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The Logic of Pronominal Resumption
Abstract
This book is a cross-linguistic investigation of resumptive pronouns and related phenomena. Pronominal resumption is the realization of the base of a syntactic dependency as a bound pronoun. Resumption occurs in unbounded dependencies, such as relative clauses and questions, and in the variety of raising known as copy raising. Processing factors may also give rise to resumption, even in environments where it does not normally occur in a given language. A new theory of resumption is proposed that is based on two key assumptions, one theoretical and one empirical/typological. The first assumption is that natural language is resource-sensitive (the Resource Sensitivity Hypothesis); this is captured through the use of a resource logic for semantic composition. The second assumption is that resumptive pronouns are ordinary pronouns in their morphological and lexical properties, based on typologically robust observations (McCloskey's Generalization). The theory is formalized in terms of Glue Semantics for semantic composition, with a Lexical-Functional Grammar syntax. The theory achieves a novel unification of hitherto heterogeneous resumption phenomena. It unifies two kinds of resumptive pronouns that are found in unbounded dependencies --- one kind behaves syntactically like a gap, whereas the other kind does not. It also unifies resumptive pronouns in unbounded dependencies with the obligatory pronouns in copy raising. The theory also provides the basis for a new understanding of processing-based resumption, both in production and in parsing and interpretation.
... Typologically, this is an interesting finding: depending on the type of unbounded dependency construction, Hausa resumptives may either pattern with gaps (wh extraction), or rather show a markedly distinct behaviour (relativisation). In the terminology of Asudeh (2011Asudeh ( , 2012, Hausa resumptives are of the syntactically active type, as far as relativisation occurs, thus patterning with Hebrew, yet of the syntactically inactive type, once we consider wh extraction (cf. e.g. ...
... island-sensitivity, I distinguished the elements of this set as to whether they are full local values (wh-and focus fronting) or rather impoverished local values, minimally containing information (cf. Figure 2.1.2). In essence, resumption is likened to an obligatory anaphoric process under this perspective (see Asudeh, 2011, 2012and Sells (1984 for similar intuitions). In contrast to Alotaibi and Borsley (2013), however, constraints on weight can be imposed along the percolation path, offering a way to capture difference in island sensitivity, as detailed by the constraints regarding weak-local values in Figures 3 and 4. ...
... Thus, instead of postulating different principles to account for resumption, this approach merely postulates a more abstract representation of what constitutes a pronominal. The take on the semantics of resumptive vs. ordinary pronoun use in terms of latent syntactic and semantic constraints differs from the one adopted by Asudeh (2011Asudeh ( , 2012, who assumes that resumptive pronouns create a resource surplus (pronominal semantics) that is later consumed by a manager resource (contributed at the top of the dependency). While Asudeh's approach is certainly workable within the specific confines of LFG and Linear Logic (see the detailed discussion below), the present approach offers the further advantage of providing identical semantic representations for gaps and resumptives. ...
Within recent work on the treatment of resumption in HPSG, there is growing consensus that resumptive unbounded dependency constructions (=UDCs) should be modelled on a par with gap-type UDCs (Alotaibi and Borsley, 2013; Borsley, 2010; Crysmann, 2012b; Taghvaipour, 2005), using a single feature for both types of dependencies, rather than separate features, as proposed by Vaillette (2001a,b). Yet, authors disagree as to where exactly in the grammar the resumptive function of pronominals should be established: while Crysmann (2012b, 2015) advances an ambiguity approach that has pronominal synsem objects being ambiguous between a resumptive and an ordinary pronoun use, Borsley (2010); Alotaibi and Borsley (2013), by contrast, treat all pronominals, resumptive or not, as ordinary pronouns and effect their resumptive use by means of tailoring the amalgamation principle to potentially include pronominal indices. While their decision provides a straightforward account of McCloskey’s generalisation that resumptives always look like the ordinary pronouns of the language, it fails to capture the difference in semantics between ordinary pronominal and resumptive uses. In this paper, I shall reexamine the evidence from Hausa and propose to synthesise the approaches put forth by Alotaibi and Borsley (2013) and Crysmann (2012b), and propose that the potential for pronominal and resumptive function (including their difference w.r.t. semantics and non-local features) is captured by means of underspecification, yet the decision as to canonical vs. non-canonical use is made at the level of the governing head (Borsley, 2010; Alotaibi and Borsley, 2013). I shall argue that this division of labour is sufficient to derive the correct gap-like semantics for resumptives, maintains standard deterministic amalgamation, and, finally, provides an answer to McCloskey’s generalisation.
... In a similar vein, Ackerman, Frazier, and Yoshida (2018) show that when participants engage in a task where they explicitly compare gapped and resumptive counterparts, the befit of RPs increases, again suggesting that previous failures to observe an ameliorating effect of resumption is the result of a task effect. Finally, Chacón (2019) reports that resumption becomes increasingly acceptable as memory load increases, supporting an account where the acceptability of resumption is tied to difficulty in a listener's ability to engage in active gap filling (see also Asudeh, 2004Asudeh, , 2012. ...
... The findings are generally expected under the theory of comprehension put forward by Asudeh (2004Asudeh ( , 2012, who took for granted the idea that RPs aide comprehenders in forming dependencies into islands. The present study provides supporting evidence for this assumption, as well as Asudeh's view that RPs are not a uniform phenomenon in intrusive resumption languages. ...
... In contrast, island RPs showed evidence of facilitating the formation of a link between the filler and the direct object position, as measured by faster RT in the RP compared to the gap conditions. The theory put forward by Asudeh (2004Asudeh ( , 2012 shows that, despite being ungrammatical, an informative interpretation can be reached in islands containing RPs. Eschewing the formal details (see Asudeh, 2012, p. 305-307), the RP allows the matrix and embedded clauses to each have a locally coherent parse, as shown in (4a). Critically, in embedded clauses, the RP fills the otherwise open argument position of the embedded verb, rather than leaving a gap that results in a locally incoherent parse, as shown in (4b). ...
There is ongoing debate about the role that resumptive pronouns play in the processing of islands in intrusive resumption languages such as English. This squib provides evidence that resumptive pronouns facilitate the comprehension of islands in online processing. The results fall in line with filler-gap processing more generally: when fillers are difficult or impossible to keep active, resumption provides support for forming a dependency. This occurs when dependencies span multiple clauses, when memory resources are otherwise taxed, or, as the present paper shows, when grammatical constraints such as islands prohibit the use of the active filler strategy.
... Her study, which drew on corpus data collected by Anthony Kroch from various sources, "from casual conversation to classroom discourse to radio and TV newscasts to the New Testament" (Prince 1990:487), gave a semantic-pragmatic account of intrusive RPs in some relative clauses and attributed RPs in the others to "extralinguistic reasons-memory lapse, distraction-whatever reasons lead to disfluency in simple sentences " (1990:494). Asudeh (2012) refers to intrusive RPs as "processor resumptives," a term which highlights the idea that they can occur in expressions without being generated by any grammatical derivation. He further suggests that processor resumptives "are an instance of a processing strategy that is generally available cross-linguistically: a resumptive element, typically but not necessarily a pronoun, is inserted where a gap would lead to ungrammaticality or processing difficulty" (Asudeh 2012:41). ...
... Within both of these general classes-grammatically licensed RPs and intrusive RPs-finer distinctions are necessary (cf. Sichel 2014), but the key idea underlying the notion of an intrusive RP is the same: sometimes speakers produce RPs to preserve local well-formedness (Asudeh 2012;Morgan and Wagers 2018;Chacón 2019), but the productions are themselves ungrammatical. ...
... If, during production, the processor loses the ability to re-access the filler or, indeed, 'forgets' that there even is one, then instead of producing a licit structure hosting a gap, they will produce something else-a production which, by hypothesis, will not flout local selectional restrictions. This provides a convenient view of why speakers sometimes produce RPs that are not generated by the grammar (Asudeh 2012). ...
The literature on resumptive pronouns (RPs) has given rise to a rich taxonomy of the phenomenon. Despite the fact that RPs invariably have the morphosyntactic form of ordinary pronouns, they vary widely in distribution and function. In some languages, RPs are grammatically licensed; depending on the language and the syntactic context, they might or might not realize traces, compete with gaps, exhibit reconstruction effects, and so on. In other languages, notably English, RPs are ‘intrusive’ (Sells 1984). Kroch (1981), Asudeh (2004), Morgan and Wagers (2018), and others have proposed that intrusive RPs in English are ungrammatical products of the performance system—productions that satisfy local well-formedness but not global well-formedness. This account predicts that in every language, regardless of whether it has grammatically licensed RPs, intrusive RPs could also be found. Here we test this prediction against evidence from Chamorro and Palauan. Previous accounts have maintained that Chamorro does not have RPs and Palauan has only RPs. On the basis of corpus and elicited production data from Chamorro, and a re-examination of the Palauan evidence, we argue that both languages have grammatically licensed RPs, as well as intrusive RPs. Their grammatically licensed RPs differ in form and distribution. At least in Chamorro, the distribution of intrusive RPs produced is similar to that in English.
... However, subsequent work suggests that, in English, resumptive pronouns are perceived to be ungrammatical. Resumptive pronouns are used because they can facilitate processing, particularly in sentence production (Kroch 1981;Chao & Sells 1983;Creswell 2002;Ferreira & Swets 2005;Heestand et al. 2011;Asudeh 2012;Keffala 2013;Beltrama & Xiang 2016; see also Ackerman et al. 2018). Resumptive pronouns do not display the same grammatical characteristics as grammatical filler-gap dependencies (Chao & Sells 1983), and they are assigned low ratings in off-line acceptability judgment tasks (Alexopoulou & Keller 2007;Heestand et al. 2011). ...
... However, if there is an anaphoric relation between the filler and the pronoun, as in (9b), then the antecedent filler can be integrated into the interpretation of the sentence, i.e., the babysitter's friend is the one that likes kids. Although this sentence is ungrammatical, the ability to relate the filler to the rest of the sentence may result in enhanced comprehensibility (Asudeh 2012;Keffala 2013;Beltrama & Xiang 2016). ...
