scholarly journals The Welsh of Jesus and Job: Verb-second in Middle Welsh

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Borsley
Keyword(s):  
Second Order ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Finite Clause ◽  
Finite Verb

Middle Welsh is a VSO language with the verb before the subject in all kinds of finite clause. However, positive declarative main clauses normally show verb-second order with a constituent of some kind before the finite verb. There are questions about the nature of this restriction. There are also questions about subject-initial sentences, which show surprising agreement properties, whether the subject is a topic or a focused constituent. All these questions can be given plausible answers within HPSG.

The scope of embedded Verb Second in modern Yiddish

2020 ◽  
pp. 665-681
Author(s):  
Molly Diesing ◽  
Beatrice Santorini
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Embedded Clauses ◽  
Finite Verb

Embedded Verb Second (V2) clauses have been analysed as embedded main clauses or in terms of selection. This chapter presents data from both corpora and native speaker judgements showing that Verb Second order in embedded clauses in Yiddish goes well beyond what can be explained by either of the above approaches, with V2 possible and attested in interrogatives as well as declaratives. Adjunction of adverbials to V2 clauses is possible as well, yielding orders with the finite verb in third position (V3). But V3 resulting from lack of verb movement, as is seen in Mainland Scandinavian and (optionally) in Icelandic, is not found.

The finite clause

2019 ◽  
pp. 155-208
Author(s):  
Jan Terje Faarlund
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Object Shift ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
The Subject ◽  
T Domain ◽  
Subject Role ◽  
Finite Clause ◽  
Finite Verb

The topic of this chapter is the T-domain. The specifier of TP is the subject position. The finite verb never appears in T on the surface. In subordinate clauses it remains in V; in main clauses it moves on to C. There is an obligatory subject requirement for all finite, non-imperative clauses. In cases where no argument raises to SpecTP, a non-referential element is used to fill the subject role. There are two kinds of passives, a periphrastic one with an auxiliary and the perfect participle, or one derived from the reflexive form of the verb. The passive subject may be any nominal complement, including the complement of some prepositions, stranding the preposition. Sentence adverbials are left-adjoined to VP. By object shift an unstressed pronoun is shifted across the sentence adverbial if no other material intervenes. Negated objects cannot occur in VP, and have to be replaced by the negation above VP.

Partial inversion in English

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kay ◽  
Laura Michaelis
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Lexical Analysis ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Core Areas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Finite Clause ◽  
Partial Inversion ◽  
Subject Raising ◽  
Finite Verb ◽  
Hard Cases

A typical finite clause in English has a single constituent that serves as subject. This constituent precedes the finite verb in non-inverted clauses like simple declarative clauses, follows the finite verb in inverted clauses like polar questions, agrees in person and number with the finite verb and with a tag subject when a tag is present, undergoes subject raising, and so on (Postal 2004). Five constructions violate these generalizations and in the literature have called into question the identity of the subject constituent. In each of these five constructions the finite verb agrees with a following constituent in a declarative clause despite the fact, among others, that the constituent preceding the verb exhibits subject behaviors of the kind identified by Keenan (1976). To the authors’ knowledge, despite intensive analysis of several of these patterns, the group as a whole has not been subject to prior study. The constructions are: Presentational Inversion (e.g., On the porch stood marble pillars), Presentational there (e.g., The earth was now dry, and there grew a tree in the middle of the earth, Deictic Inversion (e.g., Here comes the bus), Existential there (e.g., There’s a big problem here) and Reversed Specificational be (e.g., The only thing we’ve taken back recently are plants). The approach of Sign-Based Construction Grammar (Sag 2012) enables us to establish precisely what all five patterns have in common and what is particular to each, revealing that a constructional, constraint-based approach can extract the correct grammatical generalizations, not only in ‘core’ areas of a grammar, but also in the hard cases, where concepts such as subject, which readily handle the more tractable facts, fail to fit the facts at hand. We see further that the five split-subject patterns, sometimes identified as clausal, yield to a strictly lexical analysis.

Two locations for negation

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 205-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadaf Munshi ◽  
Rajesh Bhatt
Keyword(s):  
Verb Second ◽  
High Position ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Finite Verb ◽  
Structural Positions

Kashmiri has two structural positions for negation: a high position associated with focus and a low position associated with tense. In verb second environments, the difference between these two positions is neutralized on the surface and irrespective of the location where negation is generated, it appears as a suffix on the finite verb. But in non-verb second environments such as conditionals and correlatives the two negations can be teased apart. In these environments, the high negation appears as a suffix on material such as relative phrases and the conditional marker while the low negation appears as a suffix on the finite verb. The high vs. low distinction has semantic implications: in certain environments where the negation is arguably ‘expletive’, negation can only be high.

scholarly journals Featural definition of syntactic positions: Evidence from hyper-raising

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzana Fong
Keyword(s):  
Phase Problem ◽  
Matrix Clause ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Embedded Clause ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Finite Clause

Hyper-raising consists in raising a DP from an embedded finite clause into the matrix clause. HR introduces a phase problem: the embedded clause is finite, which is supposed to be impervious to raising. This can be overcome by postulating A-features at the C of the the embedded clause. They trigger the movement of the subject to [Spec, CP]. Being at the edge of a phase, it is visible to a matrix probe. If successful, this analysis provides support for the claim that syntactic positions are not inherently A or A-bar; they can be defined featurally instead.

