Arguments and Agreement
Published on 28. September 2006
Book
Hardback
358 pages
978-0-19-928573-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book brings together new work by leading syntactic theorists from the USA and Europe on a central aspect of syntactic and morphological theory: it explores the role of agreement morphology in the morphosyntactic realization of a verb's arguments. The authors examine the differences and parallels between nonconfigurational, pronominal- agreement languages; configurational languages which allow pronoun drop (for example, "Is coming" for "He is coming"); languages that allow pronoun drop in particular constructions only; and languages which always require overt syntactic determiner phrases as arguments. The book considers whether the morphological properties of agreement play a role in determining which of these types a language belongs to and how far languages differ with respect to the argumental status of their agreement and syntactic determiner phrases. The authors explore these and related issues and problems in the context of a wide range of languages. Their book will interest linguists at graduate level and above concerned with morphosyntactic theory, linguistic typology, and the interactions of syntax and morphology in different languages.
Reviews / Votes
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the state of the art in Minimalist theorizing on agreement and null subjects. * Marcus Smith, Studies in Language, vol. 32:4 * These papers are valuable contributions to the field. * Marcus Smith, Studies in Language, vol. 32:4 * ...a welcome revival of interest in the topic... * Brent Henderson, Journal of Linguistics *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
figures and tables
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 165 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
693 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-928573-0 (9780199285730)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Peter Ackema is Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Issues in Morphosyntax (John Benjamins, 1999) and co-author with Ad Neeleman of Beyond Morphology (OUP, 2004).
Patrick Brandt is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cognitive Linguistics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University.
Maaike Schoorlemmer is Assistant Professor at the Utrecht Institute of Linguistics.
Fred Weerman is Professor of Dutch Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of The V2 Conspiracy (Foris, 1989) and co-author with Ad Neeleman of Flexible Syntax (Kluwer, 1999).
Patrick Brandt is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cognitive Linguistics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University.
Maaike Schoorlemmer is Assistant Professor at the Utrecht Institute of Linguistics.
Fred Weerman is Professor of Dutch Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of The V2 Conspiracy (Foris, 1989) and co-author with Ad Neeleman of Flexible Syntax (Kluwer, 1999).
Content
1. The Role of Agreement in the Expression of Arguments ; PART I THE AGREEMENT - PRO DROP CONNECTION ; 2. Economy, Agreement, and the Representation of Null Arguments ; 3. Deriving the Diference Between Full and Partial Pro Drop ; 4. Agreement, Pro, and Imperatives ; PART II MICROVARIATION I PRO DROP LANGUAGES ; 5. Uniform and Non-Uniform Aspects of Pro-Drop Languages ; 6. Assymetrical Pro Drop ; PART III INTERPRETING EMPTY ARGUMENTS ; 7. Agreement Phenomena in Sign Language of the Netherlands ; 8. "Arbitrary" Pro and the Theory of Pro Drop ; PART IV NONCONFIGURATIONALITY ; 9. The Pronominal Argument Parameter ; 10. On Zero Agreement and Polysynthesis