bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Interface ingredients of dialect design
Authors: Grohmann Kleanthes K. , Leivada Evelina
Published: March 2014

This paper addresses the difficulty of investigating language development in a non-codified linguistic system, Cypriot Greek, the local dialect spoken natively by Greek Cypriots whose official language is Standard Modern Greek, which in turn is not natively acquired by the population. The situation is further complicated by a lack of consensus with respect to the status of bi(dia)lectism vs. bilingualism as well as to which are the varieties that underlie these terms. Here the cover term “bi-x” is introduced. Aiming to uncover the dialect design in the case of Cyprus, the Socio-Syntax of Development Hypothesis brings together different factors that may affect the acquisition of direct object clitic placement and relates the grammar of Cypriot Greek with the continuum that informs the process of first language acquisition in a dialectal context. Establishing the connection between biolinguistic implications behind language development and the dialect design, the call behind the present discussion of the acquisition of clitic placement in Cypriot Greek is to approach the point where language-external factors meet – and affect – the way language is put to use through choosing one out of a range of gradient syntactic variants that belong to different varieties existing in a continuum.
What sign languages show
Authors: Malaia Evie , Wilbur Ronnie B.
Published: March 2014

The chapter presents analysis of the motion properties of the environment that humans use to parse natural scenes, and the kinematics of articulator (hand) motion in American and Croatian Sign Languages, asking whether the kinematic distinctions between linguistic categories in sign languages are important to phonological and syntactic systems in sign languages. Based on motion capture and neuroimaging data from native signers and sign-naïve non-signers, we propose that sign languages grammaticalize perceptual features already available from the human visual system for the phonology-syntax interface.
Indeterminacy and coercion effects
Authors: de Almeida Roberto G. , Riven Levi
Published: March 2014

Central to the investigation of the biological and cognitive capacities underlying human language is to determine how hypothetically distinct linguistic and non-linguistic computational systems interact to yield the representation of the meaning of a sentence. The focus of our chapter is on the comprehension of “indeterminate” sentences, that is, sentences seemingly semantically incomplete – albeit grammatical – such as “The man began the book”. While one might understand such a sentence as referring to an event that the man began doing with the book, the actual event cannot be determined. We contend that the interpretation of indeterminate sentences relies on the identification of structurally determined gaps which function to signal higher, non-linguistic cognitive mechanisms to trigger pragmatic inferences. These inferences serve to enrich the output of the linguistic system to give the sentence a meaning fitting with a particular context. Psycholinguistic and neuroimaging (fMRI) data are discussed supporting the view that the source of sentence enrichment is pragmatic – not analytic lexical-semantic decompositions – beyond linguistic computations per se.
Computation with doubling constituents
Authors: Fong Sandiway , Ginsburg Jason
Published: March 2014

In the biolinguistics program, syntax has access to only limited and minimal operations such as Merge (and Move) plus local (to Phase) probe-goal, Chomsky (2000, 2001). Under this blueprint, the challenge for implementation is twofold: (1) to show that such a system operating locally can systematically derive complex facts, and (2) that computation, i.e. the selection of the appropriate operation is locally (and perhaps globally) efficient. To this end, available mechanisms may be prioritized to create an unambiguous instruction stream, e.g. Merge over Move. In this paper, we develop a computationally verified implementation of classic Binding Theory facts, including pronoun and anaphor asymmetries for mono- and multi-clausal sentences, possessive DPs, and picture DPs. We take as our starting point Chomsky’s probe-goal system plus Kayne’s (2002) doubling constituent proposal for pronoun-antecedent coreference relations. Within this framework, maintaining Phase locality between probe and goal forces independent licensing of an r-expression from its pronominal component via an operation of Last Resort theta Merge. We maintain that this Last Resort variant of Merge maintains the computational efficiency of the probe-goal system in that it operates precisely at the limit of probe-goal search domain and it does not introduce any additional choice points into the instruction stream.
Concealed reference-set computation
Authors: Graf Thomas
Published: March 2014

It has been conjectured that all properties of language beyond recursion can be motivated by interface requirements. One component in this setup is the parser, which is thought to give rise to a preference for computational parsimony. I discuss a mathematical result on reference-set computation, an (allegedly) nonparsimonious piece of machinery, that challenges this assumption and suggests that syntax can sometimes “trick” the parser in order to escape its demands. If reference-set constraints are construed as so-called tree transducers, they do not increase the power of the syntactic machinery. This in turn entails that they can be expressed purely in terms of the Minimalist feature calculus regulating Merge and Move, so it cannot be ruled out that syntax employs reference-set constraints, whereas the parser operates on their less demanding equivalents. In order to demonstrate the viability of this approach for the kind of reference-set constraints found in the literature, I give an implementation of Merge-over-Move. Keywords: Transderivationality; Merge-over-Move; Minimalist grammars; tree transducers
The complementiser system in spoken English
Authors: Radford Andrew
Published: March 2014

