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The Polysynthesis Parameter
Abstract
This book investigates in detail the grammar of polysynthetic languages-those with very complex verbal morphology. Baker argues that polysynthesis is more than an accidental collection of morphological processes; rather, it is a systematic way of representing predicate-argument relationships that is parallel to but distinct from the system used in languages like English. Having repercussions for many areas of syntax and related aspects of morphology and semantics, this argument results in a comprehensive picture of the grammar of polysynthetic languages. Baker draws on examples from Mohawk and certain languages of the American Southwest, Mesoamerica, Australia, and Siberia.
... In the generative tradition, a long line of research originating from insights in Kayne's Generalization (Jaeggli 1982, etc.) has connected the obligatory preposition to a last resort mechanism to satisfy the Case Filter. Yet other generative accounts link dom to a specified configuration or position (López 2012, Baker 2015, Ormazabal and Romero 2013a. We begin our discussion with an examination of accounts based on scales, exemplifying with Aissen (2003). ...
... Sentences like ((75)-O&R's 2b) are only grammatical with nouns such as sick people, soldiers, slaves, kids, etc.; nouns whose referents are regularly treated as entities lacking free will. The range of animate nouns that can appear without DOM in this context is, more or less, the same one that allows incorporation in polysynthetic lan- (Ormazabal and Romero 2013b, p. 157) guages (see Baker 1996 for details)'. ...
In this paper we provide a comprehensive picture of differential object marking in Catalan, focusing on both the empirical facts and their theoretical contribution. We support some important conclusions. First, Catalan differential object marking is quite a robust and widespread phenomenon, contrary to what prescriptive grammars assume. Second, we show that, from a formal perspective, Catalan differential object marking cannot be completely subsumed under hierarchical generalizations known as scales . The contribution of narrow syntax mechanisms and nominal structure is fundamental, supporting recent views by López (2012) or Ormazabal and Romero ( 2007 , 2010 , 2013a , b ), a.o. Building on these works as well as on observations initially made by Cornilescu (2000) and Rodríguez-Mondoñedo (2007) , a.o., we adopt an analysis under which canonical, animacy-based differential marking results from the presence of an additional (PERSON) feature, beyond Case. This structural make-up is not only at the core of differences marked objects exhibit from unmarked objects with a Case feature, but also derives the prominence of differential marking on (animates) under information-structure processes, in the high left (and right) periphery, in contexts of the type discussed by Escandell-Vidal ( 2007a , b , 2009 ).
... Tem as propriedades das línguas que Partee (1985) denomina de afixais, também característica de línguas omni predicativa. É uma língua polissintética segundoBaker (1996). ...
O artigo investiga, de maneira exploratória, a semântica dos sintagmas nominais em sentenças genéricas na língua Rikbaktsa (Macro-Jê) como parte do projeto “(In)definitude da perspectiva das línguas sub representadas”. A língua Rikbaktsa é marcada para número, não possui artigos e a ordem canônica é Sujeito-Objeto-Verbo, no qual o verbo é uma unidade autônoma. Os dados analisados são originais e foram coletados através de diferentes metodologias. Além da documentação de uma língua em perigo, o artigo propõe uma descrição morfo-semântica das sentenças genéricas que, nesta língua, são morfologicamente estativas. A estrutura ativa é episódica. Os sintagmas nus, singular e plural são intercambiáveis, mas nem sempre. Para explicar a distribuição e interpretação desses sintagmas propomos que o singular nu denota um indivíduo singular, que pode ser de diferentes tipos – indivíduos genéricos (espécie) ou ordinários –, já o plural é sempre uma soma. O artigo contribui com uma perspectiva inovadora para o fenômeno que a literatura chama de “neutro para número”; argumenta que a hipótese apresentada explica melhor os fatos dessa língua do que a hipótese da neutralidade.Palavras-chave: Rikbaktsa (Macro-Jê). Genéricos. Morfo-semântica. Neutralidade para número. Indivíduo genérico. Coleta de dados.
... 7 Note that the pronoun comes between the wh-phrase and the verb; it could therefore not be dislocated, since dislocated phrases precede wh-phrases (Bruening 2001: 34-35). For arguments that Algonquian languages are not "pronominal argument languages" in the sense of Jelinek (1984) and Baker (1996), see Bruening (2001); LeSourd (2006). 8 A reviewer points out that verbs that are derived from body part nouns can have what appears to be a possessive prefix on the noun inside the verb. ...
Halle & Marantz (1993) propose that the person prefix that appears on Independent Order verbs in Potawatomi is a pronominal clitic and not an agreement affix, and this analysis has been followed for a variety of Algonquian languages by a large number of researchers. With data primarily from Passamaquoddy-Maliseet (Eastern Algonquian), I show that the prefix is not a pronominal clitic, it is an agreement affix, according to all diagnostics for distinguishing them. This conclusion is problematic because the prefix can be separated from the verb stem and the rest of the inflection, which is suffixal. I propose an analysis according to which all the inflectional suffixes are heads low in the clause, through which the main verb moves. The prefix, in contrast, is an Agr(eement) head adjoined to a head higher in the clause. This head attracts the highest verbal element, which will be the highest preverb if there is one, or the main verb if not. Preverbs are syntactic heads above the main verb which never form a complex head with it. This is amply justified by their separability, their prosody (they are often separate prosodic words), and coordination facts. Word order facts also indicate that the verb does not move very high in Algonquian languages, contrary to many analyses since Halle & Marantz (1993).
