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1
Farr, Cynthia. The interface between syntax and discourse in Korafe: A Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1999.
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2
Wendy, Ayres-Bennett, and O'Donovan Patrick 1958-, eds. Syntax and the literary system: New approaches to the interface between literature and linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge French Colloquia, 1995.
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3
The semantic basis of argument structure: [a study of the relation between word meaning and syntax]. Stanford, Calif: CSLI Publications, 1995.
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4
Broekhuis, Hans, and Norbert Corver. Syntax of Dutch. NL Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/9789463720502.
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The multi-volume work Syntax of Dutch presents a synthesis of current thinking on Dutch syntax. The text of the seven already available volumes was written between 1995 and 2015 and issued in print between 2012 and 2016. The various volumes are primarily concerned with the description of the Dutch language and, only where this is relevant, with linguistic theory. They will be an indispensable resource for researchers and advanced students of languages and linguistics interested in the Dutch language. This volume is the final one of the series and addresses issues relating to coordination. It contains three chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the syntactic and semantic properties of coordinate structures and their constituting elements, that is, the coordinators and the coordinands they link. Chapter 2 discusses the types of ellipsis known as conjunction reduction and gapping found in coordinate structures. Chapter 3 discusses elements seemingly exhibiting coordination-like properties, such as dan ‘than’ in comparative constructions like Jan is groter dan zij ‘Jan is taller than she’.
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Altshuler, Daniel, and Robert Truswell. Coordination and the Syntax – Discourse Interface. Oxford University PressOxford, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198804239.001.0001.
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Abstract The goal of this book is to explore interactions between syntactic structure and discourse structure, through a case study of patterns of extraction from coordinate structures. This is the most complete account of extraction from coordinate structures to date. This is a consequence of the theoretical breadth of the survey undertaken: extraction from coordinate structures is, at first blush, a syntactic matter, but the survey ranges far beyond syntax, and this breadth raises theoretical and empirical questions across syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse structure. A complete survey of extraction from coordinate structure must pay attention to all of these domains, and their interactions. Instead of aiming to promote a single analysis, this survey motivates reasonable hypotheses which allow one to reason deductively from empirical facts to theoretical conclusions. The theoretical conclusions show that coordinate structures have the potential to discriminate between current syntactic theories, and to inform work on the interfaces between syntax, semantics, pragmatics and discourse. However, in many cases, the necessary empirical work has not yet been done, and too much of the literature revolves around the same handful of examples, mainly in English. We hope that this book will inspire further work on extraction from coordinate structures, particularly in understudied languages, and provide a guide to how to tease out the theoretical implications of empirical findings.
6
Lappin, Shalom. Semantics. Edited by Ruslan Mitkov. Oxford University Press, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199276349.013.0005.
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This article introduces some of the basic concepts and issues of computational semantics and briefly compares two models of semantic representation, which have been proposed in the literature, and considers the ways in which each of them deals with the syntax-semantics interface. It then shows the contrast between the general approach to the syntax-semantics interface, which is common to most systems of computational semantics, and an alternative view that characterizes Chomsky's derivational view of syntax on the other. Furthermore, it focuses on the possibility of using underspecified representations of meaning while still sustaining a systematic relation between the meaning of an expression and the meanings of its constituents. It briefly looks at the move from static to dynamic theories of meaning in an attempt to model the interpretation of utterances in discourse and dialogue.
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Alqassas, Ahmad. A Unified Theory of Polarity Sensitivity. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197554883.001.0001.
