pearce Elizabeth
Published: March 2014

The Unua dialect of Unua-Pangkumu, like other Oceanic languages of Vanuatu, has contrasting Direct and Indirect Possession constructions. Although these constructions are well-known from the literature, they have not yet been subsumed into a formal syntactic framework. In the terms of such a treatment, the present paper argues that in Unua the Direct Possessor argument is the syntactic complement of the head noun, whereas the Indirect Possessor argument is freely merged in an intermediate level of the DP structure. The “mirror-image” surface orderings of both types of possession constructions are then shown to be derivable by iterative phrasal movements on a right-branching base hierarchical structure conforming with the Linear Correspondence Axiom of Kayne (1994).
Seediq adverbial verbs
Authors: Holmer Arthur
Published: March 2014

This paper addresses adverbial verbs found in Formosan languages and evaluates two competing hypotheses which attempt to derive this phenomenon from other features of the language. The predication hypothesis links the phenomenon to verb-initial word order, while the adverbial heads hypothesis places them as heads of adverbial phrases within the backbone of the clause, along the lines of Cinque (1999). It is shown that the predictions of the latter hypothesis are empirically confirmed, although the former hypothesis is typologically more ambitious.
Specification and inversion
Authors: Paul Ileana
Published: March 2014

This paper analyzes specificational sentences in Malagasy and shows that such sentences involve obligatory inversion, marked by the topic particle dia. I argue that the topicalized element is a small clause predicate that inverts with its subject. Two competing analyses of this inversion are compared and contrasted. I conclude with a brief comparison of Malagasy and Tagalog.
A unified analysis of Niuean Aki
Authors: Ball Douglas
Published: March 2014

This paper re-examines the alternation in the Polynesian language Niuean involving the instrumental particle aki (Seiter 1980, Massam 1998), where aki can appear both as an apparent preposition and in the verbal complex, with its notional object having concomitantly different properties. A lexically-driven analysis is given for this alternation; namely, the morphosyntactic behavior of aki and its notional object in this alternation, as well as in long-distance dependency constructions, can be understood through the basic lexical entry of aki and its interaction with various other lexical operations, including argument structure extension, argument composition, and constraints on gap realization.
Deriving inverse order
Authors: Massam Diane
Published: March 2014

This paper explores word order in Niuean, a Polynesian language with VSO word order, within the context of theories that attempt to constrain the range and limits of possible word orders across languages (in particular Kayne 1994, Cinque 1999, 2005). First it is argued that V-initial order in Niuean is derived via verbal movement, through maximal predicate fronting. Following the predicate in Niuean are a sequence of inversely-ordered particles (Rackowski and Travis 2000). Various analyses are reviewed which attempt to account for the inverse ordering and to tie the V-initial word order to the inverse order of particles. Finally, the position of arguments is discussed. Their non-inverse ordering presents problems for inverse order derivations, assuming traditional theories of theta role assignment. It is proposed that we continue the trend towards separating arguments from their traditional theta role assigners and merge object arguments directly into specifiers of functional projections (as in, for example, Borer 2005). This allows for a comprehensive analysis of word order in Niuean.
The impersonal construction in Tagalog
Authors: Law Paul
Published: March 2014

This paper argues that the impersonal construction in Tagalog, in which a formally invariant predicate may/mayroon ‘exist/have’ is followed by a thematic predicate, is structurally related to the existential construction and the possessive construction both employing the same predicate may/mayroon. A variety of different facts including interpretation, NP distribution, patterns of argument-marking, word-order, pluralization, multiple occurrence of adverbials, long-distance construal of adverbs, locality and extraction are shown to follow from the analysis.
Anaphora in traditional Jambi Malay
Authors: Cole Peter , Hermon Gabriella , Yanti
Published: March 2014

