The Limits of Syntactic Variation

Name: The Limits of Syntactic Variation
Brand: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Price: 144.99 EUR
Availability: OnlineOnly

Theresa Biberauer(Editor)

John Benjamins Publishing Company

1st Edition

Published on 17. September 2008

VII, 521 pages

E-Book

PDF with Adobe-DRM

System requirements

978-90-272-9066-3 (ISBN)

€144.99incl. 7% vat

System requirements

for PDF with Adobe-DRM

E-Book Single Licence

Available for download

Description

More details

Other editions

Person

Content

The Limits of Syntactic Variation
Editorial page
Title page
LCC data
Table of contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Introduction
2. The non-randomness of syntactic variation
3. Accounting for limits on syntactic variation
3.1 Two different approaches: Functionalism vs. formalism
3.2 Introducing the Principles and Parameters Framework
3.3 Problems with GB principles and parameters
3.4 Principles and Parameters in the Minimalist Program
3.5 Recent criticism of the parametric enterprise
3.6 Conclusion
4. The locus of parametric variation
5. A classic parameter revisited: The Null Subject Parameter
6. Parametric clustering
7. The acquisition of parameters
References
Part 1 The locus of (parametric) variation
Parametric versus functional explanations of syntactic universals*
1. Introduction: the relevance of observable universals
2. The parametric approach to explaining syntactic universals
2.1 The basic idea: principles and parameters
2.2 Criteria for success
2.3 Assessment of success
2.4 Abandoning deep parameters
2.5 UG-based explanation without parameters
3. The constraint-ranking approach to explaining syntactic universals
3.1 Constraint-ranking vs. parameters
3.2 Towards functionalism
3.3 Explaining the constraints
4. The functionalist approach to explaining syntactic universals
4.1 The fundamental difference between the functionalist and the generative approach
4.2 "Deep" implicational universals
4.3 Assessment of success
abandoning deep implications
4.4 Intra-domain implications
4.5 Functional explanations of intra-domain implications
5. Summary
References
Three fundamental issues in parametric linguistics
1. Theory and metatheory of parameters
1.1 Parametric linguistics
1.2 The rationale for parametric linguistics
1.3 Three issues
2. Explanatory adequacy in parametric linguistics
2.1 How can we discover the parameters of UG?
2.2 Modularized global parametrization
2.3 An illustration of the MGP Method: Table A
3. Parameters and evolutionary adequacy
3.1 A new tension
3.2 Towards parametric minimalism
3.3 The principles & schemata model
3.4 The ultimate issues of variation
4. Parameters and historical adequacy
4.1 How are parameter values distributed in space and time?
4.2 Grammatical typology and lexical comparison
4.3 Language taxonomy: lexical comparison and beyond
4.4 Parametric comparison
4.5 Biological and linguistic data
4.6 Syntactic taxonomies
4.6.1 Conceptual tests
4.6.2 Empirical tests
4.6.3 Syntactic phylogenies
4.7 Conclusions and perspectives: Parametric linguistics as cognitive history
References
Appendix
On the syntactic flexibility of formal features
1. Introduction
2. Formal features result from doubling effects
2.1 Formal features
2.2 Uninterpretable features and doubling effects
3. Case study: Negation and Negative Concord
4. NC is syntactic agreement
4.1 Analysis
4.2 Advantages of the syntactic agreement analysis
4.2.1 N-words as negative quantifers
4.2.2 The Negative Polarity Item approach
5. Consequences
5.1 Negative features and projections
5.2 Negation and diachronic change
5.2.1 Spanish: From Strict NC to Non-strict NC
5.2.2 Dutch: From NC to DN
6. Conclusions
References
Expletives, datives, and the tension between morphology and syntax
1. Introduction
2. North Italian ghe
3. There and ghe as deictics
4. Silent DATCL
5. Expletive there and expletive ghe as deictics
6. Deictics, demonstratives and indefinites
7. The definiteness effect
8. Agreement
9. Why is there the expletive?
10. Expletive ghe and ci in possessive sentences
11. Comparative syntax of possessives and existentials
12. Other languages and no languages
13. Existentials and causers
14. Limitations on deictic there as expletive
15. Datives
16. Conclusion
References
Mapping a Parochial Lexicon onto a universal semantics
1. Modularity and the structure of the language faculty
1.1 Underspecification of lexical content
1.2 Against a distinct semantic component
1.3 Against identical LF representations
1.4 Possible refinements
2. Discourse is different
2.1 Contextual variables
2.2 Connection to acquisition
3. Case study: Tense
4. Case study: Perfectivity marking in Russian
4.1 What perfectivity is not
4.2 An Alternative
4.3 Slavic vs Germanic: Identical LF representations?
5. Conclusion: The locus of semantic crosslinguistic variation
Acknowledgments
References
Aspect matters in the middle*
1. Introduction
2. Variation in middles
3. Middle semantics
3.1 The dispositional generic VP-operator
3.2 Middles as disposition ascriptions
4. The analysis
4.1 Proposal and typology
4.2 Derivations: The English type
4.3 Derivations: The Greek type
4.4 Further predictions
5. Conclusion
References
Part 2 A classic parameter revisited
The null subject parameter and correlating properties
The case of Creole languages
1. Introduction,
