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This article presents a list of books and journals received by "Linguistic Inquiry" for review. Some of the titles received are as follows: "Agreement Systems," by Cedric Boeckx, "Structural propensities: Translating nominal word groups from English into German," by Monika Doherty, "From molecule to metaphor: A neural theory of language," by Jerome A. Feldman, "Historical linguistics:Theory and method," by Mark Hale, and "Default semantics: Foundations of a compositional theory of acts of communication," by K. M. Jaszczolt.

Several proposals suggest a Φ-feature dependency between C0 and T0 (see, e.g., Zwart 1993, Chomsky 2008). In most (if not all) of these proposals, the core piece of empirical evidence is complementizer agreement (CA). On the basis of two sets of CA data, CA with coordinated subjects and CA with external possessors, we conclude that there is no Φ-feature dependency between C0 and T0; instead, C0 and T0 must each be endowed with a discrete set of Φ-features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue for a novel model of feature valuation in the CI interface and explore under what circumstances a syntactic feature is semantically interpretable. As the groundwork for the investigation, I propose an explicit Distributed Morphology model of Italian nouns of profession. The data provide evidence that the morphology accesses the narrow-syntax representation at two different temporal points within a phase: the earlier point (Spell-Out) returns a morphological realization faithful to feature values present in narrow syntax, while the later point (Transfer) allows for a narrow-syntax representation to be enriched by the CI component. Thus, there is no syntactic distinction between interpretable and uninterpretable features: a syntactic feature appears to be interpretable only if it has been licensed by the CI interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harris and Halle (2005) present a framework (Generalized Reduplication) that unites the treatment of phonological reduplication and metathesis with similar phenomena in morphology, thereby accounting for the apparently spurious placement of the imperative plural -n in mesoclitic Spanish forms such as hága-lo-n 'Do it!', in which clitic lo is sandwiched between the verbal stem and the plural suffix. Kayne (2010) has challenged their analysis, arguing that such cases should be treated purely within the syntax. We reassess some of Kayne's arguments, agreeing with his conclusion that the most important desideratum of any general analysis of such phenomena is restrictiveness. However, we contend that greater restrictiveness can be achieved through morphotactic constraints and repairs in the Generalized Reduplication formalism, triggered by a Noninitiality constraint on the positioning of the plural affix, and we develop constraints on these operations that situate interspeaker variation within the postsyntactic component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the role of symmetric reciprocal semantics as a predictor of partial control, which refers to situations in which the reference of PRO must include that of an overt argument in the matrix clause. Information about the semantic properties of matrix predicates that license the phenomenon is presented.

Rappaport Hovav and Levin (2010) argue that verbs fall into (at least) two classes: result verbs (e.g., break) and manner verbs (e.g., run). No verb encodes both manner and result simultaneously, a truth-conditional fact that Rappaport Hovav and Levin argue follows from how verb meanings are composed at the level of event structure. However, a key issue in verifying this claim is isolating truth-conditional diagnostics for manner and result. We develop and review a number of such diagnostics and show that there are verbs that encode both meanings together, counterexemplifying their truth-conditional complementarity. However, using evidence from scopal adverbs, we argue that when the meanings occur together, they are encoded in a single, undecomposable manner+result root at event structure. This fact validates complementarity as a fact about how many and what types of roots may occur in an event structure, though it also argues for a richer typology of roots than is typically assumed, including those encoding manner and result simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at clarifying the role of person at the interface between syntax and the interpretive systems. We argue that first person interpretations of third person pronouns (de se readings) stem from the option of leaving the referential index underspecified on the pronoun, thus accounting for the interplay of this phenomenon with the anaphoric usage of first person indexicals (pronoun shifting) and logophoric pronouns. The results include proposals on the connection between the semantics of first person and the syntax of the left periphery, a neo-Davidsonian treatment of the semantics of first person indexicals, and a novel view of pronominal anaphora according to which Higginbotham's (1983) asymmetric relation of linking involves a mechanism of θ-role inheritance tied to the semantics of first person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Kratzer (2003), the thematic relation Theme, construed very generally, is not a ''natural relation.'' She says that the ''natural relations'' are ''cumulative'' and argues that Theme is not cumulative, in contrast to Agent. It is therefore best, she concludes, to remove Theme from the palette of semantic analysis. Here I oppose the premises of Kratzer's argument and then introduce a new challenge to her conclusion, based on the resultative construction in Mandarin. The facts show that Theme and Agent are on equal footing, insofar as neither has the property that Kratzer's conjecture requires of a natural relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cheng and Sybesma (1999, 2005) argue that classifiers in Chinese are equivalent to a definite article. We argue against this position on empirical grounds, drawing attention to the fact that semantically, syntactically, and functionally, Chinese classifiers are not on the same footing as definite determiners. We also show that compared with Cheng and Sybesma's ClP analysis of Chinese NPs (in particular, Cantonese NPs, on which their proposal crucially relies), a consistent DP analysis is not only fully justified but strongly supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we develop a substantially expanded theory of late merger. Adopting related insights by Fox (2002), we argue that late merger is permitted whenever an output representation can be interpreted in the semantic component. A consequence of our approach is that late merger is available not only for the well-known case of adjuncts, but also for restrictors of determiners (wholesale late merger). We demonstrate that this theory can explain the different reconstruction possibilities of A-movement and Ā -movement, as well as various otherwise puzzling facts about movement and ellipsis, while still maintaining the copy theory of movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explain the semantic and syntactic compositionality of bounded interpretations. I propose here that events with a definite end point involve interpretation of the verb and either a bounded direct object or a bounded PP in the checking domain of Asp(ect)P, whereas unbounded events involve interpretation in a projection lower in the clause. This analysis explains the syntactic behavior of the ambiguous adverb quickly. In addition, it follows from the analysis that durative adjuncts are adjoined to VP, while time frame adjuncts are adjoined to AspP. Constructions involving preposition stranding, scope of only. parasitic gaps, and semantic restrictions on adjunct PP objects support this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the observation that disjunction cannot take wide scope in negative non-wh-questions and declaratives with a preposed negative element. This rules out the alternative question reading for non-wh-questions with preposed negation and the wide scope or reading for neg-inverted declaratives. We show that effects parallel to the ones associated with preposed negation can be reproduced in affirmative non-wh-questions and declaratives when focus is involved. We propose that preposed negation in non-wh-questions and preposed negative adverbials in declaratives necessarily contribute focus marking (in particular, verum focus) and argue that the lack of wide scope disjunction reading in both declaratives and non-wh-questions results as a by-product of the interaction between focus and the LF syntax of disjunctive structures, which we argue involves ellipsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Inconsistency Detection Learner (IDL) is an algorithm for language learning that addresses the problem of structural ambiguity. If an overt form is structurally ambiguous, the learner must be capable of inferring which interpretation of the overt form is correct by reference to other overt data of the language. The IDL does this by attempting to construct grammars for combinations of interpretations of the overt forms, and discarding those combinations that are inconsistent. The potential of this algorithm for overcoming the combinatorial growth in combinations of interpretations is supported by computational results from an implementation of the IDL using an optimality-theoretic system of metrical stress grammars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that a structural distinction between predicational and equative copular clauses is illusory. Discussion on predication and the syntax-semantics interface; Syntax of clauses and predicative clauses; Analysis of augmented copular constructions.

Discusses comitative constructions in the Spanish language. Syntactic and semantic restrictions on Spanish comitatives; Derivation of the semantic restriction from a structural asymmetry; Relation between the restriction on collectivity and the constraint against nonsubjects.