Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Ronald M. Kaplan ◽  
Joan Bresnan

Modular design of grammar: Linguistics on the edge presents the cutting edge of research on linguistic modules and interfaces in Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG). LFG has a highly modular design that models the linguistic system as a set of discreet submodules that include, among others, constituent structure, functional structure, argument structure, semantic structure, and prosodic structure, with each module having its coherent properties and being related to each other by correspondence functions. The contributions in this volume represent the broad range and interconnection of theoretical, formal, and descriptive considerations that continues to be the hallmark of LFG.

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
OLEG BELYAEV

In this paper, I analyze two clause combining strategies in Ossetic that exhibit mixed properties between coordination and subordination. I argue that the ‘mismatch approach’ proposed by Culicover & Jackendoff (1997) and Yuasa & Sadock (2002) is best suited to account for their properties. However, in order to adequately describe the behavior of these constructions in terms of the mismatch approach, appealing to three levels of grammar is required instead of two levels (syntax and semantics) discussed in previous works. This provides a clear argument in favor of models of grammar such as Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), where the syntactic level is split between constituent structure (c-structure) and functional structure (f-structure). The properties of semantic coordination and subordination that have been proposed in earlier work mostly belong to the level of f-structure, and not semantics proper. I argue that the only substantial semantic difference between coordination and adverbial subordination is that the former introduces discourse relations between speech acts, while the latter introduces asserted predicates that link two propositions within the same speech act. I provide definitions of coordination and subordination at all the three levels of grammar formalized in terms of the LFG framework, and discuss the tests that can be used for each of these levels.


SOLID ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Sartika Hijriati

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to analyze the semantic types, the characteristics, and the constituent structure and functional structure of Sasak serial verb constructions. The theory of Typology and Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) were used to analyze the data. The data in this research were taken from the uttarances of speakers of meno-mene dialect of Sasak. This study is designed as a descriptive qualitative research. The data were collected through observation, interview, and reflective-introspective methods with recording and elicitation techniques. The results show that Sasak serial verb constructions have ten semantic types, which are motion, direction, instrument, comitative, manner, aspect and mood, benefactive, causative, cause-effect, and synonym. Based on the phonological, morphological and syntactical characteristics, Sasak serial verb constructions have the following characteristics: (1) They fall under one intonation contour, 2) They form mono-clause as a single predicate, 3) They have verb markers that occur only on one verb or each verb obtains the same marker, 4) They share aspect, mood, negation, and 5) They share the same arguments. The analysis of constituent structure and functional structure shows that Sasak serial verb constructions have V-V stucture, and X-COMP or X-ADJ structure.Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis tipe-tipe semantik, ciri-ciri, dan struktur konstituen dan struktur fungsional pada konstruksi verba serial Bahasa Sasak. Teori yang digunakan untuk menganalisis data adalah teori tipologi dan tata bahasa leksikal fungsional. Penelitian ini dirancang sebagai penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Pengumpulan data pada penelitian ini menggunakan metode observasi, wawancara dan introspektif-reflektif dengan teknik rekam dan pancing. Hasil analisis menunjukkan konstruksi verba serial bahasa Sasak memiliki sepuluh tipe semantik untuk menunjukkan gerakan, arah, instrumen, komitatif, kecaraan, aspek dan modal, benefaktif, kausatif, sebab-akibat, dan sinonim. Berdasarkan ciri-ciri fonologis, morfologis dan sintaksis, verba serial Bahasa Sasak memiliki ciri: 1) konstruksi verba serial Bahasa Sasak dilafalkan dalam satu intonasi, 2) konstruksi verba serial Bahasa Sasak ialah monoklausa dan berperilaku sebagai predikat tunggal, 3) pemarkah verba serial Bahasa Sasak pada salah satu atau tiap-tiap verba dengan pemarkah yang sama, 4) verba serial Bahasa Sasak berbagi aspek, modal dan negasi, dan 5) verba serial Bahasa Sasak berbagi argumen dalam konstruksinya. Analisis terhadap struktur konstituen dan struktur fungsional menunjukkan verba serial bahasa Sasak memiliki stuktur V-V dan struktur X-KOMP atau X-ADJ.Keywords: serial verb constructions, Sasak, typology, Lexical Functional Grammar