... However, the realtime processing of resumption, as described by Hofmeister & Norcliffe (2013), appears to challenge this generalization. Given that resumption in English is ungrammatical (Kroch 1981;Chao & Sells 1983;Heestand et al. 2011;Asudeh 2012), the real-time construction of resumptive dependencies implies that comprehenders pursue syntactically unlicensed interpretations. To reconcile these findings, I argued that the acceptability of resumption depends on a reference relation constructed in contexts where typical grammaticallyconstrained active gap formation processes fail. ...
In processing filler-gap dependencies, comprehenders quickly postulate gaps in syntactically licensed positions, but not in syntactic islands. This suggests that comprehenders can accurately use syntactic constraints to guide processing. However, resumptive pronouns appear to challenge this generalization. Resumption is ungrammatical in English. Nevertheless, they appear to immediately allow resolution of a filler dependency in syntactic islands (Hofmeister & Norcliffe 2013). I resolve this tension by arguing that pronouns are analyzed as resumptive when typical filler-gap dependency processing fails. I argue that processing a filler-gap dependency requires anticipatorily building a gapped structure. However, as further linguistic material is processed, this representation degrades in memory. Resumption facilitates processing by triggering a reference dependency, which allows the comprehender to recover a coherent interpretation of the sentence. This predicts that the accessibility of filler NP as a referent for a pronoun, length, and processing difficulty all contribute to the acceptability of resumption. I present the results of four acceptability judgment studies that support this claim. I also introduce a novel experimental paradigm, in which participants’ working memory capacity is taxed while processing a sentence. This increase in processing strain decreases sensitivity to ungrammatical filler dependencies. I argue that this partially explains the acceptability of resumption in syntactic island contexts, which are likely resource-intensive.
... After the verb seem in Ontario English, finite subordination is increasing at the expense of infinitival subordination. More specifically, even taking into account the influx of like within the complementizer system, the structures that permit copyraising (Rogers 1974, Heycock 1994, Matushansky 2002, Asudeh and Toivonen 2007, Asudeh 2012 are increasing together opposite infinitival clausal complements. In other words, younger speakers in Ontario are not simply relying on It/she seems like she's feeling better instead of It/she seems as if she's feeling better. ...
... With as if and as though out of the picture, at least on the vernacular level, like has another major advantage: unlike the remaining covariants that and Ø, like supports an optional syntactic opera- * I am grateful to Sali A. Tagliamonte, Diane Massam, J. K. Chambers, Naomi Nagy, Aaron Dinkin, Belén Méndez-Naya, Bronwyn Dinkin (2016) refers to this property of the word like as "vague literality." tion known as copy-raising (Rogers 1974;Heycock 1994;Matushansky 2002;Asudeh and Toivonen 2007;Gisborne 2010;Asudeh 2012;etc.) This is a syntactic alternation whereby a noun phrase from the lower clause 2 is 'copied' into the matrix subject position, leaving behind a coreferential pronoun, as in (2): ...
... The earliest perspectives on copy-raising (Rogers, 1974:72) interpreted it as a case of genuine syntactic movement, and the literature is divided on whether it truly is (e.g. Horn, 1981:355;Asudeh 2012) or is not (e.g. Heycock 1994;Potsdam and Runner 2001;Gisborne 2010). ...
Among the complementizers that can link seem, appear, look, sound, and feel to finite subordinate clauses – as if, as though, like, that, and a null form – there is a lexical replacement nearing completion in the Toronto English Archive (Tagliamonte 2003-2006, 2006). Over the course of the 20th century in apparent time, like comes to dominate over its covariants in this context in the TEA (López-Couso and Méndez-Naya 2012a, Brook 2014). There are, however, signs that this is not a self-contained change, among them a noticeable imbalance in the number of tokens according to speaker age (Brook 2014:5). Looking beyond the conventional variable context in much the same way as Aaron (2010), I uncover evidence that ties this overarching age effect to a broader-level change-in-progress on the level of entire syntactic structures. After the verb seem in Ontario English, finite subordination is increasing at the expense of infinitival subordination. More specifically, even taking into account the influx of like within the complementizer system, the structures that permit copy-raising (Rogers 1974, Heycock 1994, Matushansky 2002, Asudeh and Toivonen 2007, Asudeh 2012, etc.) are increasing together opposite infinitival clausal complements. In other words, younger speakers in Ontario are not simply relying on It/she seems like she's feeling better instead of It/she seems as if she's feeling better. They are also saying It/she seems like she's feeling better instead of She seems to be feeling better. Even with an incoming form defined much more in terms of its syntactic properties than its surface appearance, the change acts exactly as expected in terms of social factors, with a straightforward age effect and female lead (Labov 2001:275, 292-293). I consider some of the implications of this: whether causation between the two levels of change can be established, what it means for there to be recognizable orderly heterogeneity (Weinreich et al. 1968) on an abstract syntactic level, and how this pair of changes might affect Canadian English evidential expressions that rely on the verb seem (cf. Rett et al. 2013, Rett and Hyams 2014).
... We will look at tree-style natural deduction, which is the system most often used in the literature, e.g. Dalrymple (2001) and Asudeh (2005aAsudeh ( , 2012, for the most part restricted to the implication rules. ...
... Most glue work, including Dalrymple (2001) and Asudeh (2012), has used a semantic projection and co-description. The semantic projection is a system of feature-structures proceeding off f-structures, typically with its own attributes, while co-description is the tactic of including the meaning-constructors in full (inflected) lexical entries, using LFG's ↑-arrows and instantiation to connect them to the f-structure. ...
... Monads as discussed inAsudeh (2012 and seem relevant, but do not yet constitute a full solution. ...
... This chapter gives a basic introduction to both Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG; Kaplan & Bresnan 1982; Bresnan 2001; Bresnan et al. forthcoming; Dalrymple 2001; Dalrymple et al. forthcoming; Falk 2001; Asudeh & Toivo nen 2009) and Glue Semantics (Glue; Dalrymple 1999 Dalrymple , 2001 Asudeh 2005 Asudeh , 2012), which I will be using in my analysis of the syntax and semantics of the P-passive. LFG is a theory of syntax which grew out of the collaboration of the linguist Joan Bresnan and the computer scientist Ron Kaplan. ...
... Rather, as we shall see below, I will assume (following ideas in e.g. Dalrymple et al. 1999; Kuhn 2001; Asudeh 2012; Asudeh & Giorgolo 2012) that these constraints can be subsumed under a resource-sensitive semantic theory. This means that I will write semantic forms without their subcategorisation information, i.e. (31) instead of (30): ...
... However, assuming we wish to avoid a proliferation of homophony between semantically contentful versus semantically vacuous prepositions, they will still bring their regular meanings along with them. I propose that IPVs are equipped with a manager resource (Asudeh 2004Asudeh , 2005Asudeh , 2012 ) which will remove this unwanted prepositional meaning constructor . Manager resources are schematically of the form given in (225): ...
... More recently, Potsdam and Runner (2001) revisited this topic from a fresh perspective. Since then, CR has drawn renewed attention from scholars, as demonstrated by a handful of recent publications (Asudeh, 2002(Asudeh, , 2005(Asudeh, , 2012Asudeh & Toivonen, 2012;Fujii, 2005Fujii, , 2007Kim, 2014;Landau, 2009Landau, , 2011Mack, 2010). It is interesting to note that most of the aforementioned research was conducted from the formal linguistics perspective despite the diversity of theoretical frameworks the authors adopt. ...
... The focus of earlier research (Rogers, 1971(Rogers, , 1972(Rogers, , 1973 and its subsequent traditional movement analyses (Moore, 1998;Ura, 1998) revolved around this type of example, where the pronominal copy of the matrixsubject occurs in the subject position of the complement clause. Research conducted more recently (Asudeh, 2012;Asudeh & Toivonen, 2012;Kim, 2014;Landau, 2009Landau, , 2011Mack, 2010) reports that the CR phenomenon is much more complex than earlier researchers assumed. This section illustrates an array of variations in CR in conjunction with related empirical and theoretical issues. ...
... 3.2. P R v e r b s While Rogers' earlier research (1971Rogers' earlier research ( , 1972Rogers' earlier research ( , 1973Rogers' earlier research ( , 1974 does not make a clear distinction between epistemic and PR verbs, Asudeh (2002Asudeh ( , 2005Asudeh ( , 2012 and Asudeh and Toivonen (2012) do. The key criterion of their distinction is whether a copy pronoun is required in a complement clause. ...
The aim of this paper is to develop a Cognitive Grammar-based analysis of English Copy-raising (CR) constructions such as Richard seems like he is dancing. We argue that the notion of reference-point plays a crucial role in licensing the matrix-subject of the construction. In CR, with the epistemic verbs seem and appear, the matrix-subject functions as a reference-point in relation to the pronominal copy (if a copy exists) in the embedded clause. The aboutness topicality of the matrix-subject in CR is expected, owing to its reference-point property. The epistemic CR construction is acceptable without a pronominal copy if the matrix-subject functions as a reference-point in relation to the complement clause. The same type of analysis is applied to the CR construction with perceptual resemblance (PR) verbs – sound, look, feel, and smell – leading to the conclusion that the strong dichotomy between epistemic and PR verbs is illusory. It is further demonstrated that expletive there-raising in CR is motivated by the same reference-point phenomenon. The difference between there-raising and other CR examples stems from the role of there as a setting subject. Our reference-point-based analysis predicts a metonymic interpretation of the matrix-subject, which we attribute to the connection between reference-point and metonymy.
... Although this leads to a violation of Semantic Consistency, this solution is arguably better than the alternative, violating the EPP. In fact, Asudeh (2012) shows that it is possible to remove the extra semantic resource of the pronoun, by using "manager resources" in a a "glue semantic" approach in LFG. ...
... This could somehow lead to their less than full f-strucural presence. There are technical ways in LFG to remove unwanted f-structural elements, such as the use of the restriction operator (Kaplan & Wedekind 1993) or the use of "manager resources" (Asudeh 2012), but working out an analysis is left to future research. ...
