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First, Mattiello's core hypothesis is that the meaning of - o is essentially derogatory (35), but the lexicographic analysis is said to only focus those senses that "revolve around aggressive languages" (39): in this way, uses of the suffix that could (potentially) falsify the hypothesis were excluded since the beginning. Those that do, however, represent important contributions to our understanding of the grammar-pragmatics interface in hateful discourse and are likely to establish themselves as crucial references in this growing field of studies. Otherwise, particularly welcome aspects of the chapter are the explicit definition of aggressive discourse and distinction of different types thereof, as well as the discussion of the prosody of expressive compounds. [Extracted from the article]

Harmonic Serialism is a serial version of Optimality Theory in which Gen is restricted to one operation at a time. What constitutes one operation has been a key question in the literature. This paper asks whether shift, in which a feature moves/flops from one segment to another, should be considered an operation. We review three pieces of evidence that suggest so. We show that only the one-step shift analysis can capture the tonal patterns in Kibondei and the segmental patterns in Halkomelem; grammars that rely on spreading or floating features cannot. We complement these findings with a factorial typology in which the one-step shifting grammars predict several attested patterns that the grammars without one-step shift cannot. We conclude that shift must be a single operation in Harmonic Serialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uses illustrations from the history of Germanica to explain the concept of exaptation when dealing with language evolution, i.e., the reuse of language material that has been coded by morphology but has since lost its grammatical distinction. (46 references) (GLR)

Explores the fit between syntax and semantics by addressing the following questions: (1) To what extent is the distribution of bare infinitive complements semantically motivated? and (2) What is the function of infinitival to? (46 references) (GLR)

Persian makes extensive use of light verb constructions (LVCs) consisting of a non-verbal preverb and a semantically light verbal element. The current paper concentrates on LVCs with nominal preverbs (e.g. sedâ dâdan 'produce a sound', lit. 'sound give') which license an attributively used adjective intervening between the two components of the construction. Such LVCs are idiomatically combining expressions, in the sense of Nunberg, Sag & Wasow (1994: 496). The individual components of idiomatically combining expressions have an identifiable meaning and combine in a non-arbitrary way. Thus, they are conceived as being formed compositionally. Evidence for this view can be taken from the fact that the attributively used adjectives function as internal modifiers, targeting only the nominal component of the LVC. As adjectives can also be used adverbially, two modification patterns emerge: The nominal preverb is modified by an attributive modifier, or the same adjective can be used as an adverbial modifier of the whole LVC. Two corresponding interpretation patterns arise: Attributive and adverbial modification either both result in the same, or in different interpretations. The paper makes the following claims: First, only compositionally derived LVCs license attributive modification of their nominal preverb; and second, different interpretations of the two modification patterns only result if the light verb and the preverb each license a suitable property as a target for the modifier. If, on the other hand, such a property is only licensed by the preverb, adverbial and attributive modification result in the same interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the syntactic representation of inner aspect in Hungarian. We contribute to the extant research on inner aspectual markers by providing an analysis of entailed versus implied telicity as well as the (non)maximality effects with which telic predicates are associated. Although we focus on the grammar of Hungarian, we also draw parallels between typologically different languages like Finno-Ugric (e.g. Hungarian and Finnish) and Germanic (e.g. English) regarding their inner aspectual marking strategies, and the interaction of inner aspect and case assignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considers how some of the central features of Welsh can be accommodated within the Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). HPSG is a framework developed over the last few years that seeks to combine the insights of generalized phrase structure, grammar, categorical grammar, and other theories. (22 references) (Author/VWL)

Presents arguments, based on the evidence of anaphora, against lexical decomposition. (AM)

Examines the structure of inferentiality in Abkhaz verbs. (AM)

Examines the use of the neuter form in predicate adjectives, drawing examples from Swedish and French, and working within the framework of nexus constructions. (AM)

Examines the question of the transitivity of the part-whole relation in grammar, in the context of the sentence and its semantic structure. (AM)