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This book examines polarity sensitivity—a ubiquitous phenomenon involving expressions such as anybody, nobody, ever, never, and somebody and their counterparts in other languages, with particular focus on Arabic. These expressions belong to different classes such as negative and positive polarity, negative concord, and negative indefinites, which led to examining their syntax and semantics separately. In this book, Ahmad Alqassas pursues a unified approach that relies on examining the interaction between the various types of polarity sensitivity. Treating this interaction is fundamental for scrutinizing their licensing conditions. Alqassas draws on data from Standard Arabic and the major regional dialects represented by Jordanian, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Qatari. The book provides a new perspective on the syntax–semantic interface and develops a unified syntactic analysis for polarity sensitivity. Through the (micro)comparative approach, Alqassas explains the distributional contrasts with a minimal set of universal syntactic operations such as Merge, Move, and Agree, and a fine-grained inventory of negative formal features for polarity items and their licensors. The features are simple invisibles that paint a complex landscape of polarity. The results suggest that syntactic computation of Arabic polarity (externally merged in the left periphery) is subservient to the conceptual–intentional interface. Alqassas argues for last resort insertion of covert negation operators in the CP layer to interpret non-strict NCIs, which is an extra mechanism that serves the semantic interface but adds to the complexity of syntactic computation. Likewise, head NPIs in the left periphery require licensing by operators higher than the tense phrase, adding more constraints on the syntactic licensing.
8
Head Movement: The Interface Between Morphology and Syntax. Hankuk Publishing Co., 1994.
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9
Trotzke, Andreas, and Xavier Villalba, eds. Expressive Meaning Across Linguistic Levels and Frameworks. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198871217.001.0001.
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The study of the language-emotion interface has so far mainly concentrated on the conceptual dimension of emotions as expressed via language. This volume is the first to exclusively focus on the exploration of the formal linguistic expressions of emotions at different linguistic complexity levels—and it does so by integrating work from different linguistic frameworks: generative syntax, functional and usage-based linguistics, formal semantics/pragmatics, and experimental phonology. This collection is both a timely and an original contribution to the growing field of research on the interaction between linguistic expressions and the so-called ‘expressive dimension’ of language. The contributions to this volume are thus of interest to researchers and graduate students who would like to learn more about state-of-the-art approaches to the language-emotion interface.
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Kageyama, Taro, Peter E. Hook, and Prashant Pardeshi, eds. Verb-Verb Complexes in Asian Languages. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198759508.001.0001.
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This volume presents a detailed survey of the systems of verb-verb complexes in Asian languages from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. Many Asian languages share, to a greater or lesser extent, a unique class of compound verbs each consisting of a main verb and a quasi-auxiliary verb known as a ‘vector’ or ‘explicator’. These quasi-auxiliary verbs exhibit unique grammatical behavior that suggests that they have an intermediate status between full lexical verbs and wholly reduced auxiliaries. They are also semantically unique, in that when they are combined with main verbs, they can convey a rich variety of functional meanings beyond the traditional notions of tense, aspect, and modality, such as manner and intensity of action, benefaction for speaker or hearer, and polite or derogatory styles in speech. In this book, leading specialists in a range of Asian languages offer an in-depth analysis of the longstanding questions relating to the diachrony and geographical distribution of verb-verb complexes. The findings have implications for the general understanding of the grammaticalization of verb categories, complex predicate formation, aktionsart and event semantics, the morphology-syntax-semantics interface, areal linguistics, and typology.
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Diedrichsen, Elke, and Brian Nolan. Argument Realisation in Complex Predicates and Complex Events: Verb-Verb Constructions at the Syntax-semantic Interface. Benjamins Publishing Company, John, 2017.
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12
Diedrichsen, Elke, and Brian Nolan. Argument Realisation in Complex Predicates and Complex Events: Verb-Verb Constructions at the Syntax-semantic Interface. Benjamins Publishing Company, John, 2017.
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13
Jena, Debdeep. Quantum Physics of Semiconductor Materials and Devices. Oxford University PressOxford, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198856849.001.0001.
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Abstract The goal of this book is to explore interactions between syntactic structure and discourse structure, through a case study of patterns of extraction from coordinate structures. This is the most complete account of extraction from coordinate structures to date. This is a consequence of the theoretical breadth of the survey undertaken: extraction from coordinate structures is, at first blush, a syntactic matter, but the survey ranges far beyond syntax, and this breadth raises theoretical and empirical questions across syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse structure. A complete survey of extraction from coordinate structure must pay attention to all of these domains, and their interactions. Instead of aiming to promote a single analysis, this survey motivates reasonable hypotheses which allow one to reason deductively from empirical facts to theoretical conclusions. The theoretical conclusions show that coordinate structures have the potential to discriminate between current syntactic theories, and to inform work on the interfaces between syntax, semantics, pragmatics and discourse. However, in many cases, the necessary empirical work has not yet been done, and too much of the literature revolves around the same handful of examples, mainly in English. We hope that this book will inspire further work on extraction from coordinate structures, particularly in understudied languages, and provide a guide to how to tease out the theoretical implications of empirical findings.
