19 results
18 - Alignment
- from Part Four - Syntax
- Edited by Adam Ledgeway, University of Cambridge, Martin Maiden, University of Oxford
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- The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics
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- 23 June 2022
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- 07 July 2022, pp 544-570
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Summary
The term ‘alignment’ is used in the typological literature to characterize the morphosyntactic behaviour of arguments and their relationship to the predicate. The term usually refers to case, agreement, and word order. Within the Romance family, Latin and its descendants are considered to display basic nominative-accusative alignment. However, Latin also has a split intransitive subject alignment in certain paradigms of the verbal system. This split alignment continues in a variety of guises into later Romance varieties. In this chapter, we discuss these phenomena in some detail, highlighting microvariation within the Romance family and discussing their importance for our broader understanding of alignment. We focus on the diachrony of alignment, as a backdrop for the discussion of the synchronic situation in Romance languages. We discuss auxiliary selection and the alignment of past participle agreement, charting both frequent and rare splits. Subsequently, we focus on alignment in SE-passives and word order in Romance. Finally, we briefly discuss two other potentially relevant phenomena: INDE-cliticization and absolute participles/participial adjectives. As we shall see, in many of these cases, the Romance language family displays a remarkable array of alignment patterns which raise interesting challenges for theories of split-intransitivity and alignment more generally.
Nominal licensing in caseless languages
- MICHELLE SHEEHAN, JENNEKE VAN DER WAL
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- Journal of Linguistics / Volume 54 / Issue 3 / 01 August 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 May 2018, pp. 527-589
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- 01 August 2018
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This paper provides evidence for a kind of nominal licensing (Vergnaud licensing) in a number of morphologically caseless languages. Recent work on Bantu languages has suggested that abstract Case or nominal licensing should be parameterised (Diercks 2012, Van der Wal 2015a). With this is mind, we critically discuss the status of Vergnaud licensing in six languages lacking morphological case. While Luganda appears to systematically lack a Vergnaud licensing requirement, Makhuwa more consistently displays evidence in favour of it, as do all of the analytic languages that we survey (Mandarin, Yoruba, Jamaican Creole and Thai). We conclude that, while it seems increasingly problematic to characterise nominal licensing in terms of uninterpretable/abstract Case features, we nonetheless need to retain a (possibly universal) notion of nominal licensing, the explanation for which remains opaque.
Richard S. Kayne, Comparisons and contrasts (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. xvi+272.
- Michelle Sheehan
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- Journal:
- Journal of Linguistics / Volume 47 / Issue 3 / November 2011
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 September 2011, pp. 724-730
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- November 2011
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Contributors
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Yee, Viktor Yelensky, Yeo Khiok-Khng, Gustav K. K. Yeung, Angela Yiu, Amos Yong, Yong Ting Jin, You Bin, Youhanna Nessim Youssef, Eliana Yunes, Robert Michael Zaller, Valarie H. Ziegler, Barbara Brown Zikmund, Joyce Ann Zimmerman, Aurora Zlotnik, Zhuo Xinping
- Edited by Daniel Patte, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
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- The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity
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1 - A deletion analysis of null subjects
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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- Parametric Variation
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Summary
Introduction
One often-noted consequence of the general adoption of the copy theory of movement since its reintroduction in Chomsky (1993) has been the collapse of the typology of empty categories in terms of the values of the features [±anaphoric, ±pronominal] (see, inter alia, Hornstein (1999: 77–78), Manzini & Roussou (2000) for discussion). The non-pronominal empty categories of government-binding theory and related work, i.e. NP-trace and wh-trace, are now generally thought to be copies; their silence is the result of a PF-deletion process affecting non-heads of chains (see in particular Nunes 1995; 2004). The status of the pronominal empty categories is less clear, however. There has been a considerable discussion of the status of the pronominal anaphor PRO, naturally connected to the question of the nature of the various types of ‘control’ dependency (Boeckx & Hornstein 2003; 2004; Culicover & Jackendoff 2001; Davies & Dubinsky 2004; Hornstein 1999; 2003; Landau 2000; 2003; 2004; Manzini & Roussou 2000; Martin 1996; 2001; O'Neil 1997). The question of the status of the ‘pure pronominal’ empty category pro is also uncertain; many authors (including Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 1998; Barbosa 1995; 2009; Manzini & Savoia 2005; Nash & Rouveret 1997; Ordóñez 1997; Platzack 2004; Pollock 1997) have proposed that the pronominal property of the head bearing subject agreement features, observed to characterise consistent null-subject languages since Rizzi (1982), may be enough to derive the Null Subject Parameter and that, as a corollary, the idea that the canonical subject position is occupied by pro is not required, which in turn implies that the Extended Projection Principle either does not need to be satisfied or can be satisfied by something other than a DP occupying the relevant specifier position in these languages.