The traditional Malay spoken in the villages across the Batanghari River from Jambi City in Sumatra, Indonesia displays an anaphoric system in which all anaphoric forms can be used in both “pronominal” and “reflexive” environments. Some forms, however, show a preference for a local (“reflexive”) interpretation, while other forms prefer a non-local (“pronominal”) interpretation. In contrast, in Standard Malay/Indonesian these forms are categorially either pronominal or reflexive. In this paper, we examine in detail the distribution of the anaphoric forms in the village dialects, and argue that this distribution is pragmatically based rather than determined by the Binding Theory. We conclude that it is plausible to view the distribution in the standard language as a grammaticalization of the system found in the villages, and not as a direct reflection of UG principles.
On parameters of agreement in Austronesian languages
Authors: Baker Mark C.
Published: March 2014

Baker 2008 claims that two parameters account for observed crosslinguistic variation in the syntax of agreement. One concerns the direction of agreement: whether or not an agreed-with NP must c-command the agreeing head. The other concerns the relationship of agreement to case: whether or not a head can agree with something it does not share a case feature with. In this article, I consider how these two parameters apply to Austronesian languages, concentrating on three representative case studies: Fijian, Tukang Besi, and Kapampangan. All three languages require upward agreement, but agreement is case-dependent only in Kapampangan. The agreement parameters also interact with certain differences in clause structure and movement, giving somewhat different agreement patterns in different languages.
The noun phrase in Germanic and Romance
Authors: Perridon Harry , Sleeman Petra
Published: March 2014

In this introductory chapter some of the main (dis)similarities in DP-syntax between the Germanic and Romance languages, as well as between the individual languages of each group, are explored. We take a look at the following subjects: (a) the ways in which the various languages express definiteness; (b) the position of adjectives; (c) the function of the weak declension of adjectives in Germanic; (d) the evolution of genitive equivalents; and (e) the emergence of determining possessives in Germanic. In each case we try to find out whether a given construction is inherited from the parent language or is an independent development in each of the languages or language groups. Special attention is paid to common developments after the languages split up into separate entities, since they might indicate some inherent properties of human language that restrict the way in which languages may develop.
Scaling the variation in Romance and Germanic nominalizations
Authors: Alexiadou Artemis , Iordachioaia Gianina , Schäfer Florian
Published: March 2014

We investigate the distribution of verbal and nominal layers in Romance and Germanic nominalizations. Specifically, we examine pairs of ‘verbal’ vs. ‘nominal’ nominalizations in two Romance (Spanish & Romanian) and two Germanic (English & German) languages. Our study proposes a large spectrum of nominal and verbal properties. While these are differently instantiated among languages, the variation we find cannot be attributed to a Germanic vs. Romance parameter; instead, we find micro-variation constrained by the compatibility between the general building blocks of verbal and nominal categories. Besides the vP-layers responsible for argument structure and Aktionsart and the DP-layer responsible for the nominal external syntax, we make a case for further functional verbal and nominal layers in nominalizations: Asp(ect)P, Class(ifier)P, and Num(ber)P. These projections are in complementary distribution in some languages and co-occur in others.
Micro-diversity in Dutch interrogative DPs
Authors: Corver Norbert , van Koppen Marjo
Published: March 2014

This paper presents a micro-comparative perspective on the Dutch wat voor ’n N-construction (meaning: “what kind of N”). Besides a description of the various formal manifestations of this nominal construction as found intra-dialectally and cross-dialectally, an analysis is given of the dimensions of variation at the level of internal syntax and external syntax. As regards the external syntax, an analysis will be given of patterns that permit a split wat voor ’n N-pattern and those that do not. An important outcome of our analysis will be that a uniform structural basis ‘underlies’ the different manifestations of the wat voor ’n N-construction: more specifically, predication, configurationally defined as a DP-internal small clause structure, and predicate displacement.
A unified structure for Scandinavian DPs
Authors: Lohrmann Susanne
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses doubling patterns of determiners in Scandinavian, the interaction between definite markers and adjectival inflection, and its effects on the structure of the DP. When an adjective precedes a definite noun an additional article is added preceding the adjective. This phenomenon has been referred to as ‘double definiteness’. Moreover, the adjective receives definite inflection so that the noun is actually defined three times. Questions arise as to the function of this multiple exponence of definiteness and the syntactic/semantic role of the morphemes involved. This article develops an account that argues for three components of definiteness in Scandinavian expressed by three distinct morphemes (the two articles and the adjectival inflection). The result is an analysis, based on the framework of Distributed Morphology, which captures the different realizations of definiteness in the Standard Scandinavian languages and which shows that multiple exponence in Scandinavian DPs evidently contributes to interpretation.
Definite determiners in two English-based creoles
Authors: Bobyleva Ekaterina
Published: March 2014

