The View from Building 20

The View from Building 20
Author: Kenneth Locke Hale
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1993
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780262581240

These seven original essays commissioned in tribute to MIT Philosophy Professor Sylvain Bromberger present some of the most exciting research being conducted today in linguistics. Each essay is informed by Bromberger's ongoing inquiry into how we "come to know that there are things in the world that we don't know." Included in the collection is the edited version of Noam Chomsky's minimalist paper.

The Serial Verb Construction Parameter

The Serial Verb Construction Parameter
Author: Osamuyimen Thompson Stewart
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1135726744

An investigation of the serial verb construction, this work engages central issues in syntactic theory-complex predicates, clausal architecture and syntactic variation.

Local Modelling of Non-Local Dependencies in Syntax

Local Modelling of Non-Local Dependencies in Syntax
Author: Artemis Alexiadou
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 311029477X

Syntactic dependencies are often non-local: They can involve two positions in a syntactic structure whose correspondence cannot be captured by invoking concepts like minimal clause or predicate/argument structure. Relevant phenomena include long-distance movement, long-distance reflexivization, long-distance agreement, control, non-local deletion, long-distance case assignment, consecutio temporum, extended scope of negation, and semantic binding of pronouns. A recurring strategy pursued in many contemporary syntactic theories is to model cases of non-local dependencies in a strictly local way, by successively passing on the relevant information in small domains of syntactic structures. The present volume brings together eighteen articles that investigate non-local dependencies in movement, agreement, binding, scope, and deletion constructions from different theoretical backgrounds (among them versions of the Minimalist Program, HPSG, and Categorial Grammar), and based on evidence from a variety of typologically distinct languages. This way, advantages and disadvantages of local treatments of non-local dependencies become evident. Furthermore, it turns out that local analyses of non-local phenomena developed in different syntactic theories (spanning the derivational/declarative divide) often may not only share identical research questions but also rely on identical research strategies.

The Morphosyntax of Portuguese and Spanish in Latin America

The Morphosyntax of Portuguese and Spanish in Latin America
Author: Mary A. Kato
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2016-10-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0190629312

Recent trends in syntax and morphology have shown the great importance of doing research on variation in closely related languages. This book centers on the study of the morphology and syntax of the two major Romance Languages spoken in Latin America from this perspective. The works presented here either compare Brazilian Portuguese with European Portuguese or compare Latin American Spanish and Peninsular Spanish, or simply compare Portuguese and its varieties with Spanish and its varieties. The chapters advance on a great variety of theoretical questions related to coordination, clitics , hyper-raising, infinitives, null objects, null subjects, hyper-raising, passives, quantifiers, pseudo-clefts, questions and distributed morphology. Finally, this book provides new empirical findings and enriches the descriptions made about Portuguese and Spanish Spoken in the Americas by providing new generalizations, new data and new statistical evidence that help better understand the nature of such variation. The studies contained in this book show a vast array of new phenomena in these young varieties, offering empirical and theoretical windows to language variation and change.

Inner Aspect

Inner Aspect
Author: Lisa deMena Travis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2010-09-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9048185505

Finishing this book was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. It took far too long from original idea to page proofs and suffered from being relegated to small corners of my life. It was very rarely on the front burner. Since I started working on this topic in 1991, there has been a lot of interesting work done on the areas of the articulation of VP, phrase structure mirroring event structure, the use of functional categories to represent Aktionsart, and many other areas that the research presented here touches on. The hardest thing about doing a project of this size is to accept that not everyone’s ideas can be addressed and not all new research can be incorporated. The only way that I have found it possible to let this book go to press is to reread the Preface to Events in the Semantics of English by Terence Parsons where he writes, ‘‘The goal of this book is neither completeness nor complete accuracy; it is to get some interesting proposals into the public arena for others to criticize, develop, and build on. ’’ My aim in this book is to make connections between various accounts of various constructions in various languages at the risk of treating each of these too lightly. I am grateful to too many people to thank them individually.