This paper looks at the use of complementisers (especially indicative that) in the contemporary spoken English of live unscripted radio and TV broadcasts. Descriptive grammars of English generally claim that indicative that is restricted to occurring in C1/Complementiser-First structures where the complementiser is the first word in a declarative subordinate clause. However, I report a wide range of other structures containing indicative that occurring in spoken English (including interrogative C1 structures), together with a wide range of C2/Complementiser-Second structures. I note that C2 (but not C1) structures occur in root clauses and conclude that (for speakers who produce such structures), that can lexicalise any head on the periphery of a finite clause which is licensed by a superordinate constituent. I briefly explore possible psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors which may have shaped complementiser use. Keywords: broadcast English; cartographic analysis; complementisers; root clause complementisers; wh-clauses
Referentiality in Spanish CPs
Authors: de Cuba Carlos , MacDonald Jonathan E.
Published: March 2014

In this paper, we discuss the CP domain of embedded clauses in Spanish, specifically in the realm of que+embedded question constructions first discussed in Plann (1982). We argue for the existence of (at least) two distinct CP layers (following previous work by Lahiri 2002, Demonte & Fernández-Soriano 2009, and Suñer 1991, 1993). Following Suñer (1991, 1993), we argue that there are two semantically distinct classes of embedded clauses, although we depart from her by claiming that the relevant distinction should be formulated in terms of referentiality. We claim that her ‘true indirect questions’ are just one case of a non-referential embedded CP (another being a non-referential sentential complement to a non-factive verb). Moreover, we provide evidence that this difference in referentiality corresponds to a structural difference as well: embedded referential CPs have less structure than non-referential embedded CPs. We also offer a classification of embedded clauses based on the presence or absence of an extra CP layer (cP) and the presence or absence of a question operator. Finally, we suggest that the overt spell-out of the non-referential head in Spanish embedded clauses is conditioned by the presence of a particular speech-act operator. Keywords:﻿﻿ Spanish; indirect questions; factive and non-factive complements; referentiality; CP layers
Degree phrase raising in relative clauses
Authors: Szczegielniak Adam
Published: March 2014

In this paper I will argue that modal degree of amount relative clauses, as well as Spanish AP degree relative clauses, are derived via overt DegP raising. I show that the two types of degree relative clauses discussed here are mirrored by two types of DegP that were proposed in Neelman, van de Koot and Doetjes (2004). This raises the possibility that the syntactic and semantic differences of the classes of degree relative constructions can be reduced to the type of lexical item that is raised out of the CP. Keywords:﻿﻿ degree phrase; relative clause
On richness of tense and verb movement in Brazilian Portuguese
Authors: Cyrino Sonia M. L.
Published: March 2014

I argue that morphological markings and richness of verbal tense paradigms might not be related to verb movement in the way proposed by Biberauer and Roberts (2010). I show that in Brazilian Portuguese there has been a partial loss of verb movement, although the language kept some synthetic forms. I assume Giorgi and Pianesi’s (1997) proposal for tense-aspect structure. Some synthetic forms for tenses such as the pluperfect and future are absent in BP and were replaced by periphrastic forms. I show that the residual synthetic forms in Brazilian Portuguese don’t convey their original tense meanings, indicating loss of verb movement to a higher functional head. In other words, residual synthetic forms have now only aspectual related features, and they do not move to a higher Tense head. Keywords:﻿﻿ verb movement; richness of tense; Brazilian Portuguese; Romance languages
Dealing with postmodified possessors in early English
Authors: Allen Cynthia L.
Published: March 2014

