Current Issues in Comparative Grammar

Current Issues in Comparative Grammar
Author: R. Freidin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9400901356

Current Issues in Comparative Grammar illustrates the diversity and productivity of research within the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar. In combination, the papers in this volume address a rich and varied set of issues in the study of comparative grammar, including the theories of binding, case and government, the parametric effects of inflection, the syntactic properties of infinitival constructions, the analysis of expletives and of clitics, and the interpretation of anaphoric properties at the level of Logical Form. The collection employs several different research strategies, ranging from a broad survey of related constructions in a wide range of languages to the close analysis of an unusual construction in a single language and its consequences for the theory of Universal Grammar. Some of the papers collected here are commentaries on others, or responses to commentaries.

Deletion phenomena in comparative constructions

Deletion phenomena in comparative constructions
Author: Julia Bacskai-Atkari
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2018
Genre: English language
ISBN: 3961100837

This book provides a new analysis for the syntax of comparatives, focusing on various deletion phenomena affecting the subclause. In particular, the proposed account shows that Comparative Deletion is merely a surface phenomenon that can be drawn back to the overtness of the comparative operator and the availability of lower copies of a movement chain, and it is thus subject to both language-internal and cross-linguistic variation. The main focus of the book is on English, yet other languages are also discussed for comparative purposes, with the aim of showing what the idiosyncratic properties of English comparatives are.

Voice syncretism

Voice syncretism
Author: Nicklas N. Bahrt
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 340
Release:
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961103194

This book provides a comprehensive typological account of voice syncretism, focusing on resemblance in formal verbal marking between two or more of the following seven voices: passives, antipassives, reflexives, reciprocals, anticausatives, causatives, and applicatives. It covers voice syncretism from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, and has been structured in a manner that facilitates convenient access to information about specific patterns of voice syncretism, their distribution and development. The book is based on a survey of voice syncretism in 222 geographically and genealogically diverse languages, but also thoroughly revisits previous research on the phenomenon. Voice syncretism is approached systematically by establishing and exploring patterns of voice syncretism that can logically be posited for the seven voices of focus in the book: 21 simplex patterns when one considers two of the seven voices sharing the same marking (e.g. reflexive-reciprocal syncretism), and 99 complex patterns when one considers more than two of the voices sharing the same marking (e.g. reflexive-reciprocal-anticausative syncretism). In a similar vein, 42 paths of development can logically be posited if it is assumed that voice marking in each of the seven voices can potentially develop one of the other six voice functions (e.g. reflexive voice marking developing a reciprocal function). This approach enables the discussion of both voice syncretism that has received considerable attention in the literature (notably middle syncretism involving the reflexive, reciprocal, anticausative and/or passive voices) and voice syncretism that has received little or not treatment in the past (including seemingly contradictory patterns such as causative-anticausative and passive-antipassive syncretism). In the survey almost all simplex patterns are attested in addition to seventeen complex patterns. In terms of diachrony, evidence is presented and discussed for twenty paths of development. The book strives to highlight the variation found in voice syncretism across the world’s languages and encourage further research into the phenomenon.

Current Issues in Bilingualism

Current Issues in Bilingualism
Author: Mark Leikin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2011-11-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 940072327X

As populations become more mobile, so interest grows in bi- and multilingualism, particularly in the context of education. This volume focuses on the singular situation in Israel, whose complex multiculturalism has Hebrew and Arabic as official languages, English as an academic and political language, and tongues such as Russian and Amharic spoken by immigrants. Presenting research on bi- and trilingualism in Israel from a multitude of perspectives, the book focuses on four aspects of multilingualism and literacy in Israel: Arabic-Hebrew bilingual education and Arabic literacy development; second-language Hebrew literacy among immigrant children; literacy in English as a second/third language; and adult bilingualism. Chapters dissect findings on immigrant youth education, language impairment in bilinguals, and neurocognitive features of bilingual language processing. Reflecting current trends, this volume integrates linguistics, sociology, education, cognitive science, and neuroscience.

