Evolution of Syntactic Theory in Sanskrit Grammar: Syntax of the Sanskrit Infinitive -tum UN

Language ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 492
Author(s):  
Dorothy Disterheft ◽  
Madhav M. Deshpande
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Sanskrit Grammar

A lambda calculus with naive substitution

1979 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Staples
Keyword(s):  
Lambda Calculus ◽  
Classical Case ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
New Formulation

AbstractAn alternative approach is proposed to the basic definitions of the lassical lambda calculus. A proof is sketched of the equivalence of the approach with the classical case. The new formulation simplifies some aspects of the syntactic theory of the lambda calculus. In particular it provides a justification for omitting in syntactic theory discussion of changes of bound variable.

Morpho-syntactic Variation in Romance v: A Micro-parametric Approach

Probus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-437
Author(s):  
Ángel J. Gallego
Keyword(s):  
Romance Languages ◽  
Parametric Approach ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
University Of Leiden ◽  
Parametric Variation ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Auxiliary Selection ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Syntactic Properties

AbstractThis paper discusses a series of morpho-syntactic properties of Romance languages that have the functional projection vP as its locus, showing a continuum that goes from strongly configurational Romance languages to partially configurational Romance languages. It is argued that v-related phenomena like Differential Object Marking (DOM), participial agreement, oblique clitics, auxiliary selection, and others align in a systematic way when it comes to inflectional properties that involve Case-agreement properties. In order to account for the facts, I argue for a micro-parametric approach whereby v can be associated with an additional projection subject to variation (cf. D’Alessandro, Merging Probes. A typology of person splits and person-driven differential object marking. Ms., University of Leiden, 2012; Microvariation and syntactic theory. What dialects tell us about language. Invited talk given at the workshop The Syntactic Variation of Catalan and Spanish Dialects, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, June 26–28, 2013; Ordóñez, Cartography of postverbal subjects in Spanish and Catalan. In Sergio Baauw, Frank AC Drijkoningen & Manuela Pinto (eds.), Romance languages and linguistic theory 2005: Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’, Utrecht, 8–10 December 2005, 259–280. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007). I label such projection “X,” arguing that its feature content and position varies across Romance. More generally, the present paper aims at contributing to our understanding of parametric variation of closely related languages by exploiting the intuition, embodied in the so-called Borer-Chomsky Conjecture, that linguistic variation resides in the functional inventory of the lexicon.

scholarly journals Recursion and the Definition of Universal Prosodic Categories

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng ◽  
Laura J. Downing
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Current Controversy ◽  
Syntactic Representation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Prosodic Categories ◽  
Phonological Phrase

It is widely agreed that prosodic constituents should mirror syntactic constituents (unless high-ranking prosodic constraints interfere). Because recursion is a feature of syntactic representations, one expects recursion in prosodic representations as well. However, it is of current controversy what kinds of syntactic representation motivate prosodic recursion. In this paper, the use of Phonological Phrase recursion is reviewed in several case studies, chosen because prosodic recursion mostly does not reflect syntactic recursion as defined in current syntactic theory. We provide reanalyses that do not appeal to prosodic recursion (unless syntactically motivated), showing that Phonological Phrase recursion is not necessary to capture the relevant generalizations. The more restrictive use of prosodic recursion we argue for has the following conceptual advantages. It allows for more consistent cross-linguistic generalizations about the syntax–prosody mapping so that prosodic representations more closely reflect syntactic ones. It allows the fundamental syntactic distinctions between clause (and other phases) and phrase to be reflected in the prosodic representation, and it allows cross-linguistic generalizations to be made about the prosodic domain of intonational processes, such as downstep and continuation rise.

Pronominal Feature Re-assembly: L1 and L2 Pronoun Resolution of Spanish Epicene and Common Gender Antecedents

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-320
Author(s):  
Andie Faber ◽  
Luiz Amaral ◽  
Marcus Maia
Keyword(s):  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Reading Test ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Feature Reassembly ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Cognitive Cost

Abstract In this paper, we propose the implementation of a full-fledged feature-based lexicalist syntactic theory as a way to represent the possible configurations of features in the learner’s interlanguage and formalize a theory of acquisition based in feature reassembly. We describe gender agreement pronominal coindexation in Spanish using Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) and use it to analyze the results of a self-paced reading test with L1 and L2 speakers. We find that the specification of the gender feature value at the syntactic level in epicene antecedents facilitates pronominal resolution in L1 Spanish speakers. Conversely, there is a cognitive cost when the gender feature is underspecified at the syntactic level in common gender antecedents; this cost is not found among L2 speakers. The detailed descriptions in terms of feature specification in the HPSG framework allow us to observe differences between the L1 and L2 grammars in fine-grained detail and represent optionality at the lexical level.

scholarly journals Toward a Unified Grammar of Reference

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Longobardi
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Science ◽  
Unified Theory ◽  
Present Account ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Topological Mapping ◽  
Mapping Theory ◽  
Do So

AbstractThe unification of traditionally distinct and apparently unrelated objects of inquiry under common more abstract principles is one of the most welcome results of empirical science. This article proposes to draw together some insights of Longobardi (1994, 1996, 2001) into a unified theory of object- and kind-reference viewed as a single grammatical phenomenon, though crosslinguistically parametrized. The present account aims to improve both in accuracy and explanatory force over those outlined in the articles just cited. To do so, the combined leading intuitions of such works are first spelt out, in section 6, into a deeper generalization about the form/meaning relation in nominals and later deduced from a more principled mapping theory, proposing that a syntactically specified position, traditionally labeled D, is responsible in many languages for one of human fundamental linguistic abilities, reference to individuals (Topological Mapping Theory). After the unification of the syntactic mechanisms available for reference to individuals, virtually all other distinctions simply follow precisely from that between the two varieties of such entities (kinds and objects) previewed in Carlson’s (1977a) ontology, indirectly confirming its continuing heuristic power, and from widely accepted economy conditions of recent syntactic theory.

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