Examines reflexivization in Italian and demonstrates that the proposals that (1) reflexive pronouns and their antecedents must be clausemates, and (2) the specified subject and tensed-S conditions, cannot be maintained as universals. (AM)

This paper is an investigation of freezing effects, that is, cases where an element (e.g. an object or a subject, or an element within it) is unable to move from a certain structural position. An account of the most prominent properties of freezing in Norwegian is followed by a comparative study of primarily English and Norwegian indirect objects, with important consequences for the general approach to indirect objects. Although recent analyses capture central properties of indirect objects, they fall short of accounting for freezing properties, seen here in terms of agreement properties, most notably Case agreement. It is shown that both subjects and indirect objects disallow sub-extraction in both English and Norwegian; however, unlike English, Norwegian allows the indirect object to A-bar move. This relates to the question of whether Case is structural or inherent. As such, this paper offers a new argument in favor of Case as a central ingredient in deriving freezing effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the grammar of possession in Oneida (Northern Iroquoian), a case where domain-specific syntax permeates disparate areas of the grammar (referencing of semantic arguments, noun incorporation, expression of quantity, and negation). In each of these other areas, something unique must be stated, but some of what is special to possession is also shared across two or more of these areas. We describe this interesting mix of general and specific constraints in terms of a metaphor originally applied by Lévi-Strauss to the construction of myths, 'bricolage' (tinkering). We suggest the notion of bricolage aptly captures the properties of Oneida words that include a relation of possession. This novel way of conceiving of grammar of specialized domains is an alternative to the view where only general/universal, possibly parametrized, principles are countenanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-sentential utterances (NSUs), utterances that lack an overt verbal (more generally predicative) constituent, are common in adult speech. This paper presents the results of a corpus study of the emergence of certain classes of NSUs in child language, based primarily on data from the Manchester Corpus from CHILDES. Our principal finding is the LATE SHORT QUERY EFFECT: the main classes of non-sentential queries (NSQs) are acquired much later than non-sentential answers (NSAs). At a stage when the child has productive use of sentential queries, and has mastered elliptical declaratives and the polar lexemes 'yes' and 'no', non-sentential questions are virtually absent. This happens despite the fact that such questions are common in the speech of the child's caregivers and that the contexts are ones which should facilitate the production of such NSUs. We argue that these results are intrinsically problematic for analyses of NSUs in terms of a single, generalized mechanism of phonological reduction, as standard in generative grammar. We show how to model this effect within an approach of DIALOGUE-ORIENTED CONSTRUCTIONISM, wherein NSUs are grammatical words or constructions whose main predicate is a contextual parameter resolved in a manner akin to indexical terms, the relevant aspect of context being the discourse topic. We sketch an explanation for the order of acquisition of NSUs, based on a notion which combines accessibility of contextual parameters and complexity of content construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to document a phenomenon of copy adjunct control in Telugu, a Dravidian language, and to provide a derivation of the relevant structures within the framework of the Minimalist Program. Copy adjunct control is a relation of co-identity between the subject in the matrix clause and the subject in an adjunct of the same structure. Both subjects are pronounced. I analyze Copy Control structures as instances of multiple copy spell-out derived via movement, whereby movement is understood as copy-plus-merge. Decisions concerning the pronunciation of copies are prepared for in the syntax, but they are made on the phonological side of the computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English auxiliary system exhibits many lexical exceptions and subregularities, and considerable dialectal variation, all of which are frequently omitted from generative analyses and discussions. This paper presents a detailed, movement-free account of the English Auxiliary System within Sign-Based Construction Grammar (Sag 2010, Michaelis 2011, Boas & Sag 2012) that utilizes techniques of lexicalist and construction-based analysis. The resulting conception of linguistic knowledge involves constraints that license hierarchical structures directly (as in context-free grammar), rather than by appeal to mappings over such structures. This allows English auxiliaries to be modeled as a class of verbs whose behavior is governed by general and class-specific constraints. Central to this account is a novel use of the feature aux , which is set both constructionally and