Post-modified possessors have always been problematic in English because with such complex possessors the desire to put a topical possessor before the possessum brings into conflict two principles which English and many other Germanic languages strive to follow, namely that (1) the head of the possessor phrase should get the possessive marking and (2) the marking of the possessor phrase should be adjacent to the possessum, i.e. at the right edge of the possessor phrase. The so-called ‘group genitive’ found in the phrase the king of France’s daughter satisfies the second (‘right edge’) principle but violates the first (‘head marking’), while the alternative ‘split genitive’ the king’s daughter of France obeys the first principle but destroys the unity of the possessor phrase.This paper documents the rise of these two constructions in English and the rather abrupt favouring (in writing, at least) of the group over the split genitive near the beginning of the Early Modern English period. It also investigates the role and nature of the complexity of the possessor phrase in the choice between the two constructions in the period (e2, 1570–1639) when both constructions are common in English writings. It is clear that the group genitive has always been favoured when the post-modification was of the simple and easily processed sort found in the king of France, while the split genitive was generally used to position the possessor N at the right edge of the possessor phrase when the post-modification was of a more complex sort. However, although there is a strong correlation between the complexity of the possessor phrase and the choice of construction, other factors were clearly at play also and need to be investigated further, as does the relationship between the disfavouring of the split genitive and the availability of an alternative construction in which a complex possessor is post-nominal within a prepositional phrase, e.g. the daughter of the king of France.It is widely assumed that the development from the split genitive to the group genitive in English was a simple matter of the reanalysis of the possessive marker from an inflection to a clitic, but some minor constructions that we find in the period when the group genitive was gaining ground over the split genitive raise difficulties for such an assumption. For example, sometimes the possessive marker appears both on the possessor N and at the edge of the complex possessor of phrase, e.g. my lordys of Warwykys shyp ‘my Lord of Warwick’s ship’, and in other examples a complex possessor phrase is placed before the possessum but only the head is marked, e.g. my lordes of Suffolk men ‘my Lord of Suffolk’s men’. Such examples as well as some other facts seem most consistent with an analysis which treats the possessive marker found in the group genitive in the morphology, rather than in the syntax. Thus the diachronic facts support a sort of analysis which has been proposed for English solely on synchronic facts.
Variation in the form and function of the possessive morpheme in Late Middle and Early Modern English
Authors: Juvonen Teo
Published: March 2014

This paper analyses the morphosyntactic nature of the possessive -s in the Late Middle and Early Modern English periods. As is well known, the possessive -s, or the inflectional genitive, was increasingly replaced by the of-possessive during the Middle English period (Mustanoja 1960; Fischer 1992; Allen 2003). By the Late Middle English period the possessive -s occurred almost exclusively in cases where the possessor was an animate, human entity. Furthermore the possessor phrase was typically short, only one or two words long, and complex possessors were avoided. Nonetheless, in this context the possessive -s was the most frequent, neutral possessive construction of choice in most genres. I argue that by the Early Modern English period, at the latest, the possessive -s can no longer be categorized as an inflectional case due to the syntactic and semantic constraints on its use. However, neither can it unproblematically be categorized as a clitic. Rather than insist on a specific categorization, I present the types of orthographic, morphosyntactic and semantic evidence available relevant to its classification, based on a corpus of about 900,000 words and about 5,000 tokens.
The great regression
Authors: Szmrecsanyi Benedikt
Published: March 2014

Utilizing the variationist method, this contribution is concerned with the alternation between the s-genitive (the president’s speech) and the of-genitive (the speech of the president) in Late Modern English news prose as sampled in ARCHER. A frequency analysis reveals that text frequencies of the s-genitive collapsed in the early 19th century, but recovered afterwards. Linear regression analysis indicates that slightly over half of this frequency variability is induced by “environmental” changes in the news genre habitat, such as varying input frequencies of human possessors. To investigate the remaining variability, we fit a logistic regression model and show that genitive choice grammars changed genuinely in regard to four language-internal conditioning factors: POSSESSOR ANIMACY, GENITIVE RELATION, POSSESSUM LENGTH, and POSSESSOR THEMATICITY. Applying customary grammaticalization diagnostics, we conclude that while the s-genitive was subject to grammaticalization in the 19th century, it actually degrammaticalized during the 20th century.
Nominal categories and the expression of possession
Authors: O'Connor Catherine , Maling Joan , Skarabela Barbora
Published: March 2014

In this cross-linguistic study we present parallels between (a) the stochastic patterns found in corpus studies of English prenominal possessives, and (b) the rule-governed, categorical features of a highly constrained prenominal possessive construction found in some Germanic, Slavic, and Romance languages. The well-known English tendency for prenominal possessor NPs to be low-weight, animate, and discourse-old or highly accessible corresponds to categorical requirements in what we call the Monolexemic Possessor Construction (MLP). This construction is recognizable by its pre-nominal, one-word, animate possessor that is highly accessible in the discourse context. We identify an accessibility hierarchy of nominal categories in which the MLP can be expressed. This hierarchy is consistent with all 17 languages with MLPs we have found. We show that this accessibility hierarchy (pronoun‹ proper noun‹ kinship term‹ common noun) is a function of the intrinsic discourse-pragmatic features of these nominal categories. While the categorical restriction to pronoun and proper noun possessors in Icelandic, German, and Russian may be largely grammaticized, we show that the discourse-pragmatic constraint is recognizably active in Czech and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. These results complement studies that attempt to understand how language structure responds to communicative forces and processing constraints.
Expression of possession in English
Authors: Börjars Kersti , Denison David , Krajewski Grzegorz , Scott Alan K.
Published: March 2014