It has been repeatedly observed in the literature that unlike their European lexifiers, creoles do not mark definiteness categorically. The question addressed here is whether the distribution of overt definite determiners and bare definite NPs in two Atlantic English-based creoles, Jamaican and Sranan, can be accounted for in terms of the specificity constraint that underlies the determiner use in Gbe, one of their most important substrate languages. The data examined shows that definite determiners in the two creoles tend to follow the definiteness-based pattern. This suggests that English rather than Gbe played the most crucial role in the formation of the discourse-semantic and distributional properties of Jamaican and Sranan definite determiners. Bare definite NPs in the two creoles may occur when the referent is either unimportant or self-evident. Thus, determiner use in Jamaican and Sranan is sensitive not only to language-specific grammar rules but also to universally prominent pragmatic factors.
Form-function mismatches in (formally) definite English noun phrases
Authors: Lucas Christopher
Published: March 2014

This article discusses two classes of so-called ‘weak definites’, arguing that their (definite) form is misleading as to their (non-definite) semantics, and outlining a diachronic explanation for why each of these classes (observable in sentences such as Let’s go to the pub and He came to the bank of a river) should exhibit this particular form-function mismatch. For examples such as the pub the loss of an obligatorily definite interpretation is argued to be the result of a semantic reanalysis such that reference is no longer to a specific entity but to the activity conventionally associated with that entity. For examples such as the bank of a river the mismatch is argued to be a consequence of an incompatibility between the semantics of indefiniteness marking and the semantics of relational nouns, which arises when definiteness marking becomes obligatory in a language.
The emergence of the definite article in English
Authors: Crisma Paola
Published: March 2014

In this paper, based on quantitative evidence collected on the YCOE, I argue that the establishment of the definite article in English is no later than the last quarter of the 9th century, being regularly used in Old English prose of the ‘Alfredian’ period. This dating enables one to exclude the possibility that the levelling of inflections, the Norman invasion or the contact with the Danes might have played a role in introducing the definite article as an innovation, and leaves as the sole possible ‘external’ influence the Celtic substratum/adstratum.
On the syntax of Romanian definite phrases
Authors: Cornilescu Alexandra , Nicolae Alexandru
Published: March 2014

We discuss a type of variation in the pattern of definiteness valuation in Old Romanian (XVIth to XVIIIth century), which has never been noticed before, and examine its significance for the evolution of the DP. In Old Romanian, the suffixed definite article variably occurs either on the first or on a lower [+N] constituent (noun or adjective), so that an indefinite adjective may precede the definite noun. In contrast, in Modern Romanian, it is always the first noun which bears the definite article, while, in case an adjective precedes the noun, the definite article occurs on the adjective. The existence of this lower (definite) article raises several questions (the contexts where it occurs, its significance for the emergence of the enclitic definite article, etc.), to which this paper provides tentative answers. We propose that the existence of a lower definite article combined with a tendency for economy made possible the extension of the use of the article to (pre‑nominal) adjectives, gradually leading to stricter conditions in the valuation of definiteness in Modern Romanian (Local Agree). At the same time, the lower article is evidence that the Romanian enclitic definite article originates in a post-posed demonstrative.
Anaphoric adjectives becoming determiners
Authors: Van de Velde Freek
Published: March 2014

Standard accounts of determiners typically deal with the few well-known elements that fall under this category: articles, demonstratives, possessives and (some) quantifiers. It can be shown, however, that the determiner slot in Dutch can also be occupied by certain elements that do not regularly feature in reference grammars, namely the anaphoric adjectives like voornoemd (“aforementioned”). Their syntax is subject to variation in Present-day Dutch, and possibly to change as well: a corpus study reveals that they are increasingly used as unequivocal determiners, irrespective of their token frequency.
From N to D
Authors: Déprez Viviane
Published: March 2014

