Instruments and Related Concepts at the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Instruments and Related Concepts at the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Author: Koen Van Hooste
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2018-04-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110720361

Instruments constitute a classic member of the thematic role inventory, yet they are usually analyzed only peripherally, taking a back seat to the more studied members such as Agent and Patient. This dissertation investigates the semantic reality behind the label instrument from the functionalist perspective of Role & Reference Grammar. Starting from a theoretical investigation of what instrumentality truly means when contrasted with related concepts like comitatives, this book explores the morphosyntactic realization of instruments across a wide range of typologically diverse languages. Apart from the standard occurrences of instruments that come to mind from languages such as Latin, German or English, this book delves into several less common constructions that feature the instrument relation. Such constructions include, amongst others, passives with instruments and particularly the Instrument-Subject Alternation, a construction where the instrument seemingly appears as the subject of the sentence. This construction displays variation along three dimensions: 1) The instrument can vary from a very simple tool to a complicated machine, 2) the predicate can vary substantially and 3) languages differ widely with respect to the construction's acceptability. This makes for a complex playing field where the animacy of the instrument but also the aktionsart class of the predicate play a major role. The last section of this book deals with linking the semantics of instruments and related concepts to their morphosyntactic realizations, including the various encoding strategies that are available in any given language. This book also features a concise introduction to Role & Reference Grammar. Dissertations in Language and Cognition: This series explores issues of mental representation, linguistic structure and representation, and their interplay. The research presented in this series is grounded in the idea explored in the Collaborative Research Center 'The structure of representations in language, cognition and science' (SFB 991) that there is a universal format for the representation of linguistic and cognitive concepts.

Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Author: Robert D. van Valin, Jr.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2005-07-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781139445375

Language is a system of communication in which grammatical structures function to express meaning in context. While all languages can achieve the same basic communicative ends, they each use different means to achieve them, particularly in the divergent ways that syntax, semantics and pragmatics interact across languages. This book looks in detail at how structure, meaning, and communicative function interact in human languages. Working within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), Van Valin proposes a set of rules, called the 'linking algorithm', which relates syntactic and semantic representations to each other, with discourse-pragmatics playing a role in the linking. Using this model, he discusses the full range of grammatical phenomena, including the structures of simple and complex sentences, verb and argument structure, voice, reflexivization and extraction restrictions. Clearly written and comprehensive, this book will be welcomed by all those working on the interface between syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Syntax–Semantics Interface

Syntax–Semantics Interface
Author: Eva Hajičová
Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2018-03-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 8024637146

The volume SYNTAX-SEMANTICS INTERFACE is a collection of selected studies written by Eva Hajičová and published between the years 1973 and 2014. The contributions are based on the theoretical framework of the Functional Generative Description as proposed by Petr Sgall in early sixties and developed further by him and his followers since then. Thematically, the volume reflects the author’s research contributions to four main domains: (i) the specification of the underlying (deep) sentence structure (analyzed in terms of dependency relations), (ii) the information structure of the sentence (topic-focus articulation) and its relation to the specification of presupposition and negation and to other related phenomena, (iii) building of a scheme of annotated corpus of Czech to serve among other things for verification of linguistic theoretical claims, and (iv) some fundamental aspects of discourse structure, namely the notion of the hiearachy of elements in the stock of knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer. All the papers except for one have been originally published in English and in they pay due respect to a comparison of the author’s original findings with the currrent state-of-the-art of linguistic theory at home and abroad.

