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This paper first introduces the standard recipe for deriving quantity implicatures in the neo-Gricean framework. Then, it compares this pragmatic stance with the grammatical view that argues that scalar implicatures should be generated via an operator in syntax. After showing how the grammatical view can derive canonical scalar implicatures, motivations for this view are discussed which include embedded implicatures, obligatory scalar implicatures concerning the Hurford Constraint, and Free Choice inferences. This paper finally examines basic tenets of the grammatical view and points out three potential problems for this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights a small selection of cases where cross-linguistic insights have been important to big questions in the theory of semantics and the syntax/semantics interface. The selection includes (i) the role and representation of Speaker and Addressee in the grammar; (ii) mismatches between form and interpretation motivating high-placed silent operators for functional elements; and (iii) the explanation of semantic universals, including universals pertaining to inventories, in terms of learnability and the trade-off between informativeness and simplicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a pioneer paper, Featherston (Featherston, Sam. 2007. Data in generative grammar: The stick and the carrot. Theoretical Linguistics 33. 269–318) advocated the use of better controlled data in theoretical linguistics. Despite diverging on many aspects, most syntactic theories are now testing their hypotheses with more data than a few linguists' intuitions. I will examine the consequences of this empirical turn on two syntactic phenomena: long-distance dependencies (LDD) and ellipsis. In a series of recent experiments (Liu, Yingtong, Elodie Winckel, Anne Abeillé, Barbara Hemforth & Edward Gibson. 2022. Structural, functional and processing perspectives on linguistic islands effects. Annual Review of Linguistics 8. 495–525), most of the syntactic constraints ('island constraints') on LDD have shown less crosslinguistic variation and more cross-construction variation than previously thought. Corpus and experimental data have also shown elliptical clauses to be more flexible than expected under deletion-under-identity theories (Poppels, Till. 2022. Explaining ellipsis without identity. The Linguistic Review 39. 341–400). These are challenges for most syntactic theories, which call for taking discourse factors more seriously into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a discussion of some of the challenges in using statistical methods to investigate the morphology-syntax distinction cross-linguistically. The paper is structured around three problems related to the morphology-syntax distinction: (i) the boundary strength problem; (ii) the composition problem; (iii) the architectural problem. The boundary strength problem refers to the possibility that languages vary in terms of how distinct morphology and syntax are or the degree to which morphology is autonomous. The composition problem refers to the possibility that languages vary in terms of how they distinguish morphology and syntax: what types of properties distinguish the two systems. The architecture problem refers to the possibility that languages vary in terms of whether a global distinction between morphology and syntax is motivated at all and the possibility that languages might partition phenomena in different ways. This paper is concerned with providing an overarching review of the methodological problems involved in addressing these three issues. We illustrate the problems using three statistical methods: correlation matrices, random forests with different choices for the dependent variable, and hierarchical clustering with validation techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the behaviors of tag questions in Chinese and proposes a unifying analysis involving empty CP/DP pro-forms and predication. It is found that there are universally two types of Tag questions – (i) the invariable type and (ii) the (modal) verbal type, which correspond to the question-types in Chinese syntax. Previous research by Culivocer (1992. English tag questions in Universal Grammar. Lingua 88. 193–226) analyzed English tag questions as a pro-IP structure that is bound by a previous sentence. However, in Chinese, two types of tag questions include both A-not-A form and particle form. Furthermore, both the two kinds of tag questions display syntactic predication between the tag and an empty subject pro. An abbreviated "yes-no question" is attached to empty CP/DP constituents in these constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the linguistic functions of the syncretic particle ʕaad in Jordanian Arabic. It particularly examines the repetitive, evidential, and evaluative functions of ʕaad, and attempts to make some speculations on the source from which this particle could have been originated. Moreover, it explores the syntactic function of each ʕaad, arguing that one ʕaad is an utterance-oriented repetitive particle, while the other two are mood particles, with one expressing evidential mood but the other evaluative mood. It will also be shown that the three particles are syntactically functional heads encoding different grammatical and pragmatic meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper explores the nexus of coordination and referential dependencies, focusing on sentences such as 'Max and Lucie talked about him', in which it is hardly possible for Max and him to be co-valued. Previous accounts claim that such referential dependencies are in fact possible on a collective reading. It will be demonstrated here, however, that informants consistently judge the co-valued reading in such cases to be either strongly marginal or unavailable, regardless of whether a collective or distributive reading obtains. It is claimed that the manner in which referential dependencies interact with coordinate structures can be addressed insightfully in terms of 'predicate-valent' structures (as opposed to 'predicate-argument structures'). A constraint in this regard will be proposed: the 'Conjunct Referential Dependency Constraint' (CRDC). The CRDC is couched in a Dependency Grammar (DG) approach to syntax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German is a V2 language, i.e., a declarative clause has the finite verb in the position immediately after the first constituent. Traditionally, this order is derived by raising the verb to C and putting a single constituent into the so-called pre-field. Arguably, there are three options to fill the first position: (i) topicalization (A'-movement), (ii) formal movement, which raises the highest constituent in the ongoing derivation (A-movement), or (iii) merging a constituent which is only legitimate there (base-generation). Theoretically, any major constituent can occupy the pre-field. However, it has been observed that certain expressions cannot appear there. In its narrower focus, the paper argues that there are more pre-field-phobic expressions than standardly assumed, and that these expressions, although at first glance heterogeneous, fall into two classes. One can be defined structurally and is considered in