Based on a thorough review of their feature make up and on novel diachronic data on their modification properties, this paper maps out the internal syntactic structure of French n-words and the historical time course of their internal rise within a nominal projection. It charts out precise steps that directly relate internal structural changes to corresponding changes in concord properties. Indirect modification with autre as in rien d’autre is shown to be an innovation of modern French that serves to provide a distinctive signature of the final morphosyntactic change of n-words into negative quantificational expressions. The evidence offered supports the hypothesis (Déprez 2000; Condoravdi & Kiparsky 2006) that it was change in the internal structure of n-words that determined the current properties of negative concord, not changes in the sentential negation marker, contra Zeijlstra (2004 and following work).
The development of conversational competence in children with Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Kurtz Robert M. , Wilbur Ronnie B.
Published: March 2014

Two adult raters viewed videotapes of children with and without SLI in spontaneous conversations. Raters identified violations of conversational rules and assigned each to a category based on a system developed by Bishop and Adams (1989). Children with SLI produced significantly more violations than their typical peers. All but two of the violations were analyzed as falling under the Gricean maxims of relation and quantity, consistent with results of earlier studies of younger, typically-developing children. These findings confirm that children with SLI exhibit lower pragmatic competence than their typically developing peers, inviting further study comparing children with SLI with younger controls to investigate the contributions of language development and cognitive maturation.
The impact of literal meaning on what-is-said
Authors: Liedtke Frank
Published: March 2014

Whithin the Gricean tradition, the question which stratum of an utterance one would intuitively judge as what-is-said (and what not) has been debated intensely. Several experimental approaches have been developed which are reported here. In addition, a study with examples in German has been performed. One result of the study is that the literal meaning of the utterance has a strong impact upon the tendency to judge something as what-is-said, thus it does not seem to be equal whether the suggested level of what-is-said is close to its literal meaning – the results of the studies are stronger in this case.
Pragmatic children
Authors: Müller Anja , Schulz Petra , Höhle Barbara
Published: March 2014

Our study investigated the abilities of 6-year-old German-speaking children to interpret sentences with and without the focus particle nur (only). We report two experiments: In Experiment 1 the study by Paterson et al. (2003) on English was replicated in German. We found that German-speaking children do not interpret only-sentences target-like. This supports Paterson et al. that children ignore information that is not verbally given. The second experiment investigated children’s pragmatic ability to judge underinformative sentences. The results indicate that children take into account information that is showed on a picture, but not verbally introduced. We argue that children’s performance in Experiment 1 is not caused by an insufficient pragmatic knowledge but rather to its methodological set up.
Adult response uniformity distinguishes semantics from pragmatics
Authors: Paltiel-Gedalyovich Leah R.
Published: March 2014

This paper reports data from 17 adult and 141 child Hebrew-speakers from experiments testing knowledge of the semantics and pragmatics of coordination, using a variant of the Truth-Value Judgment Task (Crain & Thornton 1998). Adults showed uniformity in judgments of semantic meaning, the truth-conditions of conjunction (ve/’and’, aval/’but’) and disjunction (o/’or’) and the non truth-conditional contrast associated with aval/’but’. By contrast, judgments of the pragmatic meanings, the scalar quantity implicatures associated with the use of disjunction, and the pseudo-scalar quantity implicature associated with the use of aval/’but’ implicatures, varied. Children from the age of 5 showed uniform adultlike knowledge of semantic, truth-conditional meaning, while the non-truth-conditional semantic and pragmatic meanings were not demonstrated even at the age of 9;6. I argue that it is uniformity which distinguishes semantics from pragmatics for adults. For children, it has been argued that earlier acquisition distinguishes semantics from pragmatics (e.g. Hyams 1996). I argue that the distinction between semantic and pragmatic meanings in age of acquisition is a reflection of the relational complexity of these meanings, for instance as measured by Halford, Wilson & Philllips’ (1998) relational complexity metric, and is not related to their classification as semantic or pragmatic meaning.
Numerals and scalar implicatures
Authors: Panizza Daniele , Chierchia Gennaro
Published: March 2014