14
Lieber, Rochelle, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780190682361.001.0001.
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The field of morphology has gained increasing importance in contemporary linguistics with the realization that it can no longer be narrowly construed as the study of the means by which complex words are formed. Rather, the study of morphology must be situated in the context of our understanding of the mental lexicon as a whole. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology offers a sweeping introduction to the field, showing that morphology is not only an active area of study in its own right, but also a critical link between different subfields of linguistics. Led by Editor in Chief Rochelle Lieber and an editorial board of international experts, this collection includes 114 wide-ranging and in-depth articles encompassing all aspects of morphology, such as morphological units, inflection, derivation, compounding, and formal morphological means. Contributors at the forefront of the field discuss the major theoretical debates and methodological approaches, exploring the interface between morphology and phonology, syntax, and semantics, along with psycholinguistic, neurolinguistics, and sociolinguistic issues. The final section of the encyclopedia presents illustrative sketches of the morphological systems of a wide range of language families, from Arawak and Dravidian to Uralic and Niger-Congo languages , offering a wide range of cross-linguistic data that will be useful to both researchers and teachers.
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Baauw, Sergio. The Acquisition of Binding and Coreference. Edited by Jeffrey L. Lidz, William Snyder, and Joe Pater. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199601264.013.22.
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In this chapter the acquisition of pronouns and reflexives is discussed. It reviews several accounts of the so-called Delay of Principle B Effect, the absence of this effect in some languages, and the structural factors that influence its appearance in child language. It also discusses children’s alledged target-like performance on reflexives in several languages with different type of reflexives. The chapter concludes that provided a balanced experimental design is used, the experimental results point at early mastery of Principle A and B, and that children’s difficulties with the interpretation of pronouns and reflexives are to be found at the interfaces between syntax and discourse or semantics, and may be due to limited (syntactic) processing resources.
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Kaplan, Ronald M. Syntax. Edited by Ruslan Mitkov. Oxford University Press, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199276349.013.0004.
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This article introduces some of the phenomena that theories of natural language syntax aim to explain. It briefly discusses a few of the formal approaches to syntax that have figured prominently in computational research and implementation. The fundamental problem of syntax is to characterize the relation between semantic predicate-argument relations and the superficial word and phrase configurations by which a language expresses them. The major task of syntactic theory is to define an explicit notation for writing grammars. This article details a framework called transformational grammar that combines a context-free phrase-structure grammar with another component of transformations that specify how trees of a given form can be transformed into other trees in a systematic way. Finally, it mentions briefly two syntactic systems that are of linguistic and computational interest, namely, generalized phrase structure grammar and tree-adjoining grammars.
17
Kihm, Alain. Old French declension. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198712329.003.0003.
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Old French noun inflection emerged and disappeared early in the history of the French language. A number or reasons are examined including the nature of sound changes occurring between Late Latin and Old French. Paradigm structure is another reason. The declensional paradigms of masculine nouns produced a mismatch between morphological and semantic defaults for the number and case features. This was because the non-default values of these features came to be expressed by a morphologically default, uninflected word-form, thus resulting in a system that was both weird in terms of the morphology-semantics interface and probably hard to acquire and to process. Repairing the mismatch entailed giving up declension in favour of a simple number contrast where the semantic non-defaultness of plurality matches the inflectedness of the plural form. Default considerations thus played the role of analogy in the Neogrammarian scenario of language change, restoring order where sound change had created chaos.
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Gutzmann, Daniel. The Grammar of Expressivity. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198812128.001.0001.