Focusing on the development of Noam Chomsky's linguistic framework, this book is the first full-length, in-depth treatment of the history of the concept of parameter, a central notion of syntactic theory. Spanning 60 years of syntactic theory, it explores all aspects of its development through the different phases of the Chomskyan school, from the 'standard theory' of the mid-1960 to the current Minimalist Program. Emphasis is put on three main topics: the foundational issues in the formulation of the Principles and Parameters model; the original formulation of the “classical” parameters of the Government-Binding Theory of the 1980s (which are then evaluated from the perspective of Chomskyan thought today), and current debates on the nature of parametric variation in light of Generative Grammar's most recent theoretical developments. Through step-by-step, detailed explanations, it provides the reader with a comprehensive account of both parametric theory and the development of Generative Grammar.
The volume Null Objects from a Cross-Linguistic and Developmental Perspective brings together theoretical and empirical contributions on missing object constructions, revealing a nuanced and multifaceted phenomenon that poses challenges to current theories of null objects. The selected papers highlight the significance of the interplay between formal constraints and semantic properties (namely definiteness and animacy) in the licensing of null objects cross-linguistically. The formally oriented papers contribute to ongoing discussions on the mechanisms underlying the derivation of null objects. The differences between null objects that are licensed by rich agreement and those that are agreement independent are also addressed. From a developmental perspective, the papers on null objects in language acquisition, including second language learning, further provide valuable insights into the intricate processes underlying the acquisition of referential expressions. The role of animacy emerges as a central question, particularly in the context of Portuguese varieties, where differences in pronominal systems contribute to variation in null object distribution.
In this paper, we provide an account of the syntactic restrictions on noun phrase discontinuity in Iquito. In Iquito, noun phrases containing determiners that have undergone movement must have a discontinuous realization where the determiner strands the noun. With moved possessive noun phrases, we find apparent pied-piping of the possessum in addition to the determiner only in case the determiner is semantically associated with the possessor. We argue that this “possessum pied-piping” is determined by the syntactic attachment height of the determiner within the noun phrase. In doing so, we provide a novel way of restricting the mechanism of distributed deletion based on configurational properties of the noun phrase, rather than some information structural or phonological property. Furthermore, we show how extending this analysis to phrase-internal syntax also allows us to derive the apparently idiosyncratic word orders we find inside NPs and PPs, thereby providing a unified account of both phrase-level and clause-level word order in Iquito.
When he introduced the framework now known as Construction Grammar, Charles Fillmore said: “Grammatical Construction Theory differs from […] other frameworks […] in its insistence that syntactic patterns are often tightly associated with interpretation instructions” ( Fillmore 1989 : 17). Construction Grammarians view the patterns, the associations and the interpretive instructions as matters of linguistic convention-a fact not always appreciated within the wider cognitive-functional community that embraces Construction Grammar, In CxG, we do not use general principles to explain the existence of the form-function pairs we encounter in a language, but rather treat those as the product of lexical and constructional licensing ( Zwicky 1994 ). But emergentists and stipulators share one core belief: grammatical structure is inherently symbolic. Sign-Based Construction Grammar (SBCG) makes this insight formally explicit by treating constructions as licensors of signs-signs that are phrases, lexemes or words-and allowing for semantic and usage constraints to be directly associated with constructions. But practitioners of Construction Grammar might reasonably reject the SBCG formalism as incompatible with major foundations of constructional thinking: the top-down nature of constructional meaning, the idiomaticity continuum and the narrow scope of linguistic generalizations. My task in this article is to address this concern, illustrating a variety of applications.
The research presented in this volume covers first language acquisition, second language acquisition, language heritage and language impairment. Papers in this collection use a variety of experimental methods, such as eye-tracking, elicitation tasks, production tasks administered off-line and untimed, transcriptions of spontaneous speech, production elicitation, Truth Value Judgement tasks, standardized tests and multiple choice tasks. The studies included in this book try to cover most of the methods used in first and second language acquisition in typical and atypical populations. This book will be useful for linguists, speech therapists, and psycholinguists working on first, second and impaired language acquisition.
The nature of head movement has been debated since its discovery (see Dékány 2018 for discussion). While it is generally agreed that head movement (the sort that results in the formation of complex heads) is subject to more stringent locality restrictions than phrasal movement, little else is uncontested. In this article, I will argue that a flexible (but literal) interpretation of Harizanov and Gribanova’s (2019) definition of head movement (more specifically, their “amalgamation”) is needed to account for the movement of suffixal adjectives (As) in Aleut. These As typically suffix to nominals, but under certain conditions surface in verbs between the root and agreement morphology. I show that these As base-generate as adjuncts of NPs and undergo head movement into the verbal complex. I then explore two theories of word-building which would require only phrasal movement on the part of suffixal As—based on ideas put forth in Julien (2002) and Compton and Pittman (2010)—and conclude that phrasal movement alone is too unrestricted to account for the phenomenon, overgenerating As in unacceptable sites. In contrast, previous theories of head movement are too restrictive, only permitting a head and the head of its complement to form a complex head (e.g., Travis 1984; Embick and Noyer 2001); this excludes heads in adjunct positions, like suffixal As, from participating. However, Harizanov and Gribanova’s definition of amalgamation, whereby heads Raise or Lower into the nearest c-commanding or c-commanded head, uniquely allows head movement to occur out of specifier positions and even adjunct positions. This comparative flexibility correctly permits Aleut suffixal As to form a complex head with verbal morphology, explaining their incorporation deep within the structure of the verbal complex.
Linguistic typology identifies both how languages vary and what they all have in common. This Handbook provides a state-of-the art survey of the aims and methods of linguistic typology, and the conclusions we can draw from them. Part I covers phonological typology, morphological typology, sociolinguistic typology and the relationships between typology, historical linguistics and grammaticalization. It also addresses typological features of mixed languages, creole languages, sign languages and secret languages. Part II features contributions on the typology of morphological processes, noun categorization devices, negation, frustrative modality, logophoricity, switch reference and motion events. Finally, Part III focuses on typological profiles of the mainland South Asia area, Australia, Quechuan and Aymaran, Eskimo-Aleut, Iroquoian, the Kampa subgroup of Arawak, Omotic, Semitic, Dravidian, the Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian and the Awuyu-Ndumut family (in West Papua). Uniting the expertise of a stellar selection of scholars, this Handbook highlights linguistic typology as a major discipline within the field of linguistics.