lexically, allowing for a complex interplay between various grammatical constraints that captures a wide range of exceptional patterns, most notably the vexing distribution of unstressed do , and the fact that Ellipsis can interact with other aspects of the analysis to produce the feeding and blocking relations that are needed to generate the complex facts of EAS. The present approach, superior both descriptively and theoretically to existing transformational approaches, also serves to undermine views of the biology of language and acquisition such as Berwick et al. (2011), which are centered on mappings that manipulate hierarchical phrase structures in a structure-dependent fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers data from Niuean, a Polynesian language with VSO word order and an extensive range of grammatical particles. We focus on three question particles, nakai, ka and kia, examining their possible historical origins. In related languages the preferred means of forming a yes–no question is by intonation alone, while in the Polynesian languages that have yes–no question particles, the forms are lexically distinct from those found in Niuean. We argue that the Niuean unmarked question particle nakai is derived from the negative, the pragmatically marked kia construction from the polite form of the imperative, and the ka construction from a lexical item which signals confirmation. In all three cases, the question particles do not replace their original grammatical or lexical source words but rather co-exist with them in new contexts. The three question particles have all undergone a process of semantic bleaching, increased syntactic bonding, and in some cases, phonetic reduction. While two of the processes have occurred early in Niuean, one is a very recent development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following a long tradition of research on English case, this paper first outlines the phenomenon of canonical and non-canonical case assignment to pronouns functioning as heads or dependents, and then discusses some previous treatments in order to illustrate the data, as well as to demonstrate that a unified account capable of capturing all the generalisations has up until now remained elusive. A purely phrase-structural explanation will be sketched out and rejected, to be superseded by a model relying on the formalism of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), which I argue successfully accounts for all the relevant syntactic patterns. The paper ends with a comparison between the present proposal and some earlier ideas in the literature. Finally, I briefly defend the claim that English pronouns still exhibit case distinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Unlike most other grammatical domains, that of personal pronouns is clearly under-researched in works on grammaticalization. One reason can be seen in the fact that personal pronouns differ in their diachronic behavior from most other grammatical categories to the extent that they present a challenge to grammaticalization theory. In the present paper it is argued that in order to account for this behavior, an extended understanding of grammaticalization is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a detailed new analysis of the English expressions once, twice and thrice. These, we claim, are primarily compound determinatives, analogous in many respects to expressions like someone and somewhere. The new analysis exploits the framework of the Cambridge grammar of the English language (2002) in which the morphological nature of the compound determinative category reflects a fusion of functions, typically determiner (or modifier) and head of NP. We refine the notion of fusion of functions, and show that constructions which employ fusion of functions have properties which clearly distinguish them from superficially similar constructions which employ incorporation or hybridization. The paper therefore provides further evidence for the existence of fusion of functions as a distinct syntactic configuration, and indirectly supports theoretical frameworks which treat functions and categories as distinct primitives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for a constructional approach to English progressives. On this view, progressivity is a construction-level property, rather than a lexical property of the ing forms that progressive verb phrases contain or of the auxiliary. The incompatibility of ing forms with state verbs in progressive constructions provides crucial evidence in support of the construction-based perspective, given that stative ing forms are fully acceptable in gerundive and other ing constructions. Of course, underlying this approach is the proposal that gerund is neutralizable with present participle (Huddleston 1984, 2002b, c; Pullum 1991; Blevins 1994). A lexicalist and construction-based analysis of gerundive nominals, as in Pullum (1991) and Blevins (1994), offers a means of claiming that progressivity is a property of the combination of an auxiliary and ing participle, just as the perfect aspect is expressed by the combination of have and a past participle, as proposed in Ackerman & Webelhuth (1998) and Spencer (2001b), and implicitly in Curme (1935) and other traditional