This monograph investigates discourse-related clause-initial, left peripheral constructions within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. The following structures are to be scrutinized: English topicalization, clause-initial adjuncts and left dislocation; Hungarian left dislocation and operator fronting. The overall goal is to provide an account for these structures, especially with regard to their syntactic and information structural properties and to put them into cross-linguistic and theoretical perspective.
... 11 Of crucial importance for the present topic, however, is the interface between syntax and semantics. Work on semantics in LFG makes use of the 'glue' theory of the syntax-semantics interface (Dalrymple 2001;Asudeh 2012), according to which meanings are paired with logical expressions which constrain their composition. In standard approaches to glue semantics within LFG, meanings are paired with logical formulae over s(emantic)-structures, projected from f-structures via the projection function σ. ...
... Further potential for our analysis includes its extension to modelling constraints on resumptive pronouns (Asudeh 2011(Asudeh , 2012 and null pronouns e.g. in anaphoric control constructions; PCDRT has already been extended to deal with the anaphoric relations inherent in partial control constructions (Haug 2014a; see also Haug 2013 and Belyaev and Haug 2014). ...
We provide a formal model for the interaction of syntax and pragmatics in the interpretation of anaphoric binding constraints on personal and reflexive pronouns. We assume a dynamic semantics, where e-type expressions introduce discourse referents, and contexts are assignments of individuals to discourse referents. We adopt the Partial Compositional Discourse Representation Theory (PCDRT) of Haug
(2014b),which models anaphoric resolution in terms of a pragmatically-established relation between discourse referents. We integrate PCDRT into the constraint-based grammatical framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), and show how it is possible to state syntactic constraints on the pragmatic resolution of singular and plural anaphora within this framework.
... Both proposals, however, assume a semantics which allows for redundancy, a decision which is crucial for idiomatic mirroring to work. In a strictly resource-sensitive conception of the syntax-semantics interface like LFG+Glue (Dalrymple, 1999;Asudeh, 2012), each contribution to the semantics must contribute something to the meaning, with the result that multiple items cannot contribute the same semantics without a concomitant change in meaning (big, big man means something different from big man, for example). ...
... 3 ,4 In Figure 2, I have given the semantics in the form of a meaning constructor. This is an object used in Glue Semantics, the theory of the syntaxsemantics interface most often coupled with LFG (Dalrymple, 1999;Asudeh, 2012). It consists, on the left-hand side, of a formula in some 'meaning language', in this case a lambda expression, and, on the right-hand side, of an expression in linear logic (Girard, 1987) over s(emantic)-structures (projected from f-structures via the σ function), which controls composition. ...
... In this paper, the relationship between the correlative clause and the matrix clause was adopted from previous works on correlatives, which normally assume that the correlative clause is the adjunct of the resumptive correlate. The syntax of resumptions in correlative constructions from the perspective of Resource Management Theory of Resumption (Asudeh 2012) has not yet been explored. Adopting this approach, an alternative analysis of the relationship between the correlative clause and the resumptive correlate emerges. ...
Correlatives show vastly diverse patterns across the world's languages to the extent that it is debated whether they form a homogeneous class of syntactic constructions. This work presents the first formal account of correlatives in Old Avestan and parallel constructions such as free relatives and headinternal relative clauses. The analysis of correlatives within Lexical Functional Grammar is limited to two proposals, Butt et al. (2007) and Belyaev and Haug (2014); this work provides an alternative LFG analysis of correlatives based on the empirical assumption that the correlative clause in correlatives is fundamentally nominal, not clausal. The proposed analysis takes advantage of the parallel architecture of LFG to represent the hybrid nature of the correlative clause in Old Avestan correlatives.
... 3 We now turn to the second ingredient of our analysis: the nature of resumption. Crosslinguistically, RPs are taken from the personal pronoun paradigm (Asudeh, 2012;McCloskey, 2017); this also holds in Asante Twi (see Korsah 2017, 106 for pronoun paradigms). Personal pronouns are of category D (see above), and so must be RPs. ...
Asante Twi (AT), a Kwa language spoken mainly in Ghana, exhibits an asymmetry in
whether a focus-fronted constituent leaves a gap or a resumptive pronoun (RP) in its base
position. It has been argued that this asymmetry is linked to the category of the extracted
constituent (Korsah and Murphy, 2020) such that constituents with a nominal [+N] core
leave an RP while those with a non-nominal [–N] core leave a gap. In this paper, based on
elicitation data from five native speakers, however, we observe that the [±N]-status of the
extractee is not decisive. The data show that focus-fronting of some nominals obligatorily
results in a gap in the base position, too. The relevant nominals are parts of idioms, predicative nouns, and non-specific indefinite bare nouns. What unites those nominals is that they form a subset of what is often termed non- or less referential nouns (cf. Chen, 2009). The crucial factor in determining a gap or an RP thus seems to be a semantic / pragmatic one. As the relevant noun types do not match up entirely with the set of non-referential expressions, we propose to model the apparent influence of semantic properties as stemming from a structural difference between the two types of nominals. The nominals that leave an RP contain a D-layer, whereas the ones that leave a gap lack it. Given that (resumptive) pronouns are D-heads (Postal, 1969; Abney, 1987; Elbourne, 2001) we suggest that partial deletion of the NP-part of the lowest copy in a focus movement chain is what creates a stranded D-head to be realized as an RP. For nominals that lack a D-layer independently, the result of partial deletion is the same as that of full copy deletion, namely a gap. Asante Twi thus exhibits a preference of RPs over gaps where possible, a pattern that is in conflict with economy constraints such as Avoid Pronoun (Chomsky, 1981; Montalbetti, 1984).
... Various versions and modifications of LFG's projection architecture have been proposed (see e.g. Kaplan 1987, 1989, Falk 2001, Asudeh 2006, 2012, Bögel 2015, Bresnan et al. 2016, Dalrymple et al. 2019, but most of these nuances are not relevant to our study. In terms of the correspondence between c-structure and f-structure, we uncontroversially assume that this is formally handled via the correspondence function φ, whereby c-structure nodes are related to f-structures (Bresnan et al. 2016, Dalrymple et al. 2019. ...
... This might be true for direct object relative clauses, but Arabic prepositional relative clauses present both strategies, movement and resumptive pronouns, as explained below. Type III languages are those that present "intrusive pronouns" (Sells, 1984), which are not a true pronoun or syntactically active resumptive (Asudeh, 2012) as it does not alternate with gaps and is not island-sensitive. We are assuming that this is the case for both English and Spanish. ...
This study reflects on the meaning of the results of a self-paced grammaticality judgment task that tested island configurations (with gaps and resumptive pronouns) in L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish. Results indicated that resumptive pronouns do not rescue extractions from islands, as traditionally assumed in grammatical theory, and propose that islands are essentially an interpretative or processing matter, and not only a grammatical one, as in Kluender (1998). This study further challenges the L2 studies that proposed that L2 learners are fundamentally different from native speakers because they usually fail to reject island configurations, and shows that L2 learners are sensitive to the same processing and interpretative mechanisms that native speakers employ to parse island configurations. Generally speaking, this study proposes that apparent purely syntactic restrictions such as extractions from islands might not depend on their grammatical formation, but on other relevant factors such as plausibility, embedding, and processability, which together with grammatical well-formedness configure a more holistic and useful notion of linguistic acceptability.
... This goes against the standard view that dedicated resumptives do not exist (cf. McCloskey 2006;Asudeh 2012). Wu (2011) suggests that Abkhaz relative indexes are typologically intermediate between relative pronouns and resumptives, and Gandon (2016) extends this interpretation to West Circassian. ...
In polysynthetic West Caucasian languages, the morphological verbal complex amounts to a clause with all kinds of participants cross-referenced by affixes. Relativization is performed by introducing a relative affix in the cross-reference slot that corresponds to the relativized participant. However, these languages display several crosslinguistically rare features of relativization. Firstly, while under the view of the verbal complex as a clause this affix appears to be a relative pronoun, it is an unusual relative pronoun because it remains in situ. Secondly, relative affixes may appear several times in the same clause. Thirdly, relative pronouns are not expected to occur in languages with prenominal relative clauses. Fourthly, in the Circassian branch, relative pronouns are identical to reflexive pronouns. These features are explained by considering relative prefixes to be resumptive pronouns. This interpretation finds a parallel in the neighboring East Caucasian languages, where reflexive pronouns also show resumptive usages. Finally, since in some West Caucasian languages the relative affix is a morpheme with a dedicated relative function but still shows properties of a resumptive pronoun, our data suggest that the distinction between relative pronouns and resumptive pronouns may not be as clear as is usually assumed.
... This goes against the standard view that dedicated resumptives do not exist (cf. McCloskey 2006;Asudeh 2012). Wu (2011) suggests that Abkhaz relative indexes are typologically intermediate between relative pronouns and resumptives, and Gandon (2016) extends this interpretation to West Circassian. ...
In polysynthetic West Caucasian languages, the morphological verbal complex amounts to a clause with all kinds of participants cross-referenced by affixes. Relativization is performed by introducing a relative affix in the cross-reference slot that corresponds to the relativized participant. However, these languages display several crosslinguistically rare features of relativization. Firstly, while under the view of the verbal complex as a clause this affix appears to be a relative pronoun, it is an unusual relative pronoun because it remains in situ . Secondly, relative affixes may appear several times in the same clause. Thirdly, relative pronouns are not expected to occur in languages with prenominal relative clauses. Fourthly, in the Circassian branch, relative pronouns are identical to reflexive pronouns. These features are explained by considering relative prefixes to be resumptive pronouns. This interpretation finds a parallel in the neighboring East Caucasian languages, where reflexive pronouns also show resumptive usages. Finally, since in some West Caucasian languages the relative affix is a morpheme with a dedicated relative function but still shows properties of a resumptive pronoun, our data suggest that the distinction between relative pronouns and resumptive pronouns may not be as clear as is usually assumed.