The Cambridge Handbook of Morphology describes the diversity of morphological phenomena in the world's languages, surveying the methodologies by which these phenomena are investigated and the theoretical interpretations that have been proposed to explain them. The Handbook provides morphologists with a comprehensive account of the interlocking issues and hypotheses that drive research in morphology; for linguists generally, it presents current thought on the interface of morphology with other grammatical components and on the significance of morphology for understanding language change and the psychology of language; for students of linguistics, it is a guide to the present-day landscape of morphological science and to the advances that have brought it to its current state; and for readers in other fields (psychology, philosophy, computer science, and others), it reveals just how much we know about systematic relations of form to content in a language's words - and how much we have yet to learn.
This paper revisits a classical, yet fundamental, discussion of theoretical computational linguistics: the computational complexity of natural languages. Past studies have revealed that syntax, as observed in Swiss-German, is not weakly context-free. Concerning morphology, Culy (1985) employed a construction in Bambara to show that morphology is not weakly context-free; however, Manaster-Ramer (1988) pointed out that the Bambara case can be problematic because the wordhood of the construction is reliant on special tonal behaviors, and it is ambiguous whether the behaviors belong to the morphological domain. This raises doubts about whether the case can be considered a genuine morphological phenomenon. In this paper, we argue that Classical Ainu, a language we examine, also defies weak context-freeness at the morphological level. The construction we introduce is unambiguously morphological because this language’s valency-sensitive structure and valency-changing operations, such as noun incorporation, preclude its grammatical interpretation as syntactic.
This paper provides an intransitive analysis for an array of predicates which exhibit specific marking patterns in Budai Rukai. Contra previous lexical approaches, it is argued that a verbal prefix found on the predicates instantiates a functional head v , which constructs an intransitive v P. Its spell-out form is conditioned by its interaction with other higher functional categories, including tense, causative, passive, and complementizer. With respect to intransitivity, the resulting v P does not admit an accusative object, and it exhibits unergative, unaccusative, and anticausative properties. Regarding argument structure, these predicates are mostly one-place predicates. The sole argument is the grammatical subject which usually denotes an affected theme or an experiencer.
This paper argues for a unification of two seemingly unrelated phenomena from unrelated language families: Verb Second in Germanic, and Conjunct versus Independent Order in Algonquian. It is argued that both reflect the possibility of the verb moving to C. While in Germanic this results in word order differences, in Algonquian V‐to‐C movement is detectable only via morphological alternations in agreement morphology. Under this view, Conjunct / Independent agreement and V2 are merely distinct reflexes of the same underlying process. This opens up new avenues of research in relation to V‐to‐C movement, framing it as a parametric option with potentially very different surface results in different languages depending on the setting of other parameters.
This paper examines data from Spanish middle-passive sentences whose grammatical subject contains a body-part noun, externally possessed by means of a dative possessor. I advocate for an analysis whereby the possessor originates inside the theme DP and raises to the specifier of an applicative projection to be licensed with dative case. I show that the unmarked order for dative DPs in these configurations is preverbal. These phrases may appear as the sole preverbal constituent, presumably in preverbal subject position, thus forcing the theme DP to remain inside the VP; alternatively, both the dative DP and theme DP can occur preverbally, in which case, the former appears to be left dislocated while the latter would be probed to preverbal subject position. This last scenario leads to a minimality violation, since the theme would be probed over the empty pronominal standing for the possessor that must necessarily sit in Spec, ApplP for the inalienable possession construal to obtain. Instead, I argue that both preverbal dative and theme DPs in Spanish middle-passive sentences are left dislocated and corefer with empty pronominals inside the sentence; the null dative possessor, being closer to T° always raises to subject position, which avoids any potential intervention effects. Finally, I explore how these data can be analyzed within a paratactic approach.
In this paper we address possessor dative structures (PDSs) in European Portuguese (EP) and in the Mozambican variety of Portuguese spoken in Maputo, which is mainly in contact with the Bantu language Changana. Focusing primarily on data from EP, we argue that PDSs show microvariation across Romance. We account for this microvariation by extending to Romance languages the distinction between nuclear and non-nuclear external possession structures originally proposed for Bantu languages, and propose that the value of the formal nominal feature [ipart] is the source of the observed variation. We argue that the derivation of PDSs in EP involves movement of the possessor from the specifier position of a small clause for formal feature valuation, which accounts for the common properties of give-type verbs and possessor dative structures, as well as for the incompatibility of both constructions. We further adopt a corpus-based approach and an exploratory elicitation task for the discussion of possessor datives in urban MozP. The findings support the role of the formal feature [ipart] in the acceptability of sentences which do not converge with EP, arguably as a consequence of contact with Changana, but also show that Mozambican Portuguese exhibits convergence with the VP structure of EP.
