Bücher der Reihe Interface Explorations [IE]

Based on the study of actual language use, this volume adopts a cross-linguistic point of view. It presents results in the field of Information Structure based on research on Italian and Italian dialects, and on further studies on several typologically different languages.

This book addresses a general phenomenon in the European languages: verb second. The articles provide a comprehensive survey of synchronic vs. diachronic developments in the Germanic and Romance languages.New theoretical insights into the interaction of the properties of verbal mood and syntactic structure building lead to hypotheses about the mutual influence of these systems. The diachronic change in the syntax together with changes in the inflectional system show the interdependence between the syntactic and the inflectional component.The fact that the subjunctive can license verb second in dependent clauses reveals further dependencies between these subsystems of grammar. "Fronting finiteness" furthermore constitutes an instance of a main clause phenomenon. Whether "assertion" or "at-issueness" are encoded through this grammatical process will be a matter in the debates discussed in the book. Moreover, information structure appears to be directly related to the fronting of other constituents in front of the finite verb. Questions concerning the interrelations between these various subcomponents of the grammatical system are investigated.

This book develops a theory of the morpheme in the framework of Distributed Morphology. Particular emphasis is devoted to the way in which functional morphemes receive their phonological form post-syntactically, through the operation of Vocabulary Insertion. In addition to looking closely at syncretism, the primary motivation for Vocabulary Insertion, the book examines allomorphy, blocking, and other key topics in the theory of the morpheme.

Tells that the issue of how to detect and define syntactic complexity has been revived. This book contains contributions about the formal complexity of natural language, specific issues of clausal embedding, and syntactic complexity in terms of grammar-external interfaces in the domain of language acquisition.

Investigates interface interpretation within Phase Theory, the stage of syntactic theorizing within the 'Minimalist Program', the generative research enterprise instigated by Noam Chomsky. This book addresses architectural, conceptual, and interpretive issues in the grammar.

It is quite remarkable that, after over a half-century of research in generative grammar, there is still uncertainty and debate surrounding the analysis of preverbal subjects in a number of null-subject languages. The implications of this debate are far-reaching for generative theory: if preverbal subjects are analyzed as non-arguments, it calls into question the proposed universality of the EPP (as in e.g. Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 1998), as well as its associated features and feature-strengths. Galician, spoken in the northwest of Spain, is an under-documented Romance language within the generative paradigm. In this book,the authordetails an experimental program for establishing clausal word order appropriateness and preferences in a variety of information structure contexts, while informing theoretical debate on preverbal subjects. The experimental methodology and information structure assumptions employed create several testable predictions. The statistical data suggest that Galician is a predominantly SVO language and that preverbal subjects behave like canonical subjects, and not CLLD constituents. The empirical data discussed inform the modified model of the preverbal field thatthe authorproposes for Galician, which takes into account a number of recent analyses of Western Iberian Romance clausal phenomena such as the enclisis-proclisis divide, topicalization, focalization, and recomplementation.

This book deals with the interpretation of adverbially quantified sentences containing definite DPs and Free Relatives (FR) Thereby, it concentrates on the origins of Quantificational Variability Effects (QVEs), i.e. readings according to which the respective quantificational adverb seems to quantify over the individuals denoted by the respective DP/FR. QVEs are usually discussed only in connection with singular indefinites and bare plurals. This book therefore provides the first comprehensive account of QVEs with definite DPs and Free Relatives (while also discussing singular indefinites and bare plurals). Presenting new empirical observations and arguments for the assumption that Q-adverbs quantify over situations exclusively, it is also an important contribution to the theoretical debate concerning the quantificational domain of Q-adverbs.. It is of interest to linguists working in formal semantics and the syntax-semantics interface as well as to philosophers of language who are interested in adverbial quantification and situation semantics. Furthermore, it offers an introduction to the core issues of situation semantics and adverbial quantification and is therefore accessible to graduate students interested in these topics.

It surveys work on verb classes, verb-noun similarities, semantic representations, concepts and constructions of polysynthetic languages, research on the processing of inflectional and derivational elements, and new work on inheritance-based network models.

This book investigates the semantics and syntax-semantics interface of measurement constructions, such as (non-)split quantifiers and comparatives. The cross-linguistic investigation reveals that seemingly diverse constructions can be categorized into two classes depending on whether they measure nominal or verbal predicates, and shows that the classification accounts for why certain constructions have certain characteristics concerning distributivity and single-event predicates. Throughout the book, particular emphasis is placed on issues of compositionality.