... The resumptive strategy in Modern Hebrew is obligatory for obliques, and it is not possible for subjects unless they are used in embedded clauses. Modern Hebrew (3) raʔit-i ʔet ha-yeled [she-/ʔasher rina ʔohevet (ʔoto)] saw-I ACC the-boy REL Rina loves him 'I saw the boy that Rina loves.' ( Andrews 2007: 220) Resumptive pronouns were at first considered as alternative realizations of gaps but more research led to their analysis as ordinary pronouns (see an overview of the literature in Asudeh 2012). This discussion, however, is beyond the scope of this paper. ...
Subject preference in relative clauses (RCs) has been reported in typologically diverse languages, but overall one notes that the number of languages analyzed experimentally remains extremely low. This paper presents experimental and natural evidence from Ixcatec, a critically-endangered Otomanguean language. Ixcatec is relevant to the discussion on universal subject preference for having syntactically and morphologically ambiguous subject and object RCs that can offer an unconfounded result. Study 1, a picture-matching comprehension experiment, shows that 63% of the ambiguous RCs are interpreted as subject RCs. Results from reaction times show that subject RC interpretations are numerically faster than object RC interpretations, but this difference does not reach significance. Analysis of a three-hour, free-speech corpus in Study 2 indicates that transitive subject RCs are only slightly more frequent than object RCs. In conclusion, although the Ixcatec data support universal subject preference, they also show how this preference is weaker than predicted.
... [.5,1] incompatibility Fig. 4 Compatibility of ECTs and (anti-)honorific markers 6 The pejorative attitude marked by the meaning of 'completing' is not something extraordinarily found in Korean. As Yoon (2015) also notes "these pejorative verbal suffixes reveal a striking resemblance to the Old English verbal prefixes like ge-(e.g., ge-ridan 'to reach by riding', ge-acsian 'to learn by asking'), carrying the pejorative sense which is derived from the meaning of perfectivisation, and to the Russian verbal prefixes such as pere-(e.g., pere-varit' 'overcook something', pere-solit' 'oversalt'), conveying the nuance of undesirable excess (Asudeh 2012)." 77 Shades of black: the pragmatics of emotive color terms… 59 (37) ECTs with intensified verbs #kamamalsswukhan/✓kemun/✓kemwuthwuythwuyhan sanay.tul-i ...
In this study, we aim to propose the Pragmatics and Semantics of what we term the emotive color terms (ECTs) in Korean as a subcase of expressive elements, analyzed as Conventional Implicature (Potts in The logic of conventional implicature, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005 et seq.). In exploring extremely complex connotational nuances in 77 variants of ECTs, we show the regularity of how such abundant derivations can be achieved by systematic phonetic and morphological alternations. What is particularly noteworthy about Korean color terms, however, is the fact that many of the possible variants can convey the speaker’s positive or negative emotional attitude that is reflected in a particular derivation of the color term, in addition to the regular meaning of the color term concerning quality/quantity of the color (Kennedy and McNally in Synthese 174(1):79–98, 2010). To capture the precise meaning difference, we propose a hybrid analysis of ECTs at the interface of Pragmatics and Semantics, which allows us to successfully capture the subtle differences in numerous variants of the ECT. Furthermore, we show how the dynamic paradigm of multiple expressives, ECTs and others, can be predicted by the Compatibility Condition Model and the Compatibility Condition Index (Yoon in Spec Issue Slurs Lang Sci 52:46–69, 2015; Yae and Yoon in Lang Sci 64:69–102, 2017). The rigorous investigation of 77 possible variants for a single color like ‘black’ reveals the systematicity of expressives, as part of our grammar, while the identification of another case of expressive element in language further supports the notion of multidimensionality.
... This paper makes a contribution to the theoretical frameworks of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG: Kaplan and Bresnan 1982;Bresnan 2001;Dalrymple 2001;Falk 2001;Bresnan et al. 2016;Asudeh and Toivonen 2015) and Glue Semantics (Glue: Dalrymple 1999Dalrymple , 2001Asudeh 2012). Some relevant formalisms will be explained where possible, but constraints of space prevent a full introduction to the two theories here. ...
Asudeh and Giorgolo (2012) offer an analysis of optional and derived arguments that does away with argument structure as a separate level of representation within the architecture of Lexical Functional Grammar in favour of encoding much of this information in a connected semantic structure. This simplifies the architecture in many ways, but leaves open the question of the mapping between thematic roles, arguments, and grammatical functions (traditionally explored under the umbrella of Lexical Mapping Theory (LMT: Bresnan and Kanerva 1989)). In this paper, I offer some attempt to formalise these mapping relations, drawing on a modern reanalysis of traditional LMT (Kibort 2007), while also continuing Asudeh and Giorgolo’s (2012) quest to evacuate as much information as possible out of individual lexical entries and into cross-categorising templates (Dalrymple et al. 2004; Crouch et al. 2012).
... The resource-theoretic conception of logic has been argued to have advantages over other proof theoretic rivals (Asudeh (2012), Crouch and van Genabith (2000). For a proof theoretic semantics that allows hypotheses to be freely assumed and discharged risks allowing certain semantic values to be used more than once in the sentence. ...
This thesis presents Gl-TAG, a new semantics for a fragment of natural language including simple
in/transitive sentences with quantifiers. Gl-TAG utilises glue semantics, a proof-theoretic semantics
based on linear logic, and TAG, a tree-based syntactic theory. We demonstrate that Gl-TAG is
compositional, and bears similarities to other approaches towards the semantics of quantifiers.
Chapter 1, rather than discussing the arguments of the thesis as a whole, outlines the global picture
of language and semantic theory we adopt, introducing different semantics for quantification,
so that Gl-TAG is understood in the proper context.
Chapter 2, the heart of the thesis, introduces Gl-TAG, illustrating its application to quantifier
scope ambiguity (Qscope ambiguity) and binding. Ways of constricting quantifier scope where
necessary are suggested, but their full development is a topic of future research.
Chapter 3 demonstrates that our semantics is compositional in certain formal senses there distinguished.
We then conclude our findings, pointing out ways in which our research could be
developed further.
In closing we mention one particularly interesting philosophical and logical aspect of Gl-TAG:
that it depends on proof theoretic methods. Glue semantics combines semantic values both by
harnessing the inferential power of linear logic and by exploiting the Curry-Howard isomorphism
(CHI) familiar from proof theory (see chapter 2 for an explanation of the CHI). The semantic value
of a proposition is thus a proof, as some proof theorists have desired (see Martin-Lof (1996). This ¨
raises a question for future research; namely, whether Gl-TAG is an inferential semantics in the
sense that some philosophers have discussed (Murzi and Steinberger (2015)).
An appendix is provided, showing how our account of quantification bears striking similarities
to that proposed in Heim and Kratzer (1998), and also to Cooper storage (Cooper ((1983))); in fact,
we can set up a form of Cooper storage within Gl-TAG. We suggest that the features in common
between frameworks highlight the possible formal similarities between the approaches.
... The resource-theoretic conception of logic has been argued to have advantages over other proof theoretic rivals (Asudeh (2012), Crouch and van Genabith (2000). For a proof theoretic semantics that allows hypotheses to be freely assumed and discharged risks allowing certain semantic values to be used more than once in the sentence. ...
This thesis presents Gl-TAG, a new semantics for a fragment of natural language including simple
in/transitive sentences with quantifiers. Gl-TAG utilises glue semantics, a proof-theoretic semantics
based on linear logic, and TAG, a tree-based syntactic theory. We demonstrate that Gl-TAG is
compositional, and bears similarities to other approaches towards the semantics of quantifiers.
Chapter 1, rather than discussing the arguments of the thesis as a whole, outlines the global picture
of language and semantic theory we adopt, introducing different semantics for quantification,
so that Gl-TAG is understood in the proper context.
Chapter 2, the heart of the thesis, introduces Gl-TAG, illustrating its application to quantifier
scope ambiguity (Qscope ambiguity) and binding. Ways of constricting quantifier scope where
necessary are suggested, but their full development is a topic of future research.
Chapter 3 demonstrates that our semantics is compositional in certain formal senses there distinguished.
We then conclude our findings, pointing out ways in which our research could be
developed further.
In closing we mention one particularly interesting philosophical and logical aspect of Gl-TAG:
that it depends on proof theoretic methods. Glue semantics combines semantic values both by
harnessing the inferential power of linear logic and by exploiting the Curry-Howard isomorphism
(CHI) familiar from proof theory (see chapter 2 for an explanation of the CHI). The semantic value
of a proposition is thus a proof, as some proof theorists have desired (see Martin-Lof (1996). This ¨
raises a question for future research; namely, whether Gl-TAG is an inferential semantics in the
sense that some philosophers have discussed (Murzi and Steinberger (2015)).
An appendix is provided, showing how our account of quantification bears striking similarities
to that proposed in Heim and Kratzer (1998), and also to Cooper storage (Cooper ((1983))); in fact,
we can set up a form of Cooper storage within Gl-TAG. We suggest that the features in common
between frameworks highlight the possible formal similarities between the approaches.
This article traces the history of the minor complementisers as if , as though , and like (when they follow evidential verbs such as seem and look ) in Canadian English. By the 21st century, both as if and as though were rare in Canada, while like appeared to have become popular ( López-Couso and Méndez-Naya 2012b ). The Victoria English Archive ( D’Arcy 2011–2014 , 2015 ; Roeder, Onosson, and D’Arcy 2018 ) is used to map out the change in a combination of synchronic and diachronic spoken data. Results show that as if and as though are unusual even in the earliest speakers, which puts spoken Canadian English at odds with contemporaneous writing ( Brook 2014 ). However, this unexpected register difference may explain why the complementiser like caught on in North American dialects of English sooner and more readily than in the United Kingdom – where a robust as if and as though in speech would have remained barriers.