2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Tamm

This paper discusses telicity and perfectivity in Estonian. Neither of these categories corresponds exactly to the Estonian object case alternation, which is argued to reflect predicate or clause aspectual properties and not the NP-related properties of objects. The aim of this account is to accommodate the systematic compatibility of verb classes with certain clausal aspectual object case marking patterns. The paper proposes a way of understanding the interaction between verbal and clausal aspect in terms of boundedness and formalizes it in the framework of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG). The features of verbs and case markers determine the clausal aspect from different constituents at the syntactic level of constituent structure. The information is unified at another syntactic level, functional structure.


Modular design of grammar: Linguistics on the edge presents the cutting edge of research on linguistic modules and interfaces in Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG). LFG has a highly modular design that models the linguistic system as a set of discreet submodules that include, among others, constituent structure, functional structure, argument structure, semantic structure, and prosodic structure, with each module having its coherent properties and being related to each other by correspondence functions. Following a detailed introduction, Part I scrutinises the nature of linguistic structures, interfaces and representations in LFG’s architecture and ontology. Parts II and III are concerned with problems, analyses and generalisations associated with linguistic phenomena which are of long-standing theoretical significance, including agreement, reciprocals, possessives, reflexives, raising, subjecthood, and relativisation, demonstrating how these phenomena can be naturally accounted for within LFG’s modular architecture. Part IV explores issues of the synchronic and diachronic dynamics of syntactic categories in grammar, such as unlike category coordination, fuzzy categorial edges, and consequences of decategorialization, providing explicit LFG solutions to such problems including those which result from language change in progress. The final part re-examines and refines the precise representations and interfaces of syntax with morphology, semantics and pragmatics to account for challenging facts such as suspended affixation, prosody in multiple question word interrogatives and information structure, anaphoric dependencies, and idioms.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 188
Author(s):  
Yasir Hameed Alotaibi

This paper discusses gapping in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and analyzes this phenomenon through the lexical-functional grammar (LFG) framework. It argues against previous analyses of nonconstituent coordination in LFG, including those proposed by Maxwell & Manning (1996) and Frank (2002) and her followers. The main problem with those analyses is that they violate one of the well-formedness conditions in LFG, which requires the functional structure (f-structure) to be coherent. Therefore, the paper provides a new analysis of gapping in LFG, in which the deleted verb in the second conjunct is analyzed as a null verb that has a PRED value and that indicates the tense in its local clause. 


2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania E. Strahan

The Scandinavian languages are very closely related but also vary syntactically in interesting ways, making this family useful in the study of typology variation. In this paper the issue of non-local reflexives, or ‘long-distance reflexives’ (LDR) is investigated. New LDR data from the Scandinavian languages is presented to show that the Binding Conditions cannot account for the variation in LDR in these languages, since the range of domains that LDR may or may not occur in in each variety varies non-hierarchically. For instance, LDR in Icelandic may be bound out of a finite complement clause but not out of a relative clause, while the reverse is true in most Norwegian dialects. Faroese allows LDR out of both clause types, but many dialects do not allow a second person pronoun to co-occur in a sentence containing LDR, which does not generally affect Icelandic or Norwegian LDR. An extension of Dalrymple's (1993) typology of anaphora, which is set within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar, can account for this data, using a combination of inside-out and outside-in functional uncertainty equations, on- and off-path constraints and positive and negative constraints, all of which refer to elements (potentially) found in functional-structure.


