Optimizing Adverb Positions
1st Edition
Published on 8. February 2012
XIV, 347 pages
978-90-272-8184-5 (ISBN)
Description
Adverb positions vary within a single language as well as across diverse languages. Based on the study of adverbs in English, French and German, this monograph shows that the distribution of adverbs is influenced by various factors at distinct levels of linguistic representation - comprising semantics, syntax, phonology and information structure -, which interact in determining adverb positions. The results of the investigation are formulated within the theoretical framework of Optimality Theory, which captures the complex interaction of these factors by hierarchically ranked constraints, deriving cross-linguistic variation of adverb positions by differences in the language-specific constraint hierarchies. The book is divided into two parts: While Part I examines adverb positions in general, Part II investigates under which circumstances an adverb may attach to a phonetically empty constituent in the languages under discussion. The book appeals to a linguistic audience interested in Germanic and Romance languages as well as in theoretical syntax in general.
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Eva Engels
Optimizing Adverb Positions
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02/2012
John Benjamins Publishing Co
€111.30
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Content
- Optimizing Adverb Positions
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC data
- Table of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 Adverb Positions
- Basic assumptions on inputs and output candidates
- 1.1. A semantic restriction on adverb positions
- 1.2. Restricting the input
- 1.2.1 Restrictions on input semantic representations
- 1.2.2 A note on subject-oriented adverbs
- 1.2.3 Type lowering
- 1.2.4 Excursus: SPECIFIED EVENTs and manner readings
- 1.2.5 Other co-occurrence restrictions
- 1.3. Restricting the candidates
- 1.4. Conclusion
- Verb movement and adverb placement
- 2.1. Ordering of adverbs and verbs/auxiliaries in English and French
- 2.1.1 Adverb positions and finite verb movement
- 2.1.2 Adverbs as adjuncts
- 2.1.3 Clause-final adverbs and adjunction to the right
- 2.1.4 Adverbs in pre-auxiliary position
- 2.1.5 Adverb positions in negated clauses
- 2.1.6 Adverbs with narrow scope relative to a finite auxiliary
- 2.1.7 Adverbs and non-finite verbs/auxiliaries
- 2.1.8 Summary
- 2.2. Main clause/embedded clause asymmetry in verb positions in German
- 2.2.1 V2 in German main clauses
- 2.2.2 V-final in German embedded clauses
- 2.2.3 Clause-initial position
- 2.2.4 Summary
- 2.3. Conclusion
- Information structure and adverb placement
- 3.1. Adverb placement and focus-background structure
- 3.1.1 Focus-sensitivity of sentence adverbs
- 3.1.2 Focus-sensitive adverbs in the German middle field
- 3.1.3 Focus-sensitive adverbs and the German prefield position
- 3.1.4 Focus-sensitive adverbs in English and French
- 3.1.5 Excursus: Positions of sentence adverbs in Italian
- 3.1.6 Summary
- 3.2. Adverb placement and topic-comment structure
- 3.2.1 Topics in clause-initial position in English and French
- 3.2.2 Topics in clause-medial position in German
- 3.2.3 A left-peripheral topic position in IP
- 3.2.4 Adverbs in pre-subject position
- 3.2.5 Pre-subject phrases: Merge versus Move
- 3.2.6 A scopal restriction on pre-subject adverbs
- 3.2.7 A structural restriction on pre-subject phrases
- 3.2.8 Excursus: Pre-subject phrases in the Scandinavian V2-languages
- 3.2.9 Summary
- 3.3. Conclusion
- Interim conclusion
- Part 2 Adverb Positions in Gap Constructions
- Gap constructions in English
- 5.1. Data
- 5.2. Previous approaches to adverb placement in gap constructions
- 5.2.1 Baker (1971, 1981)
- 5.2.2 Sag (1978, 1980b), Sag & Fodor (1994), Kim & Sag (1995, 2002)
- 5.2.3 Empty Category Principle Approaches
- 5.2.4 Summary
- 5.3. The gaps
- 5.4. Wide scope adverb positions in non-inverted gap constructions
- 5.5. Excursus: There-gap constructions
- 5.6. Narrow scope adverb positions in gap constructions
- 5.7. Adverb positions in inverted gap constructions
- 5.8. Conclusion
- Other languages
- 6.1. French
- 6.1.1 Data
- 6.1.2 Adverb positions in Clitic Left Dislocations with simple tense
- 6.1.3 Adverb positions in clefts with simple tense
- 6.1.4 Adverb Positions in gap constructions with complex tense
- 6.1.5 Excursus: The distribution of sentence adverbs in Italian
- 6.1.6 Summary
- 6.2. German
- 6.2.1 Data
- 6.2.2 Syntax: V2
- 6.2.3 Information structure: Focus-background and topic-comment
- 6.2.4 Semantics: Scope
- 6.2.5 Summary
- 6.3. Conclusion
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