grammars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider middle-passive voice in Greek and Albanian, which shows a many-to-many mapping between LF and PF. Different morphosyntactic shapes (conditioned by tense or aspect) are compatible with the same set of interpretations, which include the passive, the reflexive, the anticausative, and the impersonal (in Albanian only). Conversely, each of these interpretations can be encoded by any of the available morphosyntactic structures. Specialized person inflections (in Greek and Albanian), the clitic $u$ (Albanian) and the affix -th- (Greek) lexicalize the internal argument (or the sole argument of intransitive in Albanian) either as a variable, which is LF-interpreted as bound by the EPP position (passives, anticausatives, reflexives) or as generically closed (impersonals, in Albanian only). The ambiguity between passives, anticausatives and reflexives depends on the interpretation assigned to the external argument (generic closure, suppression or unification with the internal argument respectively). In perfect tenses, auxiliary jam ‘be’ in Albanian derives the expression of middle-passive voice due to its selectional requirement for a participle with an open position. Crucially, no hidden features/abstract heads encoding interpretation are postulated, nor any Distributed Morphology-style realizational component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Case ellipsis for subjects and objects in Korean exhibits several clear asymmetries that have not received a unified explanation. This paper provides a new, probability-based analysis of variable case marking that can account for three types of subject–object asymmetries noted in the literature in terms of asymmetries in the usage probability of the properties of argument NPs in their syntactic or discourse context. This account captures the key generalizations underlying the asymmetries that case ellipsis for wh-word subjects, subjects in OSV sentences and non-specific subjects is unacceptable, whereas case ellipsis for objects with similar properties is acceptable; it also explains why sentences with a subject NP not marked for case that have been predicted to be syntactically ill-formed by previous syntactic accounts are judged acceptable when the subject represents expected, predictable information in context. These results provide strong support for the view that native speakers’ knowledge of grammar includes not only some degree of knowledge of probabilistic information but also access to fine-grained predictability and probabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal models of syntax typically accord the structural position external to the verb's domain a privileged status in the overall syntactic makeup of a language, either by assuming that external arguments are always S or A, or by linking external argument position to syntactic pivothood. This paper demonstrates that the Oceanic language Äiwoo has an ergative verb phrase – i.e. A as the VP-internal argument and S/O as external arguments – but no corresponding S/O pivot. That is, the ergative structure of the verb phrase in Äiwoo does not entail any syntactically privileged status of the VP-external arguments; rather, it is simply a by-product of various diachronic developments. This situation shows that what has traditionally been perceived as fundamental differences in grammatical organisation – the difference between an accusative and an ergative pattern of VP structure – need not in fact be associated with any broader differences in syntactic or pragmatic structure. More importantly, it goes against the assumption that it is possible to assign universal functions to syntactic configurations. Instead, it can be seen as providing support for the view argued for by Evans & Levinson (2009: 444) that ‘most linguistic diversity is the product of historical cultural evolution operating on relatively independent traits’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides an analysis of Italian complex predicates formed by combining a feminine nominalization in -ata and one of three light verbs: fare ‘make’, dare ‘give’ and prendere ‘take’. We show that the constraints governing the choice of light verb follow from a syntactic approach to argument structure, and that several interpretive differences between complex and simplex predicates formed from the same verb root can be accounted for in a compositional, bottom–up approach. These differences include variation in creation vs. affected interpretations of Theme objects, implications concerning the size of the event described, the (un)availability of a passive alternant, and the agentivity or lack thereof of the subject argument. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to examine psycholinguistic work on attraction with a view to enriching our knowledge of the grammar of agreement. Following Franck et al. (2006), I assume that the different theories of agreement should relate to the way speakers err when they implement agreement operations. As an aberrant computation of the mind, attraction is interesting due to its frequency: in English experiments 13% of complex NPs (i.e. NPs which consist of two or more constituent NPs) establish incorrect agreement with the verb (as in *the key to the cabinets are in the kitchen; Eberhard, Cooper Cutting & Bock 2005). This is what makes it a magnet for both linguistic and psycholinguistic research. Here I examine the main findings and models in the psycholinguistic literature, and how they relate to existing theories of agreement in grammar. It will be argued that agreement cannot be properly understood unless models incorporate an adequate measurement of the size of the morphological component of every language studied, as agreement operations are continuously sensitive to this. The general idea, which I extend from Berg (1998) and Acuña-Fariña (2009) is that a strong morphosyntactic component blocks (rather than facilitates) semantic interference, and that languages opportunistically use more or less semantics in establishing agreement ties depending not only on morphological richness but also on the direction of encoding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines multiple-modal constructions in Mandarin Chinese. It is shown that modals in Mandarin Chinese are ordered in specific ways, and, while a number of factors contribute to the determination of the hierarchical order of modals, the finiteness of the complement clauses that the modals take plays a particularly important role. A generalization proposed in this paper is that (i) if a modal takes a finite clause as complement, then the modal itself can only occur in a finite context; and (ii) if a modal takes a nonfinite clause as complement, then it can occur in a nonfinite context too. This generalization is shown to account for some ordering phenomena of modals in Mandarin Chinese that would otherwise remain mysterious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonological chain shifts have been the focus of many theoretical, developmental, and clinical concerns. This paper considers an overlooked property of the problem by focusing on the typological properties of the widely attested ‘s>θ>f’ chain shift involving the processes of Labialization and Dentalization in early phonological development. Findings are reported from a cross-sectional study of 234 children (ages 3 years; 0 months–7;9) with functional (nonorganic) phonological delays. The results reveal some unexpected gaps in the predicted interactions of these processes and are brought to bear on the evaluation of recent optimality theoretic proposals for the characterization of phonological interactions. A developmental modification to the theory is proposed that has the desired effect of precluding certain early-stage grammars. The proposal is further evaluated against the facts of another widely cited developmental chain shift known as the ‘puzzle>puddle>pickle’ problem (Smith 1973). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persian complex predicates pose an interesting challenge for theoretical linguistics since they have both word-like and phrase-like properties. For example, they can feed derivational processes, but they are also separable by the future auxiliary or the negation prefix. Various proposals have been made in the literature to capture the nature of Persian complex predicates, among them analyses that treat them as purely phrasal or purely lexical combinations. Mixed analyses that analyze them as words by default and as phrases in the non-default case have also been suggested. In this paper, I show that theories that rely exclusively on the classification of patterns in inheritance hierarchies cannot account for the facts in an insightful way unless they are augmented by transformations or some similar device. I then show that a lexical account together with appropriate grammar rules and an argument composition analysis of the future auxiliary has none of the shortcomings that classification-based analyses have and that it can account for both the phrasal and the word-like properties of Persian complex predicates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the intonational phrasing of three types of parenthetical insertions - non-restrictive relative clauses (NRRCs), full sentences, and comment clauses (CCs) - in actual spoken language. It draws on a large set of data from a corpus of spoken British English. Its aim is twofold: first, it evaluates the correctness of previous claims about the intonational phrasing of parentheticals, specifically the assumption that parentheticals are phrased in a separate intonation domain; second, it discusses the implications of the intonational phrasing of parentheticals for prosodic theory. The results of the data analysis are as follows. First, the longer types of interpolations but not CCs are by default phrased separately. Second, both the temporal and the tonal structure of the host may be affected by the parenthetical. Third, CCs lend themselves more readily to the restructuring of intonational phrases such that they are phrased in one domain together with material from the host. Fourth, the prosodic results cannot be explained in syntactic accounts which do not allow for a syntactic relation between parenthetical and host. Fifth, the interface constraints on intonational phrasing apply to parentheticals. Sixth, the intonational phrasing of parentheticals supports the assumption of a post-syntactic, phonological component of the grammar at which restructuring