the second part of this paper; the other class can be captured in terms of meaning and comprises a specific type of expressive adverbial (discussed in the first and main part). The paper's message in a broader sense is that syntax restricts the occurrence of expressive expressions. It is shown that the sentence-initial position in German does not allow material which is exclusively use-conditional in the sense of expressive meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work on structure building and mapping in Minimalist syntax makes explicit reference to workspaces; however, it is still an underexplored area. This paper is an attempt to (a) analyse the notion of 'workspace' as used in current Minimalist syntax and (b) provide a definition of 'syntactic workspace' that can help us capture interesting empirical phenomena. In doing this, we confront set-theoretic and graph-theoretic approaches to syntactic structure in terms of the operations that can affect syntactic objects and how their properties are related to the definition of workspace. We analyse the consequences of conceptualising 'syntax' as a set of operations that affect local regions of the workspace, defining directed graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates that narrow foci and wh-phrases, even in a language where they have (nearly-)identical surface distributions, do not have the same syntax – and, as such, are not a uniform category. Specifically, it shows that foci and wh-phrases in Georgian appear immediately preverbally but are derived differently. The evidence comes from standard syntactic tests and language-specific ones: I show that, in Georgian, neg-words can serve as a tool for determining the structural positions of other constituents, and foci and wh-phrases have different distributional properties with respect to neg-words. Based on this, I demonstrate that wh-phrases in Georgian undergo A-bar movement to the specifier of a dedicated projection, accompanied by verb raising. Preverbal foci remain in situ, while the material intervening between the narrow focus and the verb undergoes displacement. This demonstrates that what looks like unified preverbal placement of foci and wh-phrases corresponds to the outcomes of two independent syntactic processes. Additional support for this approach is provided by the analysis of the distribution of postverbal foci, also allowed in Georgian. The Georgian facts, I argue, support the hypothesis that syntactic/semantic notions (e.g., [+Q]) are encoded as syntactic features that drive movement. On the other hand, purely information-structural notions (e.g., semantically non-exhaustive focus) are not encoded syntactically, and, as such, cannot trigger syntactic movement – but can impose their own syntax-prosody mapping requirements onto the syntactic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most significant results in syntax has been a deep empirical and, to some degree, theoretical understanding of the argument/adjunct distinction, which underlies a range of superficially disparate phenomena. Therefore, any phenomenon that seems to challenge the argument/adjunct distinction merits careful examination. This paper investigates just such a phenomenon: proleptic PPs. Previous claims about the argument/adjunct status of proleptic PPs are contradictory and mostly unsubstantiated. The paper subjects proleptic PPs to argument/adjunct diagnostics and shows that they unambiguously pattern as arguments: they cannot iterate, survive do so–replacement, or be stranded under vP-pseudoclefting; reconstruct for Condition C under vP-preposing; and are L-selected. They also pattern as arguments on a novel argument/adjunct diagnostic developed here, selectional switch: if adding XP to a structure changes the selectional interactions between a head Y and some ZP ≠ XP, then XP is an argument. Finally, the paper considers counterarguments to the view it defends, showing that they are unsuccessful or irrelevant. Thus, even XPs whose argument/adjunct status initially seems murky can turn out on closer scrutiny to pattern unambiguously as one or the other, supporting the traditional but not uncontested view that the argument/adjunct distinction runs deep, and suggesting that it may be categorical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the passive voice in Ugaritic and Biblical Hebrew from a historical-linguistic perspective. It emphasizes that Ugaritic and Hebrew are closely related and share a continuous written tradition. The investigation of linguistic changes in Biblical Hebrew compared to Ugaritic allows for a better understanding of the historical syntax of Northwest Semitic languages. As a case study, the expressions of the passive voice in the Qal-Passive and Niphal are examined. The analysis shows that studying the development in Ugaritic expands the understanding of the historical syntax of ancient Northwest Semitic languages. [Extracted from the article]

The interest in morphology and its interaction with the other grammatical components has increased in the last twenty years, with new approaches coming into stage so as to get more accurate analyses of the processes involved in morphological construal. This special issue is a valuable contribution to this field of study. It gathers a selection of five papers from the Morphology and Syntax workshop (University of Girona, July 2017) which, on the basis of Romance and Latin phenomena, discuss word structure and its decomposition into hierarchies of features. Even though the papers share a compositional view of lexical items, they adopt different formal theoretical approaches to the lexicon-syntax interface, thus showing the benefit of bearing in mind the possibilities that each framework provides. This introductory paper serves as a guide for the readers of this special collection and offers an overview of the topics dealt with in each contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

4 Subregular linguistics for empirical analysis The previous two sections show that subregular linguistics is a much more empirical enterprise than is common for work rooted in formal grammar. Avcu & Rhodes discuss how formal grammar in general and subregular linguistics in particular enable researchers to connect the findings of theoretical linguistics to questions of psycho- and neurolinguistics, for example via artificial language learning experiments. In my target paper I Subregular linguistics: Bridging theoretical linguistics and formal grammar i I argued that theoretical linguistics and formal grammar, despite major differences in methodology, have a lot to offer to each other, and that the recently emerged subfield of I subregular linguistics i provides a conduit for knowledge transfer between the two. At the very heart of subregular linguistics as an empirical enterprise at the intersection of theoretical linguistics and formal grammar are two claims. A lot more could be said here about specific methodological points: why using the term I stipulative i (Chaves & Putnam p. 222) is a category mistake when talking about formal complexity results, how subregular linguistics engages with I-language and not E-language ([8]), how formal grammar has ways to quantify the trade-off between expressive adequacy and descriptive elegance ([38]), or why subregular linguistics would be an insightful enterprise even if some patterns may not be subregular at all. [Extracted from the article]

