These papers explore an important syntactic feature of South Asian languages, the experiencer subject construction. Contributing scholars investigate this feature in such languages as Marathi, Bhojpuri, Sinhalese, Marwari, Oriya, Punjabi, Bengali, Kalasha, Gujarati, Bepali, Maithili, and Malayalam. The experiencer subject not only defines South Asian languages as a linguistic unit, but also has implications for theoretical linguistics. Mahendra Verma is a professor of linguistics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Tara Mohanan is a linguistics professor in the English department of the National University of Singapore.
A new account of the peculiar syntax of psychological verbs argues that experiencers are grammaticalized as locative phrases. Experiencers—grammatical participants that undergo a certain psychological change or are in such a state—are grammatically special. As objects (John scared Mary; loud music annoys me), experiencers display two peculiar clusters of nonobject properties across different languages: their syntax is often typical of oblique arguments and their semantic scope is typical of subjects. In The Locative Syntax of Experiencers, Idan Landau investigates this puzzling correlation and argues that experiencers are syntactically coded as (mental) locations. Drawing on results from a range of languages and theoretical frameworks, Landau examines the far-reaching repercussions of this simple claim. Landau shows that all experiencer objects are grammaticalized as locative phrases, introduced by a dative/locative preposition. “Bare” experiencer objects are in fact oblique, too, the preposition being null. This preposition accounts for the oblique psych(ological) properties, attested in case alternations, cliticization, resumption, restrictions on passive formation, and so on. As locatives, object experiencers may undergo locative inversion, giving rise to the common phenomenon of quirky experiencers. When covert, this inversion endows object experiencers with wide scope, attested in control, binding, and wh-quantifier interactions. Landau's synthesis thus provides a novel solution to some of the oldest puzzles in the generative study of psychological verbs. The Locative Syntax of Experiencers offers the most comprehensive description of the syntax of psychological verbs to date, documenting their special properties in more than twenty languages. Its basic theoretical claim is readily translatable into alternative frameworks. Existing accounts of psychological verbs either consider very few languages or fail to incorporate other theoretical frameworks; this study takes a broader perspective, informed by findings of four decades of research
English underwent sweeping changes to its inflectional system in the Middle English period and it is widely assumed that the loss of case-marking distinctions had profound consequences for the syntax of the language. Allen here makes a detailed study of these changes, questioning the results of previous analyses which, she argues, posit too direct a link between the morphological and syntactic changes.
This book explores the nature of stative verbs, their eventuality structure, and the patterns of argument realization. The study shows that there is no single class of stative verbs. Rather, several distinct groups of verbs are found: Verbs that undergo a systematic stative/eventive ambiguity; verbs that allow for a stative reading only; and verbs that seem to have an intermediate status (verbs of position and verbs of internal causation). The study concludes that there is a discrete boundary between stative and eventive verbs, excluding any intermediate status. Stativity arises because the aspectual operators DO and BECOME are absent in the lexical-semantic structure. Eventivity arises if one of these is present. A minimalist view on argument realization and event structure completes the book: Theta features on the arguments are checked against the aspectual heads within the verb phrase.
Until very recently, pragmatics has been restricted to the analysis of contemporary spoken language while historical linguistics has studied historical texts and language change in a decontextualized way. This has now radically changed and scholars from around the world are trying to build a new theoretical framework that integrates recent advances both in pragmatics and in historical linguistics. The volume, which contains 22 original articles, starts with an introduction that is both a state-of-the-art account of historical pragmatics and a programmatic statement of its future potential and its different subfields. Part I contains seven pragmaphilological papers that deal with historical texts and their interpretations by paying close attention to the communicative context of these texts. The second and third parts comprise papers in diachronic pragmatics. The ten papers of part II take a linguistic form as their starting point, e.g. particular lexical items or syntactic constructions, and study their pragmatic functions at different times (diachronic form-to-function mappings), while the four papers of part III take a particular pragmatic function as their starting point, e.g. discourse strategies or politeness, and study their linguistic realisation at different times (diachronic function-to-form mappings).
Gradation is usually considered to be a property of adjectives. Examples like 'The boy loves his mother very much' and 'The boy has grown a lot' reveal that gradation is not limited to adjectives but verbs are gradable too. Verb gradation has received considerably less attention in the literature than gradation of adjectives. The aim of the current volume is to explore the notion of verb gradation in more detail. The book presents a semantic as well as a syntactic analysis of verb gradation and combines three case studies with a general perspective on the phenomenon. Issues addressed in the volume cover, among others, the notion of scalarity in the verbal domain, the interaction of verb gradation with grammatical as well as lexical aspect and verb gradation as a subcompositional phenomenon. These topics are investigated from a cross-linguistic perspective. The languages of investigation include, among others, German, Russian and French.
Sensory Stories are short stories of a few lines which are brought to life through a selection of meaningful sensory experiences. They are particularly beneficial for students with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other special educational needs (SEN). For children with PMLD, Sensory Stories can open up new avenues for communication and inclusive learning. For students with SPD and ASD, they offer a fun way of encountering sensory experiences and triggers in a safe, repetitive way, which over time can help to reduce associated anxieties. This accessible guide offers teachers, other professionals working with students with SEN and parents with a complete step-by-step guide to creating and using Sensory Stories effectively. Aiming to make Sensory Stories affordable and accessible to schools and parents alike by using everyday items found in the classroom and home, Joanna Grace provides original, ready-to-use Sensory Stories with accompanying lesson plans, games and activities and adaptations for different abilities and diagnoses. Written by an experienced SEN consultant and sensory learning specialist, this is unique and essential reading for teachers, other professionals and parents wishing to introduce the many benefits of multi-sensory storytelling to children in their care.
Contemporary and Emergent Theories of Agrammatism provides an in-depth review of the previous five decades of research on agrammatism focusing specifically on work which has been informed by linguistic theory. The final chapters reflect the recent turning point in the conceptualization of the underlying causes of the impairments agrammatic individuals present with. The book includes chapters on impairments to grammatical morphemes the tree pruning and trace deletion hypotheses verb deficits in sentences, and as single words generalized minimality adaptation theory and slow syntax the involvement of discourse To facilitate student reading the writing is clear and accessible, and the book includes a glossary of unfamiliar terms. Contemporary and Emergent Theories of Agrammatism will be of great interest to advanced students and researchers in areas such as psychology of language, linguistics, neurolinguistics, aphasiology and speech and language therapy.
Includes papers that explore the issues and re-assess generally accepted premises on the relationship between lexical meaning and the morphosyntax of sentences by confronting two competing approaches to this issue.
This book considers the recent results and evaluations of the Theta System in both theoretical and experimental domains. Distinguished linguists from all over the world examine the theory in the context of an impressive array of new empirical data ranging from Germanic, Romance, and Slavic to Ugro-Finnish, and Semitic languages.
