This study examines types of compounds other than the Synthetic Genitive Construction (SGC) in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Jordanian Arabic (JA), discussing the word class of the parts of the compound and identifying the head. The analysis reveals that there are four types of compounds in MSA, and three in JA. The Prep + Prep combination is missing from JA. I also argue that the word class of the parts of the compound of Arabic in general, and of MSA in particular, is not diverse. Regarding the head, I suggest that N + N compounds other than the SGC, Adj + Adj compounds and reduplicated compounds can be either semantically double-headed or headless
The topic of my paper is the syntax and the quantificational force of free-choice items (FCIs) in Hungarian. FCIs such as any have been at the forefront of research interest in the past decades (e.g., Ladusaw 1979; Kadmon & Landman 1993; Giannakidou 2001). The close interdependence of syntactic, semantic and even pragmatic considerations makes the study of FCIs one of the most interesting research programmes. Earlier investigations of the syntax and semantics of FCIs in Hungarian include Hunyadi (1991; 2002), Abrusán (2007) and Szabó (2012). In my paper, I show that FCIs in Hungarian occupy the syntactic position associated with distributive quantifiers (É. Kiss 2010). Furthermore, I examine the quantificational force of FCIs by the well-known battery of quantification tests (for a previous application for Hungarian, cf. Surányi 2006): almost-modification, modification by exceptive phrase, donkey anaphora, predicative use, is-modification, incorporation and split reading with modals. My findings of mixed quantificational behaviour provide further corroboration for the analysis of FCIs as quantificationally underspecified intensional dependent indefinites.
In this paper, we argue for the existence of two local domains (phases, cf. Chomsky 2001; 2009; Legate 2003, among others) inside the DP: the n*-phase, parallel to the vP (as in Svenonius 2004), and the d*-phase, parallel to the CP. Two acknowledged phasal properties are discussed. (i) The n*/d*-phases define their own peripheries: peripheries are essentially modal-quantificational spaces, as shown by the decomposition of Topic-Focus features recently proposed (Butler 2004; McNay 2005; 2006). (ii) Phases are assumed to be domains of linearization: after (internal or external) merge, syntactic objects are hierarchical, but not linear, so phases must be linearized before they are sent to PF. The distribution and interpretation of DP-internal adjectives is taken to be indicative of these two domains.
In a number of languages, children have problems with the interpretation of pronouns if a potential local antecedent is present. There is an intensive debate on whether this effect is due to a delayed acquisition of Principle B, or it is the result of pragmatic or processing difficulties that children face in interpretation tasks. We conducted two experiments involving a picture-sentence verification task to investigate whether the Pronoun Interpretation Problem exists in Hungarian child language. We found that the Problem is present if the test sentences are given in isolation, but it disappears if a minimally coherent discourse is created. We argue that our results support the view that the binding principles are innate and do not need to be acquired, but children have problems with computing coreference options in certain contexts (Reinhart 2004; 2006; 2011). Coherent discourse allows children to accommodate pronouns with close to adult-like success because in this case they do not calculate local coreference possibilities for pronouns.
In this paper, I review how formal features are currently regarded and used in the Minimalist Program. Although features are the cornerstone in Minimalism, they are used in many different and conflicting ways. Features may seem particularly relevant to affix-hop because the affix has to be checked against a higher verb or auxiliary. Chomsky's (1957) analysis of affix-hop has the affix connected with an auxiliary, e.g., the -en of have-en, move to a verb on its right, as in have see-en. This analysis is one of the high points of early generative grammar but, with each new instantiation of the generative model, it has needed adjustments and the phenomenon is still debated. I will elaborate on a proposal made in van Gelderen (2013) who argues that interpretable tense, mood, or aspect are in a low position being probed by the relevant uninterpretable features in a high position. This view I claim is consistent with data from change and acquisition. I also discuss the implications of this reliance on features for learnability and Universal Grammar.