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While the expressive function of natural language has received much attention in recent years, the role grammar plays in the interpretation of expressive items has mainly been neglected in the semantic and pragmatic literature. On the other hand, while there have been syntactic studies of some expressive phenomena they do not explicitly connect to recent developments in semantics. This book bridges this gap, showing that semantics and pragmatics alone cannot capture all grammatical particularities of expressive items and that expressivity has strong syntactic reflexes that interact with the semantic interpretation and account for the mismatches between the syntax and semantics of these phenomena. The main thesis he argues for—the hypothesis of expressive syntax—is that expressivity is a syntactic feature, on a par with other established syntactic features like tense or gender. Evidence for this claim is drawn from three detailed case studies of expressive phenomena: expressive adjectives, expressive intensifiers, and expressive vocatives. These expressions exhibit some puzzling properties and by developing an account of them employing minimalist approaches to syntactic features and agreement, the author shows that expressivity, as a syntactic feature, can partake in agreement operations, trigger movement, and syntactically be selected for. This not only provides indirect evidence for the hypothesis of expressive syntax and extends the usefulness of operations on syntactic features operation beyond their traditional domains, but also highlights the hidden role grammar may play for phenomena that are often considered to be solely semantic in nature.
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Devine, A. M., and Laurence D. Stephens. Pragmatics for Latin. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190939472.001.0001.
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Latin is often described as a free word order language, but in general each word order encodes a particular information structure: in that sense, each word order has a different meaning. This book provides a descriptive analysis of Latin information structure based on detailed philological evidence and elaborates a syntax-pragmatics interface that formalizes the informational content of the various different word orders. The book covers a wide ranges of issues including broad scope focus, narrow scope focus, double focus, topicalization, tails, focus alternates, association with focus, scrambling, informational structure inside the noun phrase and hyperbaton (discontinuous constituency). Using a slightly adjusted version of the structured meanings theory, the book shows how the pragmatic meanings matching the different word orders arise naturally and spontaneously out of the compositional process as an integral part of a single semantic derivation covering denotational and informational meaning at one and the same time.
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Dalrymple, Mary, John J. Lowe, and Louise Mycock. The Oxford Reference Guide to Lexical Functional Grammar. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198733300.001.0001.
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This is the most comprehensive reference work on Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), which will be of interest to graduate and advanced undergraduate students, academics, and researchers in linguistics and in related fields. Covering the analysis of syntax, semantics, morphology, prosody, and information structure, and how these aspects of linguistic structure interact in the nontransformational framework of LFG, this book will appeal to readers working in a variety of sub-fields, including researchers involved in the description and documentation of languages, whose work continues to be an important part of the LFG literature The book consists of three parts. The first part examines the syntactic theory and formal architecture of LFG, with detailed explanation and comprehensive illustration, providing an unparalleled introduction to the fundamentals of the theory. The second part of the book explores nonsyntactic levels of linguistic structure, including the syntax-semantics interface and semantic representation, argument structure, information structure, prosodic structure, and morphological structure, and how these are related in the projection architecture of LFG. The third part of the book illustrates the theory more explicitly by presenting explorations of the syntax and semantics of a range of representative linguistic phenomena: modification, anaphora, control, coordination, and long-distance dependencies. The final chapter discusses LFG-based work not covered elsewhere in the book, as well as new developments in the theory.
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Cabredo Hofherr, Patricia, and Jenny Doetjes, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198795858.001.0001.
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This volume offers an overview of current research on grammatical number in language. The chapters Part i of the handbook present foundational notions in the study of grammatical number covering the semantic analyses of plurality, the mass–count distinction, the relationship between number and quantity expressions and the mental representation of number and individuation. The core instance of grammatical number is marking for number distinctions in nominal expressions as in English the book/the books and the chapters in Part ii, Number in the nominal domain, explore morphological, semantic, and syntactic aspects of number marking within noun phrases. The contributions examine morphological marking of number the relationship between syntax and nominal number marking, and the interactions between numeral classifiers with semantic number and number marking. They also address cases of mismatches in form and meaning with respect to number displayed by lexical plurals and collective nouns. The final chapter reviews nominal number processing from the perspective of language pathologies. While number marking on nouns has been the focus of most research on number, number distinctions can also be found in the event domain. Part iii, Number in the event domain, presents an overview of different linguistic means of expressing plurality in the event domain, covering verbal plurality marking, pluractional modifiers of the form Noun preposition Noun, frequency adjectives and dependent indefinites. Part iv provides fifteen case studies examining different aspects of grammatical number marking in a range of typologically diverse languages.