In this paper we explore the relation between the meaning of number denoting determiners (‘numerals’) and the polarity of the context in which they occur. We claim that when numerals are embedded in positive (i.e. Upward Entailing) contexts they are given an upper bounded (‘exactly’) reading more often than when they are embedded in minimally different Downward Entailing contexts. Since this corresponds to the behavior of scalar triggers, we suggest that the stronger interpretation of a numeral is really due to a Scalar Implicature. We review the outcome of two experiments, a questionnaire and a reading task where eye movements were recorded, which tested this claim empirically. Finally, we discuss these findings in light of the current approaches on the semantics of numerals, analyzing in detail the relation between the meaning of a numeral and scalar strenghtening.
Meaning in the objects
Authors: Rohlfing Katharina
Published: March 2014

In this paper, I am arguing that objects being present in the external situation ground the linguistic meaning. Furthermore, I will show that the nature of objects can change not only linguistic but also gestural behavior. Instead of simply excluding materialistic factors, I therefore suggest a careful inclusion of object knowledge into experimental conditions. I also argue that we have to calculate the risk of eliminating important components for children’s reasoning, when we adapt this method to studies on children’s language development. Children are good learners because they are biased towards certain solutions (Dabrowska 2005). For this reason, it seems to be problematic to create novel or abstract situations in which children cannot draw from their nonlinguistic experiences.
Blocking modal enrichment (tatsächlich)
Authors: Schmitz Hans-Christian
Published: March 2014

I show that under the right circumstances recipients can carry out operations of modal enrichment. Such enrichment operations can be blocked. One means of blocking modal enrichment in German is using the adverb tatsächlich (‘in fact’). I define tatsächlich as an enrichment blocker and support this definition by experimental data.
The hepatitis called …
Authors: Schumacher Petra B.
Published: March 2014

This paper reports electrophysiological correlates of enriched composition, i.e. when certain aspects of the interpretation of an utterance must be constructed on the basis of information outside the syntactic and lexical representations associated with the utterance itself. It investigates the processes underlying reference transfer, a process by which a salient property of an individual may be used to refer to this individual. On the basis of the experimental data from reference transfer, but also from previous research on thematically-driven event structure updating triggered by certain inferential relations, it is proposed that enriched composition is discernible on the basis of a particular event-related brain potential (ERP) signature: a late positivity.
The role of QUD and focus on the scalar implicature of most
Authors: Zondervan Arjen
Published: March 2014

Where previous studies supported the effect of the contextual property of Question Under Discussion (QUD) and focus on the scalar implicature of or, this paper presents two experiments that replicate this effect with the scalar term most. Both experiments show that, while story and target sentence are kept constant, more scalar implicatures are calculated when the scalar term is in the focus (new information) part of the sentence. In the experiments, the focus is manipulated by an explicit QUD. It is shown that the effect also holds for sentential answers to yes/no-questions, and might even extend to scalar implicatures in questions themselves.
Almost forever
Authors: Horn Laurence R.
Published: March 2014

The division of labor between semantic and pragmatic contributions of almost and other proximatives has long been controversial. A watershed in this dispute is Sadock’s (1981) proposal that I almost won only conversationally implicates, rather than entailing, I didn’t win. Neither this “radical pragmatic” line nor a pure entailment account covers the full range of data, including the non-cancelability of the polar component and the distribution of polarity items. This gap prompts the construct of assertoric inertia (Horn 2002a), exploiting the distinction between what is entailed and what is asserted. I buttress that approach here with additional arguments, address the role of other semantic and pragmatic factors, and revisit the viability of assertoric inertia in the light of other recent work.
Sadock and the Performadox
Authors: Lycan William G.
Published: March 2014

In 1985 Jerry Sadock offered a solution to the Performadox, a puzzle about performative sentences propounded in 1980 by Boër and Lycan. The present paper defends Sadock’s approach, particularly against a number of objections previously made by Lycan.
A story of Jerry and Bob
Authors: Rogers Andy
Published: March 2014