In recent years, dependency grammars have established themselves as valuable tools in theoretical and computational linguistics. To many linguists, dependency grammars and the more standard constituency-based formalisms are notational variants. We argue that, beyond considerations of formal equivalence, cognition may also serve as a background for a genuine comparison between these different views of syntax. In this paper, we review and evaluate some of the most common arguments and evidence employed to advocate for the cognitive or neural reality of dependency grammars in linguistics, psycholinguistics, or neurolinguistics. We then raise the possibility that the abilities to represent and track, alternatively or in parallel, constituency and dependency structures co-exist in human cognition and are constitutive of syntactic competence.
In spontaneous English, which clauses can deviate from traditional syntactic schemas by having a resumptive pronoun where a gap would otherwise be. Some researchers claim that such uses of which are not errors but rather a reanalysis. However, there is no consensus as to how which is being reanalyzed. Collins & Radford (2015) suggest that it behaves like a caseless relative pronoun; Sells (1985) and Kjellmer (1988) posit a subordinating conjunction behavior; Daalder (1989) posits a coordinating conjunction behavior; and Miller (1988: 116), Kuha (1994), Loock (2007) and Burke (2017) note that which can be replaced by both subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, but they do not commit to one over the other. Here, we present prosodic and syntactic data in which such uses of which behave more like a coordinating conjunction than like a relative pronoun or subordinating conjunction.
In many introspective and corpus studies, inserting a resumptive pronoun in place of a gap in island-violating wh-dependency structures in English is said to amnesty, ameliorate, or repair the island violation, improving the acceptability of otherwise unacceptable structures. Most experimental studies on the acceptability of such resumptive structures, however, report that native speakers of English do not judge island-violating dependency structures with resumptive pronouns to be more acceptable than the ones with gaps. But studies testing the comprehensibility and processing of resumption report that resumptive pronouns increase the comprehensibility of island-violating structures and facilitate processing of long dependencies. These results taken together suggest that although resumptive pronouns in islands do not have an ameliorating effect on grammaticality, they may confer a processing benefit. A question, however, remains as to whether the reported enhanced comprehensibility and ease in processing actually increase the accuracy in interpreting the resumptive pronouns.
Glue Semantics (Glue) is a general framework for semantic composition and the syntax–semantics interface. The framework grew out of an interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersection of formal linguistics, formal logic, and computer science. Glue assumes a separate level of syntax; this can be any syntactic framework in which syntactic structures have heads. Glue uses a fragment of linear logic for semantic composition. General linear logic terms in Glue meaning constructors are instantiated relative to a syntactic parse. The separation of the logic of composition from structural syntax distinguishes Glue from other theories of semantic composition and the syntax–semantics interface. It allows Glue to capture semantic ambiguity, such as quantifier scope ambiguity, without necessarily positing an ambiguity in the syntactic structure. Glue is introduced here in relation to four of its key properties, which are used as organizing themes: resource-sensitive composition, flexible composition, autonomy of syntax, and syntax/semantics non-isomorphism.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
The status of Old Icelandic with respect to (argument) configurationality was subject to debate in the early 1990s (e.g. Faarlund 1990; Rögnvaldsson 1995) and remains unresolved. Since this work, further research on a wide range of languages has enhanced our understanding of configurationality, in particular within Lexical Functional Grammar (e.g. Austin & Bresnan 1996; Nordlinger 1998) and syntactically annotated Old Icelandic data are now available (Wallenberg et al. 2011). It is thus fitting to revisit the matter. In this paper, I show that allowing for argument configurationality as a gradient property, and also taking into account discourse configurationality (Kiss 1995) as a further gradient property, can neatly account for word order patterns in this early stage of Icelandic. Specifically, I show that corpus data supports part of the original claim in Faarlund (1990), that Old Icelandic lacks a VP-constituent, thus being somewhat less argument-configurational than the modern language. Furthermore, the observed word order patterns indicate a designated topic position in the postfinite domain, thus reflecting some degree of discourse configurationality at this early stage of the language.
The collocation I feel like has attracted American media attention for reportedly being newly ubiquitous (Baker 2013, Smith 2015, Worthen 2016). While I have proposed that it is becoming an epistemic marker in North American dialects of English (Brook 2011: 65), I have made this prediction of (it) feels like as well. The present study artificially restricts the conventional envelope of variation to evaluate what distinguishes these two phrases in vernacular Canadian English. I feel like is the more frequent by far, but (it) feels like shows a specialization for metaphorical subordinate clauses rather than concrete ones. I interpret this as a case of persistence (Torres Cacoullos and Walker 2009). Before the arrival of the like complementizer, the only predecessors to ’(it) feels like were (it) feels as if and (it) feels as though , and both as if and as though have a preference for metaphoricality (Brook 2014). I feel like was also preceded by options with ’ as if and as though , but counterbalanced with that and Ø, which prefer concrete subordinate clauses (Brook 2014). The results attest to the value to be found in (cautiously) conducting a microscopic study of a corner of the envelope of variation.
an overview of long-distance dependency constructions in Germanic and their salient properties
We offer an account of multi-modal meaning coordination, taking speech-gesture meaning coordination as a prototypical case. We argue that temporal synchrony (plus prosody) does not determine how to coordinate speech meaning and gesture meaning. Challenging
cases are asynchrony and broadcasting cases, which are illustrated with empirical
data. We propose that a process algebra account satisfies the desiderata. It models
gesture and speech as independent but concurrent processes that can communicate
flexibly with each other and exchange the same information more than once. The account
utilizes the Psi-calculus, allowing for agents, input-output-channels, concurrent
processes, and data transport of typed Lambda-terms. A multi-modal meaning is produced integrating speech meaning and gesture meaning into one semantic package. Two cases of meaning coordination are handled in some detail: the asynchrony between
gesture and speech, and the broadcasting of gesture meaning across several dialogue
contributions. This account can be generalized to other cases of multi-modal
meaning.
Humans communicate with different modalities. We offer an account of multi-modal meaning coordination, taking speech-gesture meaning coordination as a prototypical case. We argue that temporal synchrony (plus prosody) does not determine how to coordinate speech meaning and gesture meaning. Challenging cases are asynchrony and broadcasting cases, which are illustrated with empirical data. We propose that a process algebra account satisfies the desiderata. It models gesture and speech as independent but concurrent processes that can communicate flexibly with each other and exchange the same information more than once. The account utilizes the ψ-calculus, allowing for agents, input-output-channels, concurrent processes, and data transport of typed λ-terms. A multi-modal meaning is produced integrating speech meaning and gesture meaning into one semantic package. Two cases of meaning coordination are handled in some detail: the asynchrony between gesture and speech, and the broadcasting of gesture meaning across several dialogue contributions. This account can be generalized to other cases of multi-modal meaning.
X' theory was a major milestone in the history of the development of generative grammar.1 It enabled important insights to be made into the phrase structure of human language, but it had a number of weaknesses, and has been essentially replaced in Chomskyan generativism by Bare Phrase Structure (BPS), which assumes fewer theoretical primitives than X0 theory, and also avoids several of the latter’s weaknesses. However, Bare Phrase Structure has not been widely adopted outside the Minimalist Program (MP), rather, X0 theory remains widespread. In this paper, we develop a new, fully formalized approach to phrase structure which incorporates insights and advances from BPS, but does not require the Minimalist-specific assumptions that come with BPS. We formulate our proposal within Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), providing an empirically and theoretically superior model for phrase structure compared with standard versions of X0 theory current in LFG.
The conjunction like meaning ‘as if’ is usually considered to derive from the preposition. There exists, however, a striking parallel between the impersonal post-copula use of the conjunction (e.g. It’s likeAS IF he didn’t see it) and the extraposed construction of the now extinct adjective like meaning ‘likely’ with a covert complementizer (e.g. It’s likeADJ ø he didn’t see it). This paper therefore aims at sustaining the hypothesis of the adjectival origin of likeAS IF with the help of the Corpus of Historical American English. By documenting the geographic, semantic and syntactic expansion of likeAS IF, this study suggests that the disappearance of the attributive use of the adjective for reasons of isomorphism triggered the constructionalization of the two remaining adjectival constructions. The constructionalization of likeAS IF can be formalized as follows: [it copula Adj [ø + Clause]] ↔ [probability] > [it copula [Comp + Clause]] ↔ [comparison].
دستور نقشنمای واژگانی یکی از دستورهای زایشی غیرگشتاری است که امروزه مبنای تحلیل و تهیه دادگان درختی در زبانشناسی رایانشی قرارگرفته است. از جمله ویژگیهای این دستور آن است که در آن بهجای تبدیل یک ساخت زیرین با کمک گشتار به روساخت، تنها یک ساخت ظاهری درنظر گرفته میشود و ازاینرو، این دستور به وجود گشتار قائل نیست. مهمترین ویژگی این دستور این است که در آن چند سطح بهطور موازی برای نمایش اطلاعات زبانشناختی وجود دارد. دو سطح اصلی در این دستور عبارتند از سطح ساخت سازهای که ساختار سلسلهمراتبی عناصر جمله را بهصورت درخت سازهای نشان میدهد و سطح نقشنما که روابط دستوری و اطلاعات انتزاعی مربوط به معنی را در قالب یک ماتریس نمایش میدهد. علاوه بر این دو سطح عمده، سطوح دیگری شامل سطح ساخت موضوعی، سطح ساخت معنایی و سطح ساخت اطلاعی نیز وجود دارند. در مقاله حاضر، سطوح دستور نقشنمای واژگانی با تمرکز ویژه بر سطح نقشنما در برخی ساختهای زبان فارسی شامل جملات ساده و مرکب، بند متممی، ساختهای ملکی، مبتدایی و تمییز مورد بررسی قرار میگیرد. نتیجه به دست آمده بیانگر آن است که دستور نقشنمای واژگانی بهخصوص درسطح نقشنما توانایی توصیف ویژگیها و تبیین پدیدههای زبانشناختی موجود در زبان فارسی از جمله غیرپایگانی بودن زبان فارسی و فرایند مجهول و مبتداسازی را دارد. همچنین، در این جستار مشخص گردید در زبان فارسی با توجه به مدل لودروپ (2011)، ده نقش دستوری قابل ارائه است که به دو دسته موضوع-غیر موضوع از طرفی و گفتمانی- غیرگفتمانی از طرف دیگر تقسیم میشوند.
Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) is a model for the analysis of language in which different types of linguistic information are represented in separate dimensions, each with its own formalism. These dimensions are linked by mapping principles. In this article, I describe the architecture of the model and illustrate some dimensions of information and the mapping between them in more detail. I also provide an outline of the analysis of long-distance dependencies and control to illustrate the advantages of this type of model. I briefly mention some further areas where LFG has proven to be a useful tool for analysis and provide references for the reader to follow up.
We argue that Asante Twi has a process of tonal overwriting on verbs that are crossed by an A’-dependency. It is shown that this view captures the distribution of the process across ex-situ focus constructions, relative clauses and adverbial clauses, which are all contexts involving operator movement. Furthermore, we illustrate that this process is unbounded and applies to each verb in a long-distance dependency. We therefore conclude that this is a reflex of successive-cyclic movement through vP. Additionally, we provide a detailed study of resumption in Asante Twi, showing that despite island-insensitivity, resumption is still derived by movement. Finally, the morpho-phonological side of the phenomenon is investigated. It is shown that overwriting affects only those affixes below v and not those above, which follows from cyclic Vocabulary Insertion. This provides support for Kandybowicz’ (2017) assumption that aspect and negation are lower than vP in Asante Twi.
Resumptive pronouns are produced in English in unguarded speech in restrictive relative clauses and appositive relative clauses. However, numerous studies have found that resumptive pronouns in restrictive relative clauses are not acceptable. To our knowledge, no studies have examined the acceptability of resumptive pronouns in appositive relative clauses, despite hints in the literature that they may be more acceptable in appositive than in restrictive relative clauses. This article fills that gap. We found that resumptive pronouns were rated as more natural in appositive relative clauses than in restrictive relative clauses. These findings may be due to which currently undergoing a reanalysis from a relative pronoun to a solely connective word, as has been suggested in the literature. A small-scale corpus search also reveals that appositive relative clauses with resumptive pronouns are increasing in American English.
It is observed that in both Mandarin and Cantonese direct long passives, whenever there is a resumptive pronoun (RP) embedded, there must be an extra constituent (such as a frequency phrase) followed the RP. The constraint imposed is not driven by syntax
nor semantics, but is created by the interaction between the Nuclear Stress Rule (NSR) and the focus structure. NSR prohibits the RP to sit in the NS position; meanwhile the narrow focus falling on the VP cannot be realized by the RP alone, therefore an extra constituent is needed to act as a prosodic compensating device.
Keywords: direct long Bei passive; resumptive pronouns; Nuclear Stress Rule; narrow focus; prosodic compensation
The paper will argue for the existence of null resumption in Kaqchikel (Mayan) by showing new empirical facts that the language has two strategies to make a possessor interrogative: one type of the possessor wh is base‐generated in Spec‐CP and heads a resumptive chain, while the other type undergoes movement to Spec‐CP. I will present a set of paradoxical cases in which resumption in Kaqchikel displays no movement properties in a simple clause, whereas it does in a long‐distance dependency. I will suggest that the domain of locality relevant to resumptive dependencies in Kaqchikel is more constrained than in other widely discussed resumptive languages like Irish and Hebrew. Specifically, it will be proposed that a resumptive pronoun in Kaqchikel must be licensed within a clause: the Clause‐Mate Condition on Resumptive Chains (CCRC). The CCRC will explain why resumptive dependencies in Kaqchikel display island effects, while those in Irish and Hebrew do not by suggesting that the CCRC is not operative in Irish and Hebrew.
I explore the bases of a ‘distributionalist’ approach to syntactic categories, that is, an approach that makes distinctions on the basis of purely syntactic (as opposed to, say, semantic) criteria. I focus on the phenomenon of ‘mixed projections’, where a syntactic phrase appears to display properties of more than one syntactic category, as analysed within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. I argue that of the three syntactic criteria called upon in the definition of syntactic categories within this approach, only one, the internal syntactic structure of a phrase, is a sufficient criterion for syntactic categorization. This leads to a more restricted definition of category mixing and implies a more restricted approach to categorization in general.
A null pronominal has sometimes been posited in an extraction site of raising to subject that creates a remnant constituent in the literature. I argue that what has been recognized as a null pronominal should be viewed as a covert definite determiner. Counter‐cyclic merger of a restrictor NP with a determiner and a procedure for interpreting movement dependencies conspire to produce this syntactic object. Considering also extraction from a certain kind of island, which shows the same traits as raising to subject mentioned above, I will characterize under what circumstances we perceive an effect of a putative null pronominal and why we do so under those circumstances. I conclude that the role of Case is particularly important in our understanding of this effect.
This paper uncovers evidence for two linked levels of morphosyntactic change occurring in Canadian English. The more ordinary is a lexical replacement: with finite subordination after seem, the complementizer like has been overtaking all the alternatives ( as if, as though, that, and Ø ). On top of this, there is a broader syntactic change whereby the entire finite structure (now represented primarily by like ) is beginning to catch on at the expense of infinitival subordination after seem . Drawing on complementary evidence from British English and several partial precedents in the historical linguistics literature, I take this correlation to mean that like has reached sufficient rates among the finite strategy to have instigated the second level of change, to the point that it has ramifications for epistemic and evidential marking with the verb seem . I propose that the best model of these trajectories is a set of increasingly large envelopes of variation, one inside the next, and argue that the envelope might itself be an entity susceptible to change over time.
This paper provides a descriptive overview of restrictive relative clauses (henceforth RRCs) in Maltese, a construction which has received little atten- tion to date and which is poorly described in existing grammars. We outline an LFG approach to the facts we describe bulding on existing LFG work on relatives. Further we explore some issues raised by Maltese for approaches to resumption.
This article demonstrates the diachronic development of present-day Dutch klinken as an evidential copular verb meaning ‘to seem, based on (auditory) evidence’ from the Middle Dutch intransitive verb klinken meaning ‘to give off a clear sound’. I identify four semantic stages in the history of klinken, which are divided by processes of semantic bleaching (14th–16th century, 16th–17th century) and subjectification and copularization (during the 16th century). I claim that the process of copularization is the trigger of both the evidential meaning and the subjective interpretation that copular constructions with klinken receive. Furthermore, I show that, unlike the development of eruitzien ‘look’ and voelen ‘feel’ from cognitive perception verbs, klinken has developed much like the Dutch copular verbs schijnen ‘seem’ and blijken ‘turn out’: from an intransitive verb with a sensory-related meaning.
This study discusses copy raising in English, German, and Dutch from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Synchronically, copy raising has the same purpose in all three languages: to mark direct evidence. However, the languages differ in whether they allow their ‘seem’-verbs to appear in copy-raised constructions: English seem can copy raise, German scheinen cannot, whereas the status of Dutch lijken is undecided. This difference is explained by the diachronic development of these verbs: English seem has developed the furthest along the grammaticalization cline of ‘seem’-verbs, German scheinen is the most conservative in its development, and Dutch lijken has developed quite late, but is quickly catching up to English seem . Even though it is too early to tell, this distribution hints at a Van Haeringen pattern. *
We examine copy raising in two closely related Germanic languages, English and Swedish, and offer a formal analysis of its syntax and semantics. We develop a new event semantics analysis of copy raising. In addition to augmenting the body of empirical data on copy raising, we show that copy raising yields novel insights into a number of key theoretical issues, in particular: language and perception, the theory of arguments and thematic roles, and the broader semantics of control and raising.
Rouveret and Hamida Demirdache for organizing the workshop Resumptive Pronouns at the Interfaces and to the other presenters and the audience for their questions and suggestions. I would also like to thank Ron Kaplan for discussion of the restriction operator and Dick Crouch, Mary Dalrymple and Miltiadis Kokkonidis for discussions of Glue Semantics and the sigma projection. I thank Jim McCloskey for many fruitful exchanges on resumptive pronouns. Lastly, I would like to thank audiences at Carleton University, the University of Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for their questions and comments on closely related work. Any remaining errors are my own. Abstract This paper presents a unified theory of resumptive pronouns, based on the Resource Management Theory of Resumption. It identifies a common basis for puzzlingly different resumptive pronouns in languages such as Irish, in which resumptive pronouns do not behave syntactically like gaps (syntactically active resumptives), versus languages such as Vata, in which re-sumptive pronouns do behave syntactically like gaps (syntactically inactive resumptives). The Resource Management Theory of Resumption is based on the Resource Sensitivity Hypothesis, which holds that natural language is resource-sensitive — as captured through the use of a resource logic for semantic composition — and the empirical observation that resumptive pronouns are morpho-lexically ordinary pronouns — languages do not employ special paradigms or special items in resumptive-only uses. The unification of the two kinds of resumption is captured in semantic composition, but Vata-type resumptives also involve an additional syntactic mechanism, which is captured through an operation on feature-value pairs in a constraint-based, non-transformational theory of syntax.
Syntactic island constraints are generally viewed as paradigmatic evidence for the autonomy of syntax. However, the existence of exceptions has been known for some time. Close examination reveals that these exceptional phenomena resist purely syntactic explanations, requiring instead an account in terms of semantic relations like attribution, various kinds of semantic framing effects, and discourse variables like topic and focus. It will be argued that the syntactic and extrasyntactic factors which limit extraction can be subsumed into a general account based on a cognitive theory of attention. According to the analysis presented below, extraction phenomena represent a situation in which the language user must attend simultaneously to two parts of the syntactic structure; a situation which strains the limited working memory available for automatic syntactic processing. Long-range extraction takes place under conditions which reduce that processing strain, that is, when both the extracted element and the matrix for extraction command attention anyway. In other words, the factors which control the distribution of long-range extraction do so indirectly through their impact on the distribution of attention.