applies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a semantic analysis of three constructions: (i) the subject-oriented adverb construction (Wisely, John left early), (ii) the 'Adj+to Inf' construction (John was wise to leave early), and (iii) the 'Adj+of NP' construction (It was wise of John to leave early), which all involve three semantic components: (i) an individual a (John), (ii) a property P1 that describes a mental/behavioral propensity (wise), and (iii) another property P2 which typically describes an action (leave early). I argue that the three constructions share a meaning along the lines of 'P2(a), and from this it is possible to infer that P1(a) ', where P1 is forced to receive the transitory interpretation, but they differ as to which component they assert/presuppose. I further demonstrate that this analysis allows us to solve two well-known semantic puzzles concerning these constructions (the 'entailment puzzle' and the 'embeddability puzzle'). The three constructions are highly amenable to the Construction Grammar approach, because their meaning cannot be derived from the intuitive meanings of their constituents and regular semantic rules only. I provide formal analyses of the three constructions in the framework of Sign-Based Construction Grammar (SBCG). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the possibility that machine learning approaches to natural- language processing being developed in engineering-oriented computational linguistics may be able to provide specific scientific insights into the nature of human language. We argue that, in principle, machine learning results could inform basic debates about language, in one area at least, and that in practice, existing results may offer initial tentative support for this prospect. Further, results from computational learning theory can inform arguments carried on within linguistic theory as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some recent work has argued that agreement and case-assignment dependencies between a functional head and a nearby NP are not part of the syntactic derivation proper, but take place in the postsyntactic, morphological component of the grammar. I argue that this view is correct, by showing that one of its largely unexplored predictions has real empirical payout. The prediction is that the dependency-forming properties of functional heads, being morphological in nature, are mutable, and may be conditioned by nearby roots and functional structure. I focus here on Voice heads in Choctaw, and my starting assumption is that, by default, $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[+\mathrm{N}\right]} $ (the Voice head which introduces a specifier) agrees with its specifier (the external argument) and $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[-\mathrm{N}\right]} $ (i.e. specifier-less Voice, found in unaccusatives) does not agree with anything. However, I propose that in some environments, $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[-\mathrm{N}\right]} $ does launch a $ \phi $ -probe, and it results in $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[-\mathrm{N}\right]} $ agreeing with the internal argument. I refer to these configurations as 'low ergatives'. A small survey of previous work on case and agreement dependencies suggests (a) that the case-assignment properties of functional heads are mutable in the same way, and (b) that the reverse is attested – in some environments $ {\mathrm{Voice}}_{\left[+\mathrm{N}\right]} $ fails to launch a $ \phi $ -probe. This is consistent with a purely morphological model of agreement and case-assignment: just as the exponence and interpretation of functional heads can be conditioned by adjacent roots and functional material, so too can the dependency-forming properties of those heads be conditioned in the same way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has two goals: descriptive and theoretical. On the descriptive side, the article presents a grammar of gliding and epenthesis of Upper Sorbian. The descriptive goal is worthy because Upper Sorbian has a highly complex but regular and productive system of gliding and epenthesis. Upper Sorbian stands out from a typological point of view because it has ten [ sic ] different strategies to satisfy Onset. On the theoretical side, the question is whether Optimality Theory that has been designed to solve conspiracies can deal with the complexities of Upper Sorbian. The answer is that it cannot unless it is modified to admit derivational levels. A point of interest is that level 1 in Upper Sorbian must be defined as the root level, not as the expected stem level that includes roots and affixes. Further, it is demonstrated that Itô and Mester's Crisp Edge constraint makes wrong predictions for Upper Sorbian, so a new constraint, Multi, is postulated. Also, the analysis bears on the issue of positional markedness versus positional faithfulness and the question of whether Duke of York derivations should be admitted in phonology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 9 is 'The integration of languages and society: A view from multilingual Southern New Guinea', by Dineke Schokkin. In the rest of this review, I will first present a chapter-by-chapter overview, before returning to the key question of the integration of language and society, and the levels at which such integration holds. There are some construals of the phrase "the integration of language and society" which are completely uncontroversial. [Extracted from the article]

