Two Types of Resumptive Pronouns in Swahili

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Tessa Scott
Keyword(s):  
Resumptive Pronouns ◽  
Parasitic Gaps ◽  
Person Features

In this article, I demonstrate that Swahili distinguishes two types of resumptive pronouns: (a) lower Ā-movement copies and (b) base-generated bound pronouns. These two types of resumptive pronouns are morphologically distinct: the presence of (local) person features reflects a base-generated derivation, and the absence of person features reflects Ā-movement. Crucial evidence comes from local person pro-nominal clefts derived from islands (bound pronoun context) and parasitic gaps (movement copy context). Inspired by Van Urk 2018, I analyze this pattern using Landau’s (2006) theory of chain reduction in which only movement copies create chains and are then subject to an algorithm that deletes person features.

scholarly journals Resumptive pronouns in Tuki

1990 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-236
Author(s):  
Edmond Biloa
Keyword(s):  
Weak Crossover ◽  
Resumptive Pronouns ◽  
Parasitic Gaps

This paper argues that in Tuki, gaps construed with WH- or topicalized phrases are null resumptive pronouns rather than WH-traces. Gaps alternate with overt resumptive pronouns. Structures with a gap parallel analogous structures with overt resumptive pronouns with regard to subjacency violations and violations of the Condition on Extraction Domains of Huang [1982], coordination tests, and weak crossover phenomena: gaps and overt pronominals fail to produce weak crossover violations, unlike structures with quantified NP's. Moreover, both the gaps and the overt resumptive pronouns license parasitic gaps, further strengthening the analogy.

Syncretism of plural forms in Spanish Dialects

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Mare
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Person Features ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
First Person Plural ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Third Person ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Spanish Dialects

Abstract One of the main discussions about the interaction between morphology and syntax revolves around the richness or poverty of features and wherever this richness/poverty is found either in the syntactic structure or the lexical items. A phenomenon subject to this debate has been syncretism, especially in theories that assume late insertion such as Distributed Morphology. This paper delves into the syncretism observed between the first person plural and the third person in the clitic domain in some Spanish dialects. Our analysis will lead to a revision of the distribution of person features and their relationship with plural number, while at the same time it will shed light on other morphological alternations displayed in Spanish dialects; that is, subject-verb unagreement and mesoclisis in imperatives. In order to explain the behavior of the data under discussion, I propose that lexical items are specified for all the relevant features at the moment of insertion, although the values of these features can be neutralized. I argue that the distribution proposed allows for some fundamental generalizations about the vocabulary inventories in Spanish varieties, and shows that the variation pattern exhibits an *ABA effect, i.e., only contiguous cells in a paradigm are syncretic.

scholarly journals Understanding Syntactic and Semantic Errors in the Composition Writing of Jordanian EFL Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 158
Author(s):  
Yazan Shaker Almahameed ◽  
May Al-Shaikhli
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Resumptive Pronouns ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Semantic Errors ◽  
Verb Tense

The current study aimed at investigating the salient syntactic and semantic errors made by Jordanian English foreign language learners as writing in English. Writing poses a great challenge for both native and non-native speakers of English, since writing involves employing most language sub-systems such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation. A total of 30 Jordanian English foreign language learners participated in the study. The participants were instructed to write a composition of no more than one hundred and fifty words on a selected topic. Essays were collected and analyzed statistically to obtain the needed results. The results of the study displayed that syntactic errors produced by the participants were varied, in that eleven types of syntactic errors were committed as follows; verb-tense, agreement, auxiliary, conjunctions, word order, resumptive pronouns, null-subject, double-subject, superlative, comparative and possessive pronouns. Amongst syntactic errors, verb tense errors were the most frequent with 33%. The results additionally revealed that two types of semantic errors were made; errors at sentence level and errors at word level. Errors at word level outstripped by far errors at sentence level, scoring respectively 82% and 18%. It can be concluded that the syntactic and semantic knowledge of Jordanian learners of English is still insufficient.

scholarly journals Null Subjects in Early Icelandic

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Kinn ◽  
Kristian A. Rusten ◽  
George Walkden
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Late Stage ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Person Features ◽  
History Of

This paper investigates the possibility of subject omission in the history of Icelandic, including the syntactic and pragmatic conditions under which it could arise. Based on regression analysis of substantial data drawn from the IcePaHC corpus, we provide robust quantitative support for Hjartardóttir's (1987) claim that null subjects persist until a very late stage in Icelandic. We also argue, contra Sigurðsson (1993), that only one licensing mechanism is needed for null subjects in early Icelandic. Moreover, on the basis of the position of the null subjects and their person features, we argue that the modern stage, where (predominantly 3rd person)pro-drop yields to a system permitting topic drop of all persons, arises in Icelandic in the early twentieth century.*

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