The study of polysynthesis has a long history; but defining it remains a challenge and many researchers have suggested that polysynthesis is not an absolute or unified phenomenon. In this entry, drawing largely on examples from Inuktut and Blackfoot, two Indigenous languages of Canada, we describe the range of grammatical properties that have been proposed to characterize polysynthetic languages. We show that both languages possess all the properties canonically associated with polysynthesis – holophrasis, rich phi‐marking, noun incorporation, lexical affixes, morphological complexity and non‐configurationality; yet they exhibit variation in these properties, as well as in their morphological organization. The entry highlights this variation by contrasting Blackfoot and Inuktut, and also other languages often described as polysynthetic, including Kanien'kéha (Mohawk). We outline theoretical approaches to polysynthesis, focusing on analyses of rich phi‐marking and wordhood and drawing on data from a diverse range of languages. The entry concludes with a discussion of practical challenges for polysynthetic languages, with a focus on Indigenous language revitalization. We suggest that, despite not having a clear and unified theoretical definition, the notion of polysynthesis is useful in language revitalization, particularly for language teachers and learners and those involved in language resource development.
Incorporation describes the morphophonological integration of the form of a lexical category into a full‐fledged verb form. It is a heterogeneous phenomenon that has to be described language‐specifically, through a range of parameters at all descriptional levels, in both form and function. The present entry illustrates these parameters with an in‐depth study of Nivkh, which features several theoretically relevant conditions on incorporation. In Nivkh, the incorporated forms, called ‘incorporees’, are syntactically and referentially active, and incorporation is the central means of undergoer argument encoding when primary object (including complement) and verb have the same information value.
A single semantic representation can be expressed via one word, in a synthetic expression, or via multiple words, in an analytic expression. Similarly, the notions of synthetic and analytic can be related to how features are expressed in morphemes: they can be encoded either in one single morpheme or in several morphemes. Pairs of related synthetic and analytic expressions are found abundantly both within and across languages, which explains why the synthetic–analytic difference has been exploited by scholars since the seventeenth century to define linguistic typologies and phases of diachronic change. Within generative‐transformational grammar, the synthetic–analytic connection finds a parallel in multi stratality. All major generative models map a basically analytic representation onto one that contains some degree of syntheticity. In the latest, minimalist instantiations, different mechanisms are devised to produce a packaging of features into morphemes and of morphemes into words. Moreover, these models have produced a bunch of successful predictions about the universal constraints on the synthetic versus analytic realization of linguistic expressions.
This paper looks at dialect variation in Hindi ‘dialects’ Awadhi and Bhojpuri. Depending on the theory one adopts, small, micro-level differences between dialects are either taken to result from differential feature selections or from usage and input-based strategies. I instead propose that feature-level variation is tied to certain structural configurations, rather than to just discrete feature learning. Using gender variation data, I show that dialects that have a nominalizer, enable gender morphology; those which lack a nominalizer fail to display gender agreement. This correlation indicates specific structural signatures for gender morphology, while acknowledging the possibility that gender may be latent in every language, even those that do not morphologically realize gender. Language-learning children use these signatures to grasp structural schemas that are conducive to gender expression. This paper also shows how languages shift between nouns and adjectives and how gender expression via the nominalizing strategy lies at the intersection between these two categories.KeywordsGenderMicro-variationFeaturesNominalizer
When perceiving the world around us, we are constantly integrating pieces of information. The integrated experience consists of more than just the sum of its parts. For example, visual scenes are defined by a collection of objects as well as the spatial relations amongst them and sentence meaning is computed based on individual word semantic but also syntactic configuration. Having quantitative models of such integrated representations can help evaluate cognitive models of both language and scene perception. Here, we focus on language, and use a behavioral measure of perceived similarity as an approximation of integrated meaning representations. We collected similarity judgments of 200 subjects rating nouns or transitive sentences through an online multiple arrangement task. We find that perceived similarity between sentences is most strongly modulated by the semantic action category of the main verb. In addition, we show how non-negative matrix factorization of similarity judgment data can reveal multiple underlying dimensions reflecting both semantic as well as relational role information. Finally, we provide an example of how similarity judgments on sentence stimuli can serve as a point of comparison for artificial neural networks models (ANNs) by comparing our behavioral data against sentence similarity extracted from three state-of-the-art ANNs. Overall, our method combining the multiple arrangement task on sentence stimuli with matrix factorization can capture relational information emerging from integration of multiple words in a sentence even in the presence of strong focus on the verb.
This paper presents a novel account of Differential Object Marking as an instance of case assigned by a post-syntactic Agree-Case operation that transduces agreement relations established in the syntax by marking the goal rather than the probe. In this sense, it is a modern interpretation of Nichols' (1986) Head-Marking and Dependent Marking dichotomy. Analyzing the intricate details of Differential Object Markin in Kashmiri, I show that not all but some nominals need licensing under well defined syntactic configurations. Expanding on Kalin's (2018) observation that Person Case Constraint (PCC) and Differential Object Marking occur in similar configurations, I argue that PCC is observed in languages that do not have an Agree-Case mechanism.
This article investigates whether cross-linguistic generalizations may arise from asymmetries in learnability of competing syntactic patterns. The model presented here uses a domain- general statistical learner for parameter systems in order to probe whether languages violating the Final-over-Final Condition (FOFC; Sheehan et al. 2017) might be difficult to learn, rather than syntactically impossible. In this model, no parameters ruled out *FOFC languages, and no penalties targeting them were built into the learner. Regardless, the results of two learning tasks demonstrate a correlation between the learnability of a word order pattern and its frequency in the typology. *FOFC languages were harder to learn, providing a possible explanation for their relative rarity.
This paper provides the first detailed documentation of aspectual properties of motion verbs in Blackfoot (an Algonquian language) from the Kainaa dialect. In particular, the focus of the paper is to detail how a sentient subject in this language is associated with an inherent endpoint of motion events (i.e., delimitedness). I show that in Blackfoot, an event can have a delimited construal when a sentient subject is an agent (but not a theme). A language-specific requirement for event delimitedness is thus the presence of an external argument that is sentient, which I formalize as a feature [m(ental state)] on a DP, as in Ritter (2015). A major contribution of the current study is thus to show that event delimitedness can be constrained by formal features of the external argument, whereas previously only the internal argument was thought to be involved in event delimitedness.