In this paper we investigate one aspect of the factors that govern the choice in expression of possession in English between the possessive ’s (poss-s), and the of-construction (poss-of). We are particularly interested in the categorization of the poss-s as a clitic or an affix. Since the key evidence in favour of its clitic status is the fact that it can occur at the right edge even when there is postmodification of the possessor as in the man in the car’s wallet, this is the main focus of our paper. Weight is known to be a factor in the choice between the two constructions. However, the regression analysis we carry out on data from the spoken part of the British National Corpus shows that weight in the form of postmodification of the possessor is a factor in the choice independent of weight in general, and it significantly reduces the odds of poss-s being chosen. We attribute this to structural persistence, a notion extended from Hopper (1991). The approach we take leads us to re-evaluate the categories of affix and clitic and the historical conclusions that have tended to be drawn on the basis of the data. We argue that a model of grammar which includes information about probability looks set to account for the data most appropriately.
A cognitive analysis of John’s hat
Authors: Hudson Richard A.
Published: March 2014

A child’s experience of X’s possessives could, and probably does, justify two different syntactic analyses, both of which survive into adulthood and co-exist happily in the adult grammar. The first is a direct descendant of the Old English inflected genitive, a single word inflected by the suffix {z} which, unlike the Old English genitive, doubles as a determiner. Assuming that determiners are heads, this reversal of the syntax means that dependent-marking case has been replaced by head-marking of the noun-phrase’s internal structure. The second syntactic pattern is the ‘group genitive’, in which the {z} counts as a clitic, a separate syntactic word POSS (a determiner) realized by a mere suffix as in John and Mary’s house and the man across the road’s house. This diachronic innovation may have been encouraged by the parallel historical development of reduced auxiliaries which are also realized by {z}, as in John’s arrived and John’s working. Each of these analyses has attractions for a language learner. The inflected genitive gives a transparent one-to-one mapping from syntax to morphology, but at the cost of a relatively complex analysis of the possessor: in syntax it has a double classification as both a common/proper noun and a pronoun, and in semantics, it has an extra referent. This may well be the preferred analysis for single-word possessors such as John’s, though there may be considerable variation from person to person. In contrast, the group genitive is the only possible analysis for examples where {z} is separated from the head of a possessor phrase. Its advantages in other cases are a simpler mapping from syntax to semantics and direct mapping from syntax to morphology, rather than mapping via an inflectional rule. These advantages are offset by a more complex syntactic structure and the exceptional morphology of a clitic. If grammar is learned from usage, then we may assume that an adult grammar reflects the frequencies of the patterns experienced, which are expressed in the grammar as activation levels attached to different stored patterns. The main point of this chapter is to show the benefits of cognitive analysis when applied to familiar data such as the English X’s possessive. These benefits include a theoretical framework which rests firmly on elementary principles of cognitive psychology, but perhaps the most important attraction for a linguist is the possibility of facing uncertainty and complication in the data without feeling obliged to arrive at a single coherent and complete analysis. If a multiple, messy and incomplete analysis is good enough for a language learner, it should certainly be good enough for us.
The marker of the English “Group Genitive” is a special clitic, not an inflection
Authors: Anderson Stephen R.
Published: March 2014

The English possessive construction (and its relatives in related languages), which is the focus of the present volume, has been of interest for some time – at least since the work of traditional grammarians like Jespersen (1942). Several distinct analyses have become more or less standard in different theoretical communities, with the logic of the differences among them not always made clear in theory-neutral terms. I will argue below for one of these, essentially the picture presented in Anderson (2005), but the issues involved are of wider interest than the specific study of this one construction. I believe that the correct analysis of the English possessive indicates something much more general about a range of grammatical categories.
Two prenominal possessors in West Flemish
Authors: Haegeman Liliane
Published: March 2014

This chapter provides an inventory of the syntactic properties of prenominal possessors in West Flemish (WF). WF has two prenominal possessor patterns: a. ﻿﻿﻿Valère zenen oto b. ﻿Valère sen oto Valère his car Valère se carIn (a) the possessor Valère is doubled by the possessive pronoun zenen, which matches the possessor in person and number and which also agrees in number and gender with the possessum. In (b) the possessive relation is marked by the possessive marker se(n).The chapter compares the two patterns and reveals a number of syntactic differences, among them the following:i. There is no restriction on the number of the possessor in the a-examples; in the b-pattern, the possessor cannot be plural.ii. The doubling construction allows for a non-local possessor; a non-local possessor is unavailable in the sen-possessor.iii. The possessor DP in a sen genitive may be realised as a reciprocal, while that in the doubling construction cannot be a reciprocal.The differences between the two patterns suggest, contrary to claims in the literature for related patterns in Dutch and in German, that the two WF patterns cannot have an identical syntax.
Constraints on intra- and extraposition
Authors: Bader Markus , Häussler Jana , Schmid Tanja
Published: March 2014