A major challenge presented by noun class systems of Senufo languages is the non-trivial interaction between the agreement features of the noun phrase and the noun class specification on the head noun. In Kafire (Senufo, Côte d'Ivoire), demonstratives normally agree with the head noun independent of whether or not the head noun is modified by adjectives. Some adjectives, however, are exceptions to the general rule: in their presence the demonstrative appears in Class 2 or 3 (depending on the adjective), and fails to agree with the head noun. We present an account of the exceptional behavior of such adjectives within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. We show that agreement in Kafire is a heterogeneous phenomenon that is best viewed as transitional between a system of semantically motivated agreement and a system of noun classes that is no longer dependent on meaning. Vestiges of the old system have been preserved in a variety of phenomena that have to be addressed individually using different kinds of formal tools provided by the framework. The variety of formal devices required to describe the functioning of the agreement system reflects the complex diachrony and the cross-modal (lexico-syntactic) synchronic nature of agreement phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphorical expressions involving proper names have been discussed only sporadically. This paper demonstrates that there are in fact interesting things to be said about such metaphors, and makes two key points, one general and one specific. The general point is that their behavior accords more with the class-inclusion model of metaphor than the correspondence model. Having established this, I make the more specific point that there are cultural dimensions to these metaphors that pose particular problems for the kind of correspondence model proposed by Lakoff and his associates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper we provide an account of VSO in Greek and its (relative) absence in Italian, despite the fact that both languages allow for postverbal subjects. We argue that this parametric difference reduces to different lexicalisation options regarding the D-system of the two grammars. We assume that the clause structure divides into three basic domains (V, T, and C), and that nominal (clitic) positions are available in each of these domains, which, as we argue, can be lexicalised not only by clitics but also by full DPs. On this basis, we argue that the subject and object DP in Greek can appear in the same domain (V), as they spell out different features depending on their grammatical function, while this is not so in Italian, given that DPs spell out the same set of features irrespective of their grammatical function. This basic difference is responsible for the presence of VSO in Greek but not in Italian. We also consider the implications of our approach for the interpretation of subjects and arguments in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hebrew (past and future tenses) and Standard Finnish exhibit limitations on third person. pro-drop, although their first and second person pro-drop follows the well- known Spanish/Italian pattern. This paper aims to show that only a detailed theory of discourse anaphora, such as the one proposed by Ariel (1900, 2001), can account for the distribution of third person pro-drop in Hebrew and Finnish; accounts proposing a syntactic analysis of the phenomenon cannot explain the whole range of data. A comparison between Hebrew and Finnish reveals a difference in the distribution of third person null subjects: Finnish appears to be significantly more restrictive than Hebrew. These two languages are also compared to Rumanian, a typical pro-drop language, which shows almost free third person pro-drop across the board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on two types of definites in Greek - MONADICS and POLYDEFINITES - and provides a constraint-based account of their form, meaning and use. Specifically, I discuss three core issues that have not been addressed in previous work. First, the special pragmatic import of polydefinites. These are associated with contextual constraints that go beyond the uniqueness entailments of standard (monadic) definites. Their idiosyncratic morphosyntax achieves effects similar to those induced in other languages solely by prosodic means and illustrated by phenomena subsumed within the term DEACCENTING. Second, the morphosyntax of definites. I argue that the Greek definite article can be best analysed as a PHRASAL AFFIX, and provide a composition approach in the spirit of previous work couched in HPSG. Monadics and polydefinites are treated uniformly, without positing unmotivated complexity in the grammar for deriving the form of the latter. The definite concord and linear order facts that pose problems for previous analyses are directly derived and the morphosyntactic affinity between the Greek definite article and `weak form' possessive is straightforwardly captured. Third, the