We address the ongoing debate between raising and in-situ analyses of relative superlatives. We present some arguments in favor of the in-situ analysis of DP-internal relative superlatives: first, the in-situ analysis accounts straightforwardly for the use of the definite article; we show that a recent attempt to explain the use of THE under the raising analysis makes incorrect predictions. Secondly, there is evidence that only a sub-type of relative superlatives, that have certain peculiar properties, rely on raising; crucially, these superlatives lack the definite article. This divide among relative superlatives has first been proposed by Pancheva & Tomaszewicz (2012) for certain adnominal superlatives. We add another context which supports this divide — the predicative context, where relative superlatives which can only be interpreted by raising to the vicinity of the correlate can be found. Based on new data coming from Romanian, we show that these predicative superlatives have different properties from DP-internal relative superlatives, which can be explained if the former involve raising and the latter are interpreted DP-internally.
This paper considers some paradoxes that arise in connection with repetitive adverbials in English. We propose a simple syntactic structure of verbal predicates along the lines of Ramchand (2008) and show how the apparent paradoxes can be resolved with that structure and some straightforward assumptions. One observation is that repetitives behave differently with verbs taking affected subjects (like read) than with verbs taking non-affected subjects (like paint). Another observation is the fact that repetitives are not uniform in their behaviour with respect to resultatives. Once again, structural assumptions, specifically, distinct structural positions of the resultatives, account for this varied behaviour.
The new hypothesis that Middle English descends syntactically from Norse has been strongly contested by several specialists in ME syntax. One counterargument contends that ME Verb-Second patterns with Old English in sharing Verb-Third with OE but not Norse. The present paper argues that a Mainland Scandinavian adverb så ‘so’, which appears after scene-setting adverbials (mostly PPs), is in SPEC(IP) and there blocks the common and expected UG order “PP — [IP subject — finite verb — …]” found in ME. When early Anglicized Norse lost this use of the så adverbial, the UG order resurfaced in ME; this was not because of direct descent from OE.
Across languages, the morpheme expressing conjunction frequently has other uses as well. Several linguists have attempted to unify all uses of conjunction morphemes under one general algebraic scheme. We argue in favor of a more limited unification and propose a universal decomposition of conjunction structures: We propose that there exist both a “nominal” e-type and “verbal” or “clausal” t-type junctor. Our account is substantiated with evidence from synchronic typology and diachrony. Our analysis hinges on a generalisation, that e-conjunctors, but crucially not t-conjunctors, may have non-conjunctional quantificational meanings. Historically, we invoke the same principle to explain the change in the conjunction grammar of Indo-European which uniformly abandoned the e- and adopted the t-level conjunctions across the board.
The article focuses on comparative complementisers in comparative clauses expressing inequality in various languages, with particular attention paid to their role as lexicalising negative polarity. I argue that the relevant property follows from degree semantics, in that the comparative subclause encodes the inequality of the degree expressed by a matrix clausal element and the one expressed by the comparative operator. Just like ordinary negation, this has to be encoded overtly; however, as it does not constitute an instance of genuine clausal negation, the property cannot be encoded by an operator, and hence must be realised on a functional head, which is either the complementiser or a separate polarity head.
Finnish finite clause exhibits topic prominence in the sense that the preverbal subject position is occupied by the topic (for example, by the direct object topic), not necessarily by the grammatical subject. Three currently unexplained facts concerning the Finnish free word order phenomenon and topicalization are noted in this paper: subject-verb agreement interacts with word order; the preverbal "topic" position is not reserved exclusively for topics; and noun phrase (DP) arguments are also able to dislocate to the right edge of a (potentially very long) finite clause. A generalized morphosyntactic agreement mechanism that requires the presence of nominal phi-features inside the highest finite projection of a clause is posited to explain the link between agreement and word order. The problem with topicality is accounted for by assuming that the topic-focus mechanism operates outside of narrow syntax. Free word order and non-configurationality are argued to result from argument adjunction, not from movement. Finally, it is concluded that the Finnish EPP is connected neither to morphosyntax nor to discourse.
This paper argues that Czech verbal prefixes alternate between two states, roughly corresponding to the traditional notions 'free' and 'bound'. The distinction, however, is not reflected in the separability of the prefix and the verb; it is reflected in vowel length. Main evidence for the claim is drawn from the way vowel length of adpositions is treated Czech internally and from a comparison to Norwegian. Theoretically, we implement the alternation as a phrasal movement of the prefix from a VP internal position (where the prefix behaves as bound) to a VP external position, drawing on Taraldsen's (2000) proposal for Norwegian and Svenonius's (2004b) account of prefixation in Slavic.