We compare speech production and find morphosyntactic change among children and adolescents speaking two closely related varieties of Quechua in Cuzco, Peru, and Chuquisaca, Bolivia. Quechua languages traditionally employ Object-Verb (OV) word order in main clauses, but robust case marking permits other orders, especially to focalize new information through constituent fronting. In Chuquisaca, but not Cuzco, we find that schoolchildren often omit the accusative suffix -ta from direct objects while retaining a prosodic trace of -ta. In other varieties, loss of accusative marking is associated with a shift towards Verb-Object (VO) word order, as in Spanish. However, we find that Chuquisaqueños use more canonical OV and possessor-possessed order in declarative sentences than do Cuzqueños, who employ a wide range of word orders at the sentence level and deviate from the possessor-possessed norm for Quechua noun phrases. Our finding of more rigid word order in Chuquisaca highlights the complex factors contributing to typological shift in word order and morphology: Omission of case morphology places a greater burden on word order to identify grammatical roles. Further, we find that Chuquisaqueño schoolchildren alone have begun to use huk, “one,” to mark indefiniteness, perhaps to replace determiner-like functions ascribed to -ta and to obsolescent markers such as evidentials.
Noun–noun concatenations can differ along two parameters. They can be compounds, i.e., single words, or constructs, i.e., constituents, and they can have modificational non-heads or referential non-heads. Of the four logical possibilities, one was argued not to exist: compounds of which the non-head is referential were considered to be principally excluded. In this article, I argue that Dutch has compounds with a referential non-head. They resemble the Dutch s-possessive in that their non-heads involve movement to a referential layer. However, unlike the possessive structures, the compounding structure contains head incorporation which results in word-hood. The article further discusses title expressions, such as Prince Charles, which are argued to be referential construct states. Together with the syntactic structure of titles plus proper names, the referential compounds further contribute evidence to the idea that a ban on N-to-D movement for certain uniquely referring roots, such as sun and Bronx, is extra-syntactic.
This article motivates and develops a compositional account for bare
noun incorporation (BNI) constructions in Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin BNI constructions, taking the form of V-O compounds, exhibit a constellation of properties (e.g., obligatory narrow scope, institutionalized meaning, reduced discourse capacity, restricted modification of incorporated nominals, etc.) which are typically associated with (pseudo-)incorporated structures in other languages. However, unlike other attested (pseudo-)incorporated structures, which are mostly verbal in nature, BNI constructions can be freely used as arguments, akin to nominalized expressions. Integrating the analytical insights from both the advances in the theories of kinds (Chierchia in Nat Lang Semant 6: 339–405, 1998; Gehrke in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 33: 897–938, 2015) and in the theories of incorporation
(Dayal in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 29: 123–167, 2011; Schwarzs in Weak referentiality, John Benjamins, 2014), the article proposes an event kind-based analysis by treating BNI constructions as expressions of Chierchia-style kinds in the domain of events, where the (proto-typical) theme arguments instantiating the bare noun complements form part of the event kinds rather than function as independent
semantic arguments to the verbs. Extending the notion of kinds from the domain of
individuals to the domain of events has not only provided a motivated account of the paradoxical properties of BNI constructions which would otherwise defy formal
treatment, but also bridged two lines of research previously thought to be independent of each other, viz. the semantics of kinds which are mostly confined to the domain of individuals and the semantics of events which are mostly confined to
canonical verbal expressions.
This paper focuses on prosodic adjunction at the Prosodic Word level in a polysynthetic language. I argue that recursion at a depth of more than two levels can only be generated by a theory which requires exact correspondence between certain syntactic phrases and Prosodic Words. Such a theory is similar to Phonological Phrase correspondence in Match Theory, suggesting there is an underlying shared property between correspondence at the Prosodic Word and Phonological Phrase levels. In addition, this theory must include a constraint which prohibits recursive prosodic constituents in order to generate the attested typology of clitics across languages. The empirical focus is the prosodic structure of the verbal complex in Blackfoot (Algonquian; ISO 639-3: bla). Using phonotactic evidence I argue that the vP phase corresponds to a Prosodic Word, and that each prefix to the stem is a Prosodic Word adjunct. I then compare several theories of the syntax-prosody interface, including versions of Alignment Theory, Wrap Theory, and Match Theory. A subset of schematic candidates with one or two prefixes to a stem are used to determine which theories generate the attested typology of clitics as well as a multiply recursive Prosodic Word structure.
Tenyidie shows a typologically unusual pattern of φ-covarying agreement with anaphors, but not other arguments. We argue that this apparent agreement actually reveals the nature of anaphoric binding in the language, which involves an Agree relation between the anaphor and its antecedent mediated by a licensing head. The features on this mediating head are realized overtly in Tenyidie. This is not genuine φ-agreement, but rather a morphological reflex of the binding relation itself. We provide supporting evidence from a range of constructions and also show how this analysis accounts for restrictions on anaphora in double object constructions. Tenyidie therefore suggests that there is a close link between binding and Agree.
Research questions
This study asks whether an interface phenomenon such as noun incorporation (NI) displays meaningful socially conditioned variation in the endangered polysynthetic language, Chukchi, by investigating whether speakers of all levels of experience or proficiency make use of NI in a consistent, rule-governed way.
Design and methodology
This study compares production data from small groups of speakers of a moribund language. Study tasks include a controlled production task in which speakers are asked to construct sentences using provided lexical items. The lexical items were conditioned so as to trigger NI in certain stimuli (on the basis of verbal valency and argument animacy).
