Passives and Middles in Mainland Scandinavian
Passives and Middles in Mainland Scandinavian

Author: Antonio Fábregas

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-03-23

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 3110670933

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This monograph explores the properties of passive and middle voice constructions in Norwegian and Swedish, concentrating on the linguistic variation related to these two constructions in Mainland Scandinavian. At an empirical level, we provide a detailed discussion of the morphosyntax and semantics of the two main types of passives in both languages, lexical (s-) and periphrasitic (bli-) passives. At a theoretical level, we propose an architecture of the language faculty where exponents play a central role. Exponents are selected to identify the structures generated by the grammar and provide a platform that make these units interpretable by the sensori-motor and conceptual-intentional interfaces. Exponents this play an essential role in determining the well-formedness of linguistic structures. We demonstrate how different syntactic structures identified and lexicalized by exponents in these two languages are capable of capturing the microvariation observed in the voice systems of these two languages in a straightforward way. The amount of linguistic information (i.e., aspect and mood) identified by each exponent in each language determines the types of complements and specifiers that can be integrated into and lexicalized by a given exponent. Although our approach shares certain affinities with other neo-constructionist approaches, a novel proposal we advance in this book is that exponents are housed in an intermediate level of structure that exists between the narrow syntax and its external interfaces. This exponency-level (Ʃ-structure) allows for a more parsimonious theoretical analysis that does not sacrifice descriptive adequacy.

Morphologically Derived Adjectives in Spanish
Morphologically Derived Adjectives in Spanish

Author: Antonio Fábregas

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2020-11-15

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 9027260338

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This is the first book that presents a complete empirical description and theoretical analysis of all major classes of derived adjectives in Spanish, both deverbal and denominal. The reader will find here both a detailed empirical description of the syntactic, morphological and semantic properties of derived adjectives in contemporary Spanish and a cohesive Neo-Constructionist analysis of the syntactic and semantic tools that contemporary Spanish has available to build adjectives from other grammatical categories within a Nanosyntactic-oriented framework. In doing so, this book sheds light on the nature of adjectives as a grammatical category and argues that adjectives are syntactically built by recycling functional heads belonging to other categories. The book will be useful both to researchers in Spanish linguistics or theoretical morphology and to advanced students of Spanish interested in the main ways of building new adjectives through suffixation in this language.

Demoting the Agent
Demoting the Agent

Author: Benjamin Lyngfelt

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9027233608

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Passives, middles, and other voice phenomena are issues at the core of modern linguistic research. This volume brings together different perspectives on voice different theoretical viewpoints, different languages, and different kinds of voice phenomena. The eleven articles each make a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion, offering new data, new analyses, and bringing new light to long-standing issues. In combination, they present a multi-faceted and yet coherent picture of the topics at hand.

Issues in Formal German(ic) Typology
Issues in Formal German(ic) Typology

Author: Werner Abraham

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2002-04-22

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 9027297606

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This book takes up a variety of general syntactic topics, which either yield different solutions in German, in particular, or which lead to different conclusions for theory formation. One of the main topics is the fact that languages that allow for extensive scrambling between the two verbal poles, V-2 and V-last, need to integrate discourse functions like thema and rhema into the grammatical description. This is attempted, in terms of Minimalism, thus extending the functional domain. Special attention is given to the asymmetrical scrambling behavior of indefinites vs. definites and their semantic interpretation. Related topics are: Transitive expletive sentences, types of existential sentences with either BE or HAVE, the that-trace phenomenon and its semantics, negative polarity items, ellipsis and gapping, passivization, double negation — all of which have extensive effects both on distributional behavior and semantic disambiguation, reaching far beyond effects observable in English with its rigid, ‘un-scrambable’ word order.

Advances in Comparative Germanic Syntax
Advances in Comparative Germanic Syntax

Author: Artemis Alexiadou

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 9027255245

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The present volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 21st and 22nd Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop held at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Stuttgart. The contributions provide insightful discussions of several topics of current interest for syntactic theory on the basis of comparative data from a wide range of contemporary and historical Germanic languages. The theoretical issues explored include: the left periphery, with a number of contributions touching on the pros and contras of cartographic accounts; different aspects of word order and how it arises from movement and clause structure; the interplay of thematic relations and case theory with the realization of DPs; and the treatment of finiteness and modal structures. This book is of interest to syntacticians working in a comparative perspective and to advanced undergraduates.

Structures of Focus and Grammatical Relations
Structures of Focus and Grammatical Relations

Author: Jorunn Hetland

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-02-06

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 3110949482

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The seven articles of this volume take up crucial aspects of information structure and grammatical form. Special attention is paid to the definition of topic, focus and contrast, to the language specific devices for expressing different types of these information structural notions, and to the typological characterisation of languages as to discourse configurationality. The investigation of grammatical relations includes the interplay between syntactic functions, morphological case and thematic structure, and the study of the functional and formal complexity of passive in Germanic languages.

New Trends in Nordic and General Linguistics
New Trends in Nordic and General Linguistics

Author: Martin Hilpert

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-02-17

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 3110267934

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This book offers a survey of current work in Nordic and General Linguistics, with a special focus on language contact. The papers in this book were presented at the 11th International Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics (ICNGL) in Freiburg. The ICNGL conference series aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas on Scandinavian and other languages, between researchers from the Nordic countries and elsewhere. The present volume focuses on language contact, which has always been a topic of great interest in Nordic Linguistics. Additionally, the contributions in this book address issues of phonology, morpho-syntax, syntax, and grammaticalization. The book is meant to be a snapshot of Nordic Linguistics as it is practiced today, reflecting at the same time its established research traditions as well as its forages into new methodologies and theories.

The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics
The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics

Author: Michael T. Putnam

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-04-16

Total Pages: 1207

ISBN-13: 1108386350

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The Germanic language family ranges from national languages with standardized varieties, including German, Dutch and Danish, to minority languages with relatively few speakers, such as Frisian, Yiddish and Pennsylvania German. Written by internationally renowned experts of Germanic linguistics, this Handbook provides a detailed overview and analysis of the structure of modern Germanic languages and dialects. Organized thematically, it addresses key topics in the phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics of standard and nonstandard varieties of Germanic languages from a comparative perspective. It also includes chapters on second language acquisition, heritage and minority languages, pidgins, and urban vernaculars. The first comprehensive survey of this vast topic, the Handbook is a vital resource for students and researchers investigating the Germanic family of languages and dialects.

Germanic Languages and Linguistic Universals
Germanic Languages and Linguistic Universals

Author: John Ole Askedal

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2009-02-04

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 9027287686

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For sale in all countries except Japan. For customers in Japan: please contact Yushodo Co. The Senshu University Project The Development of the Anglo-Saxon Language and Linguistic Universals has as its general aim the investigation of structural characteristics common to the Germanic languages, such as English, German, Norwegian, and Icelandic, all of which are descended from the so-called Proto-Germanic language, and their clarification with regard to linguistic universals provided by the theoretical framework of Generative Grammar. In order to fulfill this aim, the project has to be responsive to theoretical advances in a variety of linguistic domains and approaches, such as language acquisition, pragmatics and corpus linguistics as well as philological and historical contributions on Germanic languages in various stages of their development. The present book seeks to advance these goals in ten chapters exemplifying work on a wide range of Germanic languages and linguistic universals. It is divided into three parts: Part 1. Old English and Germanic languages; Part 2. Generative Grammar; and Part 3. Pragmatics and Corpus Linguistics. Germanic Languages and Linguistic Universals will be of general interest to linguists who seek to understand the nature of the Germanic languages and the relationships obtaining between them.