Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure
Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure

Author: Melissa Bowerman

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 0805841946

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This book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on argument structure and its role in language acquisition. The volume is the outcome of an integrated research project and comprises chapters by both specialists in first language acquisition and field linguists working on a variety of lesser-known languages. Drawing on a broad range of crosslinguistic data, Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure integrates important contemporary issues in linguistics and language acquisition.

Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure
Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure

Author: Melissa Bowerman

Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Published: 2014-05-28

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 9780203826218

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This book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on argument structure and its role in language acquisition. Drawing on a broad range of crosslinguistic data, this volume shows that languages are much more diverse in their argument structure properties than has been realized. The volume is the outcome of an integrated research project and comprises chapters by both specialists in first language acquisition and field linguists working on a variety of lesser-known languages. The research draws on original fieldwork and on adult data, child data, or both from seventeen languages from eleven different language families. Some chapters offer typological perspectives, examining the basic structures of a given language with language-learnability issues in mind. Other chapters investigate specific problems of language acquisition in one or more languages. Taken as a whole, the volume illustrates how detailed work on crosslinguistic variation is critical to the development of insightful theories of language acquisition. Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure integrates important contemporary issues in linguistics and language acquisition.

Argument Structure and Syntactic Relations
Argument Structure and Syntactic Relations

Author: Maia Duguine

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010-07-14

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9027288135

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The topic of this collection is argument structure. The fourteen chapters in this book are divided into four parts: Semantic and Syntactic Properties of Event Structure; A Cartographic View on Argument Structure; Syntactic Heads Involved in Argument Structure; and Argument Structure in Language Acquisition. Rigorous theoretical analyses are combined with empirical work on specific aspects of argument structure. The book brings together authors working in different linguistic fields (semantics, syntax, and language acquisition), who explore new findings as well as more established data, but then from new theoretical perspectives. The contributions propose cartographic views of argument structure, as opposed to minimalistic proposals of a binary template model for argument structure, in order to optimally account for various syntactic and semantic facts, as well as data derived from wider cross-linguistic perspectives.

Complex Predicates
Complex Predicates

Author: Mengistu Amberber

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-04-22

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1139487485

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Complex predicates are multipredicational, but monoclausal structures. They have proven problematic for linguistic theory, particularly for proposed distinctions between the lexicon, morphology, and syntax. This volume focuses on the mapping from morphosyntactic structures to event structure, and in particular the constraints on possible mappings. The volume showcases the 'coverb construction', a complex predicate construction which, though widespread, has received little attention in the literature. The coverb construction contrasts with more familiar serial verb constructions. The coverb construction generally maps only to event structures like those of monomorphemic verbs, whereas serial verb constructions map to a range of event structures differing from those of monomorphemic verbs. The volume coverage is truly cross-linguistic, including languages from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, East Africa and North America. The volume establishes a new arena of research in event structure, syntax, and cross-linguistic typology.

Argument Structure
Argument Structure

Author: Eric J. Reuland

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2007-11-28

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9027291268

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Recent developments in the generative tradition have created new interest in matters of argument structure and argument projection, giving prominence to the discussion on the role of lexical entries. Particularly, the more traditional lexicalist view that encodes argument structure information on lexical entries is now challenged by a syntactic view under which all properties of argument structure are taken up by syntactic structure. In the light of these new developments, the contributions in this volume provide detailed empirical investigations of argument structure phenomena in a wide range of languages. The contributions vary in their response to the theoretical questions and address issues that range from the role of specific functional heads and the relation of argument projection with syntactic processes, to the position of argument structure within a broader clausal architecture and the argument structure properties of less studied categories.

Logical Structure and Linguistic Structure
Logical Structure and Linguistic Structure

Author: C-T James Huang

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9401134723

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In comparative syntax a general approach has been pursued over the past decade predicated on the notion that Universal Grammar allows of open parameters, and that part of the job of linguistic theory is to specify what values these parameters may have, and how they may be set, given primary linguistic data, to determine the grammars of particu lar languages. The papers presented in this volume are also concerned with language variation understood in this way. Their goals, however, do not strictly fall under the rubric of comparative syntax, but form part of what is more properly thought of as a comparative semantics. Semantics, in its broadest sense, is concerned with how linguistic structures are associated with their truth-conditions. A comparative semantics, therefore, is concerned with whether this association can vary from language to language, and if so, what is the cause of this variation. Taking comparative semantics in this way places certain inherent limitations on the search for the sources of variability. This is because the semantic notion of truth is universal, and does not vary from language to language: Sentences either do or do not accurately characterize what they purport to describe. ! The source of semantic variability, therefore, must be somehow located in the way a language is structured.

Structures and meanings: cross theoretical perspectives
Structures and meanings: cross theoretical perspectives

Author: Maria Frascarelli

Publisher: Editions L'Harmattan

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 2296460704

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Different subjects have been approached and discussed by the authors of this volume. In particular, Section I is concerned with "Language change and language variation", both from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective. The authors of Section II ("The structures of meaning") investigate the connection between structure and meaning, especially focusing on interface analysis and cross-linguistic comparison. Section III is dedicated to applied research in linguistics and, in particular, to "Applied linguistics and language teaching".

Preferred Argument Structure
Preferred Argument Structure

Author: John W. Du Bois

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 9789027226242

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Preferred Argument Structure offers a profound insight into the relationship between language use and grammatical structure. In his original publication on Preferred Argument Structure, Du Bois (1987) demonstrated the power of this perspective by using it to explain the origins of ergativity and ergative marking systems. Since this work, the general applicability of Preferred Argument Structure has been demonstrated in studies of language after language. In this collection, the authors move beyond verifying Preferred Argument Structure as a property of a given language. They use the methodology to reveal more subtle aspects of the patterns, for example, to look across languages, diachronically or synchronically, to examine particular grammatical relations, and to examine special populations or particular genres. This volume will appeal to linguists interested in the relationship of pragmatics and grammar generally, in the typology of grammatical relations, and in explanations derived from data- and corpus-based approaches to analysis.

Case, Word Order and Prominence
Case, Word Order and Prominence

Author: Monique Lamers

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-11-29

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9789400737501

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Language users have access to several sources of information during the build up of a meaningful construction. These include grammatical rules, situational knowledge, and general world knowledge. A central role in this process is played by the argument structure of verbs, which establishes the syntactic and semantic relationships between arguments. This book provides an overview of recent psycholinguistic and theoretical investigations on the interplay between structural syntactic relations and role semantics. The focus herein lies on the interaction of case marking and word order with semantic prominence features, such as animacy and definiteness. The interaction of these different sorts of information is addressed from theoretical, time-insensitive, and incremental perspectives, or a combination of these. Taking a broad cross-linguistic perspective, this book bridges the gap between theoretical and psycholinguistic approaches to argument structure.