If so, not only the reflexive possessive I swój i "self's" encodes the antecedent/dependent relation; it is dedicated as a spell-out form of this relation only when the antecedent is nominative (so linked to the position of [spec, TP] in syntax (see (9): I Jan i SB 1 sb vs. I swoje i SB 1 sb "self's"). Yet as soon as the antecedent of the dependent is not marked for nominative, the pronominal possessive assumes the role of the correct PF-relevant spell-out form for a local antecedent/dependent relationship (as in (9): I Marii i SB 2,DAT sb vs. I jej i SB 2 sb "her") and (20): I Jana i SB 1 sb vs. I jego i SB 1 sb "his" and I Piotra i SB 2 sb vs. I jego i SB 2 sb "his"). In (i-ii) the verb (T) agrees with a nominative object, while its sub-constituent is bound by a dative antecedent: (i) Henni thykir bródr sinn/*hennar leidinlegar. she SB DAT sb thinks brother SB NOM sb self's/her boring "She finds her brother boring". I shall focus on two issues in this brief commentary paper: the OVS orders available in Slavic and unavailable in typical SVO languages and consequences of object scrambling for the phenomenon of QR in OV and T3 languages. [Extracted from the article]

This paper revisits the issue of verb raising in two closely related languages, namely Angolan Portuguese (AP) and Mozambican Portuguese (MP). Cinque's (cartographic) hierarchy of adverbs is used to examine microvariation in these two varieties of Portuguese. The empirical data, gathered through experiments on acceptability rating tasks (to detect the position of the V(erb) in relation to adverbs) and cloze tests (to diagnose the adverbial classes which can be recovered by the elliptical VP), have been collected among university students in Luanda and Maputo, the capitals of Angola and Mozambique, respectively. The cutting points within the functional hierarchy where the V goes, be it mandatorily or optionally, are different in the two languages. In AP, the verb must raise past the frustrative aspect adverb (em vão/à toa 'in vain'), while in MP the verb must raise to the left of the singular completive adverb (tudo 'everything'). The main verb cannot raise past the AspTerminative adverb (já não/não mais 'no longer') in MP. In AP, it can optionally raise over the highest projection in the inflectional domain. Such a difference may explain the recovery of high adverbs in VP-ellipsis structures, only possible in AP. The corollary of the inter-linguistic study developed for Comparative Syntax is the adequacy of the cartographic démarche when it comes to establishment of strict boundaries in the study of microvariation among closely related grammars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper on rhythm is an adaptation of the semiotic research on rhythm in versified language presented as one of the seven types of poetic iconicity in Chapter 5 of The Communicative Mind: A Linguistic Exploration of Conceptual Integration and Meaning Construction (L. Brandt 2013) entitled "Effects of poetic enunciation: Seven types of iconicity". Defined by the linebreak, poetic language use engenders distinctive interpretive affordances, some of which manifest themselves as emphatically iconic sign relations contributing to the expressive whole of a text. In "Effects of poetic enunciation", I explore syntactic, semantic, phonetic, rhythmic and rhetorical aspects of the phenomenon of semiotic iconicity, and its counterpart aniconicity, in language characterized by an intentionally (line)broken syntax and contribute a systematic account of the different types of semiotic iconicity relations, understood as figural or diagrammatic similarity relations – or, conversely, potent dissimilarity relations, i.e. aniconicity – between expressive means and semantic content. Rhythmic iconicity is the fifth type of iconicity in this typology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the distinct functions associated with the copula morpheme and their distribution across Sinitic languages. Based on fieldwork on five Sinitic languages, an empirical generalization will be presented regarding the scope and variation of copular multifunctionality. Specifically, language-specific variation is witnessed in topic and conditional marking as well as verum marking. Conversely, it is found that Sinitic languages converge on employing the copula in constructions expressing phrasal and clausal level focus. The paper further explores whether these copular constructions should receive a uniform syntax, or should be conceived of as having a set of underlaid heterogeneous structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue against a purely semantic account of the Unique Path Constraint (Goldberg, Adele. 1991. It can't go down the chimney up: Paths and the English resultative. In Proceedings of the seventeenth annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 368–378.), i.e., the constraint that there can only be one result state in a single clause, and in favor of a syntactic restriction regarding event structure. We propose, following Mateu, Jaume & Víctor Acedo-Matellán. 2012. The manner/result complementarity revisited: A syntactic approach. In M. Cristina Cuervo & Yves Roberge (eds.), The end of argument structure? Syntax and semantics, 209–228. New York: Academic Press, that structurally there can only be one result predicate per clause since the little v head selects for one result predicate as its complement. In order to make our claim, we provide novel data that violate the Unique Path Constraint defined as a semantic constraint. Further, we analyze examples that at first blush pose a problem for the present account as they appear to involve two result phrases, e.g., shot him dead off the horse. We argue, however, that the second result phrase is not syntactically a result, but rather constitutes a case of what Acedo-Matellán, Víctor, Josep Ausensi, Josep Maria Fontana & Cristina Real-Puigdollers. forthcoming. Old Spanish resultatives as low depictives. In Chad L. Howe, Timothy Gupton, Margaret Renwick & Pilar Chamorro (eds.), Open romance linguistics 1. Selected papers from the 49th linguistic symposium on romance languages. Berlin: Language Science Press have called low depictives, which join the syntactic derivation through a low applicative head. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main discussions about the interaction between morphology and syntax revolves around the richness or poverty of features and wherever this richness/poverty is found either in the syntactic structure or the lexical items. A phenomenon subject to this debate has been syncretism, especially in theories that assume late insertion such as Distributed Morphology. This paper delves into the syncretism observed between the first person plural and the third person in the clitic domain in some Spanish dialects. Our analysis will lead to a revision of the distribution of person features and their relationship with plural number, while at the same time it will shed light on other morphological alternations displayed in Spanish dialects; that is, subject-verb unagreement and mesoclisis in imperatives. In order to explain the behavior of the data under discussion, I propose that lexical items are specified for all the relevant features at the moment of insertion, although the values of these features can be neutralized. I argue that the distribution proposed allows for some fundamental generalizations about the vocabulary inventories in Spanish varieties, and shows that the variation pattern exhibits an *ABA effect, i.e., only contiguous cells in a paradigm are syncretic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I offer a syntactic approach to the formation of complex denominal verbs in Latin. Two basic types of prefixed locative denominal verbs can be distinguished in this language: location ones "agglutinate" a PP expressing location, whereas locatum ones contain a noun expressing the locatum object. Assuming a syntactic distinction between Incorporation and Conflation in denominal verb formation, I claim that prefixed location verbs are formed via Incorporation (i.e. Internal Merge), whereas prefixed locatum verbs are formed via Conflation (i.e. External Merge). Unprefixed locative verbs can only be interpreted as locatum predicates, but unlike prefixed locatum verbs, they are analyzed as involving a possessive relation and as being formed via incorporation. The present approach also provides an explanation of why Romance locatum verbs, unlike location ones, are not necessarily prefixed. It is also claimed that unprefixed and prefixed locatum verbs in Romance are formed via incorporation rather than via conflation, its reason being related to the typological shift from the presence of a typical conflation pattern in satellite-framed Latin to a lack of it in verb-framed Romance languages. Finally, I show that Latin prefixed denominal verbs and prefixed deadjectival ones are all telic and project a ResultP in syntax. In contrast, this projection can be argued to be absent from unprefixed denominal and deadjectival verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the position of object and adverbial clitic pronouns in coordinated affirmative verb-first declaratives introduced by e(t) "and" in Old Occitan and early Old French, a context in which clitics are variably preverbal or postverbal. An empirical study reveals that this variation is principled and reflects semantico-discursive properties in the same way in these two related and grammatically similar medieval Gallo-Romance varieties. On a theoretical level, I posit that preverbal clitics occur when conjunction occurs at the TP level, and postverbal clitics occur when conjunction occurs at the CP level, and that the choice of clause structure (TP vs. CP) for second conjunct clauses depends on illocutionary force, which in turn depends on discourse coherence relations and the semantics of verba dicendi (verbs of utterance). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first goal of this paper is to give a description of the article-like uses of the Croatian numeral jedan 'one', the indefinite determiner neki 'some' and the demonstrative determiner taj 'this' within the theoretical framework of Cognitive Grammar. This description places these constructions along a cognitively grounded definiteness hierarchy spanning from the demonstrative determiner taj (definite) on one side to jedan (indefinite specific) and neki (indefinite non-specific) on the other side. The second goal of the paper is to give a description of the constructions combining the article-like demonstrative determiner taj with the article-like numeral jedan and the article-like indefinite determiner neki, i.e. taj jedan and taj neki, lit. 'this some/this one'. The functions and usage profiles of these constructions are carefully differentiated and, in order to explain the data obtained, a richer articulation of the cognitively grounded definiteness hierarchy is put forth. A new position is proposed, existing between definiteness and specific indefiniteness, to account for entities that are contextually defined as indefinite by taj jedan and taj neki. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews inclusory constructions and pronouns in the Mande language family and proposes a diachronic account of their development. Inclusory constructions, which are found in several Mande languages, are a type of conjunction strategy where the whole set of participants – the superset – and a subset of participants are expressed, as in Dan-Gwetaa yāā Gbȁtȍ 'Gbato and I', lit. 'we Gbato'. In a number of Southern and Southwestern Mande languages, inclusory constructions are typologically unique, as they feature a separate series of inclusory pronouns, which are used exclusively in this construction. The paper argues that these inclusory pronouns are a Southwestern Mande innovation, which spread to other Mande languages through contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the relation between focus marking and focus interpretation in Akan (Kwa), Ga (Kwa), and Ngamo (West Chadic). In all three languages, there is a special morphosyntactically marked focus/background construction, as well as morphosyntactically unmarked focus. We present data stemming from original fieldwork investigating whether marked focus/background constructions in these three languages also have additional interpretative effects apart from standard focus interpretation. Crosslinguistically, different additional inferences have been found for marked focus constructions, e.g. contrast (e.g. Vallduví, Enric & Maria Vilkuna. 1997. On rheme and kontrast. In Peter Culicover & Louise McNally (eds.), The limits of syntax (Syntax and semantics 29), 79–108. New York: Academic Press; Hartmann, Katharina & Malte Zimmermann. 2007b. In place – Out of place: Focus in Hausa. In Kerstin Schwabe & Susanne Winkler (eds.), On information structure, meaning and form, 365–403. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.; Destruel, Emilie & Leah Velleman. 2014. Refining contrast: Empirical evidence from the English it-cleft. In Christopher Piñón (ed.), Empirical issues in syntax and semantics 10, 197–214. Paris: Colloque de syntaxe et sémantique à Paris (CSSP). http://www.cssp.cnrs.fr/eiss10/), exhaustivity (e.g. É. Kiss, Katalin. 1998. Identificational focus versus information focus. Language 74(2). 245–273.; Hartmann, Katharina & Malte Zimmermann. 2007a. Exhaustivity marking in Hausa: A re-evaluation of the particle nee/cee. In Enoch O. Aboh, Katharina Hartmann & Malte Zimmermann (eds.), Focus strategies in African languages: The interaction of focus and grammar in Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic (Trends in Linguistics 191), 241–263. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.), and existence (e.g. Rooth, Mats. 1999. Association with focus or association with presupposition? In Peter Bosch & Rob van der Sandt (eds.), Focus: Linguistic, cognitive, and computational perspectives, 232–244. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.; von Fintel, Kai & Lisa Matthewson. 2008. Universals in semantics. The Linguistic Review 25(1–2). 139–201). This paper investigates these three inferences. In Akan and Ga, the marked focus constructions are found to be contrastive, while in Ngamo, no effect of contrast was found. We also show that marked focus constructions in Ga and Akan trigger exhaustivity and existence presuppositions, while the marked construction in Ngamo merely gives rise to an exhaustive conversational implicature and does not trigger an existence presupposition. Instead, the marked construction in Ngamo merely indicates salience of the backgrounded part via a morphological background marker related to the definite determiner (Schuh, Russell G. 2005. Yobe state, Nigeria as a linguistic area. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 31(2). 77–94; Güldemann, Tom. 2016. Maximal backgrounding=focus without (necessary) focus encoding. Studies in Language 40(3). 551–590). The paper thus contributes to the understanding of the semantics of marked focus constructions across languages and points to the crosslinguistic variation in expressing and interpreting marked focus/background constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The syntactic and semantic properties of the into-causative construction, involving the pattern 'V NP into V-ing', has been studied in some detail, but its historical development has received less attention. This paper looks at the historical shifts in the construction with much more representative and robust corpora than have been used for previous studies. Based on nearly 11,440 tokens from more than 950 million words of text, the paper considers several important changes in the lexical, syntactic, and semantic properties of the construction. The study also establishes the value of large, diverse historical corpora and their role in researching syntactic and semantic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the functions of the utterance-final particle -canha in modern spoken Korean. Analyzing naturally occurring spontaneous conversational data, I argue that its basic function is to explicitly mark the speaker’s belief of shared knowledge. This study suggests that -canha functions as a very useful device in managing the information flow in spontaneous conversation by enabling speakers to constantly signal other interlocutors and build common ground. This basic information-managing function can not only be used in discourse strategies (a pre-sequence and as a verbal filler), but can also be extended to express politeness and impoliteness, theticity, and mirativity. In sum, the functions of -canha discussed in this paper suggest that it is a highly intersubjective marker, in that it explicitly indicates the speaker’s awareness of and attention to the hearer’s information status and changes therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is a systematic, large-scale corpus study of the varying position of the Old English adnominal genitive. Particular focus is put on intertextual variation and the potential influence of Latin, which is analysed alongside such intra-linguistic factors as syntactic weight and the animacy of the referent. The model of logistic regression adopted helps address a key issue in studies on genitive placement, namely, if and how multiple variables exert combined impact on the choice of the variant. The paper highlights the importance of a bottom-to-top approach in studies of older English syntax, as global tendencies turn out to be the corollary of significantly different contributions on the level of individual texts, whose translation status (original composition or translation) is also of importance to the variation studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines disjunctive clauses marked with o… o ‘either… or’ in Spanish with a view to demonstrating that, in contrast to conventional analyses, o… o-clauses are actually cosubordinate: o… o-clauses are [+dependent, ‒embedded], they generally share clausal operators and they often denote an episode or a sequence of events showing some sort of continuity in space as well as participants. To this end, this paper will describe subordinate and coordinate clauses in accordance with several tests and will go on to outline the properties of o… o-clauses, focusing in particular on their similarities and differences with respect to coordinate and subordinate clauses. Finally, it will describe why o… o-clauses would be better classified as examples of clausal cosubordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that there is no narrow syntax, and that the language faculty merely consists of the semantic and phonological components, and linking between these and other systems. It follows as a logical consequence from the latest works of Chomsky (2007 et seq.) and Hauser et al. (2002) who argue that narrow syntax consists of as few features as possible, ideally only recursive embedding and mapping to the interfaces, and Nordström (2014) who shows that the language faculty cannot involve recursive embedding if one wants it to be able to handle discrete infinity, but must merely be a discrete combinatorial system. As such, it shares features with many other mental processes, such as tool making, and, this paper argues, should not be seen as a separate module. The discrete combinatorial processes, as argued here, take place in the semantic and phonological components, which are linked by an axonal pathway. The paper further shows that other potential features of narrow syntax, namely word order, agreement and case (Pinker and Jackendoff 2005; Chomsky 2000 et seq.) can also perfectly well be located within the semantic and phonological components, dispensing with so-called uninterpretable features and leading to the ultimate conclusion that there is no narrow syntax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of the interaction between syntax and semantics in determining the mixed agreement patterns shown by Spanish partitive constructions when they appear as subjects. These patterns follow straightforwardly from the dual nature of nominal features (concord and index features organized in bundles) and from the assumption that Agree is a feature-valuation process in which the unvalued features of a Probe seek matching parallel valued features of a Goal under locality constraints and a maximization principle. After discussing previous approaches and justifying our syntactic analysis, we demonstrate that interaction for agreement between syntax and semantics is articulated via the nominal index features of the head nouns in the partitive structure, so singular and plural agreement, linked to the valuation/non-valuation of the number index feature, correlates with a group/atomic entity vs. a plurality/distributive reading, respectively, the meaning of the verbal predicate also being relevant. The empirical basis for this analysis is provided by a corpus search whose results are carefully described in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a hitherto undiscussed type of tough-construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Our starting point is the observation that the tough-adjective in this construction invariably displays nominative masculine singular morphology, a pattern of 'default' agreement which does not seem to occur elsewhere in the grammar of MSA. At a semantic level, the relevant adjective is argued to form a complex predicate with a deverbal nominalization that acts as its complement: together, these two elements indirectly modify the subject noun phrase. To explain the default agreement pattern, we propose that MSA tough-constructions involve two distinct subjects, viz. a phonologically null expletive subject which controls agreement on the