2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-208
Author(s):  
Charles Marfo ◽  
Adams Bodomo

Wh-question fronting and focus constructions in Akan have three structural characteristics in common: constituent fronting, introduction of a clitic morpheme after the fronted constituent, and pronoun resumption in a canonical clause position. In comparing these constructions to each other and to related canonical constructions, one is confronted with the question whether the same discourse-contextual information is consistently expressed in both constructions. Using the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar, we show that both whquestion fronting and focus constructions share representations in the constituent and functional structure. Considering the individual discourse-contextual information expressed in wh-question fronting and focus constructions, as compared to the discourse-contextual information expressed in the respective in situ and canonical clause counterparts, however, we show that a variance is drawn between them in the information structure. In a further constraint-based analysis, Optimality-Theoretic LFG is used to clarify the proposals made.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Made Sri Satyawati ◽  
Ketut Widya Purnawati ◽  
I Nyoman Kardana

Bimanese language is an Austronesian, Malayo Polinesian Language (Arafik 2005). In 1986, Jonker conducted a research on this language. His reseach focused on sintactic structure of the language. Jonker’s analisis (1896) looked similar with Owens’ analisis (2000) that stated there are two common features of the Bimanese as one of the Austronesian language, they are affixing and compounding. With the base features, Owens considered that Bimanese at least has one of the features or even both features as well. His work focused on verb expression and bound arguments in Bimanese clauses. The two problems were analyzed based on Functional Lexical Grammar theory proposed by Kroeger (2005). The theory contains three sintactic aspects, such as functional structure, constituent structure, and argument structure. Data were collected through elicitation and observation method. Elicitation was applied to obtain spoken data while observation method was used to collect written data from texts. Both methods were supported by note taking technique and recording. The collected data were analyzed by substitution and immediate constituent technique. The result shows that Bimanese verbs can express their arguments syntactically by using verb semantic meaning and preposition like labo, kai, wea, and ba-. It was also found that the obligatory arguments in a clause are generally marked with the four markers. 


Author(s):  
Mary Dalrymple ◽  
John J. Lowe ◽  
Louise Mycock

This is the most comprehensive reference work on Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), which will be of interest to graduate and advanced undergraduate students, academics, and researchers in linguistics and in related fields. Covering the analysis of syntax, semantics, morphology, prosody, and information structure, and how these aspects of linguistic structure interact in the nontransformational framework of LFG, this book will appeal to readers working in a variety of sub-fields, including researchers involved in the description and documentation of languages, whose work continues to be an important part of the LFG literature The book consists of three parts. The first part examines the syntactic theory and formal architecture of LFG, with detailed explanation and comprehensive illustration, providing an unparalleled introduction to the fundamentals of the theory. The second part of the book explores nonsyntactic levels of linguistic structure, including the syntax-semantics interface and semantic representation, argument structure, information structure, prosodic structure, and morphological structure, and how these are related in the projection architecture of LFG. The third part of the book illustrates the theory more explicitly by presenting explorations of the syntax and semantics of a range of representative linguistic phenomena: modification, anaphora, control, coordination, and long-distance dependencies. The final chapter discusses LFG-based work not covered elsewhere in the book, as well as new developments in the theory.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Spencer ◽  
Irina Nikolaeva

Many languages have morphological devices to turn a noun into an adjective. Often this morphology is genuinely derivational in that it adds semantic content such as ‘similar-to-N’ (similitudinal), ‘located-on/in’ (locational) and so on. In other cases the denominal adjective expresses no more than a pragmatically determined relationship, as in preposition-al phrase (see the synonymous preposition phrase), often called ‘relational adjectives’. In many languages relational adjectives are noun-to-adjective transpositions, that is, adjectival forms (‘representations’) of nominals. In some languages and constructions they retain some of the noun-related properties of the base. For example, the base can be modified by an attribute as though it were still a syntactically represented noun, giving rise to what we will call ‘syntagmatic category mixing’. We also find instances of ‘paradigmatic category mixing’ in which the derived adjectival form retains some of the inflectional morphology (case and/or number and/or possessive) of its base noun, as in a number of Uralic and Altaic languages. We address this kind of categorial mixing within the descriptive framework for lexical relatedness proposed in Spencer (2013) . A true transposition has a complex ‘semantic function’ (sf) role, consisting of the semantic function role of the derived category overlaid over that of the base. We explain how the complex semantic structure role of noun-to-adjective transpositions maps onto c-structure nodes, using the syntactic framework of Lexical Functional Grammar.


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