Rethinking Verb Second and Nominative case assignment

2020 ◽  
pp. 575-593
Author(s):  
Ermenegildo Bidese ◽  
Andrea Padovan ◽  
Alessandra Tomaselli
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Nominative Case ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Spreading Model ◽  
Traditional Argument ◽  
Case Licensing ◽  
Finite Verb

Cimbrian is a German(ic) VO heritage language that does not display the linear V2 restriction: the DP subject can show up before the finite verb together with other constituents, while German-like verb-subject inversion only obtains with clitic pronouns. In recent literature on Cimbrian, pronominal subject inversion has been taken as a traditional argument in favour of mandatory V-to-C movement (assuming a split-C configuration). Building on this assumption, the syntax of the enclitic expletive subject, -da/-ta, (which shows up whenever the DP subject does not raise in the C-domain) makes the Cimbrian data particularly relevant, since it casts light on the correlation between V2 and Nominative case licensing. The stance in this chapter is that Nominative case in Cimbrian is assigned by C—as generally assumed for Germanic V2 languages—but in an idiosyncratic way: (i) it applies within the C domain, i.e. FinP; (ii) expletive -da/-ta absorbs Nominative case and acts as a defective goal with respect to the ‘low’ subject. On the basis of the feature-spreading model in Ouali (2008), the phasal head C in Cimbrian is taken to ‘KEEP’ its relevant ϕ‎- and T-features, to assign Nominative case in [Spec,FinP], and to triggering mandatory V-movement.

Optimal Sequential Detection of Stimuli from Multiunit Recordings Taken in Densely Populated Brain Regions

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 895-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Nossenson ◽  
Hagit Messer
Keyword(s):  
Order Statistics ◽  
Single Neuron ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Detection Scheme ◽  
Second Order Statistics ◽  
Optimal Detector ◽  
Electrode Voltage ◽  
The Subject ◽  
High Pass

We address the problem of detecting the presence of a recurring stimulus by monitoring the voltage on a multiunit electrode located in a brain region densely populated by stimulus reactive neurons. Published experimental results suggest that under these conditions, when a stimulus is present, the measurements are gaussian with typical second-order statistics. In this letter we systematically derive a generic, optimal detector for the presence of a stimulus in these conditions and describe its implementation. The optimality of the proposed detector is in the sense that it maximizes the life span (or time to injury) of the subject. In addition, we construct a model for the acquired multiunit signal drawing on basic assumptions regarding the nature of a single neuron, which explains the second-order statistics of the raw electrode voltage measurements that are high-pass-filtered above 300 Hz. The operation of the optimal detector and that of a simpler suboptimal detection scheme is demonstrated by simulations and on real electrophysiological data.

Information Structure: The final hurdle?

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lieke Verheijen ◽  
Bettelou Los ◽  
Pieter de Haan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Side Effect ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Structural Function ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
The Subject

Although texts produced by (very) advanced Dutch learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) may be perfectly grammatical, they often feel distinctly non-native. Dutch, as a verb-second language, makes separate positions available for discourse linking and aboutness-topics. Although the English sentences of these advanced learners conform to the subject-verb-object order of English, the pre-subject adverbial position in English is made to perform the information-structural function of the verb-second discourse-linking position, producing texts that are perceived as non-native, without being ungrammatical. A side-effect of this L1 interference is the underuse of special focusing constructions in English, like the stressed-focus it-cleft. This paper investigates the progress of Dutch writers towards a more native-like use of the pre-subject position and the it-cleft in a longitudinal corpus of 137 writings of Dutch university students of English. We conclude that information-structural differences present the final hurdle for advanced Dutch EFL writers.

Null referential subjects in the history of Swedish

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Håkansson
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Movement Strategies ◽  
Old Swedish ◽  
History Of ◽  
Striking Change ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Person Agreement

This article is concerned with null referential subjects in Old Swedish (ca. 1225–1526), and addresses the problem of why the scope for such subjects has been reduced during the history of Swedish. Within diachronic syntax it has been a common assumption that syntactic change is caused by changes in morphology. However, this study shows that deflexion only to a limited extent can explain the loss of null referential subjects in Old Swedish, since the most striking change in their use seems to take place during Early Old Swedish (ca. 1225–1375) before the loss of person agreement: whereas referential subjects could be omitted from verb-second main clauses and subordinate clauses in Early Old Swedish, in Late Old Swedish corresponding subjectless clauses are uncommon. Within the framework of generative grammar it is argued that this is an effect of changes in movement strategies to the subject position, [Spec, IP]: whereas movement to the subject position is syntactically determined in Modern Swedish, in Early Old Swedish the corresponding move is pragmatically determined. The study is based on a corpus of approximately 193,400 words, collected from 12 Old Swedish texts.

Verb-third in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-98
Author(s):  
Katerina Somers
Keyword(s):  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
The Status ◽  
Finite Verb

Abstract This article investigates the status of so-called verb-final declaratives in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch, with a focus on whether clauses in which there is no apparent subordinator and the finite verb occurs later than the expected verb-first or verb-second position can be treated as verb-third (V3) clauses, as they are defined for Old High German in works such as Axel (2007) and Tomaselli (1995). Drawing on a set of 746 clauses, I argue that there is no evidence that the finite verbs in these clauses have undergone verb movement, as is claimed in the aforementioned works, nor are the asyndetic verb-late clauses with a verb in surface third position consistent with the patterns identified in the generative literature for the V3 type.

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