Complement clauses in German are subject to two conflicting requirements. First, the grammar requires complements to precede the clause-final verb. Second, considerations of parsing complexity require clausal complements to move rightward to a position following the clause-final verb, thereby avoiding center-embedding. We explore how the two major types of infinitival com­plement clauses – infinitival complements of modal and control verbs – be­have with regard to the tension created by these two conflicting requirements. Based on two grammaticality judgment experiments – one for each type of infinitival complementation – we argue that the observable pattern of intra-and extraposition, including certain mixed cases, is best understood as a grad­ual relaxation of the grammar-internal OV constraint in reaction to parsing pressure.
Subclausal locality constraints on relative clause extraposition
Authors: Strunk Jan , Snider Neal
Published: March 2014

We argue, using corpus evidence from English and German, that extraposition does not obey subclausal locality constraints such as Subjacency (Chomsky 1973) and related proposals if these constraints are taken to be categorical constraints. We also present results from two ex­periments on locality and extraposition in English and German that are partly unexpected for these theoretical accounts of subclausal locality. However, we also demonstrate a robust but gradient effect of locality in a corpus study on German and a significant effect of subclausal local­ity on extraposition in another acceptability experiment. We conclude that locality constraints on extraposition are gradient and that syntactic locality should be seen in the context of processing factors such as de­pendency locality (Gibson 2000) and linear distance.
Constraints on relative clause extraposition  in English
Authors: Walker Heike
Published: March 2014

In this paper, I present a psycholinguistic experiment on relative clause extraposition in English. In the theoretical literature, it has frequently been claimed that the acceptability of relative clause extraposition decreases when the antecedent NP of the relative clause is definite (the definiteness restriction) and when the main verb of the sentence is not a verb of appearance (the predicate restriction). However, the literature also contains conflicting judgments, suggesting the need to test the acceptability of relative clause extraposition experimentally. Using the method of thermometer judgments (Featherston 2007) to elicit acceptability judgments, I provide evidence that objectively and reliably corroborates the definiteness restriction and the predicate restriction. Additionally, I show that the grammatical function of the antecedent NP has an effect on the acceptability of relative clause extraposition only when verbs other than verbs of appearance are used in the sentence.
Rightward movement, EPP and specifiers
Authors: Öztürk Balkız
Published: March 2014

This study investigates whether rightward movement can be an option for the derivation of postverbal constituents. By focusing on two lesser-studied members of the Altaic group, namely Uyghur and Khalkha, we will show that the derivation of postverbal constituents is not a cross-linguistically uniform phenomenon. Postverbal constituents in Uyghur behave fully in parallel to leftward scrambled elements, thus, their derivation requires rightward movement. Postverbal elements in Khalkha, on the other hand, are not parts of the sentence they adjoin to but belong to a second sentence, which is subject to phonological deletion under identity to the first sentence. We will further argue that the reason for this asymmetry follows from the parametric nature of EPP effects observed in both languages.
Neglected cases of rightward movement
Authors: Geraci Carlo , Cecchetto Carlo
Published: March 2014

We show that sign languages admit genuine cases of rightward movement in the domain of wh-phrases and negative quantifiers, instantiating the mirror image of spoken languages in which wh-phrases and negative quantifiers overtly move leftward. The pattern emerging from Italian Sign Language (LIS), American Sign Language (ASL) and Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (IPSL) opens intriguing questions concerning the role of language external factors influencing the final shape of languages at the articulatory-perceptual interface. According to the account offered here, language external factors, in accordance with the Processing-to-Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis, actively interact with language specific rules and configurations, determined by the parameters of Universal Grammar.
Rightward movement from a different perspective
Authors: Chesi Cristiano
Published: March 2014

A left-to-right (Phillips 1996) top-down (Chesi 2004, 2007) Minimalist Grammar is a generative procedure that operates on lexical items of a given language using minimalist structure building operations in order to isolate the best possible approximation of the (infinite) set of well-formed linguistic expressions of this language. In such a framework, all long-distance dependencies are “rightward” dependencies; given that the dependency trigger must be found first (e.g. in A′ dependencies, any DP/QP argument in a pre-verbal position is a dependency trigger), then the dependent (possibly non-local) constituent must be unambiguously identified (e.g. the selecting verbal head). Using a memory buffer (a well-known computational device) to store and retrieve constituents in a principled order/way so as to deal with long distance dependencies, we can correctly characterize standard (successive cyclic) movement, islandhood (Chesi 2004, 2007), parasitic gap constructions (Bianchi & Chesi 2008), quantifier raising (Bianchi & Chesi 2010) and A-binding (Bianchi 2009). In this paper, I will show that classic rightward movements such as Extraposition and Heavy NP-Shift can also be accommodated, cross-linguistically, in such a framework, thus maintaining discrimination of special properties (i.e. clause-boundedness, adjunct/argument asymmetries with respect to movement directionality, and the definiteness constraint) that make Extraposition and Heavy NP-Shift peculiar compared to standard “leftward” movement.
Cumulative rightward processes
Authors: Kluck Marlies , de Vries Mark
Published: March 2014

