Nouns are predicates. In Southern Tiwa, nouns occur as serial predicates (‘incorporation’ is serialization). Besides their null pronoun argument, they can also license an argument in the role of possessor (‘Possessor Ascension’ is a superfluous notion). These conclusions emerge from a new morphosyntactic analysis, which also entails that the verb agrees with all and only final terms (multistratal reference is unnecessary). The paradigm gaps, constraints on incorporation, and limited conditions for optional passive, though seemingly intricate, all point to a single hierarchical principle. This hierarchy calls for a simple but previously unexplored formalism, a tiered model reminiscent of autosegmental phonology.

This study presents evidence for the psychological reality of the Subset Principle as a determinant of the acquisition of Governing Category Parameter settings for English anaphors and pronominals. We used prelingual deafness as a natural experiment in the acquisition of English in the presence of variably impaired access to English language data. Previous work has shown that deaf adults with low proficiency in English typically know the unmarked properties of English but have specifically less knowledge of the marked properties than more proficient deaf adults. In the present study we demonstrate that deaf adults with relatively low English language proficiency possess the correct governing category for English anaphors but an incorrect, larger governing category for English pronominals. This pattern respects the markedness predictions of the Subset Principle. These individuals appear to select grammars which generate a smaller set of sentences than the grammars of more proficient English language users. The results support the proposal that, when a parameter's values determine languages that are ordered as proper subsets, the learner selects the value which determines the smallest language consistent with the input data.

An analysis of a corpus of naturally-occurring data reveals that verb phrase preposing serves two functions in discourse: to affirm a speaker's belief in a salient proposition explicitly evoked in the prior discourse, or to suspend a speaker's belief in such a proposition. Various types of VP preposing are identified, based on the type of discourse connective that introduces the preposing and on the epistemic status, relative to the speaker, of the affirmed or suspended proposition. The felicity conditions on VP preposing are shown to be related to those of other OSV constructions in that (1) a particular anaphoric relation must obtain between the preposed element and the preceding discourse, and (2) the preposing must effect the instantiation of a salient open proposition presupposed in the discourse.

The theory developed here is that quotations are demonstrations that are component parts of language use. Demonstrations are unlike descriptions in two main ways. They are nonserious rather than serious actions. A person demonstrating a limp isn't actually or really limping. And they depict rather than describe their referents, though they depict only selected aspects of the referents. The demonstrator of the limp depicts some but not all of its aspects. Quotations, we argue, have all the properties of genuine demonstrations. They too are nonserious actions and selective depictions. For evidence we appeal to a wide range of phenomena in spontaneous spoken and written quotations.