Current Approaches to Syntax

Current Approaches to Syntax
Author: András Kertész
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2019-05-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110540258

Even though the range of phenomena syntactic theories intend to account for is basically the same, the large number of current approaches to syntax shows how differently these phenomena can be interpreted, described, and explained. The goal of the volume is to probe into the question of how exactly these frameworks differ and what if anything they have in common. Descriptions of a sample of current approaches to syntax are presented by their major practitioners (Part I) followed by their metatheoretical underpinnings (Part II). Given that the goal is to facilitate a systematic comparison among the approaches, a checklist of issues was given to the contributors to address. The main headings are Data, Goals, Descriptive Tools, and Criteria for Evaluation. The chapters are structured uniformly allowing an item-by-item survey across the frameworks. The introduction lays out the parameters along which syntactic frameworks must be the same and how they may differ and a final paper draws some conclusions about similarities and differences. The volume is of interest to descriptive linguists, theoreticians of grammar, philosophers of science, and studies of the cognitive science of science.

Current Issues in Spanish Syntax and Semantics

Current Issues in Spanish Syntax and Semantics
Author: Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2012-10-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110850532

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.

Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon

Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon
Author: Lutz Edzard
Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2006
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9783447054416

The papers collected in this volume cover topics from the theoretical perspectives on Semitic linguistics to the practical application of philological methods to various texts. Michael G. Carter opens with some deliberations on Arabic linguistics in its Islamic context. Jan Retso reinvestigates the question of the origins of Arabic dialects. Werner Arnold offers some glimpses of the Arabic dialects in the Tel Aviv region. Janet Watson, Bonnie Glover Stalls, Khalid al-Razihi and Shelagh Weir describe aspects of Razihit, a language variety spoken in north-west Yemen. Sven-Olof Dahlgren presents some statistics on sentential negation in Quranic Arabic. Rosmari Lillas-Schuil deals in-depth with the stylistic . gure hendiadys in Biblical Hebrew. Geoffrey Khan sheds new light on compound verbal forms in north-eastern Neo-Aramaic. Kjell Magne Yri examines the grammaticalization of nouns as postpositions in Amharic. Lutz Edzard analyzes various types of compound formations in Modern Semitic. Pernilla Myrne offers some thoughts on the gender-specific use of sexual vocabulary by women in Classical Arabic. Judith Josephson investigates the Hellenistic heritage of the zan diqa 'heretics'. Gunvor Mejdell gives an overview of the use of the vernacular in modern Egyptian literature. Finally, Tetz Rooke looks at cross-cultural issues in connection with translation problems from Arabic into European languages.

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I

Syntactic architecture and its consequences I
Author: András Bárány
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 562
Release:
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961102759

This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions on the relation of syntax to other aspects of grammar and linguistics more generally, including studies on language acquisition, variation and change, and syntactic interfaces. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in synchronic and diachronic comparative syntax ranging from the core verbal domain to higher, propositional domains.

Pronouns, Clitics and Empty Nouns

Pronouns, Clitics and Empty Nouns
Author: Phoevos Panagiotidis
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9789027227676

Two issues little discussed in the generative literature are the internal structure of pronouns and what it is in Syntax that triggers pronominal reference. This monograph treats these two topics in detail and investigates whether pronominal (strong, weak and clitic pronouns) and related elliptical expressions can be given a unified syntactic representation. The answer, derived from a wealth of cross-linguistic evidence, is largely affirmative: pronominals include a semantically empty noun as part of their internal structure. The case of null subjects in 'pro-drop' languages is also examined and it is argued that they are not empty pronominal categories but, rather, the reflex of a 'verbal determiner'. Finally, using the internal structure of pronouns as a sort of 'litmus paper', the book explores the relationship between functional and lexical heads as well as the notions of selection and licensing in syntax, and offers new insights into the categorial status of functional categories.

Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity II

Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity II
Author: Francesca Di Garbo
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2019
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3961101809

The many facets of grammatical gender remain one of the most fruitful areas of linguistic research, and pose fascinating questions about the origins and development of complexity in language. The present work is a two-volume collection of 13 chapters on the topic of grammatical gender seen through the prism of linguistic complexity. The contributions discuss what counts as complex and/or simple in grammatical gender systems, whether the distribution of gender systems across the world’s languages relates to the language ecology and social history of speech communities. Contributors demonstrate how the complexity of gender systems can be studied synchronically, both in individual languages and over large cross-linguistic samples, and diachronically, by exploring how gender systems change over time. Volume two consists of three chapters providing diachronic and typological case studies, followed by a final chapter discussing old and new theoretical and empirical challenges in the study of the dynamics of gender complexity. This volume is preceded by volume one, which, in addition to three chapters on the theoretical foundations of gender complexity, contains six chapters on grammatical gender and complexity in individual languages and language families of Africa, New Guinea, and South Asia.