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Christensen, Tanya Karoli, and Torben Juel Jensen, eds. Explanations in Sociosyntactic Variation. Cambridge University Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108674942.
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What explains variation in human language? How are linguistic and social factors related? How do we examine possible semantic differences between variants? These questions and many more are explored in this volume, which examines syntactic variables in a range of languages. It brings together a team of internationally acclaimed authors to provide perspectives on how and why syntax varies between and within speakers, focusing on explaining theoretical backgrounds and methods. The analyses presented are based on a range of languages, making it possible to address the questions from a cross-linguistic perspective. All chapters demonstrate rigorous quantitative analyses, which expose the conditioning factors in language change as well as offering important insights into community and individual grammars. It is essential reading for researchers and students with an interest in language variation and change, and the theoretical framework and methods applied in the study of how and why syntax varies.
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Piggott, Glyne, and Lisa deMena Travis, eds. Wordhood and word-internal domains. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198778264.003.0003.
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This chapter investigates a view of wordhood where words are analysed as complex heads that contain no phrasal material. Several cases are examined where phonological and semantic information points to the existence of word-internal domains, but these domains are argued not to be indicative of phrases but rather phases that are spelled out separately. The claim is that syntax is a better predictor of cyclic phonological patterns than either Lexical Phonology or Stratal OT. The chapter begins with a syntactic account of an apparent counter-example to the ban on word-internal phrases by positing head adjunction via External Merge. The second section presents a phonological account of mismatches between the structure produced by the phasal spell-out in the syntax and the phonological output. The claim is these structures are created through Phonological Merger, where phonological movement from a higher to a lower phase is triggered by a phonological requirement.
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Garrett, Merrill F. Exploring the Limits of Modularity. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190464783.003.0003.
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Psycholinguistic studies of language processing have revolved historically around “modular” and “interactive” accounts of language use. Experimental reports diverge in claims for the penetration of non-linguistic background information on processing for sentence comprehension. Syntactic processing effects can persist despite available contextual constraints that are sufficient to resolve temporary ambiguity or garden path errors. Nevertheless, there are multiple reports of interactive effects between basic sentence processing and both semantic and non-linguistic contextual information. The chapter suggests a rationalization of such conflicting findings in standard psycholinguistic and experimental pragmatic research, relying on interactions between language comprehension systems and language production systems. Production processes are designed to incorporate discourse and environmental constraints on linguistic formulation. These may be used to filter the products of comprehension mechanisms. A key feature of the argument for complementary roles of the two systems is a degree of modular processing for syntax to be found in both systems.
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Kishida, Kohei. Categories and Modalities. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198748991.003.0009.
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Category theory provides various guiding principles for modal logic and its semantic modeling. In particular, Stone duality, or “syntax-semantics duality”, has been a prominent theme in semantics of modal logic since the early days of modern modal logic. This chapter focuses on duality and a few other categorical principles, and brings to light how they underlie a variety of concepts, constructions, and facts in philosophical applications as well as the model theory of modal logic. In the first half of the chapter, I review the syntax-semantics duality and illustrate some of its functions in Kripke semantics and topological semantics for propositional modal logic. In the second half, taking Kripke’s semantics for quantified modal logic and David Lewis’s counterpart theory as examples, I demonstrate how we can dissect and analyze assumptions behind different semantics for first-order modal logic from a structural and unifying perspective of category theory. (As an example, I give an analysis of the import of the converse Barcan formula that goes farther than just “increasing domains”.) It will be made clear that categorical principles play essential roles behind the interaction between logic, semantics, and ontology, and that category theory provides powerful methods that help us both mathematically and philosophically in the investigation of modal logic.
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Hu, Xuhui. Encoding Events. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198808466.001.0001.