Data and analysis
The production data was transcribed and coded for the occurrence and structural type of NI (compounding vs. syntactic incorporation). The results were compared across three groups of speakers: conservative older speakers, younger attriting speakers, and new speakers.
Findings/conclusions
NI frequency and productivity clearly differ among the three groups. CSs use incorporation frequently and productively in the expected contexts, while ASs use productive incorporation only in familiar contexts, followed by NSs who make little to no use of incorporation. All speaker groups display knowledge of the appropriate circumstances in which to use incorporation.
Originality
This study makes use of a novel experimental methodology in studying several under-researched areas: variation in traditional Chukchi, shift-induced variation in a polysynthetic language, and NI as a locus of variation.
Significance/implications
This study contributes to our understanding of the behavior of non-normative speakers of endangered languages and demonstrates that they play a role in language preservation. The study shows that the diffuse nature of the Chukchi speech community is different from comparatively well-studied shift settings (especially in the North American and European contexts) in its lack of a community of use or practice, which presents unique challenges in language maintenance.
Ket is the sole surviving member of the Yeniseian language family, spoken in the central part of North Asia. This large territory is also home to other language families: Samoyedic, Ob-Ugric, Tungusic, and Turkic. Apart from Yeniseian, which are strikingly unique, all language groups in the area conform to a common typological profile. Subsequent to contact over several hundred years, many of the core grammatical features that distinguish Yeniseian from the other language families have undergone a ‘typological accommodation,’ a phenomenon most prominent in Modern Ket, to mimic the dominant language type in the area. The present article aims to provide an overview of some ways in which typological accommodation has affected the phonemic tones and nominal and verbal morphology in Modern Ket, and to show that this peculiar phenomenon is also attested at the syntactic level in formation of adverbial and relative clauses. As such, the paper presents that the phonemic and morphological structures of Modern Ket uniquely position the language for discourse and communication. Here, its speakers deploy these communicative devices, specifically designed followed extended contact with other languages, as representative of their language community.
Despite a significant increase in interest over the last two decades in the English Noun Phrase, there are still many open questions and unexplored issues. The papers collected in this volume contribute to this ongoing research by addressing a range of topics concerning the internal structure, use and development of English Noun Phrases. The eleven chapters represent three main themes: 1. Determination, modification and complementation; 2. Shell nouns and the X-is construction; 3. Binominal constructions. These topics are approached in different ways: some chapters are synchronic in nature, others diachronic; and while most subscribe to functional-cognitive modelling, some take a more formal approach. In addition, different methodologies are employed, varying from qualitative and quantitative corpus analyses to experimental methods. As a result, the contributions to this volume represent both the main topics currently discussed in research on the English Noun Phrase, and the diversity in the way these topics are investigated.
Switch-reference has recently been argued to be the result of clausal functional heads entering into Agree with two nearby noun phrases, creating pointers to those noun phrases but not actually copying their morphosyntactic features. Instead, the semantic component interprets the pointers as referential dependency holding between pointed-to noun phrases. This article applies this analysis to reflexive voice constructions in which a feature-invariant affix appears on the verb to indicate that the (highest, direct) object is referentially dependent on the (thematic) subject of the same clause. First it surveys the properties that such constructions should have if reflexive voice is maximally like switch-reference. Then it argues that the Bantu language Lubukusu has just such a construction, the verbal affix i partnering with the overt anaphor omweene to create reflexive clauses. Dravidian reflexive voices are presented as another possible case. Finally, it turns to reflexive and reciprocal voice constructions in Shipibo (Panoan), which seem to have a detransitivizing effect. However, no major detransitivizing account fits all the facts. Rather, reflexive voice in Shipibo is like Lubukusu, except that the anaphor is phonologically null and deficient in phi-features, failing to trigger ergative case on the subject for that reason. True detransitivization may happen in some languages with reflexive voice, but not in all, and it will take considerable care to sort out which are which.
In this paper, we identify the parallels and the differences between language and life as evolvable systems in pursuit of a framework that will investigate language change from the perspective of a general theory of evolution. Despite the consensus that languages change similarly to species, as reflected in the construction of language trees, the field has mainly applied biological techniques to specific problems of historical linguistics and has not systematically engaged in disentangling the basic concepts (population, reproductive unit, inheritance, etc.) and the core processes underlying evolutionary theory, namely mutation, selection, drift, and migration, as applied to language. We develop such a proposal. Treating language as an evolvable system places previous studies in a novel perspective, as it offers an elegant unifying framework that can accommodate current knowledge, utilize the rich theoretical framework of evolutionary biology, and synthesize many independent strands of inquiry, initiating a whole new research program.
The mapping of information structure onto morphology or intonation varies greatly crosslinguistically. Agglutinative languages, like Inuktitut or Quechua, have a rich morphological layer onto which discourse-level features are mapped but a limited use of intonation. Instead, English or Spanish lack grammaticalized morphemes that convey discourse-level information but use intonation to a relatively large extent. We propose that the difference found in these two pairs of languages follows from a division of labor across language modules, such that two extreme values of the continuum of possible interactions across modules are available as well as combinations of morphological and intonational markers. At one extreme, in languages such as Inuktitut and Quechua, a rich set of morphemes with scope over constituents convey sentence-level and discourse-level distinctions, making the alignment of intonational patterns and information structure apparently redundant. At the other extreme, as in English and to some extent Spanish, a series of consistent alignments of PF and syntactic structure are required to distinguish sentence types and to determine the information value of a constituent. This results in a complementary distribution of morphology and intonation in these languages. In contact situations, overlap between patterns of module interaction are attested. Evidence from Quechua–Spanish and Inuktitut–English bilinguals supports a bidirectionality of crosslinguistic influence; intonational patterns emerge in non-intonational languages to distinguish sentence types, whereas morphemes or discourse particles emerge in intonational languages to mark discourse-level features.