This book establishes the need for a competitive approach to the distribution and interpretation of anaphoric relations in natural language, and makes a particular proposal about the sort of competitive theory of anaphora that might be on the right track. Linguists are especially interested in anaphoric relations because they provide evidence for the existence of an innate human language faculty in that they are conditioned by both structural relationships in natural language syntax and choices of morphological form. This work is another attempt to develop an explanatory theory of anaphoric relations general enough to capture the deep similarities across languages, while at the same time one flexible enough to account for the variety of patterns that have been observed to be possible. Rejecting binding theory and predicate-based approaches to Principle B and Principle C, which are both derived in this approach from the Form-to-Interpretation Principle, the competitive approach does however exploit c-command and dependent identity relations to determine which morphological forms that represent dependent identity are in competition for a given anaphoric interpretation. The morphology of anaphors, pronouns and referring expressions then plays a role in how they compete. For example, where a reflexive anaphor is possible, as in "John praised himself", less dependent forms, like "him" and "John" are excluded for the interpretation where John is the x such that x praised x. This simple approach (with its antecedents in the literature that are explored in some detail) is then defended across a wide range of languages and constructions where it provides unique explanatory force, and in so doing, apparent counterexamples are addressed, many in detail. Ancillary proposals about the morphology of anaphors and the locality of anaphoric relations are then defended, and the variety of anaphoric interpretations are explored with respect to their role in determining the nature of dependent identity and the conditions on dependency competitions regulated by the Form-to-Interpretation Principle. The role of competitive algorithms in the architecture of generative grammar is then explored, and other minimalist approaches to anaphora are compared with this one.
Papers by Gorrell and by Gibson and Hickok in this issue question Pickering and Barry's (1991) arguments against empty categories in sentence processing. This reply disputes Gorrell's claims that Pickering and Barry's (PB's) interpretation of the data is inadequate, and, in agreement with Gibson and Hickok, reinforces the arguments that the gap location is irrelevant to the formation of an unbounded dependency. However, it accepts that it is possible to provide “predictive” accounts where a gap can be postulated before the gap location is reached. But any such proposal is likely to be more complicated and less natural than PB's, since there is no processing reason to assume the reality of gaps. In order to demonstrate the naturalness of the gap-free account, this reply next shows how PB's proposals can be modelled in an approach to incremental processing based on a version of flexible categorial grammar, and how the differential complexity of various recursive constructions can be accounted for. Finally, the paper considers the implications of PB's proposals for various processing strategies, and suggests that PB's conclusions arc reinforced by Bock, Loebell and Morey's (1992) evidence from language production. It concludes that processing evidence gives us no reason to postulate empty categories.
In this corpus-based article we explore the development of evidential meanings in English verbs of appearance, together with their acquisition of evaluative meanings. We explore the relationship of these semantic changes to the question of whether there is an increase in subjectivity diachronically, and we show that subjectivity is orthogonal to both develop-ments: an increase in subjectivity appears rather to go with the spread of small clause constructions.
Theories of sentence processing have standardly made use of grammatical theories with empty categories, and have therefore postulated a process known as “gap-filling”. In contrast, this paper provides evidence that the processing of unbounded dependencies does not make use of empty categories. We propose instead that there is a direct association between the extracted element and its subcategoriser. To show that gap-filling cannot take place, we consider a number of examples where there is material separating the assumed empty category and the subcategoriser, and then present a formal argument, based on patterns of dependencies in sentences involving multiple cases of extraction. We then sketch a linguistic account of unbounded dependencies that does not use empty categories, and which can serve as the basis of a processing model. We conclude that empty categories are not psychologically real.
This article reports a Distributed Morphology view of the relation between morphology and syntax. It specifically argues that the notion of 'word' does not correspond to any genuine linguistic primitives and that the morphological patterns of vocabulary insertion are a direct reflection of syntactic structure. The mechanism supplying phonological features to the abstract morphemes is called 'Vocabulary Insertion'. In its essence, the Distributed Morphology approach to morphology is syntactic. There are instances in which both morphemes and features that are not present in the syntax are inserted by rules of Phonetic/Phonological Form (PF). These ornamentations of the syntactic structure introduce redundancy into the PF expression but do not eliminate or alter information that is crucial for semantic interpretation. The presented approach to the syntax-morphology interface is based on the idea that there is a single generative component (the syntax) responsible for the construction of complex objects. © 2007 editorial matter and organization Gillian Ramchand and Charles Reiss the chapters their various authors. All rights reserved.
This chapter contains section titled:
This paper examines the raising constructions of Haitian Creole both from a descriptive and from a theoretical point of view. Descriptively, the constructions involve a local relation between the non-thematic subject position of a verbal predicate and the thematic subject position of an embedded tensed sentence, which is occupied by an overt pronominal copy in place of the expected trace and manifests the thematic dependency characteristic of well-understood forms of raising. The theoretical interest of these constructions concerns the theory of A-chains and predication. Despite the fact that Haitian Creole raising appears to manifest resumptive pronouns in A-chains, I argue that a revision of the standard A-chain theory is not warranted. Haitian Creole raising constructions manifest both NP movement and predication in the sense of Williams (1980, 1986). I provide evidence supporting the existence of clausal predicates, small clauses, and A-chains conceived in terms of NP movement.
The syntax of the Australian Aboriginal language Warlpiri has led to two opposing models of non-configurationality: a dual structure hypothesis, which abandons the projection principle for a grammatical architecture that separates constituency and functional representations (Simpson 1983, 1991, Hale 1983, Kroeger 1993), and a pronominal argument hypothesis, which hypothesizes that bound or zero pronominals satisfy the projection principle in such languages, with free nominals analysed as adjuncts (Jelinek 1984, Baker 1991, Hale 1993). Although the pronominal argument hypothesis is widely accepted in the syntactic literature, we show that available evidence from Warlpiri, new evidence from the related language Jiwarli, and a survey of six other Australian languages actually support the dual structure hypothesis. The non-configurationality characteristics of free word order, null anaphora, and split NPs are in fact independent of each other and of the distribution of bound pronouns. Additionally, the clitic pronouns that Jelinek (1984) and others take to be the source of non-configurationality in Warlpiri are simply an areal feature of Australian languages that is independent of the syntactic properties that are supposed to derive from it.
In this paper, we present a unified feature-based theory of complement, adjunct, and subject extraction, in which there is no need either for valence reducing lexical rules or for phonologically null traces. Our analysis rests on the assumption that the mapping between argument structure and valence is defined by realization constraints which are satisfied by all lexical heads. Arguments can be realized as local dependents, in which case they are selected via the head's valence features. Alternatively, arguments may be realized in a long-distance dependency construction, in which case they are selected via the head's slash features. Furthermore, we argue that English post-verbal adjuncts, as well as complements, are syntactic dependentsselected by the verb, thus providing a uniform analysis of complement andadjunct extraction. Finally, we show that our analysis provides analternative treatment of subject extraction and we offer a new account of thethat-trace effect.
Although ‘glue semantics’ is the most extensively developed theory of semantic composition for LFG, it is not very well integrated
into the LFG projection architecture, due to the absence of a simple and well-explained correspondence between glue-proofs
and f-structures. In this paper I will show that we can improve this situation with two steps: (1) Replace the current quantificational
formulations of glue (either Girard’s system F, or first order linear logic) with strictly propositional linear logic (the
quantifier, unit and exponential free version of either MILL or ILL, depending on whether or not tensors are used). (2) Reverse
the direction of the standard σ-projection from f-structure to meaning, giving one going from the (atomic nodes of) the glue-proof to the f-structure, rather
than from the f-structure to a ‘semantic projection’ which is itself somehow related to the glue-proof. As a side effect,
the standard semantic projection of LFG glue semantics can be dispensed with. A result is that LFG sentence structures acquire
a level composed of strictly binary trees, constructed out of nodes representing function application and lambda abstraction,
with a significant resemblance to external and internal merge in the Minimalist Program. This increased resemblance between
frameworks might assist in making useful comparisons.
KeywordsLexical-functional grammar–Glue semantics–Linear logic–Correspondence architecture–Syntax-semantics interface
This article sketches a novel approach to the phenomenon traditionally referred to as complementizer variation in Irish, and provides an alternative analysis to the standard one proposed by McCloskey (1990). It is argued that the two variants of the particle surfacing in Ā-constructions are not in fact complementizers per se, but the head of a Focus projection (FP), whose specifier provides an escape hatch for wA-phrases. FP interacts with C in two different ways, and depending on which of the options apply, F surfaces in two variants: (i) F incorporates to C, or (ii) FP raises to [Spec, CP]. The particle traditionally analysed as a resumptive strategy complementizer constitutes a case of (i), and the one traditionally analysed as a movement strategy complementizer is a case of (ii). It is shown how this approach avoids some serious empirical problems posed by the previous analysis of the phenomenon. It is furthermore argued that the process underlying successive cyclic wh-movement in fact involves covert successive pied-piping of CPs, where covert pied-piping is understood as overt pied-piping of the features of CP.
This handbook compares the main analytic frameworks and methods of contemporary linguistics It offers an overview of linguistic theory, revealing the common concerns of competing approaches. By showing their current and potential applications, the book provides the means by which linguists and others can judge what are the most useful models for the task in hand. Scholars from all over the world explain the rationale and aims of over thirty explanatory approaches to the description, analysis, and understanding of language. Each chapter considers the main goals of the model; the relation it proposes between lexicon, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and phonology; the way it defines the interaction between cognition and grammar; what it counts as evidence; and how it explains linguistic change and structure. © 2010 editorial matter and organization Bernd Heine and Heiko Narrog. All rights reserved.
Perception verbs - such as look, see, taste, hear, feel, sound, listen, and observe - present unresolved problems for linguistic theories. This book examines the predictability of relations between their semantics and syntactic behaviour, the different kinds of polysemy they exhibit, and the role of evidentiality in verbs like seem and appear. After an opening chapter explaining the nature of the issues, there is a concise introduction to Word Grammar. Chapter 3 considers the implications of the approach for a general theory of event structure, and looks at how Word Grammar can be applied to causation, argument linking, and the modelling of polysemy. Chapter 4 explores the polysemy of see; chapter 5 looks at relations between verbs of active perception like listen, and verbs of involuntary perception such as hear; chapter 6 explores the semantics of non-finite predicative complementation; and chapter 7 discusses verbs of appearance. Chapter 8 presents some conclusions.