Extraposition and right node raising (RNR) can interact in two ways: from a descriptive point of view, the result of each can be used as input for the other. Embedding of the former process or configuration inside the latter explains apparent violations of the right periphery condition associated with RNR. The reverse leads to right-peripheral material that is distributively linked to conjoined or insubordinated parts within the relevant clause. We argue for a multidominance approach to RNR and a specifying coordination approach to extraposition, and we show that these theories can be combined in the way empirically required. We also indicate what this amounts to in a bottom-up derivation. Data are drawn from Dutch primarily, with some confirmation from English and German.
A dynamic perspective on left-right asymmetries
Authors: Gregoromichelaki Eleni
Published: March 2014

Various intepretational effects and structural restrictions can be observed in the phenomenon of the duplication of arguments (doubling) by clitics in lan­guages like Modern Greek. The fact that some of these restrictions operate apparently differentially depending on whether the doubled argument occurs in the left or the right periphery have led to the postulation of two supposedly dis­tinct phenomena: CLLD (Clitic Left Dislocation: left periphery, unbounded) vs. Clitic Doubling (ClD: right periphery, clause bound). We examine these left-right asymmetries from the perspective of Dynamic Syntax (DS), a grammar formal­ism which reflects directly the dynamics of incrementally mapping a string of words to a semantic representation. Because in DS no separate level of syn­tactic representation is assumed, many standard structural constraints emerge as epiphenomenal and rather attributable to the timing of the construction process and its interaction with the context of utterance. For example, the Right Roof Constraint, a phenomenon which appears to require proliferation of otherwise unmotivated functional projections with attendant leftward movement (Kayne 1994), emerges in DS as an immediate consequence of the fact that interpretational processes at early stages may assign underspecified structure/content with delayed construal while interpretational processes at the closing stages may not (as a result of the independently motivated compositionality requirement). In a similar vein, the current account of left-right asymmetries in the occurrence of clitics exploits the DS mechanisms to derive a non-ambiguity account of clitics in all their occurrences, with variation explicable from the availability of multi­ple strategies interacting in the construction of semantic structure: the range of effects results from the distinct stages during processing when the clitic or the doubled DP make their contribution to the resulting representation. Besides aim­ing at a reduction in explanatory levels of representation, the account also aims to demonstrate the benefits of including, as part of the grammar, the parsing dy­namics of how context-dependent interpretations are built up incrementally.
On the locality of complement clause and relative clause extraposition
Authors: Crysmann Berthold
Published: March 2014

In this paper, I shall discuss the locality restrictions of complement clause versus relative clause extraposition, contributing to a recent debate on the (non)locality of complement extraposition in German (Kiss 2005; Müller 2004). Based on an in-depth reexamination of the main evidence, I shall conclude that nonlocal complement extraposi­tion from deeply embedded complex NPs is possible in general, but differs from relative clause extraposition with respect to the semantic and prosodic licensing required. Together with the observation that the two constructions differ also with respect to adjunct islands and that extraposed relative clauses can attach to split antecedents, I shall conclude that relative clause extraposition is best conceived of as an anaphoric process, whereas nonlocal complement extraposition shares a great degree of similarity with leftward movement from NP.Finally, I shall provide a formal analysis of the two extraposition types that synthesises Kiss’s anaphoric approach to relative clause extraposition with Keller’s (1995) movement approach: Using a single percolation mechanism, common properties of both constructions can easily be captured, while differences in locality are accounted for by imposing different constraints on the amount of information being percolated.
Extraposition of defocused and light PPs  in English
Authors: Göbbel Edward
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses three types of PP extraposition, namely, extraposition in focus-neutral contexts and extraposition of defocused and prosodically deficient PPs. The focus of the paper lies on prosodic properties of defocused and clitical PPs. I argue and discuss evidence that extraposition is phonologically conditioned and occurs at PF. Particularly, extraposition in neutral contexts is a consequence of the interaction of phonological interface constraints that are independently needed for prosodic phrasing. The account of extraposition of defocused PPs exploits the relation between accentuation and focus structure, with the result that defocused constituents are moved into the postnuclear stretch, where they can be completely deaccented. Finally, a constraint requiring exhaustive parsing of postlexical material forces prosodically deficient PPs to either cliticise onto an adjacent prosodic word or move away from it.
Prosodic constraints on extraposition  in German
Authors: Hartmann Katharina
Published: March 2014