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This book presents theoretical and empirical research on the syntax of events within the broader framework of generative grammar. A central theoretical concern is how conceptual meaning interacts with narrow syntactic computation in the derivation of the information of an event. A set of Integration Conditions are proposed. Building on the Conceptual-Intentional Interface Conditions proposed in Chomsky’s (1995, 2000, 2001) Minimalist Programme, the Integration Conditions require that the content of the predicate be licensed by theta-role information generated by narrow syntax. Another theoretical component concerns the functional structure of events, which is related to such issues as the parallel between the event and nominal domains, the mapping of a predicate onto an entity, as well as the grammatical foundation of verb classification. The theoretical framework is applied in three areas: (1) the syntax of resultatives in English and Chinese, which exhibits how a theory of the syntax of events can address the thematic relationship between core arguments and predicates; (2) variation of resultatives at cross-linguistic and diachronic levels, which shows how the universal functional structure of events can be compatible with, and even contribute to, the theory of parametric variation in the generative tradition; and (3) applicative constructions, which extend the analysis of core arguments to non-core arguments, and shed light on the typology of verb/satellite-framed languages (Talmy 1991, 2000) and the analyticity parameter proposed in Huang (2015).
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Garzonio, Jacopo, and Silvia Rossi, eds. Variation in P. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190931247.001.0001.
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Over the past thirty years, the generative framework has greatly contributed to the study of both the internal and external syntax of spatial adpositions, with the intent—among many other things—of giving a unitary account of their heterogeneous nature and behavior. Once the Cinderellas of grammar, prepositions have been extensively investigated in earlier research. The major result of these studies was to show that prepositional phrases have a complex internal structure, and that the grammatical encoding of locative meaning has its own place in UG. This volume constitutes the implementation and the ideal continuation of the seminal proposals in the generative tradition. The essays collected in the first part of the volume not only test these proposals against new (micro-)comparative data, but also shed new light on the relation between spatial expressions and other semantic relations like possession. The second part of the volume looks beyond spatial PPs, exploring the role of Ps not only in non-spatial environments such as comitatives, but also in more general phenomena like verbal affixation, ellipsis, and complementation.
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Butz, Martin V., and Esther F. Kutter. Language, Concepts, and Abstract Thought. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739692.003.0013.
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Language is probably the most complex form of universal communication. A finite set of words enables us to express a mere infinite number of thoughts and ideas, which we set together by obeying grammatical rules and compositional, semantic knowledge. This chapter addresses how human language abilities have evolved and how they develop. A short introduction to linguistics covers the most important conceptualized aspects, including language production, phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. The brain considers these linguistic aspects seemingly in parallel when producing and comprehending sentences. The brain develops some dedicated language modules, which strongly interact with other modules. Evolution appears to have recruited prelinguistic developmental neural structures and modified them into maximally language-suitable structures. Moreover, evolution has most likely evolved language to further facilitate social cooperation and coordination, including the further development of theories of the minds of others. Language develops in a human child building on prelinguistic concepts, which are based on motor control-oriented structures detailed in the previous chapter. A final look at actual linguistic communication emphasizes that an imaginary common ground and individual private grounds unfold between speaker and listener, characterizing what is actually commonly and privately communicated and understood.
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Fodor, Janet Dean, Stefanie Nickels, and Esther Schott. Center-Embedded Sentences. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190464783.003.0007.
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Doubly center-embedded relative clause constructions such as “The rat that the cat that the dog chased killed ate the malt” are notoriously difficult to parse. Many explanations have been offered. This chapter proposes a novel one: an alignment problem at the syntax-prosody interface, consisting of a mismatch between the heavily nested syntactic structure and the flat structure required by prosodic phrasing. Selective shrinking and lengthening of phrases within the sentence can coax the prosodic processor into creating rhythmic packages that fit well with the nested syntactic tree structure. Long outer phrases and short inner ones help with that, while short outer phrases and long inner ones hinder it. The chapter discusses two experiments—reading aloud with facilitation; reading aloud followed by grammaticality judgment—that provide evidence that produced prosody is the causal link between phrase lengths and ease of processing, though not exhibiting a “missing-VP effect” for either sentence type.
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Kubozono, Haruo, Junko Ito, and Armin Mester, eds. Prosody and Prosodic Interfaces. Oxford University PressOxford, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198869740.001.0001.