The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces explores how the core components of the language faculty interact. It examines how these interactions are reflected in linguistic and cognitive theory, considers what they reveal about the operations of language within the mind, and looks at their reflections in expression and communication. International scholars present accounts of developments in the interfaces between phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. They bring to bear a rich variety of methods and theoretical perspectives, focus on a broad array of issues and problems, and illustrate their arguments from a wide range of the world's languages. After the editors' introduction to its structure, scope, and content, the book is divided into four parts. The first, Sound, is concerned with the interfaces between phonetics and phonology, phonology and morphology, and phonology and syntax. Part II, Structure, considers the interactions of syntax with morphology, semantics, and the lexicon, and explores the status of the word and its representational status in the mind. Part III, Meaning, revisits the syntax-semantics interface from the perspective of compositionality, and looks at issues concerned with intonation, discourse, and context. In the final part of the book, General Architectural Concerns, the authors examine work on Universal Grammar, the overall model of language, and linguistic and associated theories of language and cognition. © 2007 editorial matter and organization Gillian Ramchand and Charles Reiss the chapters their various authors. All rights reserved.
In this paper it is shown that Persian has core control constructions in which the obligatorily empty subject of an embedded clause takes its reference from an antecedent in the next higher clause. Evidence is provided that these embedded clauses are relatively transparent for scrambling and lack independent tense. It is therefore argued that core control verbs in Persian take complements that lack CP, TP, and a Case position for their subjects. Control complements do manifest subject agreement, however, suggesting that agreement checking takes place within vP. The implications of this view are explored with respect to the periphrastic progressive construction, in which both the auxiliary and the main verb bear subject agreement, and raising constructions, in which preposed subjects do not trigger agreement on the matrix verb. The relevant contrast is presented in Minimalist terms as the idea that agreement in Persian is checked within a strong phase (CP or vP).
The word ‘logic’ in the title of this chapter is ambiguous. In its first meaning, a logic is a collection of closely related artificial languages. There are certain languages called first-order languages, and together they form first-order logic. In the same spirit, there are several closely related languages called modal languages, and together they form modal logic. Likewise second-order logic, deontic logic and so forth. In its second but older meaning, logic is the study of the rules of sound argument. First-order languages can be used as a framework for studying rules of argument; logic done this way is called first-order logic. The contents of many undergraduate logic courses are first-order logic in this second sense. This chapter will be about first-order logic in the first sense: a certain collection of artificial languages. In a previous paper [“Elementary predicate logic”, in: D. M. Gabbay and F. Guenthner (eds.), Handbook of philosophical logic. Vol. I. Dordrecht: Reidel, Synth. Libr. 164, 1-131 (1983; Zbl 0538.03001)], I gave a description of first-order languages that covers the ground of this chapter in more detail. That other paper was meant to serve as an introduction to first-order logic, and so I started from arguments in English, gradually introducing the various features of first-order logic. This may be the best way in for beginners, but I doubt if it is the best approach for people seriously interested in the philosophy of first-order logic; by going gradually, one blurs the hard lines and softens the contrasts. So, in this chapter, I take the opposite route and go straight to the first-order sentences. Later chapters have more to say about the links with plain English.
Different systems of deduction—grammatical or logical—can rest on different systems by which resource premisses can be accessed
and allocated. Focusing on these differences brings to the fore essential differences. After examining the properties of resource-sensitivity
in some detail in the next section, we consider some exemplary systems of binding and anaphora that have suggested themselves
as theoretical models for the analysis of referential relations in natural language.
It is argued that a wide range of extraction and coördination phenomena in English can be accounted for by a simple extension of Categorial Grammar. The same extension will account for a similar range of related phenomena in Dutch, including certain notorious cases of 'intersecting' dependency among discontinuous constituents of Dutch infinitival complements. Some universal implications of the theory are considered, and the relation of such grammars to processors which carry out incremental semantic interpretation is discussed.
This article delineates and analyzes the syntactic and semantic parameters of variation exhibited by English FILLER-GAP CONSTRUCTIONS. It demonstrates that a detailed, fully explicit account of the observed variation is available within a framework embracing the notion 'grammatical construction'. This account, which explicates similarities and differences among topicalization, interrogatives, relatives, exclamatives, and comparative correlatives in terms of linguistic types and hierarchical constraint inheritance, is articulated in detail within the framework of SIGN-BASED CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR (SBCG), a version of HEAD-DRIVEN PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR (HPSG) integrating key insights from Berkeley CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR. The results presented here stand as a challenge to any analysis incorporating transformational operations, especially proposals couched within Chomsky's 'Minimalist program'.
We have sketched how it is possible to give an analysis for adjoined relative clauses which is consistent with the compositionality principle and have shown that the technique which seems necessary for this analysis can be used to provide a compositional semantics for the NP-S analysis of English relative clauses.It is unlikely that anyone working within the framework of a compositional theory would choose the NP-S analysis for English, since it is clearly much less elegant and simple, in some intuitive sense, than the alternative Nom-S analysis. Our results seem to indicate, however, that such an analysis cannot be ruled out in principle, since any constraint on the theory that would exclude the NP-S analysis would seem to exclude the Hittite analysis as well. So the arguments for the Nom-S analysis in the English case must be based on other grounds, or the Hittite analysis is also incorrect and should be ruled out, or the happy discovery of some as yet unknown principles will allow one but not the other.
This paper presents a variable-free analysis of relational nouns in Glue Semantics, within a Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG)
architecture. Relational nouns and resumptive pronouns are bound using the usual binding mechanisms of LFG. Special attention
is paid to the bound readings of relational nouns, how these interact with genitives and obliques, and their behaviour with
respect to scope, crossover and reconstruction. I consider a puzzle that arises regarding relational nouns and resumptive
pronouns, given that relational nouns can have bound readings and resumptive pronouns are just a specific instance of bound
pronouns. The puzzle is why is it impossible for bound implicit arguments of relational nouns to be resumptive? The puzzle
is highlighted by a well-known variety of variable-free semantics, where pronouns and relational noun phrases are identical
both in category and (base) type. I show that the puzzle also arises for an established variable-based theory. I present an
analysis of resumptive pronouns that crucially treats resumptives in terms of the resource logic linear logic that underlies Glue Semantics: a resumptive pronoun is a perfectly ordinary pronoun that constitutes a surplus resource;
this surplus resource requires the presence of a resumptive-licensing resource consumer, a manager resource. Manager resources properly distinguish between resumptive pronouns and bound relational nouns based on differences between
them at the level of semantic structure. The resumptive puzzle is thus solved. The paper closes by considering the solution
in light of the hypothesis of direct compositionality. It is argued that a directly compositional version of the theory is
possible, although perhaps not desirable. The implications for direct compositionality are considered.
This paper presents evidence from Turkish Raising Constructions that argues that A-chains should potentially terminate in a pronominal element. This is motivated by the possibility of raising from finite clauses in some varieties of Turkish. However, these Raising constructions do exhibit Specified Subject Condition effects, arguing for a theory of the locality of movement that dissociates the prohibition against raising from finite clauses from the prohibition against crossing a specified subject. I argue that Rizzi's (1990) Relativized Minimality approach achieves this separation as a consequence of separate conditions on formal licensing and chain locality. In particular, I propose that Turkish Raising constructions involve an A-chain whose tail is a silent pronominal (pro). Given that this type of Raising leaves a pronominal copy, neither Principle A of the Binding Theory, nor the ECP can be involved (as these apply to only [-pronominal] elements). However, if antecedent government is taken to be a property of chains, as Rizzi proposes, then locality will correctly be enforced in these Copy-Raising cases. This approach is extended to Exceptional Case Marking/Subject to Object Raising constructions, and provides an argument for a Subject to Object Raising analysis. I conclude by briefly comparing the resumptive pronoun strategy in A- and A-dependencies. From a cross-linguistic perspective, it appears that both allow for a relaxation of ECP effects as well as the mitigation of locality to varying degrees.
The paper focuses on resumption in Greek relative clauses. It is argued that resumption arises on two occasions (i) as a last
resort strategy when identification of φ-features of non-arguments fails; (ii) in the absence of a syntactic feature on C trigerring Agree/Move. In the first case
obligatory resumption is restricted to non-argument positions and is sensitive to islands. This is the case of Greek null
operator restrictive relatives. In particular, it is argued that identification requirements are grammaticised on Greek C
(pu), which is endowed with φ-features. Failure of Agree of the φ-features of pu leads to resumption in non-argument positions. In questions and operator restrictive relatives identification requirements
are straightforwardly satisfied by the presence of an overt operator; resumption therefore is never obligatory in these structures.
In the second case, where resumption is the consequence of absence of a syntactic relation (agree/move) between C and the relativised site, resumption is obligatory in argument and non-argument positions (modulo the highest
subject restriction) and insensitive to islands. Greek non-restrictive relatives and Semitic restrictive relatives exemplify
this case
We present a general theory of scope and binding in which both crossover and superiority violations are ruled out by one key
assumption: that natural language expressions are normally evaluated (processed) from left to right. Our theory is an extension
of Shan’s (2002) account of multiple-wh questions, combining continuations (Barker, 2002) and dynamic type-shifting. Like other continuation-based analyses, but
unlike most other treatments of crossover or superiority, our analysis is directly compositional (in the sense of, e.g., Jacobson,
1999). In particular, it does not postulate a level of Logical Form or any other representation distinct from surface syntax.
One advantage of using continuations is that they are the standard tool for modeling order-of-evaluation in programming languages.
This provides us with a natural and independently motivated characterization of what it means to evaluate expressions from
left to right. We give a combinatory categorial grammar that models the syntax and the semantics of quantifier scope and wh-question formation. It allows quantificational binding but not crossover, in-situ wh but not superiority violations. In addition, the analysis automatically accounts for a variety of sentence types involving
binding in the presence of pied piping, including reconstruction cases such as Whose criticism of hisi mother did each personi resent?