This study analyses the role of conjunctions in clause linkage in Australian languages. Conjunctions are seemingly straightforward clause-linking devices, but they remain under-studied, both for Australian languages and from a broader typological perspective. In this study, we propose a functional definition of conjunctions, as set against other resources for clause linkage. We show that this captures not just the prototypical free-standing elements (the equivalents of if , because , but etc.), but also various types of bound markers with a similar function (bound to clause-scoping positions or predicates). We survey the role of conjunctions in a representative sample of 53 Australian languages, showing that they are not a marginal clause linkage resource in Australia, as seems to be assumed in the relevant literature, but often form a major category within clause linkage systems. We also identify a number of areal patterns, based on the size of conjunction inventories and their morphosyntactic features.
The person-case constraint (PCC) is a family of restrictions on the relative person of the two objects of a ditransitive. PCC effects offer a testing ground for theories of the Agree operation and of syntactic features, both those on nominals and (of special interest here) those found on agreement probes. In this paper, I offer a new theory of PCC effects in an interaction/satisfaction theory of Agree (Deal 2015a) and show the advantages of this framework in capturing PCC typology. On this model, probes are specified for interaction features, determining which features will be copied to them, and satisfaction features, determining which features will cause probing to stop. Applied to PCC, this theory (i) captures all four types of PCC effect recognized by Nevins (2007) under a unified notion of Agree; (ii) captures the restriction of PCC effects to contexts of “Double Weakness” in many prominent examples, e.g. in Italian, Greek, and Basque, where PCC effects hold only in cases where both the direct and indirect object are expressed with clitics; (iii) naturally extends to PCC effects in syntactic environments without visible clitics or agreement for one or both objects, as well as the absence of PCC effects in some languages with clitics or agreement for both the direct and indirect object. Two refinements of the interaction/satisfaction theory are offered. The first is a new notation for probes’ interaction and satisfaction specifications, clarifying the absence from this theory of uninterpretable/unvalued features as drivers of Agree. The second is a proposal for the way that probes’ behavior may change over the course of a derivation, dubbed dynamic interaction.
The acquisition, maintenance, and attrition of morphological properties of heritage languages (HLs) has been a central research focus since the inception of the systematic study of these linguistic varieties. Both child and adult heritage language speakers (HSs) experience difficulty in producing target-like inflectional morphology, and in some instances, the errors in their production are similar to those found in the speech of L2 learners. This chapter offers a broad survey of developmental trends of derivational and inflectional morphology in the nominal (e.g., gender and case) and verbal (e.g., agreement, tense, aspect, mood) domains. Different morphological types (e.g., inflectional, agglutinative, fusion, isolating) are discussed, focusing on whether certain properties of heritage morphology are specific to each type and whether certain properties cut across all of them. Claims regarding the effects of maturational constraints and continued activation on the ultimate attainment of heritage morphology are reviewed. This chapter also considers the issue of age effects in connection with heritage morphology and concludes with a brief discussion of the implications that these findings have on linguistic theory as well as highlighting future directions for the study of heritage morphology.
Heritage languages are minority languages learned in a bilingual environment. These include immigrant languages, aboriginal or indigenous languages and historical minority languages. In the last two decades, heritage languages have become central to many areas of linguistic research, from bilingual language acquisition, education and language policies, to theoretical linguistics. Bringing together contributions from a team of internationally renowned experts, this Handbook provides a state-of-the-art overview of this emerging area of study from a number of different perspectives, ranging from theoretical linguistics to language education and pedagogy. Presenting comprehensive data on heritage languages from around the world, it covers issues ranging from individual aspects of heritage language knowledge to broader societal, educational, and policy concerns in local, global and international contexts. Surveying the most current issues and trends in this exciting field, it is essential reading for graduate students and researchers, as well as language practitioners and other language professionals.
En el presente trabajo analizamos la distribución de los nombres contables en singular sin determinante bajo el alcance de la negación en español (e. g., No leí libro mejor que este). Nuestra propuesta es que estos nombres están encabezados por un indefinido nulo δ que resulta referencialmente deficiente (Giannakidou 2011). En este sentido, estos SSNN se comportan como términos de polaridad que deben licenciarse en contextos no verídicos. Así, señalamos que su legitimación no se restringe únicamente al ámbito de la negación, sino que también puede darse en otras configuraciones no verídicas, tales como el antecedente de un condicional o una interrogativa total. Respecto a su significado, argumentamos que se trata de indefinidos antiespecíficos. Particularmente, sostenemos que no se interpretan como términos de elección libre, sino como indefinidos referencialmente vagos.
We investigate optional predicate agreement in Santiago Tz’utujil (Mayan). Several generalizations emerge: (i) inanimate arguments base-generated as complements control agreement optionally; (ii) some animate arguments base-generated as complements control agreement optionally; (iii) all arguments base-generated as specifiers control full agreement obligatorily. We propose that two conditions must be met for the operation A gree to succeed, resulting in the exponence of all the features of the agreement controller. First, a goal must be visible (bear the right feature). Second, a goal must be accessible (be in the right structural position). If one or both conditions are not met, A gree fails, but the derivation converges and 3 sg agreement is exponed. While A gree is deterministic, surface optionality arises when the operation fails. We use optional agreement to diagnose the syntactic structure of understudied constructions in Mayan (nominalizations, Agent Focus). We discuss microvariation, highlighting methodological considerations that arise when assuming an I-language approach.
