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Recent studies reveal that the values of finiteness, tense, modality and polarity in a clause elided under sluicing may be distinct from their correlates in the antecedent clause. Focusing on CP ellipsis in Hebrew (an instance of Argument Ellipsis), we first demonstrate that it is distinct from both Null Complement Anaphora and (null) pronominalization, and then show that the values of force (declarative, imperative, interrogative) can be distinct between the antecedent and the missing clause as well. Possible mismatches are bidirectional, ruling out "subset" theories of identity in ellipsis and challenging certain accounts of the semantics of polar questions. Implications for the general theory of ellipsis are discussed and evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prefixed verbs in Latin may take an argument in the dative case, interpreted as the ground of the spatial relation codified by the preverb. This phenomenon is constrained by the semantics of that spatial relation: while preverbs encoding a location, a goal, or a source of motion generally accept the dative argument, preverbs encoding a route do not. I propose a syntactic analysis of this phenomenon, framed within the Spanning framework. I assume an analysis of the spatial dative as an applied argument interpreted as a possessor of the final location of motion. Developing a configurational theory of spatial relations, I show how only the syntax-semantics of the preverbs interpreted as encoding a location, be this final (a goal), initial (a source), or unrelated to motion (a static location), is compatible with the projection of an Appl(icative)P integrating the dative argument. By the same token, pure route preverbs, involving a path but not a location, are correctly predicted to disallow the projection of ApplP, and hence the spatial dative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present an account of the interplay between quantifiers and the partitive–accusative case alternation in Finnish object marking, with special reference to the aspectual and quantificational semantics of the clause. The case alternation expresses two oppositions (in affirmative clauses): (a) bounded (accusative) vs. unbounded (partitive) quantity, (b) culminating (accusative) vs. non-culminating (partitive) aspect. The quantifiers analyzed are of two main types: (i) mass quantifiers (e. g., paljon 'a lot of', vähän '(a) little'), which quantify a mass expressed by a mass noun or a plural form, (ii) number quantifiers (e. g., moni 'many', usea 'a number of'), which quantify a multiplicity of discrete entities expressed by a count noun in the singular or plural. Finnish mass quantifiers only quantify nominals in the partitive, while number quantifiers agree with the quantified nominal in number and case and are used throughout the case paradigm. With a mass quantifier, the partitive form of the quantified nominal expresses unbounded quantity, which the quantifier then renders bounded (quantized). This is why object phrases with mass quantifiers behave like accusative objects: they express a bounded quantity together with culminating aspect. Number quantifiers quantify both accusative and partitive objects, in the singular and plural. Such objects are able to express aspect and quantity at two levels: (i) that of the individual component events which concern one entity each; (ii) that of the higher-order event which concerns the whole quantity expressed. I argue that the case marking of the object relates primarily to level (i), while the meaning of the number quantifier relates to level (ii). This is why a number quantifier typically renders the quantity bounded and the aspect culminating at level (ii), even when the partitive case expresses unboundedness or lack of culmination at level (i). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

J. Robert G. Williams argues that referential indeterminacy may arise as a result of ontic indeterminacy, and that lambda-abstraction is not applicable to indeterminate identity statements, i.e., statements of the form, 'it is indeterminate whether is identical with ,' if they involve such ontically induced referential indeterminacy; so Evans's argument against vague objects does not work. This paper finds fault with Williams's defense of vague objects and shows that there is much reason to doubt that the idea of ontically induced referential indeterminacy plays any significant role in a proper defense of vague objects against Evans's argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the phenomenon of lability (ambitransitivity), in other words, the ability of a verb to be either transitive or intransitive. I analyze the historical development of verbs which are currently labile in modern Russian. The main group of Russian labile verbs includes verbs of motion. On the basis of corpus and dictionary data, I conclude that the behavior of the lexemes under analysis is far from being uniform. However, interestingly, for most of them, e.g., lit' 'flow/pour', gonjat' 'run, drive/chase, pursue', and kružit' 'go round, turn, roll', the proportion of the intransitive use grows throughout the period under analysis, though for the verb kapat'/kapnut' 'drop, pour in drips', in contrast, the transitive use becomes more and more frequent. In the cases when the intransitive use becomes more frequent, the semantic change matches the statistical one. In the beginning, verbs of this subtype were only used intransitively in a restricted type of contexts (e.g., for gonjat' 'run, drive/chase, pursue', hunting contexts represent this restricted class), where the intransitive use might be a result of object omission. Later on, the semantic range of the intransitive use became wider and the lability was no longer semantically related to object omission. I conclude that the emergence of an intransitive use of a strictly transitive verb or the increase of the number of intransitive uses is often accompanied by semantic changes: first, a verb is used intransitively in a very restricted range of contexts (for the verb gonjat' these include hunting contexts). Then, the range of contexts and the semantics of the intransitive use becomes wider, the number of intransitive uses grows and the verb becomes canonically labile with both uses being equally or almost equally frequent. Importantly, the borderline between A- and P-lability is not as strict as it is put sometimes: P-lability (the causative/non-causative alternation) can in some cases be traced back to A-lability (object omission). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses differential argument realization in Abui, a Papuan language (Eastern Indonesia) with semantic alignment (in terms of Donohue and Wichmann 2008; Kratochvíl 2011). The paper examines the roles of volitionality, referential hierarchy, and specificity in differential argument realization (employing light verbs and verbal agreement) and shows that their effects are observable throughout the argument realization system and can be therefore considered the counterpart of differential case marking (DOM/DSM) reported for syntactically aligned, case-marking languages (Bossong 1983; Aissen 2003; Malchukov 2005; Kittilä 2006; de Swart 2007; and others). Although Abui differential argument realization correlates with the referential hierarchy (Bickel 2008), verbal subclasses (in terms of Tsunoda's 1985: 388 affectedness hierarchy) determine whether differential argument realization appears or not (cf. von Heusinger and Kaiser 2011). The paper also considers the diachronic origins of differential argument realization in Abui. Most constructions are argued to originate from two-clause constructions, such as topic/focus constructions gradually merging into singleclause structures. Information-structure related morphemes (light verbs in Abui) serialize with lexical verbs. The process starts with 1st and 2nd person participants (interlocutors) and may extend to human or human-like third persons. Grammaticalization ends in the fusion of the light verb and person prefix, creating new verbal agreement paradigms, as manifested in several central Alor-Pantar languages (Kratochvíl et al. 2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used free association and verbal fluency tasks to investigate verbargument constructions (VACs) and the ways in which their processing is sensitive to statistical patterns of usage (verb type-token frequency distribution, VAC-verb contingency, verb-VAC semantic prototypicality). In experiment 1, 285 native speakers of English generated the first word that came to mind to fill the V slot in 40 sparse VAC frames such as ‘he ____ across the. . . .', ‘it ____ of the. . . .', etc. In experiment 2, 40 English speakers generated as many verbs that fit each frame as they could think of in a minute. For each VAC, we compared the results from the experiments with corpus analyses of verb selection preferences in 100 million words of usage and with the semantic network structure of the verbs in these VACs. For both experiments, multiple regression analyses predicting the frequencies of verb types generated for each VAC show independent contributions of (i) verb frequency in the VAC, (ii) VAC-verb contingency and (iii) verb prototypicality in terms of centrality within the VAC semantic network. VAC processing involves rich associations, tuned by verb type and token frequencies and their contingencies of usage, which interface syntax, lexis and semantics. We consider the implications for the mental representation of VACs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with the observation that focus phrases can be dichotomized on the basis of whether they are exhaustive or not, this paper shows that exhaustive focus triggers intervention effects for wh-in-situ argument questions, while non-exhaustive focus does not. Empirical data from typologically unrelated languages are cited to support this generalization; exceptional cases are argued to arise on independent grounds. No existing analysis of intervention effects takes into consideration the distinguished behaviors of exhaustive and non-exhaustive focus in terms of triggering intervention effects for wh-in-situ argument questions. I argue that with some modifications, the semantic approach which draws on the interpretation similarity between focus phrases and wh-phrases constitutes the most promising analysis. Intervention effects arise when the focus operator associated with exhaustive focus phrases unselectively evaluates both the focus semantic value and exhaustivity of the in-situ argument wh-phrase in its scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the processing correlates of core verb features used to generate verb typologies. The aim was to contrast the effects of verb inter-nal structure (as in semantic/conceptual features e.g., Jackendoff [1991]; Levin and Rappaport Hovav [2005]) with argument structure and argument realization in sentence processing. To this end, we designed a self-paced reading task with internal structure and argument realization as variables in verb processing. Re-sults showed that absence of a prototypical Agent or mismatch between thematic hierarchies and argument realization yields longer processing times possibly due to some form of thematic reanalysis or as a reaction to a "surprise" effect by the human processor while detecting a non-expected thematic assignment. No ef-fects of verb internal structure were found. We take this result as an indication that argument structure and argument realization play an important role in verb recognition during sentence processing. We further propose that this reflects their prominent role in verb representation and we suggest that this finding could give additional support to verb classifications based on verb argument structure features compared to those based on internal structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the need for text visualization systems that can support discourse analysis. While fruitful work has been undertaken exploring the paradigmatic axis in systemic functional linguistics, there is much scope for complementary modeling along the syntagmatic axis. However, in exploring long-range text patterns we face the problem that it is difficult for a human analyst to track complex and unfolding relationships in what is high-dimensional data. I introduce AppAnn, a system designed to support linguists in undertaking such long-range analysis and demonstrate how it can be used to visualize patterns of appraisal in texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a discussion among US Federal Trade Commission attorneys concerning a passage in a draft memo. The focus is primarily on the expression we think it's bad public policy, which is a reformulation, and a generalization, of what is said in the draft. I propose certain techniques of studying generalization, based in earlier work by Charles Frake and by Harvey Sacks. A close analysis of transcribed talk is combined with semantic/taxonomic considerations and related to ethnographic setting. A central finding is that generalization must be understood not only within its local context of talk but also within wider discursive contexts. The formulation is fitted to an argument, which is in turn fitted to a broader controversy in the agency. The analytic techniques employed in this essay should have broad applicability in studies of how participants formulate their utterances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]