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Abstract This volume brings together novel, original studies on prosody and prosodic interfaces. It consists of fifteen chapters, of which some look at word prosody and phrase prosody in individual languages, some examine the interactions between lexical tones and intonation, and others analyze the syntax-prosody interface. Despite much recent attention paid to prosody, there is yet a significant number of languages and dialects that remain largely undocumented or understudied. Many chapters in this volume contribute to this empirical gap in prosodic research by presenting new data, based on original fieldwork and experiments. Moreover, many chapters address important questions pertaining to the interactions between lexical and postlexical tones with in-depth investigations of both lexical prosody and postlexical phonology. Furthermore, other chapters tackle the question of how prosodic structure—either lexical or postlexical—interacts with syntactic structure, thereby contributing to our understanding of the interaction between multiple components of the grammar, embedded in a thorough understanding of current linguistic theories. The volume as a whole addresses many difficult issues and illuminates the question of how prosody is structured in language and functions in human communication.
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DiGirolamo, Cara M. Word order and information structure in the Würzburg Glosses. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198747307.003.0008.
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This chapter deals with the interface between Syntax and Pragmatics by examining argument fronting in Old Irish non-poetic Glosses. Relying on lexical and contextual indicators of discourse function, three Information Structure patterns can be identified: aboutness topic; contrastive topic; and focus. Aboutness and contrastive topic are often resumed and do not mark relativization on the verb, suggesting that they are left dislocation structures. Focus is most commonly expressed through clefts, although clefts in Old Irish can be morphologically opaque. Modern Irish has all these structures besides a non-clefted focus structure, which is likely derived from interpreting morphologically opaque clefts as topicalization. In sum, this paper argues that Old Irish has a set of productive argument fronting positions with distinct and conventional information structural properties that can be analysed in terms of an articulated left periphery, and that these fronting positions are the direct ancestors of fronting positions in Modern Irish.
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Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen, and Ion Giurgea. Majority Quantification and Quantity Superlatives. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198791249.001.0001.
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This book is a study of the syntax and semantics of proportional Most and other majority quantifiers across languages. Based on data drawn from around forty languages, this book reveals the existence of two semantic types of Most: a distributive type, which compares cardinalities of sets of atoms, and a “cumulative” type, which involves measuring plural and mass entities with respect to a whole. On the syntactic side, the most important difference is between non-partitive and partitive configurations. Certain majority quantifiers are specialized for partitive constructions, others are also allowed in non-partitives. We also examine complex majority expressions of the type The Largest Part and nominal quantifiers of the type The Majority. This large scale crosslinguistic investigation qualifies as a piece of typological research that moreover offers several case studies on both well-studied and less investigated languages (English, German, Icelandic, Romanian, Italian, Hungarian, Basque, Latin, Hindi, Syrian Arabic). The proposed analyses raise new theoretical questions regarding issues such as number marking, partitivity, kind reference, (in)definiteness marking, which are crucial issues for linguistic theory. Noteworthy is the attention paid to mass and collective quantification, an under-studied area. We argue in favor of a quantificational analysis of Most, against recent analyses that attempt to derive the proportional interpretation from the superlative, but we adopt a bipartition-cum-superlative analysis for The Largest Part.
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Papafragou, Anna, John C. Trueswell, and Lila R. Gleitman, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Mental Lexicon. Oxford University Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198845003.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
The present handbook is a state-of-the-art compilation of papers from leading scholars on the mental lexicon—the representation of language in the mind/brain at the level of individual words and meaningful sub-word units. In recent years, the study of words as mental objects has grown rapidly across several fields including linguistics, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, education, and computational cognitive science. This comprehensive collection spans multiple disciplines, topics, theories, and methods, to highlight important advances in the study of the mental lexicon, identify areas of debate, and inspire innovation in the field from present and future generations of scholars. The book is divided into three parts. Part I presents modern linguistic and cognitive theories of how the mind/brain represents words at the phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels. This part also discusses broad architectural issues pertaining to the organization of the lexicon, the relation between words and concepts, and the role of compositionality. Part II discusses how children learn the form and meaning of words in their native language drawing from the key domains of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Multiple approaches to lexical learning are introduced to explain how learner- and environment-driven factors contribute to both the stability and the variability of lexical learning across both individual learners and communities. Part III examines how the mental lexicon contributes to language use during listening, speaking, and conversation, and includes perspectives from bilingualism, sign languages, and disorders of lexical access and production.