Minimality Effects in Syntax

Minimality Effects in Syntax

Author: Arthur Stepanov

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 311017961X

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The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.


Minimality Effects in Syntax

Minimality Effects in Syntax

Author: Arthur Stepanov

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008-08-22

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 3110197367

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The volume is a collection of 12 papers which focus on empirical and theoretical issues associated with syntactic phenomena falling under the rubric of Relativized Minimality (Rizzi 1990) or, in more recent terms, Minimal Link Condition (MLC, Chomsky 1995). The bulk of the papers are based on the ideas presented at the Workshop "Minimal Link Effects in Minimalist and Optimality Theoretic Syntax" which took place at the University of Potsdam on March 21-22, 2002. All contributors are prominent specialists in the topic of syntactic Minimality. The empirical phenomena brought to bear on Minimality/MLC in the present volume include, but not limited to: Superiority effects in multiple wh-questions, including those with 'D-linked' wh-phrase(s) (Müller, Haida, Haider) Stylistic Fronting in Germanic and Romance (Fisher, Poole) Transitive sentences in Hindi-type ergative languages (Stepanov) Word order 'freezing' effects in double-nominative constructions in Korean (Lee) Double object constructions in Greek (Anagnostoupoulou) Remnant constituent displacement in German and Japanese (Hale and Legendre) Nine of the proposed accounts are couched in the Minimalist framework (Chomsky 1995, 2000, 2001), three in the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). Thematically, the contributions divide into three groups addressing the following major questions: How can apparent violations of syntactic Minimality/MLC be accounted for? (Haida, Stepanov, Poole, Fisher, Anagnostopoulou) What is the status of MLC? Is it a primitive or a theorem in the grammar? (Müller, Fanselow, Lechner, Vogel, Lee, Haider) Can Minimality phenomena shed decisive evidence in favor of a derivational (Minimalist type) or a representational (Optimality theory like) framework? (Hale and Legendre, Haider)


Relativized Minimality

Relativized Minimality

Author: Luigi Rizzi

Publisher: Mit Press

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 9780262680615

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This monograph presents an important extension of government-binding theory in syntax. This monograph presents an important extension of government-binding theory in syntax. It offers a new characterization of locality in the theory of government through a relativization of the Minimality Principle, and it explores the consequences of this approach for the Empty Category Principle and the analysis of a variety of empirical domains, including intervention effects, That-trace phenomena, and argument/adjunct asymmetries. The final part of the book is devoted to a new interpretation of the argument/adjunct asymmetries that arise in various extraction processes. Referential indices, a fundamental ingredient of the binding relation, are restricted to occur on referential arguments, as in Chomsky's original proposal. This natural restriction has the surprising effect of capturing the major argument-adjunct asymmetries in a straightforward manner while permitting a radical simplification of the Empty Category Principle.


The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax

Author: Marcel den Dikken

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-07-25

Total Pages: 1412

ISBN-13: 1107354587

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Syntax – the study of sentence structure – has been at the centre of generative linguistics from its inception and has developed rapidly and in various directions. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax provides a historical context for what is happening in the field of generative syntax today, a survey of the various generative approaches to syntactic structure available in the literature and an overview of the state of the art in the principal modules of the theory and the interfaces with semantics, phonology, information structure and sentence processing, as well as linguistic variation and language acquisition. This indispensable resource for advanced students, professional linguists (generative and non-generative alike) and scholars in related fields of inquiry presents a comprehensive survey of the field of generative syntactic research in all its variety, written by leading experts and providing a proper sense of the range of syntactic theories calling themselves generative.


