From negative cleft to external negator

2019 ◽  
pp. 228-248
Author(s):  
Elitzur A. Bar-Asher Siegal ◽  
Karen De Clercq
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
Opening Up

This chapter discusses the diachronic development of the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic negator lāw, which developed from the univerbation between the sentential negator and agreement morphology in negative clefts. Whereas the semantics of negative clefts is retained in the new negator, their biclausal structure is replaced by a monoclausal one with lāw merged in the clausal left periphery. The negator then takes propositional scope and expresses the meaning of external negation (‘it is not the case’). Syntactically, it is merged in SpecFocP in the extended CP-domain, argued to host English negative DPs/PPs and wh-words. Finally, the chapter extends the analysis to Sicilian neca, opening up the route to consider the development of an external negator from a negative cleft as a path of change that has hitherto been left unexplored. This chapter also demonstrates how a similar semantic interpretation associated with two different syntactic structures can be a trigger for syntactic reanalysis.

The rise and development of parenthetical needless to say

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 134-159
Author(s):  
Zeltia Blanco-Suárez ◽  
Mario Serrano-Losada
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
Late Modern

Abstract The article traces the diachronic development of the assumed evidential needless to say. This parenthetical expression allows the speaker to make certain assertions regarding the obviousness of what s/he is about to say, thus serving as an evidential strategy that marks the information conveyed as being based on inference and/or assumed or general knowledge. Parenthetical needless to say has its roots in the Early Modern English needless to-inf construction (meaning ‘it is unnecessary to do something’), which originally licensed a wide range of infinitives. Over the course of time, however, it became restricted to uses with utterance verbs, eventually giving rise to the grammaticalized evidential expression needless to say. In fact, it is only in Late Modern English that the evidential pragmatic inferences become conventionalized and that the first parenthetical uses of the construction are attested. In Present-day English, parenthetical needless to say occurs primarily at the left periphery with forward scope.

Reconsidering the 'Modal Particles' in Modern Greek

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasios Tsangalidis ◽  
Anna Roussou
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Future Subjunctive ◽  
Syntactic Status ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
Finite Verb

AbstractIn the present paper we consider the elements na, a and as, which combine with the finite verb and give rise to a variety of modal readings, such as future, subjunctive, etc. On the basis of their distributional similarities and differences, we argue that the elements under consideration are situated in the left periphery and fall into two categories: a and as have a verbal property, while na has a locative one which also underlies its deictic use. This approach allows us to get a better understanding of their current syntactic status, and also has certain implications regarding their diachronic development (e.g. 'grammaticalization'). Our analysis is consistent with the view that there is no syntactic category 'particle' (Zwicky 1985).

scholarly journals The evolution of subject-verb agreement in Eastern Tukanoan

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Costa Chacon ◽  
Lev Michael
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Family ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Diachronic Development

Abstract This article describes the evolution of past/perfective subject-verb agreement morphology in the Tukanoan family, reconstructing relevant aspects of Proto-Tukanoan verbal morphology and delineating the subsequent diachronic development of verbal subject agreement morphology in the Eastern branch of the family. We argue that suffixes that cumulatively expone past/perfective and person, number, and gender (png) subject agreement resulted from the fusion of post-verbal demonstratives/pronouns expressing png information with suffixes expressing past/perfective tam information. We propose that different png agreement categories developed at successive stages in the diversification of the family, with third person masculine singular subject agreement emerging before other png categories, followed by animate plural agreement, then finally by the development of third person feminine agreement. The result in Eastern Tukanoan was a cross-linguistically unusual agreement system that contrasts four agreement categories: (i) first and second person singular and third person inanimate (singular and plural); (ii) third person animate masculine singular; (iii) third person animate feminine singular; and (iv) third animate plural.

The diachronic development of the verbal bracket construction in German

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-176
Author(s):  
Elena Smirnova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
General Level ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Functional Value ◽  
First Results ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Diachronic Development

Abstract This work-in-progress paper reports the first results of a study dedicated to the investigation of the cognitive status of the sentence bracket construction in German. The project aims at a comprehensive corpus analysis of diachronic data from the Early New High German period (ENHG, 1350–1650). The study focuses on the syntactic structures of German main clauses and is guided by two general research questions. First, on the conceptual level, it addresses the question of whether the sentence bracket construction can be considered a construction in its own right. Second, the paper deals with the issue of the diachronic source(s) of the sentence bracket construction. Based on ENHG corpus data, it examines the role of grammaticalization of verbal auxiliaries in the development of the bracket construction. On a more general level, the objective of the paper is to encourage the discussion on the cognitive status of syntactic phenomena which often escape a straightforward modelling in cognitive and constructionist terms, as they do not seem to bear a particular dedicated semantic and/or functional value.

scholarly journals Translating on Purpose: Domestication in English Translations of Chinese Publicity Materials