4 - Semi null-subject languages, expletives and expletive pro reconsidered
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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8 - Varieties of French and the Null Subject Parameter
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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6 - ‘Free’ inversion in Romance and the Null Subject Parameter
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Frontmatter
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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2 - Null Subject Parameters
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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3 - Control into finite clauses in partial null-subject languages
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Bibliography
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Introduction: parameters in minimalist theory
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Summary
This book represents some of the work carried out in the period 2002–2007 by the group working on the project ‘Null Subjects and the Structure of Parametric Theory’, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Great Britain (Grant No. APN14458). The group consisted of Theresa Biberauer, Anders Holmberg, Chris Johns, Ian Roberts, Michelle Sheehan and David Willis. The central goal of that project was to investigate and, if possible, refine the notion of parameter of Universal Grammar (UG), as it has been understood in generative theory since roughly 1980, by looking carefully at the phenomena associated with one of the best-known and most widely discussed examples of a parameter: the Null Subject Parameter (NSP). This volume brings together a number of articles focusing on the nature of null subjects in a range of languages; Biberauer (2008b) is a sister volume arising from the same project, which focuses more on parameter theory than on null subjects, while Holmberg (2009) focuses on partial null-subject languages.
In this Introduction, we would like to set the chapters in context. Accordingly, we first discuss the phenomena from English and various Romance languages which originally motivated the postulation of the NSP. Next, we summarise the main kinds of null-subject system that have been identified in the comparative-syntax literature. We complete Section 1 by summarising the two principal approaches to the analysis of null subjects, whose classical exponents are Rizzi (1986a) and Borer (1986).
Parametric Variation
- Null Subjects in Minimalist Theory
- Theresa Biberauer, Anders Holmberg, Ian Roberts, Michelle Sheehan
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Parametric variation in linguistic theory refers to the systematic grammatical variation permitted by the human language faculty. Although still widely assumed, the parametric theory of variation has in recent years been subject to re-evaluation and critique. The Null Subject Parameter, which determines among other things whether or not a language allows the suppression of subject pronouns, is one of the best-known and most widely discussed examples of a parameter. Nevertheless its status in current syntactic theory is highly controversial. This book is a defence of the parametric approach to linguistic variation, set within the framework of the Minimalist Program. It discusses syntactic variation in the light of recent developments in linguistic theory, focusing on issues such as the formal nature of minimalist parameters, the typology of null-subject language systems and the way in which parametric choices can be seen to underlie the synchronic and diachronic patterns observed in natural languages.
Acknowledgements
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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5 - The null generic subject pronoun in Finnish: a case of incorporation in T
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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7 - Subjects, Tense and verb-movement
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Summary
Introduction
The goal of this chapter is to provide a more complete basis for T's attraction properties by exploiting a neglected property of T, its Tense features. In Section 2, we will argue on cross-linguistic grounds that the properties triggering V-to-T movement and licensing null subjects should be kept distinct. In other words, we reject the idea, first proposed by Roberts (1985), that ‘strong’ agreement of some kind is always responsible for both. Instead, in Section 3, we suggest distinguishing T's tense (i.e. ‘verbal’ or V-related) properties from its agreement/ϕ (i.e. ‘nominal’ or D-related) properties and propose a correlation between richness of tense inflection and V-to-T movement on the one hand and, following numerous researchers since Rizzi (1982), between richness of agreement inflection and the availability of null subjects on the other (see Roberts (Chapter 1) and Holmberg (Chapter 2) for recent proposals in this respect). We then construct a new typology on the basis of this proposal. In Section 4, we first show how Modern English fits into this typology; in this connection, the auxiliary system is crucial, and we make some novel proposals in this regard (Section 4.1). Section 4.2 deals with relevant aspects of the historical development of this system, focusing on the development of systematic V-to-T movement from the loss of V2, and showing how this was a rather short-lived option, as predicted by the typology of Section 3.
Index
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
-
- Book:
- Parametric Variation
- Published online:
- 04 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 10 December 2009, pp 357-368
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Contents
- Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, Anders Holmberg, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge, Michelle Sheehan, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
-
- Book:
- Parametric Variation
- Published online:
- 04 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 10 December 2009, pp v-v
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- Chapter
- Export citation