Explorations in Nominal Inflection is a collection of new articles that focus on nominal inflection markers in different languages. The studies are concerned with the morphological inventories of markers, their syntactic distribution, and, importantly, the interaction between the two. As a result, the contributions shed new light on the morphology/syntax interface, and on the role of morpho-syntactic features in mediating between the two components. Issues that feature prominently throughout are inflection class, case, gender, number, animacy, syncretism, iconicity, agreement, the status of paradigms, the nature of morpho-syntactic features, and the structure of nominal projections. Recurrent analytical tools involve the concepts of competition (optimality, specificity), underspecification, and economy, in various theoretical frameworks.James P. Blevins: Inflection Classes and EconomyBernd Wiese: Categories and Paradigms. On Underspecification in Russian Declension

The left periphery of clausal structures has been a prominent topic of research in generative linguistics during the last decades. Closer examination of its properties unfolds a rich array of perspectives like the status of barriers for extraction and government, the articulation of the topic focus structure, the fixation of wh-scope, the marking of clausal types, the interaction of syntactic structure with inflectional morphology as well as the determination of sentence mood and illocutionary force to mention just a few. The purpose of this book is to collect different and relevant studies in this field and to give a general overview of the various theoretical approaches concerned with morphological, syntactic and semantic properties together with the diachronic development of the left periphery.

This book investigates the distribution and interpretation of Covert Modality. Covert Modality is modality which we interpret but which is not associated with any lexical item in the structure that we are interpreting. This dissertation investigates a class of environments that involves covert modality. Examples of covert modality include wh-infinitival complements, infinitival relative clauses, purpose clauses, the 'have to' construction, and the 'is to' construction (cf. 1): 1a. Tim knows [how to solve the problem]. ("e;Tim knows how one/he could/should solve the problem."e;)1b. Jane found [a book to draw cartoons in] for Sara. ("e;Jane found a book for Sara one could/shoulddraw cartoons in."e;)1c. [The man to fix the sink] is here. ("e;The man whose purpose is to fix the sink is here."e;)1d. Sue went to Torino [to buy a violin]. ("e;Sue went to Torino so that she could buy a violin."e;) 1e. Bill has to reach Philadelphia before noon. ("e;Bill must reach Philadelphia before noon."e;)1f. Will is to leave tomorrow. ("e;Will is scheduled/supposed to leave tomorrow."e;) The interpretation of (1a-f) involves modality; however, there is no lexical item that seems to be the source of the modality. What (1a-f) have in common is that they involve infinitivals. This book addresses the following questions about covert modality: what is the source of this modality, what are its semantic properties, why are some but not all infinitival relatives modal, and why are all infinitival questions modal? The infinitival [+wh] Complementizer is identified as the source of the covert modality. The apparent variability of the force of this modality is related to the particular semantics of this Complementizer. Infinitival relatives that receive a non-modal interpretation are analyzed as being reduced relatives and thus not involving the infinitival [+wh] Complementizer.

This book clarifies - on the basis of mainly Hungarian data - basic issues concerning the category ¿adverb,¿ the function ¿adverbial,¿ and the grammar of adverbial modification. It argues for the PP analysis of adverbials, and claims that they enter the derivation via left- and right-adjunction. Their merge-in position is determined by the interplay of syntactic, semantic, and prosodic factors. The semantically motivated constraints discussed also include a type restriction affecting adverbials semantically incorporated into the verbal predicate, an obligatory focus position for scalar adverbs representing negative values of bidirectional scales, cooccurrence restrictions between verbs and adverbials involving incompatible subevents, etc. The order and interpretation of adverbials in the postverbal domain is shown to be affected by such phonologically motivated constraints as the Law of Growing Constituents, and by intonation phrase restructuring. The shape of the light-headed chain arising in the course of locative PP incorporation is determined by morpho-phonological requirements. The types of adverbs and adverbials analyzed include locatives, temporals, comitatives, epistemic adverbs, adverbs of degree, manner, counting, and frequency, quantificational adverbs, and adverbial participles.

The contributions in this book are a representative cross-section of recent research on verb-particle constructions. The syntactic, semantic, morphological, and psycholinguistic phenomena associated with the constructions in English, Dutch, German, and Swedish are analyzed from the various different theoretical viewpoints.