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Licheng Lu
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Skopos Theory ◽  
Great Progress ◽  
English Translations ◽  
International Image ◽  
Reform And Opening Up ◽  
Opening Up

English translations of Chinese publicity materials play an important role in introducing China to the outside world and in helping foreigners know more and better about the country. Since the implementation of the Reform and Opening-up Policy in China four decades ago, great progress has been recorded in translating Chinese publicity materials into English. However, poor translations still exist, such as those with linguistic errors, cultural inappropriateness, missing of information, inconsistency in the use of proper names, etc. These problematic translations exert a negative impact on China’s international image and the cross-cultural communication and exchange between China and the outside world. Under such circumstances, the present study proposes the application of domestication in translating Chinese publicity materials into English from the perspective of Skopos theory. Through illustrations with specific examples, three types of domestication are identified, namely, domestication of culturally-loaded words, domestication of syntactic structures and domestication of rhetorical devices.

scholarly journals Teoria gerativa: contexto histórico e perspectivas

2018 ◽  
pp. 21-35
Author(s):  
Gisely Gonçalves De Castro
Keyword(s):  
Generative Grammar ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Syntactic Structures

Este artigo fornece um percurso histórico do empreendimento gerativo, desde o seu surgimento até os desenvolvimentos recentes do Programa Minimalista. O artigo objetiva prover um levantamento compreensivo do campo da Teoria Gerativa e explorar perspectivas para pesquisas futuras. Os fundamentos no qual o presente trabalho se apoia compreendem os textos precursores das diferentes abordagens gerativas: Syntactic Structures (CHOMSKY, 1957), Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (CHOMSKY, 1965), Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar (JACKENDOFF, 1972), Lectures on Government and Binding (CHOMSKY, 1981) e Minimalist Program (CHOMSKY, 1995). Ao final do percurso, indicam-se três perspectivas para as pesquisas de base gerativa: a cooperação interdisciplinar para o estudo da FL, a redução da aparente complexidade da GU e a compreensão dos sistemas que interagem com a linguagem.

scholarly journals On Katz-Postal integrated theory of linguistic descriptions

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Snježana Smodlaka
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Semantic Description ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Linguistic Description ◽  
Integrated Theory ◽  
Semantic Component ◽  
Finite Set ◽  
Structural Descriptions ◽  
Infinite Set

In 1963 J. J. Katz and J. A. Fodor in their »The Structure of a Semantic Theory« encouraged semantic studies and proposed to consider semantics as an integral part of generative grammar. Next year J. J. Katz and P. M. Postal in »An Integrated Theory of Linguistic Description« tried to integrate generative concepts of phonology and syntax proposed by Chomsky with semantics; they also aimed to provide an adequate means of incorporating grammatical and semantic description of a language into one integrated description. Of the three components of any linguistic description syntactic component represents generative source, generates the abstract formal structures that underlie actual sentence; semantic and phonological components operate on the syntactic output, perform independent operations on the syntactic structures and provide respectively semantic interpretation and phonological representation to each of the formal structures generated by the syntactic component. The syntactic component must be a system of rules that enumerates the infinite set of abstract formal structures; the rules assign one or more structural descriptions to each sitring of formatives. The semantic component consists of a dictionary, containing meanings of each lexical item of a language, and a finite set of projection rules. String of formatives is given the meaning from the dictionary; projection rules provide semantic interpretation of each element of the string, combining the meanings according to the syntactic description of the string. This paper explains their theory and proceedings in detail.

scholarly journals The Multidimensional Organization of Speech

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-23
Author(s):  
Marianne Mithun
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
The North ◽  
Prosodic Structures ◽  
Opening Up

Much of our understanding of linguistic structure was necessarily first built up on the basis of isolated sentences, either constructed by analysts or speakers consulting their intuitions, or from written documents. The availability of corpora of unscripted speech is now allowing us to see what speakers actually do, opening up vast new areas for exploration. Some of the advantages described here are the access to prosody and context. The question addressed is how closely traditional syntactic structures, particularly constituent structures, are matched by prosodic structures. Points are illustrated with corpus material from Mohawk, a language indigenous to the North American Northeast.

Pro-drop in interrogatives across older Germanic and Romance languages

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-136
Author(s):  
Federica Cognola ◽  
George Walkden
Keyword(s):  
Romance Languages ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Interrogative Clauses ◽  
Germanic Languages

This chapter investigates the mechanisms of null subject licensing in direct interrogatives, an environment which is generally neglected in investigation into null subjects, using data from a range of early Romance and Germanic languages considered to be asymmetric pro-drop languages, i.e. languages in which null subjects are favoured in main clauses. We find that there is subtle variation between the languages in question, but that two factors in particular – interrogative type and person – are crucial in conditioning this variation, and we sketch analyses based on the differential availability of Agree relations with left-peripheral elements. Therefore, null subjects in main interrogative clauses are licensed in two slightly different manners in the two language families – a fact which we show follows from differences in the structure of their left periphery and in agreement morphology

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