2. Descriptive correlations and theoretical justification
2.1 An "absolute correlation"
3. Lack of that-t effects and free inversion
4. The partial pro - drop status of Creole languages
4.1 No referential null subjects
4.2 Availability of proexpl
4.3 No Free Inversion
4.3.1 An aside on null expletives and Free Inversion
4.4 No that-t effects
4.4.1 The No that-t effects proexpl correlation as a strategy of subject extraction
5. Conclusion
References
The Case-F valuation parameter in Romance*
1. Assumptions about Agree
1.1 The starting point: Chomsky's (2000, 2001) Agree
1.2 Problems with Agree
1.3 A possible solution
2. Further-raising and Last Resort
2.1 Further-raising in Romance
2.2 Case-Fs, Inert DPs, and Last Resort
2.3 The typology of (apparently) non-local raising: Super-raising, hyper-raising and further-raising
3. (Part of) Agree is parameterized: The timing of Case-F valuation
3.1 Case-F valuation can be delayed in Romance
3.2 Micro- vs. macrovariation
3.3 Variation resulting from the timing (not the nature) of syntactic operations
3.4 Possible consequences of the Case-F valuation parameter for the grammar of null subject languages
3.5 Questions about parameter setting in acquisition
4. Conclusions
References
Silent arguments without pro
The case of Basque
1. The pro-drop parameter and Basque silent arguments
2. Reanalyzing the pro-drop parameter in Basque
2.1 Pro without agreement
2.2 Overt pronouns and silent arguments: Interpretation
3. An alternative analysis to the Pro-Drop Parameter: Ellipsis
3.1 The identity between overt pronouns and silent arguments
3.2 More on semantic binding: The overt pronoun constraint
3.3 Silent anaphors
3.4 Not pros but elided DPs: Dahl's puzzle
4. Explaining the distributional facts of overt and elided pronouns
5. Conclusion
References
Case morphology and radical pro-drop
1. The problem
2. Radical pro drop as a spell-out phenomenon
2.1 The generalizations
2.2 Pronominal spell-out
2.3 Radical pro-drop as zero spell out of regular pronouns
2.4 The elsewhere condition
3. Why radical pro-drop is sensitive to the morphology of pronouns
5. Typological range of the proposal
References
Part 3 Parametric clustering
The Macroparameter in a Microparametric World*
1. Introduction
2. Three Kinds of Micro- vs Macro- Comparative Syntax
2.1 The locus of variation
2.2 The extent of variation
2.3 The methodology of comparison
3. What evidence for macroparameters should we look for?
4. Illustrating with two new macroparameters
4.1 Agreement in Kinande and Indo-European Languages
4.2 Agreement Around the World
5. Final Discussion
References
Topic prominence and null subjects
1. Introduction
2. Delimiting the problem
3. The interpretation of null embedded subjects in BP, Finnish and Chinese
4. The analysis in detail
4.1 A general overview
4.2 Two topic positions
4.3 The relation between movement and antecedenthood in BP
4.4 The relation between movement and antecedenthood in Finnish
4.5 Intervention effects
5. The topic prominence parameter
5.1 Topic-prominent languages
5.2 The relation between the null subject and the topic prominence parameter
5.3 Scope facts
6. Conclusions
References
Non-configurationality
Free word order and argument drop in Turkish
1. Introduction
2. Non-configurationality
2.1 Case and referentiality in English
2.2 Case and referentiality in Turkish
2.2.1 vP in Turkish
2.2.2 TP in Turkish
2.2.3 Summary
2. The non-configurationality parameter
3. Free word order
4. Null arguments
5. Conclusion
References
Diachronic stability and feature interpretability*
1. Introduction
1.2 Features and parameters
2. Micro- versus macro-parametric choices and change
2.1 Micro- vs. macro-parameters
2.2 Features and parameters
3. The diachrony of Greek nominal phrases
3.1 Demonstrative Doubling
3.2 Determiner Spreading
4. Conclusion and beyond
References
Part 4 The acquisition of parameters
Can children tell us anything we did not know about parameter clustering?
1. Introduction: Acquisition as a feature valuation process
2. Strong person in the adult IP
2.1 From arbitrarily determined parameter setting to referential AGR
2.1 .1 split INFL
2.1 .2 pro INFL
2.2 Tripartite valuation of person
2.3 Person marking and the valuation of INFL: Evidence from diachrony
3. Strong person in the adult noun phrase: From NumP/QP to DP
4. Data and methodology
4.1 Data
4.2 Methodology
5. Strong person in child syntax
5.1 Valuation of person as an incremental process
5.2. From unmarked to minimally marked person
5.2.1 Unmarked person
5.2.2 Minimally distinctively marked person
5. .3 aximally distinctively marked person
6. Conclusion
References
Parameter setting and input reduction
1. Parameter setting
1.1 Parameter setting models
1.2 Innate parameters?
2. Input reduction
3. Evidence frames for underlying directionality
3.1 Paradoxical input
3.2 Intake by evidence frames
4. Order of acquisition steps
4.1 Acquisition steps due to local evidence frame IP/DP
4.2 Local evidence frames outweigh mere input frequency
5. Movement structures
6. Conclusion
References
Index
The series Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today

System requirements

Save as PDF Copy link into clipboard

Schweitzer Fachinformationen

The Limits of Syntactic Variation

Description

More details

Other editions

Additional editions

Person

Content

System requirements