Formal Approaches to Languages of South America

Formal Approaches to Languages of South America
Author: Cilene Rodrigues
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2023-05-15
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3031223446

This book analyzes the linguistic diversity of South America based on approaches deeply rooted in the tradition of formal grammar. The chapters brought together in this contributed volume consider native languages all kinds of languages used in the region, including sign languages, indigenous languages and the romance languages (Portuguese and Spanish) originally introduced by European colonizers which underwent processes of transformation giving rise to new, local grammars. One fourth of the language families of the world are located in South America, but the majority of languages in the region are still understudied and out of the radar of theoretical linguistics mostly because their grammars are not well-known by international researchers. This book aims to fill this gap by bringing together studies rooted in the formal grammar approach first developed by Noam Chomsky, which sees language not only as mere corpora attested in oral and written production, but also as expressions of systems of thought and language production which are essential parts of human cognition. The book is divided in three parts – sign languages, romance languages and indigenous languages –, and brings together studies of the following South American languages: Brazilian Sign Language (Libras - Língua Brasileira de Sinais) Argentinian Sign Language (LSA - Lengua de Señas Argentina) Peruvian Sign Language (LSP- Lengua de Señas Peruana) Brazilian Portuguese Chilean and Argentinian Spanish Quechua Paraguayan Guarani A’ingae Macro-Jê languages Formal Approaches to the Languages of South America will be an invaluable resource both for theoretical linguists and cognitive scientists by providing access to top quality research on understudied languages and enabling these languages to be incorporated into comparative studies that can contribute to advance the knowledge of general principles governing all human languages.

Functional Categories in Igbo

Functional Categories in Igbo
Author: Obiamalu, Greg Orji
Publisher: M & J Grand Orbit Communications
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2016-02-22
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9783352717

This study discusses functional categories in Igbo within Noam Chomsky’s Minimalist Program (MP). Chapter 1 includes the introduction of the concept of functional categories and why they take central place in the study of syntax, as well as an overview of the Minimalist Program (MP). Chapter 2 discusses some historical antecedents to MP. It further discusses the economy principles of the MP as well as the place of functional categories within the overall conceptions of the MP model. Chapter 3 discusses five functional categories: Agreement, Tense, Aspect, Negation and Determiner. In chapter 4, the Igbo functional categories within the verbal domain: Tense, Aspect and Negation are discussed. Chapter 5 is an application of the theoretical issues raised in Chapter 2 to the analysis of the functional categories discussed in Chapter 3. One interesting issue discussed in Chapter 5 is the role of tone in realising some of the functional categories in Igbo. Chapter 6 discusses the functional categories within the nominal domain with much emphasis on the determiner. A revised version of the author’s doctoral thesis, some of the conclusions are revolutionary, relevant to debates in the linguistic theory and in Igbo studies in particular, as well as serving as an introduction to MP.

Covert Modality in Non-finite Contexts

Covert Modality in Non-finite Contexts
Author: Rajesh Bhatt
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2006
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 3110179520

Main description: This book investigates the distribution and interpretation of Covert Modality. Covert Modality is modality which we interpret but which is not associated with any lexical item in the structure that we are interpreting. The book analyzes a class of environments that involves covert modality e.g. infinitival questions, infinitival relative clauses, purpose clauses, the 'have to' construction, and the 'is to' construction.

The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora

The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora
Author: Jo Anne Kleifgen
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2009
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1847691331

This book takes a fresh look at subordinated vernacular languages in the context of African, Caribbean, and US educational landscapes, highlighting the social cost of linguistic exceptionalism for speakers of these languages. Chapters describe contravening movements toward various forms of linguistic diversity and offer a comprehensive approach to language awareness in educative settings.

The Lexical Basis of Sentence Processing

The Lexical Basis of Sentence Processing
Author: Paola Merlo
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2002
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9781588111562

This volume highlights current theories of the lexicon from the perspective of its use in sentence understanding. It includes work from researchers in psycholinguistic studies on sentence comprehension.