Puts together theoretical developments in prosodic phonology by some of the leading specialists and presents language particular investigations on the morphosyntax-phonology interface by expert linguists working on diverse languages such as German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Malay, Spanish, European Portuguese and Turkish.

Explores the empirical and conceptual content of agreement restrictions in grammar. This volume presents relevant studies in this field and offers an overview of the different theoretical approaches concerned with the morphological, syntactic and semantic properties of agreement restrictions in a series of European and Non-European languages.

Based on the Workshop on Prosody and Meaning in Barcelona on September 17-18, 2009, this volume brings together researchers working on issues of the prosodic encoding and expression of sentence-level meaning.The contributions to the book resultfroma vivid exchange ofresearch ideas and research methodologies on issues related to the relationship between prosody and meaning andfrom stimulating discussions and collaborative work between researchers coming from different perspectives.

Explores the syntax of nominalizations, focusing on deverbal and deadjectival nominalizations, but also discussing the syntax of genitives and the syntax of distinct readings of nominalizations. This BOOK investigates the morpholgy-syntax interface as well as the semantics-syntax interface in the domain of nominalizations.

Collects papers that discuss theoretical or empirical problems from a multidimensional view of syntax and morphology, presupposing frameworks such as LFG, HPSG, the Parallel Architecture, or Integrational Linguistics, where syntactic and morphological objects are conceived as constructs with multiple, interrelated components.

No sound class requires so much basic knowledge of phonology, acoustics, aerodynamics, and speech production as obstruents (turbulent sounds) do. This book intendes to bridge a gap by introducing the reader to the world of obstruents from a multidisciplinary perspective. It starts with a review of typological processes.

Explores the semantics of nominalizations from different theoretical points of view: formal and lexical semantics, cognitive-functional grammar, lexical-functional grammar, discourse representation theory. This title takes data from a variety of languages into account, including Hungarian, Italian, French, German and English.

Unlike the notion of "argument" that is central to modern linguistic theorizing, the phenomena that are commonly subsumed under the complementary notion "adjunct" so far have not attracted the attention they deserve.

This volume contains contributions dealing with the syntax, morphology, semantics, and diachronic development of the Perfect and the components it is built on across languages.

Time in Natural Language investigates the relationship between the syntactic and semantic representations of sentences within the domain of tense. Assuming that tenses are semantically composed of three distinct times, Thompson proposes that these times map onto the syntax in a regular fashion: each time is associated with a unique syntactic head. Adopting the Minimalist approach to syntactic theory, this approach makes possible insightful analyses of syntactic structures involving temporal dependency. Thompson argues that, depending on their adjunction site, temporal adverbials modify different parts of the tense structure of the clause. Locating the Event time within VP, it is correctly predicted that an adverbial that modifies the Event time is adjoined to VP. On the other hand, since the Reference time is argued to be within AspP, when an adverbial is adjoined to AspP, it modifies the Reference time. The syntax of temporal adjunct clauses is accounted for in a similar fashion; they may be adjoined either to VP, where they are interpreted as simultaneous with the matrix event, or to AspP, where they are interpreted as nonsimultaneous. Thompson shows that the analysis sheds light on the less-studied issue of the temporal syntax of arguments. Subjects with gerundive relative clauses are claimed to be interpreted in VP at LF when the relative clause is temporally dependent on the Event time of the main clause, and in TP when the relative clause is dependent on the Speech time of the main clause. By extending the syntactic proposal to investigate the discourse-level effects of tense, an original analysis of the discourse representation of tense is proposed. Thompson argues that the discourse representation of tense is based on same primitives and subject to the same principles as the syntactic representation of tense, based on an in-depth examination of the structure and meaning of the temporal discourse adverb then.

The book is a qualitative and quantitative investigation into the Catalan clitic system from Old to Modern Catalan. Building on the Minimalist Program, the author shows that a number of facts about Old Romance clitic placement that previously have either not been accounted for or have received unsatisfactory treatment can be explained in a principled way once a strict division of labor between syntax and phonology is adopted.

The book investigates the diagnostics for the prosodic word in European Portuguese, the prosodic organization of various sorts of morphosyntactic objects, and the definition of the prosodic word domain. The book bears on the organization of grammar and phonology, its interface with morphology and syntax, and the nature of phonological representations. Besides focusing primarily on European Portuguese, it also refers to languages such as Italian, Dutch, German, and English, among many others.