Verb Movement
Verb Movement

Author: David Lightfoot

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1994-03-31

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9780521456616

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Work on the movement of phrase categories, mostly Noun Phrases, has been a central element of syntactic theorizing almost since the earliest work on generative grammar. Work on the movement of lexical elements, heads, has been much less central until recent years. Verb movement is now, however, the center of current research in syntax. Parallel to the theoretical interest has been the attention focused on the description of verb-second languages and on the movement operations that place the verb in its "second" position. This volume represents the latest work from many of the leading researchers in an important field, and draws on analyses from a wide range of languages. It will have a significant impact on its field.

Morphosyntax of Verb Movement
Morphosyntax of Verb Movement

Author: C. Jan-Wouter Zwart

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9780792342632

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Morphosyntax of Verb Movement discusses the phenomenon of Dutch, present in many Germanic languages, that the finite verb is fronted in main clauses but not in embedded clauses. The theoretical framework adopted is the so-called Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1995), the latest developmental stage of generative grammar. Taking issue with previous analyses, the author argues that phrase structure in Dutch is uniformly head initial, and that the finite verb moves to different positions in subject initial main clauses and in inversion constructions. The book contains lucid and detailed discussion of many theoretical issues in connection with the Minimalist Program, such as the relation between syntax and morphology, the nature of syntactic licensing, and the structure of the functional domain. At the same time, it offers a survey of the properties of Dutch syntax, a discussion of previous analyses of Dutch syntax and a wealth of material from dialects of Dutch and other Germanic languages.

Morphosyntax of Verb Movement
Morphosyntax of Verb Movement

Author: J.-W. Zwart

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9401158800

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Morphosyntax of Verb Movement discusses the phenomenon of Dutch, present in many Germanic languages, that the finite verb is fronted in main clauses but not in embedded clauses. The theoretical framework adopted is the so-called Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1995), the latest developmental stage of generative grammar. Taking issue with previous analyses, the author argues that phrase structure in Dutch is uniformly head initial, and that the finite verb moves to different positions in subject initial main clauses and in inversion constructions. The book contains lucid and detailed discussion of many theoretical issues in connection with the Minimalist Program, such as the relation between syntax and morphology, the nature of syntactic licensing, and the structure of the functional domain. At the same time, it offers a survey of the properties of Dutch syntax, a discussion of previous analyses of Dutch syntax and a wealth of material from dialects of Dutch and other Germanic languages.

Verb Movement and Expletive Subjects in the Germanic Languages
Verb Movement and Expletive Subjects in the Germanic Languages

Author: Sten Vikner

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1995-04-13

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0195359259

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This book is the study of two different kinds of variation across the Germanic languages. One involves the position of the finite verb, and the other the possible positions of the "logical" subject in constructions with expletive (or "dummy") subjects. The book applies the theory of Principles-and-Parameters to the study of comparative syntax. Several languages are considered, including less frequently discussed ones like Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, and Yiddish.

Studies on Old High German Syntax
Studies on Old High German Syntax

Author: Katrin Axel

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2007-07-19

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9027291985

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This monograph is the first book-length study on Old High German syntax from a generative perspective in twenty years. It provides an in-depth exploration of the Old High German pre-verb-second grammar by answering the following questions: To what extent did generalized verb movement exist in Old High German? Was there already obligatory XP-movement to the left periphery in declarative root clauses? What deviations from the linear verb-second restriction are attested and what do such phenomena reveal about the structure of the left sentence periphery? Did verb placement play the same role in sentence typing as in the modern verb-second languages? A further major topic is null subjects: It is claimed that Old High German was a partial pro-drop language. All these issues are addressed from a comparative-diachronic perspective by integrating research on other Old Germanic languages, in particular on Old English and Gothic. This book is of interest to all those working in the fields of comparative Germanic syntax and historical linguistics.

Syntax - Theory and Analysis. Volume 1
Syntax - Theory and Analysis. Volume 1

Author: Tibor Kiss

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-02-17

Total Pages: 816

ISBN-13: 3110377403

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This Handbook represents the development of research and the current level of knowledge in the fields of syntactic theory and syntax analysis. Syntax can look back to a long tradition. Especially in the last 50 years, however, the interaction between syntactic theory and syntactic analysis has led to a rapid increase in analyses and theoretical suggestions. This second edition of the Handbook on Syntax adopts a unifying perspective and therefore does not place the division of syntactic theory into several schools to the fore, but the increase in knowledge resulting from the fruitful argumentations between syntactic analysis and syntactic theory. It uses selected phenomena of individual languages and their cross-linguistic realizations to explain what syntactic analyses can do and at the same time to show in what respects syntactic theories differ from each other. It investigates how syntax is related to neighbouring disciplines and investigate the role of the interfaces especially the relationship between syntax and phonology, morphology, compositional semantics, pragmatics, and the lexicon. The phenomena chosen bring together renowned experts in syntax, and represent the consensus reached as to what has to be considered as an important as well as illustrative syntactic phenomenon. The phenomena discuss do not only serve to show syntactic analyses, but also to compare theoretical approaches with each other.

Dimensions of Movement
Dimensions of Movement

Author: Artemis Alexiadou

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2002-08-08

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 9027297576

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This volume presents a collection of papers of recent generative research into the properties of phrasal and feature movement, which explore these key syntactic phenomena from different angles and across languages. The papers advance or build on models of movement which capitalize either on generalized feature movement or on generalized remnant movement. Both these approaches attempt to develop a restrictive theory of movement aiming at a simplification of the operations of the computational system. Despite the fact that they are so different technically, generalized feature movement and generalized remnant movement both push the theory of movement to the same direction in two important respects: (a) Elimination of head movement. (b) Elimination of covert movement. The book is of primary interest to researchers and students in theoretical linguistics and syntactic theory.