In this paper Rogers examines two proposed accounts of pragmatic presupposition, offered by Stalnaker and Sadock at the 1973 Texas Conference, in light of what we now call presupposition accommodation. Rogers argues that the general process of utterance incrementation, pointed out by Stalnaker (1978), and developed in Rogers’s paper, reveals that the process of accommodation is more complex than envisioned in Stalnaker’s work, that Stalnaker’s account and Sadock’s apply at different points in the accommodation process, and that given a version of Stalnaker’s evolving account, extended in light of utterance incrementation, Sadock’s proposal appears to follow as a condition on utterance per se.
Conventionalization in indirect speech acts
Authors: Beals Katharine
Published: March 2014

This chapter examines what the pragmatic skills of autistic individuals suggest about the claim by Sadock (1970, 1972) and others that questions like “Can you pass the salt” are conventionalized for use as indirect requests. A review of the autism literature indicates that the primary pragmatic deficit in autism is in reading speakers’ minds. Autistic individuals should thus only fail at inferences involving speakers’ beliefs and intents, for example conversational implicatures. Anecdotal and empirical evidence bears this out. Autistic individuals correctly interpret non-literal uses of language so long as such uses are conventionalized, and so long as the conventions in question have entered their lexicons. In particular, they readily process “Can you” utterances as indirect requests, confirming Sadock’s thesis.
Nominalization affixes and multi-modularity of word formation
Authors: Sugioka Yoko
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses the nature of restrictions imposed by derivational affixes on the bases in word formation. While some derivational affixes select the base of a particular syntactic category, there are affixes whose restrictions on the base are semantic in nature. Two sets of nominalization affixes in Japanese (-sa and -mi; -kata and -buri) display different and disjoint semantic and syntactic selectional properties, which operate independently from each other, as well as interact to block certain derived nominal forms. The way different types of base selection by these affixes work and interact with each other is best accounted for by a modular approach to word formation, as advocated by the Autolexical Syntax model (Sadock 1991).
No more phology!
Authors: Neuvel Sylvain
Published: March 2014

This paper is an attempt to demonstrate how the morphological phenomena found in West Greenlandic and other polysynthetic languages are best accounted for within a simple, truly word-based theory of morphology, without the use of morphemes, morpho-phonological rules, or anything else that could remotely justify the existence of a morphological level of linguistic representation.
Wait’ll (you hear) the next one
Authors: Smessaert Hans
Published: March 2014

In English both the preposition and complementizer till take on the enclitic form ‘ll, with the main verb wait serving as its host. This chapter offers a multimodular analysis of these enclitics within the Autolexical/Automodular framework of Sadock (1991, 2003). Although they are bound morphemes attaching outside inflection and blocking further morphological operations, they are not prototypical enclitics: they are not productive and act selectively w.r.t. their morphological host. As for the constraints on the Morphology-Syntax interface, enclitic ‘ll morphologically attaches to a verb which does not belong to the constituent it syntactically combines with. Phonologically, it is agglutinative, stressless, and subject to automatic phonological rules. Semantically, it acts as a functor taking a constituent meaning as its argument.
English derived nominals in three frameworks
Authors: Newmeyer Frederick J.
Published: March 2014

This paper contrasts the analysis of English derived nominals (i. e., words such as refusal, height, goodness, movement, etc.) in minimalism, automodular grammar, and classical transformational grammar. It argues that minimalism does the poorest job of the three in handling their distinctive properties. Automodular grammar and classical transformational grammar are each partly successful. The paper closes with a discussion of how automodular grammar and classical transformational grammar might each be extended to account for the relevant facts. Essentially, the former could incorporate a notion such as ‘canonical argument structure’, while the latter could borrow from automodular grammar a mechanism for interfacing mismatched surface representations from different grammatical modules.
Out of control
Authors: Abbott Barbara
Published: March 2014

On the currently dominant view of superficially subjectless infinitival complements they contain a PRO subject (and are thus syntactically sentential), and denote a proposition. Sadock (2008) argues against the PRO analysis, but maintains the propositional view. This paper follows Montague’s (1973) analysis, on which such complements are VPs and denote properties, citing arguments from Chierchia (1984a, b) and Dowty (1985). I give a new argument, based on the necessarily de se interpretation of these complements, and respond to the analysis of Roberts (2009).
Negation as structure building in a home sign system
Authors: Franklin Amy , Giannakidou Anastasia , Goldin-Meadow Susan
Published: March 2014