The Final-Over-Final Condition

The Final-Over-Final Condition

Author: Michelle Sheehan

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2017-10-27

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 026203669X

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An examination of the evidence for and the theoretical implications of a universal word order constraint, with data from a wide range of languages. This book presents evidence for a universal word order constraint, the Final-over-Final Condition (FOFC), and discusses the theoretical implications of this phenomenon. FOFC is a syntactic condition that disallows structures where a head-initial phrase is contained in a head-final phrase in the same extended projection/domain. The authors argue that FOFC is a linguistic universal, not just a strong tendency, and not a constraint on processing. They discuss the effects of the universal in various domains, including the noun phrase, the adjective phrase, the verb phrase, and the clause. The book draws on data from a wide range of languages, including Hindi, Turkish, Basque, Finnish, Afrikaans, German, Hungarian, French, English, Italian, Romanian, Arabic, Hebrew, Mandarin, Pontic Greek, Bagirmi, Dholuo, and Thai. FOFC, the authors argue, is important because it is the only known example of a word order asymmetry pertaining to the order of heads. As such, it has significant repercussions for theories connecting the narrow syntax to linear order.


Mind Design and Minimal Syntax

Mind Design and Minimal Syntax

Author: Wolfram Hinzen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2006-02-23

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 019927441X

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Wolfram Hinzen introduces generative grammar and asks what it tells us about the human mind. He argues that the mind is the product not of adaptive evolutionary history but of principles and processes that are ahistorical and internalist.


Auxiliary Selection in Italo-Romance

Auxiliary Selection in Italo-Romance

Author: Irene Amato

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2023-11-15

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 902724927X

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This book proposes a new solution to the long-standing puzzle of auxiliary selection in Romance languages, in particular Italian. The following questions are addressed: why the perfect auxiliary appears in the two forms be and have within a single language, what drives this distribution, and how cross-linguistic data can be accounted for. The solution to these issues consists of an Agreebased analysis that accounts for auxiliary selection in root clauses and restructuring in Standard Italian and in Italo-Romance varieties, which is also compatible with participle agreement. By answering these questions, the book also touches upon more theoretical and foundational problems, such as the distribution of labor between syntax, morphology and the lexicon, and the conditions on the operation Agree (in particular, multiple probing, locality, and minimality). This work contributes to the discussion in the fields of formal morpho-syntax, theoretical linguistics, and Romance linguistics.


An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory

An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory

Author: Dominique Sportiche

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-09-30

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 1118470478

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An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory offers beginning students a comprehensive overview of and introduction to our current understanding of the rules and principles that govern the syntax of natural languages. Includes numerous pedagogical features such as 'practice' boxes and sidebars, designed to facilitate understanding of both the 'hows' and the 'whys' of sentence structure Guides readers through syntactic and morphological structures in a progressive manner Takes the mystery out of one of the most crucial aspects of the workings of language – the principles and processes behind the structure of sentences Ideal for students with minimal knowledge of current syntactic research, it progresses in theoretical difficulty from basic ideas and theories to more complex and advanced, up to date concepts in syntactic theory


Prolific Domains

Prolific Domains

Author: Kleanthes K. Grohmann

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9789027227898

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Standard conceptions of Locality aim to establish that a dependency between two positions may not span too long a distance. This book explores the opposite conception, Anti-Locality: Don't move too close. The model of clause structure, syntactic computation, and locality concerns Kleanthes Grohmann develops makes crucial use of derivational sub-domains, Prolific Domains, each encapsulating particular context information (thematic, agreement, discourse). The Anti-Locality Hypothesis is the attempt to exclude anti-local movement from the grammar by banning movement within a Prolific Domain, a Bare Output Condition. The flexible application of the operation Spell Out, coupled with an innovative view on grammatical formatives, leads to a natural caveat: Copy Spell Out. Grohmann explores a theory of Anti-Locality relevant to all three Prolific Domains in the clausal layer as well as the nominal layer, and offers a unified account of Standard and Anti-Locality regarding clause-internal movement and operations across clause boundaries, revisiting successive cyclicity.


The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory

The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory

Author: Mark Baltin

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 880

ISBN-13: 0470756357

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This volume provides a comprehensive view of the current issues in contemporary syntactic theory. Written by an international assembly of leading specialists in the field, these 2 original articles serve as a useful reference for various areas of grammar. Contains 23 articles written by an international assembly of specialists in the field. The lucidly written articles grant accessibility to crucial areas of syntactic theory. Contrasting theories are represented. Contains an informative introduction and extensive bibliography which serves as a reference tool for both students and professional linguists.