QR Obeys Superiority: Frozen Scope and ACD

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, we intend to contribute to the debate on the identification of the features to which syntactic locality expressed in terms of the featural Relativized Minimality/fRM principle appears to be sensitive (Rizzi 2004; Friedmann, Belletti & Rizzi 2009); second, we aim at providing a better characterization of the distributional and interpretive properties of the process of a-marking in the Topic position of the Italian left periphery identified by syntactic cartography, in relation to (in)animacy (Belletti & Manetti 2018). To these aims, we examined the role of animacy in a production experiment eliciting left dislocated topics with 5-year-old children. To the extent that a-marking is related to a kind of affectedness of object topics (Belletti 2018a), we examined whether an inanimate left dislocated object could constitute a felicitous a-Topic. Furthermore, the question whether complexity effects are modulated in the computation of fRM in an animacy mismatch condition (between an inanimate left dislocated object and an intervening (animate) lexical subject) is also addressed within the context of ClLDs. Our results show that, in the tested animacy mismatch condition, children seldom a-marked the pre-posed object. Instead, they appeared to creatively explore other solutions to overcome the production of the hard intervention structure, mainly using null subjects. As children are not ready to compute the intervention configuration with a lexical preverbal subject, but could not naturally adjust it through a-marking of the inanimate topic, they ended up opting for different types of productions in which intervention was eliminated. If the animacy feature seems to be implicated in the process of a-marking to some extent, it is not a feature to which the fRM principle is sensitive in building the object A’-dependency in ClLD: we conclude, in line with previous work, that animacy is not among the features implicated in triggering syntactic movement (in Italian).

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Introducing Continuations

Semantics and Linguistic Theory ◽

10.3765/salt.v11i0.2848 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

pp. 20

Author(s):

Chris Barker

Keyword(s):

Natural Language ◽

Computer Science ◽

Compositional Analysis ◽

New Technique ◽

Quantifier Scope ◽

Scope Ambiguity ◽

Syntactic Movement ◽

Working Paper ◽

A New Technique ◽

Empirical Generalizations

This working paper introduces CONTINUATIONS (a concept borrowed from computer science) as a new technique for characterizing certain aspects of the semantics of a natural language. I should emphasize at the outset that this is just an introduction, and that more a rigorous and thorough treatment is under development (see Barker (ms)). In the meantime, this paper mentions certain formal results without proving them, and describes certain new empirical generalizations without exploring them. What it will do is provide an explicit account of a range of familiar phenomena related to quantification, including quantifier scope ambiguity, NP as a scope island, and generalized coordination. What makes the account noteworthy is that it provides a fully and strictly compositional analysis of quantification and generalized coordination that does not rely on syntactic movement operations such as Quantifier Movement, auxiliary storage mechanisms such as Cooper Storage, or type ambiguity as in Hendriks' Flexible Types system.

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The acquisition of word order in L2 Norwegian: The case of subject and object shift

Nordic Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0332586518000203 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 247-274 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Merete Anderssen ◽

Kristine Bentzen ◽

Guro Busterud ◽

Anne Dahl ◽

Björn Lundquist ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Information Structure ◽

Language Production ◽

The Other ◽

Target Language ◽

Object Shift ◽

Clear Preference ◽

Syntactic Movement ◽

Information Status ◽

Subject And Object

This article reports on a syntactic acceptability judgement study of 59 adult L2/Ln learners of Norwegian and a group of native controls, studying subject and object shift. These constructions involve movement of (mainly) pronominal subjects or objects across negation/adverbs. Both subject shift and object shift display considerable micro-variation in terms of syntax and information structure, dependent on factors such as nominal type (pronoun vs. full DP), function (subject vs. object), and information status (given vs. new/focused). Previous studies have shown that Norwegian children have an early preference for the unshifted position in both constructions, but that they acquire subject shift relatively early (before age 3). Object shift, on the other hand, is typically not in place until after age 6–7. Importantly, children are conservative learners, and never shift elements that should not move in the adult language. The results of the current study show that L2/Ln learners do not make all the fine distinctions that children make, in that they have a clear preference for all subjects in shifted position and all objects in unshifted position, although some distinctions fall into place with increased proficiency. Importantly, unlike children, the L2/Ln learners are not conservative learners; rather, they over-accept syntactic movement in several cases. The equivalent to this in language production would be to apply syntactic movement where it is not attested in the target language, which would be the opposite behaviour to that observed in L1 children.