Explorations of the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Explorations of the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Author: Jens Fleischhauer
Publisher: Düsseldorf University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9783957580009

The articles in this volume present original research on the encoding of meaning in a variety of constructions and languages. Many of the contributions take the framework of Role and Reference Grammar as a point of reference, either by applying it to the analysis of linguistic data or by discussing, extending, and challenging some of its assumptions. The topics of the articles range from general questions concerning the relation of meaning and its syntactic realization to the study of specific grammatical phenomena in a number of typologically diverse languages, including Yucatec Maya, Kabardian, Tagalog, Murik-Kopar, Avatime, Whitesands, Tundra Yukaghir, and various Indo-European languages. The articles will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working on the interface between syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Interrogative Phrases and the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Interrogative Phrases and the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Author: I. Comorovski
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9401586888

Interrogative Phrases and the Syntax-Semantics Interface starts by analyzing the interpretation of interrogative phrases in single and multiple constituent questions, including their interpretation under adverbs of quantification. The results are then put to work in a novel approach to some of the constraints on dependencies between fronted interrogative phrases and the associated gaps: superiority, weak crossover, as well as the so-called `weak islands' (the WH-island, the negative island and the Factive Island). It is argued that the possibility of fronting an interrogative phrase out of these configurations is determined by a semantic/pragmatic condition on questions, which requires them to be answerable. The analysis is worked out principally on Romanian, a language which allows multiple wh-fronting. The results are then extended to English. Audience: Researchers and students in syntax, semantics and their interface, as well as linguists studying the relation between the acceptability of sentences and the larger discourse context.

Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Author: Robert D. van Valin, Jr.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2005-07-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521010566

While all languages can achieve the same basic communicative ends, they each use different means to achieve them, particularly in the divergent ways that syntax, semantics and pragmatics interact across languages. Written within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar, which proposes a set of rules to link semantic and syntactic relations to each other, this book discusses in detail how structure, meaning, and communicative function interact in human languages. Clearly written and comprehensive, it will be welcomed by all those working on the interface between syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar

The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar
Author: Delia Bentley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1014
Release: 2023-06-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1009353551

Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) is a theory of language in which linguistic structures are accounted for in terms of the interplay of discourse, semantics and syntax. With contributions from a team of leading scholars, this Handbook provides a field-defining overview of RRG. Assuming no prior knowledge, it introduces the framework step-by-step, and includes a pedagogical guide for instructors. It features in-depth discussions of syntax, morphology, and lexical semantics, including treatments of lexical and grammatical categories, the syntax of simple clauses and complex sentences, and how the linking of syntax with semantics and discourse works in each of these domains. It illustrates RRG's contribution to the study of language acquisition, language change and processing, computational linguistics, and neurolinguistics, and also contains five grammatical sketches which show how RRG analyses work in practice. Comprehensive yet accessible, it is essential reading for anyone who is interested in how grammar interfaces with meaning.

Agent-Oriented Manner Adverbials in German

Agent-Oriented Manner Adverbials in German
Author: Ekaterina Gabrovska
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2024-08-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110755149

The work offers a new perspective on the semantics of agent-oriented manner adverbials, actions and intentionality. It proposes a treatment of these adverbials which accounts for their impact on the manner of the event as well as for their agent-orientation. The analysis is developed in a case study of German sorgfältig (‘carefully’) and vorsichtig (‘cautiously’) and makes use of the philosophical concept of action-plans. It is proposed that the modifier sorgfältig has impact on the given goal of the agent while vorsichtig introduces an additional goal of minimizing risk. The modification of the goal restricts the possible methods of realization of the action, i.e. the manner of action. The analysis makes use of Goldman’s Theory of Human Action and is spelled out in Düsseldorf Frame Theory, including extensions in the form of Cascade Theory and the semantic adaptation of models of intention from the philosophical literature. Altogether, the formalization involves a detailed representation of actions and plans, i.e. of intentionality, necessary to capture the complexity of a number of modification phenomena.

Semantics - Interfaces

Semantics - Interfaces
Author: Claudia Maienborn
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 706
Release: 2019-02-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110587297

Explore the exciting research where semantics meets morphology, syntax and pragmatics. In this book, leading researchers use in-depth articles to explain a wide range of topics at these interfaces, including the semantics of intonation, inflection, compounding, argument structure, type shifting, compositionality, implicature, context dependence, deixis and presupposition. Now in paperback for the first time since its original publication, the highly cited material in this book is an ideal starting point for anyone interested in semantics where it crosses over with other dimensions of grammar.