tough-adjective, and a Broad Subject which acts as the semantic subject of the whole construction. We show that there is independent evidence for the existence of both null expletives and Broad Subjects in MSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Merge and proposes a new form of sideward movement (double sideward movement) carried out by a new application of External Merge. Double sideward movement occurs in the following way: given a syntactic object S containing XP and YP, Merge applies to XP and YP, and creates {XP, YP} outside S, thus causing XP and YP to undergo sideward movement at the same time. It is argued that multiple clefts (cleft sentences with multiple phrases in the focus position) in Japanese are derived by double sideward movement of the multiple focus phrases and that this derivation is responsible for certain surprising properties of Japanese multiple clefts, some well known and others newly discovered, including the lack of island effects and the presence and absence of clausemate effects. Other consequences are discussed for the nature of operator movement and scrambling as well as for restrictions on the application of Merge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely acknowledged that polarity sensitivity pertains to the lexical nature of NPI minimizers, phrases denoting a minimal quantity, extent or degree. This paper, however, proposes that so-called 'negative polarity' of Mandarin Chinese minimizers ( yi-CL-N 'one.CL+N' and yidian-N 'one.point N') is not lexically determined, but is facilitated by utilizing the existing lian... dou 'including... all' EVEN construction. Specifically, total negation is decomposed into a scalar operator lian, which evokes a set of order ranked alternatives determined in context, and the maximizing/universal operator dou 'all' that quantifies over the contextual alternatives plus the focused minimizer, which is placed at the end of the scale. The scalar minimizer syntactically scopes over the negation to represent the logic of ∀¬. This paper further distinguishes minimizers from lexical NPI renhe 'any' with respect to (i) scoping out of the negation for the former, (ii) being irrelevant to the non-veridical licensing conditions that otherwise license any and NPI- renhe, (iii) a clausemate relation between dou and negation, and (iv) the lack of intervention effects of strong quantifiers between the minimizers and negation. The study lends further support to the claim that scalar EVEN is construed with minimizers. A comparison of Chinese minimizers with those in Hindi and Japanese has an implication for varieties of coding polarity ranging from purely lexical to syntactical means crosslinguistically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of ellipsis, being a mismatch between form and meaning, has already proven to have consequences for our understanding of language in general, as it has helped us gain insights in other domains of the grammar. This paper focuses on one of these domains, namely the notion of Spell-Out and the theory of phases that has been developed within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Chomsky 2001, Derivation by phase. In Michael Kenstowicz (ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language, 1-52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, and Chomsky 2005, On phases. Ms. MIT). Several authors have been tempted to tie ellipsis to Phase Theory, as ellipsis would be non-pronunciation at PF instead of pronunciation. In other words, ellipsis is the flip coin of Spell-Out, and the two differ only at PF. Although attractive, this proposal will be pointed out to run into empirical problems with regards to extraction possibilities. The data suggest that the difference between ellipsis and non-ellipsis is not simply decided at PF, but in the syntax already. At the same time, however, this paper aims to maintain the intuition behind the link between ellipsis and phases. It explores the chunks of structure that are targeted by both operations as well as their triggers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work on ellipsis has promoted the hypothesis that syntax plays a limited role in the computation of the required isomorphism conditions between elliptical clauses and their antecedents. For example, Merchant (2008, An asymmetry in voice mismatches in VP-ellipsis and pseudogapping. Linguistic Inquiry 39. 169-179; 2010, Vocal and argumentative oppositions. Paper presented at the Workshop on Morphological Voice and Its Grammatical Interfaces: Theoretical Modeling and Psycholinguistic Validation. University of Vienna, June 25-27; 2013, Voice and ellipsis. Linguistic Inquiry 44(1). 77-108) shows the relevance of the syntactic heads related to voice and argument structure. Focusing on sluicing, Chung (2013, Syntactic identity in sluicing: How much, and why. Linguistic Inquiry 44(1). 1-44) adds Case-valuing heads to the list and Takita (2013, Strengthening the role of case in ellipsis. Paper presented at the Identity in Ellipsis Conference, Leiden University, September 20-21) argues that Case is the only necessary syntactic information. This article focuses on sluicing and provides further support for the role of syntax in ellipsis isomorphism conditions. However, it shows that Case cannot be a distinct primitive component in isomorphism computation since grammatical sentences will be wrongly predicted to be ungrammatical and vice versa. The analysis of cross-linguistic data provides evidence that a syntactic requirement, labeled the Remnant Condition, is indeed necessary. This condition is based on the general notion of unrecoverable information and on the proposed concept of Id(entity)-source, a restricted version of the sluiced clause, the derivation of which has to comply with all the required (syntactic and non-syntactic) identity conditions and, crucially, must be sensitive to the morphosyntactic information present both in the antecedent clause and in the remnant. The goal of the Remnant Condition is to ensure the correct syntactic integration of the remnant phrase in the Id-source. Sluicing facts related to Case, voice and argument structure, merging and sprouting are captured by a combination of the Remnant Condition, general principles of grammar and nonsluicing-related syntactic principles internal to the different languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to establish the hierarchy of 'finiteness' in Polish based on 'morphological' considerations relating to syncretism and alternations, which were taken to be the interface between the lexicon and syntax. The paper focuses on parasitic stem syncretism within the paradigm of eight verb forms in Polish. The eight forms exhibit numerous stem syncretism patterns where one stem forms a 'parasitic' base for the formation of another verb. The major point is to argue for a scale of degrees of finiteness rather than any categorical two-way distinction between finite and non-finite forms. The paper suggests various new topics for further research, e. g. how person hierarchy relates to the finiteness hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The syntactic literature on idioms contains some proposals that are surprising from a compositional perspective. For example, there are proposals that, in the case of verb-object idioms, the