Verb Doubling and Dummy Verb

Verb Doubling and Dummy Verb
Author: Johannes Hein
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2020-06-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110635437

This monograph provides the first cross-linguistic study of repair strategies in verbal fronting, verb doubling and do-support, addressing both typological properties and theoretical aspects. First, it brings together data hitherto scattered across the empirical and theoretical literature and adds newly collected data from two African languages. For each of the 47 languages, the properties of verbal fronting are documented in detail. Based on this sample, the empirical part establishes two novel typological generalizations regarding the interaction between the size of the fronted category and the type of repair strategy used. The first of these identifies a systematic typological gap: No language that allows both verb and verb phrase fronting has do-support with the former and verb doubling with the latter. In the theoretical part, it is shown that previous theories of verb doubling/do-support are unable to account for both generalizations. A new approach within the Copy Theory of the Minimalist Framework is developed, that rests on the interaction of head movement, copy deletion, and the properties of different movement types. The book thus provides the first comprehensive empirical and theoretical overview of repair patterns in verbal fronting.

A Grammar of Fongbe

A Grammar of Fongbe
Author: Claire Lefebvre
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 609
Release: 2011-05-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110880180

This book is a reference grammar of Fongbe, a language which is part of the Gbe dialect cluster. It is spoken mainly in the former kingdom of Dahomey, which today comprises the southern areas of Benin and Togo. This book has three objectives: First, its main purpose is to provide a thorough description of the grammar of Fongbe. Second, this book provides language-specific syntactic tests which were developed in the course of this research. Finally, we provide the reader with the most exhaustive list possible of references on Fongbe, and on the Gbe languages in general. This book thus attempts to represent a "state of the art" of the language itself, and of the analyses proposed to account for its particular constructions. This book is of particular interest to Africanists, scholars interested in comparative linguistics or in the reconstruction of language families, and creolists who work on the languages spoken in the Caribbean area.

Auxiliary Verb Constructions

Auxiliary Verb Constructions
Author: Gregory D.S. Anderson
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2006-06-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780199280315

This is the most comprehensive survey ever published of auxiliary verb constructions, as in 'he could have been going to drink it' and 'she does eat cheese'. Drawing on a database of over 800 languages Dr Anderson examines their morphosyntactic forms and semantic roles. He investigates and explains the historical changes leading to the cross-linguistic diversity of inflectional patterns, and he presents his results within a new typological framework.The book's impressive range includes data on variation within and across languages and language families. In addition to examining languages in Africa, Europe, and Asia the author presents analyses of languages in Australasia and the Pacific and in North, South, and Meso-America. In doing so he reveals much that is new about the language families of the world and makes an important contribution to the understanding of their nature and evolution. His book will interest scholars and researchersin language typology, historical and comparative linguistics, syntax, and morphology.

Unaccusativity and the Double Object Construction in Sumerian

Unaccusativity and the Double Object Construction in Sumerian
Author: J. Cale Johnson
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2010
Genre: Sumerian language
ISBN: 364350179X

Sumerian, probably the earliest attested language in human history, has no known cognates. Accordingly, many features of Sumerian grammar are still under discussion. Up to now research has focused primarily on questions of Sumerian phonology and morphology. In this present study the author concentrates on syntactic or pragmatic phenomena, especially on the referential properties of the nominal component of certain so-called compound verbs, the unaccusativity contrast, and the possibility of generic quantification in the double object construction.

The Morphosyntax of Reiteration in Creole and Non-Creole Languages

The Morphosyntax of Reiteration in Creole and Non-Creole Languages
Author: Enoch Oladé Aboh
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2012
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027252661

This is a new contribution to a theory of reiteration in natural languages, with a special focus on creoles. Reiteration is meant to denote any situation where the same form occurs (at least) twice within the boundaries of some linguistic domain. By including two case studies bearing on Hebrew and Breton alongside five chapters on creole languages (Surinam creole, Haitian, Mauritian, São Tomé and Pitchi), this volume brings counter-evidence to the claim that reiteration phenomena are particularly typical of creoles. And by exploring the syntax of reiteration alongside its morphology, the authors are led to challenge the 'iconic' theory of 'reduplication' proposed in several other studies of similar phenomena. This volume will be relevant for creole studies, but also for readers more generally interested in language universals and the architecture of grammars.

Relabeling in Language Genesis

Relabeling in Language Genesis
Author: Claire Lefebvre
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2015
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199945292

"This book presents a coherent picture of the progress that has been made in research on relabeling over the last 15 years"--

Structural Priming in the Grammatical Network

Structural Priming in the Grammatical Network
Author: Tobias Ungerer
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2023-07-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027249539

This book brings together research in cognitive linguistics and experimental psychology to construct a psychologically plausible account of grammar as a mental network. To explore the organisation of this network, the author examines evidence from structural priming, which occurs when speakers’ processing of a grammatical construction is affected by prior exposure to the same or a similar construction. Previous experimental findings are innovatively reinterpreted to shed light on various aspects of the grammatical network, including the strength of the similarities between constructions, the level of abstraction at which they are represented and the ways in which similar constructions can either boost or inhibit each other. Moreover, new experiments are reported that extend structural priming to phenomena like the resultative, the depictive and the caused-motion construction. The book is directed at theoretical linguists, psycholinguists and cognitive psychologists alike, showcasing how recent work in these areas can be integrated and extended.

A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar of English Creoles

A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar of English Creoles
Author: Anand Syea
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2023-11-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1000996824

A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar of English Creoles provides a detailed, comprehensive description of the morphology, grammar, and syntax of a selected number of English creoles, including those spoken on both sides of the Atlantic and the Pacific. This book: • Focuses on a number of traditional grammatical categories to provide a comprehensive description and discussion of these languages; • Identifies not only how creoles differ from their lexifier, but also how they differ from one another; • Provides effective comparative descriptions to enable an insightful understanding of language evolution. This book will be ideal supplementary reading for students and researchers of linguistics, and will particularly appeal to those with an interest in descriptive linguistics, historical linguistics, World Englishes, contact and creole linguistics, and language policy and planning.