This article contributes to a better understanding of the syntax-phonology interface. It offers a prosodic trigger for extraposition which accounts for the following asymmetry: While extraposition of subject, adjunct and attributive clauses is optional in German, object clauses must appear in the right periphery of the clause. It is argued that the constituents following an object clause in its preverbal base-position cannot be a parsed into phonological phrases. Such a configuration causes a defective prosodic clause structure. This deficiency is resolved by extraposition, which derives a structure where the formerly unparsed constituents now incorporate into the preceding prosodic constituent. Extraposition is thus considered a last resort strategy.
Spurious topic drop in Swedish
Authors: Platzack Christer
Published: March 2014

Like English, Swedish is a language with obligatory subjects in finite clauses. One of the exceptions to the rule that the subject must be pronounced is found when the subject is Topic dropped from sentence initial position, resulting in a V1 declarative with no visible subject. Since Topic drop in Swedish also involves dropping from first position of objects and complements of prepositions, it cannot be analyzed as a subject property per se. In this paper I will argue that null subjects may be due to a specific kind of Topic drop, here called spurious Topic drop, since deletion does not effect the left most element of the clause. As I will show, there are a number of instances in Swedish that can be subsumed under the rubric spurious Topic drop. In all cases, a subject is missing despite the fact that it is not in the leftmost position. As will be shown, spurious Topic drop is also found in relative clauses and in subject-first main clauses.
“The voice from below”
Authors: Røyneland Unn
Published: March 2014

This paper considers the most recent developments in Norwegian language policy and planning, focusing in particular on the latest Nynorsk language reform proposal (2011). A key objective of this language reform was to include “the voice from below” (e.g. Linn 2010) in all stages of the process in order to ensure democratic legitimacy and user acceptance of the proposed reforms. It is thus important to ask whether, and to what extent, this intention has actually been realized. The argument made here is that the answer significantly depends on the extent to which the openness of the process is traceable in the content of the proposal.
Gender maintenance and loss in Totenmålet, English, and other major Germanic varieties
Authors: Trudgill Peter
Published: March 2014

I Bergen på hansatida var det nær kontakt mellom to svært like språk, gammalnorsk og mellomlågtysk. Begge desse språka hadde tre genus ... i substantiv. Resultatet av denne kontakten var eit språk, eller snarare ein dialekt, med to genus (Jan Terje Faarlund 2004)
Topics and the left periphery
Authors: Meklenborg Salvesen Christine
Published: March 2014

Just as the Modern Germanic languages (with the exception of English) have a verb second structure (V2), Old French was a V2 language. In this paper I compare Old French and Modern Germanic and show that they share the basic configuration. I suggest that these languages all have obligatory verb movement to Fin°, and that only material in SpecFocP and SpecFinP are visible for V2. All the V2-languages investigated exhibit instances of apparent V3-constructions that may be accounted for in a split-CP-framework. Crucially, there is a difference between Modern Germanic and Old French regarding topics. In Modern Germanic, a left dislocated topic must be immediately followed by its resumptive pronoun, a constraint which is not operative in Old French.
The developmental logic of the analytic past in German and Polish
Authors: Abraham Werner
Published: March 2014

Other than Russian, but to all appearances like Czech, Polish is developing a new auxiliary from mieć “have, possess” that it can use for the hitherto unknown analytic past. We aim to observe what the status of this innovation in Polish is: whether or not it is to be tracked back to a contact phenomenon induced by neigh­boring German; whether its distributions are accompanied, or even triggered, by erosion of lexical aspectual and morphological oppos­itions; whether or not it follows the same grammaticalizing path as medieval German; whether it cuts the same portions in the lexical inventory of verbs on the criterion [±motion] yielding sein/byt’≠ haben/mieć-pasts. One may duly conclude that the appearance of the new Polish periphrastic past is not due to contact influence from German. Its grammaticalizing steps are in part consonant with those of the early development in German. We shall draw consequences from specific differences in the Polish and German developments, and we shall try to sketch the uni­fying component.
The diachrony of pronouns and demonstratives
Authors: van Gelderen Elly
Published: March 2014

This paper provides a description and account of some of the changes involving the DP, namely anaphoric marking in English (and Scandinavian). I argue that Old English personal pronouns are not deictic/referential but that demonstrative pronouns have this function. This situation reverses itself in early Middle English, due to both internal and external factors. The internal factors are the shift towards the use of demonstratives before noun, i.e. the introduction of an article; the external factors are language contact that introduces new personal pronouns. I also look at Old Norse where the use of pronouns and demonstratives is similar to that in Old English. This remains the case to a lesser degree in its modern descendants.
Origins of metathesis in Batsbi
Authors: Harris Alice C.
Published: March 2014