verb combines directly with the noun inside its DP complement, and the determiner is introduced higher up in the syntactic structure, or is late-adjoined. This seems to violate compositionality insofar as it is generally assumed that the semantic role of the determiner is to convert a noun to the appropriate semantic type to serve as the argument to the function denoted by the verb. In this paper, we establish a connection between this line of analysis and lines of work in semantics that have developed outside of the domain of idioms, particularly work on incorporation and work that combines formal and distributional semantic modelling. This semantic work separates the composition of descriptive content from that of discourse referent introducing material; our proposal shows that this separation offers a particularly promising way to handle the compositional difficulties posed by idioms, including certain patterns of variation in intervening determiners and modifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of the questions embedded under predicates normally selecting for propositions like know (unselected embedded questions UEQ). This problem was handled in Adger and Quer (Adger, David & Josep Quer. 2001. The syntax and semantics of unselected embedded questions. Language 77. 107–133) and Öhl (Öhl, Peter. 2007. Unselected embedded interrogatives in German and English : S-selection as dependency formation. Linguistische Berichte 212. 403–438). Both articles notice a difference between yes/no- and wh-questions. The distribution of the latter seems to be less restricted. However data from Classical Greek shed new light on the matter. Classical Greek uses two sets of wh-items in what looks like embedded questions (h- and t-). It is shown that h-clauses do not denote questions but propositions. The selection mismatch arises with t-clauses. They denote questions and have the same distribution as yes/no-questions. Moreover Classical Greek provides new evidence in favor of 1) the sensitivity of the UEQ to the polarity of the environment, building on Giannakidou's (Giannakidou, Anastasia. 1998. Polarity sensitivity as (non) veridical dependency. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins) definition of nonveridicality; 2) the presence of a determiner on top of the UEQ as proposed in Adger and Quer (2001). The article argues nevertheless that the sensitivity is not due to the determiner, but to an operator going along with UEQs. It is shown that the determiner is a type-shifter turning the question into a proposition and thus repairing the apparent selection mismatch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores fronted verb phrases in German, drawing attention to the difference between passive/unaccusative VPs and fronted agentive vPs. While both kinds of verb phrases have been discussed in the literature as being frontable, it has been largely overlooked that fronted vPs typically come with a certain kind of post-fronting context and a rise-fall or bridge-contour intonation, which is characteristic of I-topicalization. We observe that, unlike VPs, agentive vPs essentially need to be I-topics, with a high tone at the right edge of the fronted domain, in order to be frontable. Given the special context required for fronted vPs, the situation described by the vP does not contain new information but must already have been under discussion and is now being commented on. We present the results of two experimental studies and appeal to the thetic/categorical distinction to offer a new angle on the definiteness effect that has been associated with fronted verb phrases. We propose that a subject-containing fronted vP is associated with a thetic rather than the default categorical judgment, which means that the fronted subject and predicate form only one information-structural unit (a topic) rather than two (topic and comment). Contributing to the literature on theticity, we observe that, unlike in non-fronting thetic statements, the subject in fronted vPs cannot be a true definite. We attribute this to clashing intonation restrictions on theticity in non-fronting constructions versus theticity in just the fronted portion of a sentence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many languages, expressions of the type 'x said: "p"', 'x said that p' or 'allegedly, p' share properties with common syntactic types such as constructions with subordination, paratactic constructions, and constructions with sentence-level adverbs. On closer examination, however, they often turn out to be atypical members of these syntactic classes. In this paper we argue that a more coherent picture emerges if we analyse these expressions as a dedicated syntactic domain in itself, which we refer to as 'reported speech'. Based on typological observations we argue for the idiosyncrasy of reported speech as a syntactic class. The article concludes with a proposal for a cross-linguistic characterisation that aims at capturing this broadly conceived domain of reported speech with a single semantic definition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studying the effect of syntax and focus on prosodic phrasing, the main issue of investigation has been to explain and predict the location of a prosodic boundary, and not much attention has been given to the nature of prosodic phrasing. In this paper, we offer evidence from intonation patterns of utterances that prosodic phrasing can be formed differently phonologically and phonetically due to its function of marking syntactic structure vs. focus (prominence) in Yanbian Korean, a lexical pitch accent dialect of Korean spoken in the northeastern part of China, just above North Korea. We show that the location of a H tone in syntax-marking Accentual Phrase (AP) is determined by the type of syntactic head, noun or verb (a VP is marked by an AP-initial H while an NP is marked by an AP-final H), while prominence-marking accentual phrasing is cued by AP-initial H. The difference in prosodic phrasing due to its dual function in Yanbian Korean is compared with that of Seoul Korean, and a prediction is made on the possibility of finding such difference in other languages based on the prosodic typology proposed in (Jun, Sun-Ah. 2014b. Prosodic typology: by prominence type, word prosody, and macro-rhythm. In Sun-Ah Jun (ed.), Prosodic Typology II: The Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing. 520–539. Oxford: Oxford University Press). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider the grammaticalization of subject agreement adducing first-hand synchronic evidence from presentational VS constructions in Italo-Romance dialects. While the existing literature has placed emphasis on the pragmatic properties of the controller, we explore its semantic properties. We argue that variation in subject agreement can only be fully captured with reference to an independently established semantic scale of subjecthood that is based on the position of arguments in semantic representation, and hence on their lexical entailments. Unaffected actor is the default controller in accusative alignment. The patterns of dialect microvariation arise, in our analysis, from variation in macrorole assignment in presentational focus. Our proposal formalizes at the discourse-semantics-syntax interface the idea that, in presentational VS constructions, the core argument S may be treated as part of the predicate, thus failing to control grammatical subject agreement. This happens in presentational focus because the predication is about an implicit topic. The latter can trigger a type of pronominal agreement that is comparable to Bresnan and Mchombo's (Bresnan, Joan & Sam A. Mchombo. 