We identify a gestural marker for negation in a home sign system: a side-to-side headshake. This marker expresses a meaning that corresponds semantically to a function that applies to a sentence (whose semantic value is a proposition) and yields another, more complex sentence. Combining negation with a sentence involves sentential modification; we therefore propose that the side-to-side gesture is a structure building operator. We show that it systematically occupies a position at the left periphery of the string, isomorphic to the logical syntax. If what we see in home sign is language creation (Goldin-Meadow 2003), our analysis implies that home signs have at least the minimal syntax of negation, and therefore contributes to ongoing debates about fundamental properties of language
Constraining mismatch in grammar and in sentence comprehension
Authors: Francis Elaine J.
Published: March 2014

This chapter presents psycholinguistic evidence for “default correspondences” – canonical mappings between semantic roles and constituent ordering – in the comprehension of two types of noun phrase mismatch: possessive free relatives and quantificational nouns. Experiments showed that possessive free relatives were processed more slowly and comprehended less accurately than normal possessive relatives, whereas quantificational nouns were processed more quickly and understood more accurately than normal binominal noun phrases. Following Townsend & Bever (2001), possessive free relatives cause processing difficulty because the position of the head violates the default, leading to confusion in semantic role assignment. Quantificational nouns do not violate the default in this way. One implication is that default correspondences may help limit mismatch in languages through their role in sentence comprehension.
Evidence for grammatical multi-modularity from a corpus of non-native essays
Authors: Higgins Derrick
Published: March 2014

This paper evaluates the claim that semantic and formal elements of language can be understood as interdependent modules, based on an analysis of essays written for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Two different writing tasks from the TOEFL test, which place different cognitive constraints on the process of linguistic production, are compared on the basis of automatically-calculated features, and found to elicit responses with systematic linguistic differences. An argument is developed that these empirical findings support the modeling of grammar as a multi-modular system, in which constraints placed on one linguistic module can determine how fully constraints on other modules can be satisfied.
Autolexical Grammar and language processing
Authors: Luka Barbara
Published: March 2014

Autolexical Grammar (AG) explains both the coherent systematicity and the pervasive idiosyncrasies present in natural language through a unified, multimodular approach moderated by lexical constraints. This chapter presents recent research in cognitive neuroscience that bears on the representational strengths of AG. While AG does not strive to be a psycholinguistic model of cognitive processing in real time, the ability of AG to represent mismatch and resolution as formal constraints, and the emphasis that AG places on the lexicon as the moderating factor in constraint satisfaction, provides descriptive mechanisms that can further illuminate cognitive approaches to language processing.
There are no special clitics
Authors: Bermúdez-Otero Ricardo , Payne John
Published: March 2014

The hypothesis of Clitic Idiosyncrasy holds that special clitics are neither words nor affixes, but constitute a separate type of object whose behaviour is partly governed by dedicated grammatical mechanisms. In an influential implementation of this idea, Judith L. Klavans and Stephen R. Anderson claim that special clitics are phrasal affixes, introduced by a set of postlexical morphological rules that is separate from stem- and word-level morphology. This paper criticizes the hypothesis of Clitic Idiosyncrasy and its implementation through phrasal affixation. First, we show that the identification of a distinct class of special clitics depends on a concept of ‘special syntax’ that is not well-defined: in many instances, there are syntactically autonomous units that exhibit the same behaviour as putative special clitics. Secondly, we note that the theory of phrasal affixation incorrectly predicts that special clitics will be invisible to lexical morphophonology. Thirdly, we demonstrate that, in certain crucial cases, phrasal affixation cannot place special clitics in the right positions: in Bulgarian, for example, the definiteness marker is suffixed to the head of the first syntactic phrase immediately contained within the NP. We show that this behaviour is straightforwardly handled by a theory of syntactic feature-passing within subtrees that allows phrasal features to be transferred now to heads, now to edges. This theory is independently motivated by phenomena such as the English ’s genitive and Old Georgian Suffixaufnahme.