One of the most widely debated topics in Slavic linguistics has always been verbal aspect, which takes different forms because of the various grammaticalization paths which led to its emergence. In the formation of the category of aspect in Slavic languages, a key role was played by the morphological mechanism of prefixation (a.k.a. preverbation), whereby the prefixes (which originally performed the function of markers of adverbial meanings) came to act as markers of boundedness. This volume contains thirteen articles on the mechanism of prefixation, written by leading international scholars in the field of verbal aspect. Ancient and modern Slavic varieties, as well as non-Slavic and even non-Indo-European languages, are represented, making the volume an original and significant contribution to Slavic as well as typological linguistics.
This paper explores how emotions are expressed in the endangered Gunwinyguan language Kunbarlang and compares these expressions to those in the neighbouring Gunwinyguan language Bininj Kunwok, and neighbouring languages from other language families, Mawng (Iwaidjan) and Ndjébbana (Maningridan). As well as considering body-based emotion expressions and the tropes (metaphors and metonymies) they instantiate, we consider the range of other (non-body-based) expressions and tropes available in each language. These provide an important point of comparison with the body-part expressions, which are limited to expressions based on noun incorporation in the Gunwinyguan languages and, correspondingly, a more limited range of tropes. By outlining and comparing the linguistic tropes used to express emotions in these four languages in the highly multilingual yet socioculturally unified context of western Arnhem Land, we aim to shed further light on the relationships between linguistic figurative features and conceptual representations of emotions.
This paper explores the semantics of bare singulars in Turkish, which are unmarked for number in form, as in English, but can behave like both singular and plural terms, unlike in English. While they behave like singular terms as case-marked arguments, they are interpreted number neutrally in non-case-marked argument positions, the existential copular construction, and the predicate position. Previous accounts (Bliss, in Calgary Papers in Linguistics 25:1–65, 2004; Bale et al. in Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 20:1–15, 2010; Görgülü, in: Semantics of nouns and the specification of number in Turkish, Ph.d. thesis, Simon Fraser University, 2012) propose that Turkish bare singulars denote number neutral sets and that morphologically plural marked nouns denote sets of pluralities only. This approach leads to a symmetric correlation of morphological and semantic (un)markedness. However, in this paper, I defend a strict singular view for bare singulars and show that Turkish actually patterns with English where this correlation is exhibited asymmetrically. I claim that bare singulars in Turkish denote atomic properties and that bare plurals have a number neutral semantics as standardly assumed for English. I argue that the apparent number neutrality of bare singulars in the three cases arises via singular kind reference, which I show to extend to the phenomenon called pseudo-incorporation and a construction that I call kind specification . I argue that pseudo-incorporation occurs in non-case-marked argument positions following Öztürk (Case, referentiality, and phrase structure, Amsterdam, Benjamins, Publishing Company, 2005) and the existential copular construction, whereas kind specification is realized in the predicate position. The different behaviors of bare singulars in Turkish and English stem from the fact that singular kind reference is used more extensively in Turkish than in English. Furthermore, while there are well-known asymmetries between singular and plural kind reference cross-linguistically, Turkish manifests a more restricted distribution for bare plurals than English in the positions where pseudo-incorporation and kind specification are in evidence. I explain this as a blocking effect, specific to Turkish, by singular kind terms on plural kind terms.
Interface Delay is a theory of syntactic development, which attempts to explain an array of constructions that are slow to develop, which are characterized by being sensitive to discourse-pragmatic considerations of the type associated with the natural semantic class of definites. The theory claims that neither syntax itself, nor the discourse-pragmatic abilities related to executive function and theory of mind themselves are slow to develop. Rather, the claim is that the nexus or interface between the two cognitive domains is slow to develop. We review the development of subjects in child Spanish as an example of this delayed growth trajectory. Further, we review evidence that a delay in the development of tense causes concomitant delays in the seemingly unrelated phenomena of non-nominative case subject pronoun use and un-inverted wh- questions.
Kunbarlang shows considerable variation in the word order patterns of nominal expressions. This paper investigates these patterns, concentrating on the distribution of noun markers (articles) and on attributive modification. Based on examination of spontaneous discourse and elicitation, I identify two main contributions of the noun marker: definiteness and predicative reading of modifiers. Furthermore, the order of adjectives with respect to the head noun is shown to correlate with information-structural effects. Taken together, these facts strongly support a hierarchical structure analysis of the NP in Kunbarlang. In the second part of the paper, Kunbarlang data are compared to the typology of determiner spreading phenomena. Finally, I entertain the prospects of a more formal analysis of the data presented and indicate their theoretical and typological relevance, including expression of information structure below the clausal level, typology of adnominal elements, and architecture of attributive modification.
This chapter provides a flavor of Chomsky's ideas relevant to linguistic diversity, and what can be taken away from them in the contemporary scene. The chapter also focuses on a variety of topics in syntactic theory and English syntax, a few in some detail, several quite superficially, and none exhaustively. Chomsky's focus on English seemed like a retrenchment. Chomsky is famous for his views about Universal Grammar, which have evolved over the years. Chomsky's early seeming neglect of crosslinguistic diversity was a tactical move that has served the study of linguistic diversity very well. Lectures on Government and Binding has comments on all these developments, as Chomsky's vision burgeoned outward toward a fuller engagement with language diversity. The chapter concludes with some brief discussion of how the most recent phase of Chomsky's research, inaugurated by The Minimalist Program, affects his legacy in the study of linguistic diversity.
It is generally thought that definite determiners exclusively mark nouns as definite. In several languages, however, definite determiners may modify both nouns and verbs. As I will argue, the existence of these “multi‐functional” elements suggests that determiners are in fact phrases. This syntactic move has a philosophical payoff. Among other things, it allows us to cast Donnellan's distinction as an ordinary consequence of the context‐invariant compositional semantics of natural language, not as a matter of contextual manipulation or lexical ambiguity. Multi‐functional determiners show us that Donnellan's distinction is, contra Donnellan, a matter of grammar.
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