1987. Topic, pronoun and agreement in Chichewa. Language 63. 741–782) anaphoric agreement. This study provides robust arguments in support of an understanding of subject agreement as the grammaticalization of semantic-relation contrasts, as well as pragmatic-role distinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many Present-Day Germanic languages, reflexes of Proto-Germanic *nu have developed pragmatic and grammatical uses: in such uses, the earlier, lexical meaning of the word ("now", "presently") has been weakened or lost while new meanings have appeared. Pragmatic (especially connective) uses of nu have been identified in several ancient Germanic languages, but in such corpora, it can be difficult to distinguish between a genuine discourse marker and mere pragmatic inferences based on the lexical meaning of a given word. Such is certainly the case for Old Saxon, where nu seems to be used as a discourse marker in some cases, but where it is hard to determine whether such uses ever truly supplant nu's temporal meaning. This paper systematically examines nu's patterns of co-occurrence to determine whether nu is showing any sign of having undergone semantic bleaching. Examination of the data shows no evidence of semantic bleaching. There is a very strong connection between nu and markers referring to the moment of utterance or the situation of utterance more generally. Conversely, there are no cases of co-occurrence with markers whose meaning is strictly incompatible with nu's lexical meaning and few instances of co-occurrence with markers expressing distance (temporal or otherwise) from the situation of utterance. Some patterns hint at the possibility of pragmatic uses of nu having already started to conventionalize to a limited extent, but such uses seem to have co-existed with nu's temporal meaning without ever supplanting it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper critically reviews a recent volume on Diachronic Construction Grammar. It is argued that a more convincing case for the diachronic construction grammar approach could have been made by more explicitly comparing it to other approaches to historical linguistics, and that a number of central notions, such as "constructionalization", are not applied consistently throughout the volume. In addition, an analysis of the constructionalization of English begoing to presented in the volume is examined and shown not to be supported by the Early Modern English data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with lexicalisation of focus particles -pat and imma in Hittite, i.e. the use of the particles as word building means of deriving different classes of indefinite pronouns. Whereas the particles are shown to lexicalize differently (imma is a marker of free choice indefinite pronouns and -pat occurs disproportionately often with demonstrative pronouns), there is an overlap of their lexicalisation in the free choice sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the influence of colloquial syntax on the spontaneous non-prepared media discourse of professional presenters. It presents a syntactic analysis of radio program broadcasts on two Maribor radio stations, i.e. the commercial station Radio City and the Slovene public station Radio Maribor. Specifically, the paper focuses on typical syntactic colloquial features, i.e. incomplete syntactic patterns, interruptions, repetitions and corrections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the grammaticalization of body-part nouns into reflexives have often formulated cross-linguistic generalizations, but have mostly failed to provide detailed analyses of similar developments attested in unrelated languages. As a consequence, valuable insights have sometimes been overlooked. The purpose of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, it identifies a higher number of languages using "head"-reflexives than previous accounts. On the other hand, its purpose is to analyze the diachronic evolution of nouns denoting "head" into reflexive markers in three unrelated language groups (Basque, Berber and Kartvelian) and to show how "head"-reflexives synchronically and diachronically interact with secondary reflexivization strategies, such as detransitivization. The results suggest that the areal factor has a considerable impact on the emergence of "head"-reflexives; they also show that none of the languages analyzed reflects all grammaticalization stages put forward in the literature. Accordingly, it is argued that the grammaticalization stages are optional, and that the correlation between formal and semantic change is not obligatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One peculiarity of Korean morphosyntax is the existence of a large set of converbal suffixes. A survey of previous descriptions reveals a lack of consensus in the analysis of these converbs. Too often they have been pressed into a Eurocentric dichotomy of subordination versus coordination, leading to confusion about their typological status. Trying to correct this approach by describing the language on its own terms is therefore the main objective of our paper. We compare the morphosyntactic behavior of four selected suffixes with respect to some relevant criteria for subordination versus coordination, such as the scope of illocutionary operators, shared TAM, subject coreference, constituent order, and the development of dependent verb forms into complex predicates or adpositions. This empirical research feeds back into the theoretical discussion, as it will be shown that the Korean converbs can indeed be described using conventional typological concepts if construed appropriately. Our second objective is therefore to review the criteria involved in describing clause-linkage and to see how relevant terminology can be used more consistently. The conclusion is that the four converb types turn out to be located on a continuum between coordination and subordination, thus constituting an instantiation of syntax-semantics isomorphism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two restrictions regarding agreement with nominative arguments in Icelandic DAT-NOM constructions. The first is the reported asymmetry in intervention effects in mono-clausal versus bi-clausal environments. The second regards the well-known Person Restriction that prohibits agreement with non-3rd person arguments. It is argued that both of these phenomena can be viewed as instances of cumulative constraint interaction, where less important constraints in the grammar 'gang up' to block some higher constraint. In order to account for this, I adopt a model of syntax with both weighted constraints and serial optimization that is known as Serial Harmonic Grammar in the phonological literature. It will be demonstrated that such a system can offer a more principled analysis of the construction-specific nature of the aforementioned phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]