Blevins and Garrett (1998) investigate in detail the origins of CV/VC metathesis in a number of languages and identify two types of metathesis and a “pseudometathesis”. For them, “pseudometathesis” is a synchronic process that does not originate through the historical process of metathesis. They analyze languages in which “pseudometathesis” originates through epenthesis and deletion (1998) or through reinterpretation and generalization of other processes in the language (Garrett and Blevins 2009). I argue here that metathesis in Batsbi originates as a result of grammaticalization, together with regular phonological processes. When a function word, such as an auxiliary, grammaticalizes as an affix on a base, affixes trapped between the base and new affix are often lost (Harris and Faarlund 2006). However, in Batsbi some trapped affixes were not immediately lost, and I argue that this is the source of the variable position of the present tense marker, and that its variable position was reanalyzed as metathesis. I argue further that the reanalyzed process is true metathesis synchronically.
Indefinitely definite expressions
Authors: Sadock Jerrold M.
Published: March 2014

Languages with articles indicating the definiteness or indefiniteness of noun phrases sometimes allow certain forms to occur without articles. In several such cases that are examined here, the expressions without articles are neither definite nor indefinite in and of themselves, but can be interpreted either way in one context or another. One case from Old Norse and two cases from English that work this way will be discussed. But the direct correlation between the presence of an overt article and an indication of (in)definiteness, and the absence of an article and the lack of such an indication cannot be maintained. Proper names without an article are definite, and count noun plurals and mass noun singulars are indefinite without an article.
Doing diachrony
Authors: Lightfoot David
Published: March 2014

Working on syntax through time requires good synchronic analyses of the initial and later I-languages. However, seeking to explain a change enables historical linguists sometimes to link the new I-language with particular features of the external language to which the innovating children were exposed. This enriches understanding of some of the idealizations of synchronic syntax, particularly the relationship between particular Primary Linguistic Data and the grammars triggered.
The acquisition of linguistic variation
Authors: Westergaard Marit
Published: March 2014

Against the backdrop of some traditional generative work on parameters as well as some recent constructivist work, this paper discusses how children handle variation that they are exposed to in the input. Investigating different types of word order variation, the paper finds no evidence for parameters in language acquisition data and instead argues for a model of micro-cues, according to which children are sensitive to fine distinctions in syntax and information structure from early on. Furthermore, the generalizations that are made in the acquisition process are argued to apply only to the relevant class or subcategory. This accounts for the lack of (over-)generalization in child data, often referred to as conservative learning.
The evolution of language
Authors: Hagelberg Erika
Published: March 2014

How language evolved is one of the most debated subjects in science. Starting with Darwinian ideas of natural selection, scholars interested in the evolution of language have been polarized into two main camps, those who propose the faculty of language is a uniquely human trait, and those who claim that language arose from pre-existing systems of animal communication. This chapter discusses some important contributions to the question of language evolution, including studies of the physical and cognitive evolution of modern humans, the relationship between social complexity and brain size, the gestural theory of language, theory of mind, and the use of molecular genetics to identify putative language genes, concluding with the analysis of the FOXP2 gene in the Neanderthals.
Language as technology
Authors: Mufwene Salikoko S.
Published: March 2014

Over the past two decades, studies of the phylogenetic emergence of language have typically focused on grammatical characteristics, especially those that distinguish modern languages from animal communication. The relevant literature has thus left the reader with the impression that language is either exclusively or primarily mental; in the latter case, its physical features, phonetic or manual, would be epiphenomena that may be overlooked. I argue that language is natural collective technology that evolved primarily to facilitate efficient communication in populations whose social structures were becoming increasingly more complex. It emerged through hominines’ exaptation of their own anatomy, thanks to the same mind that was enabling the complex cultures they were producing. Linguistic constraints of various kinds are emergent properties that are largely consequences of the modalities used, a position that does not expect signed languages cum legitimate linguistic systems to replicate the general architecture of spoken languages in all respects. The rest of the paper speculates on how the architecture of spoken languages evolved, gradually, with some features presupposing the prior emergence of others, whereas some others conjure up concurrent emergence. The facts suggest a complex non-unilinear evolutionary trajectory with many alternative options, consistent with emergent technologies in which considerations of optimality are absent.
Adjectival passives and adjectival participles in English
Authors: McIntyre Andrew
Published: March 2014

The article analyses English adjectival participles, arguing that (i) there is a previously unrecognized type of adjectival participle which expresses an in-progress situation; (ii) Themes in adjectival participles are initially merged outside the participle’s projection; (iii) the standard claim that adjectival participles lack implicit Agents is wrong; (iv) unaccusative-based and transitive-based participles are generated by distinct rules, suggesting that the latter are genuinely passive.