semantics of definites. A quantificational semantics is provided that ensures that the semantic content of the definite article in polydefinites is integrated into the meaning of the sentence just once. Polydefinites are, therefore, semantically identical to monadics; the special import of the former originates from a contextual constraint on the anchoring of the index that interacts with the common morphosyntactic and semantic basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the fundamental questions on which we linguists disagree is whether or not our subject is useful for education. On one side is a long tradition, stretching back to the classical world, in which the practical benefits were clear and agreed - for example, the early Stoic grammarians aimed to improve literary style (Robins 1967: 16), and the Latin grammarians wrote pedagogical texts for use in school (ibid.: 54). In modern times this tradition is represented by leading linguists such as Tesnière (1959) and Halliday (1964), whose work has been motivated at least in part by the desire to improve language teaching at school. On the other hand is an equally long philosophical tradition of 'pure' scholarship for its own sake, in which the only motivation was a desire to understand language better. Recently this tradition is most clearly represented by two linguists who otherwise have little in common, Sampson (1980) and Chomsky (Olson, Faigley & Chomsky 1991), both of whom have denied that linguistics has, can have or indeed should have any relevance to language teaching.2 The aim of this paper is to defend the traditional idea that linguistics has an important contribution to make in language teaching, though I shall not of course suggest that every piece of academic research should have a clear pay-off in terms of practical benefits. 'Blue-skies' research is just as important in linguistics as in other disciplines. All I shall argue is that our discipline, seen as a whole, has an important interface with education, and that research whose results cross this interface is just as important as that which feeds into, say, neuroscience or child development. Indeed, I shall go further by arguing that academic linguistics is weakened if we ignore the impact of education on language, so information must cross this interface in both directions. If the interface is important even for 'pure' research, it follows that we cannot simply name it 'applied linguistics' and leave it to those who call themselves applied linguists. My point is that the debate is relevant to all linguists, however 'pure', because if education has a profound impact on language, we should know rather better than we do at present exactly what that impact is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the implications of a particular approach to learning for an architectural question in phonology. The learning approach follows the principle of Minimum Description Length (MDL), which has recently been used for learning in both constraint-based and rule-based phonology. The architectural question on which we focus is whether the grammar allows language-specific statements to be made at the level of the lexicon, as was assumed in early generative phonology, or whether such statements are prohibited, as is commonly assumed within more recent work. We show that under MDL, the architectural question has real empirical implications: across a range of seemingly natural representational schemes, an ability to make language-specific statements about the lexicon is needed to ensure the learnability of an important aspect of phonological knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I explore the bases of a 'distributionalist' approach to syntactic categories, that is, an approach that makes distinctions on the basis of purely syntactic (as opposed to, say, semantic) criteria. I focus on the phenomenon of 'mixed projections', where a syntactic phrase appears to display properties of more than one syntactic category, as analysed within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar. I argue that of the three syntactic criteria called upon in the definition of syntactic categories within this approach, only one, the internal syntactic structure of a phrase, is a sufficient criterion for syntactic categorization. This leads to a more restricted definition of category mixing and implies a more restricted approach to categorization in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of two constructions in the Eastern Algonquian language Passamaquoddy in which the position of the object of a verb of cognition ('know', 'believe', 'remember', 'wonder about', 'suspect') is linked, either by apparent raising or by apparent long-distance agreement, to a position within a clausal complement to the verb. The latter position may be arbitrarily deeply embedded. The analysis developed here, formulated in the framework of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar, demonstrates that the two constructions in fact represent alternative realizations of identical argument structures for the verbs in question and that the apparent long-distance dependencies involved can be accounted for in terms of a purely local principle of argument selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]