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Introducing Continuations

Semantics and Linguistic Theory ◽

10.3765/salt.v0i0.2848 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 20

Author(s):

Chris Barker

Keyword(s):

Natural Language ◽

Computer Science ◽

Compositional Analysis ◽

New Technique ◽

Quantifier Scope ◽

Scope Ambiguity ◽

Syntactic Movement ◽

Working Paper ◽

A New Technique ◽

Empirical Generalizations

This working paper introduces CONTINUATIONS (a concept borrowed from computer science) as a new technique for characterizing certain aspects of the semantics of a natural language. I should emphasize at the outset that this is just an introduction, and that more a rigorous and thorough treatment is under development (see Barker (ms)). In the meantime, this paper mentions certain formal results without proving them, and describes certain new empirical generalizations without exploring them. What it will do is provide an explicit account of a range of familiar phenomena related to quantification, including quantifier scope ambiguity, NP as a scope island, and generalized coordination. What makes the account noteworthy is that it provides a fully and strictly compositional analysis of quantification and generalized coordination that does not rely on syntactic movement operations such as Quantifier Movement, auxiliary storage mechanisms such as Cooper Storage, or type ambiguity as in Hendriks' Flexible Types system.

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The Scrambling Paradox

Linguistic Inquiry ◽

10.1162/ling_a_00361 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 51 (4) ◽

pp. 635-669

Author(s):

John Frederick Bailyn

Keyword(s):

Goal Theory ◽

Syntactic Movement ◽

The Core ◽

Relativized Minimality ◽

Weak Islands ◽

Careful Comparison

It has been commonly observed that scrambling and wh-movement share sensitivity to strong movement constraints ( Webelhuth 1989 , Saito 1992 , Bailyn 1995 ). At the same time, the two processes clearly differ in certain other respects, such as wh-island sensitivity, a finding that has inspired a range of analyses of scrambling as entirely distinct from better-understood movement processes ( Müller and Sternefeld 1993 , Bošković and Takahashi 1998 , among many others). Careful comparison of Ā-scrambling and overt wh-movement in a language that shows both (Russian) reveals that this seemingly paradoxical behavior can be captured effectively in a probe-goal theory of scrambling that obeys a form of Relativized Minimality defined across feature classes, following Rizzi 2004 . The resulting analysis exposes the distinct nature of strong and weak islands, with consequences for our understanding of the core architecture of syntactic movement.

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Ditransitive Asymmetries and a Theory of Idiom Formation

Linguistic Inquiry ◽

10.1162/ling_a_00012 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 41 (4) ◽

pp. 519-562 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

Benjamin Bruening

Keyword(s):

Formal Semantics ◽

Complete Theory ◽

Quantifier Scope ◽

Complex Predicates ◽

Double Object ◽

Symmetric Theory

This article discusses three asymmetries in ditransitives—quantifier scope, nominalizations, and idioms—and argues that an asymmetric theory like that advocated by Marantz (1993) and Bruening (2001) is correct. A symmetric theory like that proposed by Harley (1997, 2002) cannot account for the asymmetries. The article also proposes a complete theory of idiom formation based on selection. It also proposes a formal semantics for double object constructions that includes a mechanism for composing complex predicates. This semantics can account for the different readings of again and other modifiers, and can also be extended to nonalternating verbs like deny, spare, envy, and cost, with correct predictions about their behavior.

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In Support of the PHAVE Analysis of the Double Object Construction

Linguistic Inquiry ◽

10.1162/ling_a_00198 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 46 (4) ◽

pp. 703-730 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Heidi Harley ◽

Hyun Kyoung Jung

Keyword(s):

Small Clause ◽

Quantifier Scope ◽

Double Object ◽

Double Object Construction ◽

Object Construction

Pylkkänen ( 2002 , 2008 ) and Bruening (2010a) present several arguments against the ‘‘small clause’’ approach to the double object construction in English, building on the predictions that that proposal makes with respect to the transfer-of-possession entailment, Goal-oriented depictives, nominalizations, subextraction, quantifier scope, and idioms. We argue that the small clause analysis proposed by Harley ( 1995 , 2002 ) in fact makes correct predictions in all these cases. In addition, we point out the existence of previously overlooked parallels between double object structures and have-sentences with respect to depictives, eventive DP complements, and quantifier scope. This motivates an analysis that links these different behaviors to the properties of a single PHAVE element common to both.

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Multiple-Object Tracking

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000085 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 58 (3) ◽

pp. 196-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

K. Botterill ◽

R. Allen ◽

P. McGeorge

Keyword(s):

Object Tracking ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Spatial Location ◽

Multiple Object Tracking ◽

Tracking Performance ◽

Multiple Object

The Multiple-Object Tracking paradigm has most commonly been utilized to investigate how subsets of targets can be tracked from among a set of identical objects. Recently, this research has been extended to examine the function of featural information when tracking is of objects that can be individuated. We report on a study whose findings suggest that, while participants can only hold featural information for roughly two targets this task does not affect tracking performance detrimentally and points to a discontinuity between the cognitive processes that subserve spatial location and featural information.

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