Building on an experimental study, I show that homophonous wh-phrases like qui ‘who’ in French correlate with prosodic differences when specificity and partitivity come into play, something not found with bare Universal Quantifiers like chacun ‘each’ and tous ‘all’. Rather than homophony I claim that these wh-phrases are syncretic. I show that (a) wh-phrases and bare Universal Quantifiers are complex phrases, lexicalizing structures of different sizes; (b) partitivity and specificity are syntactic features. This last claim is supported by intervention effects: the interventions observed with negative and scope islands with wh-phrases in-situ are accounted for in terms of a feature-based Relativized Minimality (Starke 2001; Rizzi 2004).
Move is subject to phase-based locality, whereas Agree is not, a natural consequence of cyclic linearization. Then, null operator movement, having no impact on linearization, should be immune to certain phase-related effects. I show that this prediction is borne out, based on the interactions between (null operator) movement and ellipsis. Furthermore, I extend the present proposal to scrambling in Japanese. It turns out that the observed correlation between movement and ellipsis helps us choose among competing theories of scrambling. Specifically, theoretical as well as empirical considerations support an analysis of scrambling in Japanese as involving either null operator movement or PF movement.
In this paper, I introduce the longitudinal method in general, and more specifically, the method applied in a two-decade-long language shift research project conducted in a Romanian–Hungarian bilingual village, Kétegyháza (hereinafter LongBiLing: long itudinal study on biling ualism ). I will primarily present the language choice changes occurring in the first decade (1990–2001) but I will also give a short review of the findings comparing the two decades. The aim of the project is to find out at what stage the Romanian-Hungarian language shift process is in the Hamers and Blanc’s (1989) unidimensional model of language shift and to what extent the process can be considered gradual (Mesthrie 2001). In a previous article I sought to find out in which bilingual national minority (out of the six) in Hungary sustainable bilingualism was the strongest (Borbély 2015). In this paper, I discuss language use domains (25 language choice situations) in a local community of Hungary’s Romanian national minority investigated with a longitudinal method. The aim was to learn about the differences among the linguistic domains in order to find out in which domain bilingualism was the most sustainable.
The role of synchronic phonological structure in guiding sound change is much debated, with a reductionist view claiming that the demands of speech production and perception alone motivate and constrain phonological development. The book evaluates the role of syllable structure in five long-standing problems in Latin historical phonology, selected due to their apparent sensitivity to this structural unit: clear and dark /l/, inverse compensatory lengthening, syllabification before stop + liquid in vowel reduction, vocalic epenthesis in stop + /l/, and consonantal assimilations in voice, place, continuance, and nasality. The book not only ascertains the phonological conditions for each phenomenon, but also reconstruct the motivations for the developments, developing a methodology for using evidence from non-current languages: ascertaining likely phonetic and phonological influences through investigating studies across languages, establishing a secure evidence base through detailed philological examination, reconstructing both the phonetics—through both general phonetic principles and pertinent experimental studies—and the relevant synchronic phonological structure of the language, and finally, evaluating the roles of phonetics and syllable structure in motivating and constraining change. It argues that on the whole phonetics alone can explain the investigated changes, although syllable structure plays a role one step removed, governing categorical and gradient variants in surface realization, such as the distribution of features and duration of vowels. However, vocalic epenthesis demonstrates that a change which retrospectively appears identical to those which were phonetically based may in fact have been initiated by analogy, motivated and constrained directly by both morphological and phonological structure.
In accounting for the properties of morphological constructions, one may adopt a source-oriented view where every property of the whole emanates from the parts or a product-oriented view where the whole may have properties that do not come from the parts. Such properties are called holistic constructional properties. Studies on Akan compounds have been invariably source-oriented, assuming that every property in a compound, including the syntactic category, has to come from its constituents. I show that compounding in Akan is blind to the syntactic category of the constituents. Thus, notwithstanding the syntactic category of the constituents the Akan compound is invariably nominal. This paper, therefore, provides evidence of holistic properties of morphological constructions in the form of the syntactic category of Akan compounds. I also present a Construction Morphology modelling of the syntactic category of the Akan compound as a holistic constructional property which is inherited from a constructional meta-schema that is pre-specified to be nominal. Finally, I posit and exemplify four schemas which inherit the category N from the meta-schema but differ in terms of the presence and position of a head constituent.
