Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories

Language ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 231
Author(s):  
Michael A. Covington ◽  
Keith Brown ◽  
Jim Miller ◽  
Peter V. Lamarque
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Theories

scholarly journals Syntactic Theories in Practice

2001 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 358-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Danvy ◽  
Lasse R. Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Theories

scholarly journals Tunnekausatiivilauseen argumenttirakenne I

Virittäjä ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saara Huhmarniemi
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Generative Syntax ◽  
Embedded Clause ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Syntactic Theories

Tunnekausatiivilauseet luokitellaan usein omaksi lausetyypikseen, johon kuuluu tunnetta tai tuntemusta ilmaiseva verbi (tunnekausatiivi), partitiivisijainen kokija ja nominatiivimuotoinen aiheuttaja. Tunnekausatiivilauseen aiheuttaja- ja kokija-argumenttien asemaa syntaktisessa rakenteessa on pidetty avoimena kysymyksenä ja rakenteen on arvioitu jopa olevan muutoksessa. Tässä artikkelissa käydään generatiivisen kieliopin kehyksessä läpi argumentti-rakenteeseen liittyviä kieliopillisia testejä, jotka koskevat esimerkiksi kongruenssia, anaforien sidontaa ja sanajärjestystä. Testien perusteella voidaan havaita, että kun tunnekausatiivilauseen aiheuttaja on NP, se sijaitsee tyypillisesti argumenttirakenteessa ylempänä kuin partitiivimuotoinen kokija. Tätä tulosta verrataan Suomi24-korpusaineistosta tehtyihin havaintoihin, joiden perusteella kokija esiintyy useammin verbin edellä kuin aiheuttaja. Tunnekausatiivilauseen sanajärjestyksen vaihtelun katsotaan olevan sidoksissa puhetilanteeseen ja argumenttien ominaisuuksiin.  Tämä artikkeli on osa kahden artikkelin sarjaa. Sarjan toisessa osassa tarkastellaan lausemaisten aiheuttajien asemaa tunnekausatiivilauseen argumenttirakenteessa.   The argument structure of the Finnish experiencer construction I: An NP causer This article investigates the Finnish experiencer construction, which involves a psychological predicate and two optional arguments: the nominative causer and the partitive experiencer. The argument structure of the Finnish experiencer construction has ­remained an open question in syntactic theories. In this paper, several grammatical tests concerning congruence, binding and word order are applied in the framework of generative syntax. They suggest that when the nominative causer is an NP, it typically occupies a higher position in the argument structure than the partitive experiencer. This result is evaluated against data from the Suomi24 corpus, which reveals that the partitive experiencer occurs preverbally more frequently than the nominative causer. The article asserts that the word order of the Finnish experiencer construction reflects contextual factors and discourse features of the arguments. This article is the first in a series of two. The second article investigates experiencer constructions with an embedded clause as a causer argument.

Glue semantics for HPSG

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ash Asudeh ◽  
Richard Crouch
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Quantifier Scope ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Scope Ambiguity ◽  
Lexical Functional Grammar ◽  
Highly Efficient ◽  
Glue Semantics ◽  
Syntactic Theories

‎The glue approach to semantic interpretation has been developed principally for Lexical Functional Grammar. Recent work has shown how glue can be used with a variety of syntactic theories and this paper outlines how it can be applied to HPSG. As well as providing an alternative form of semantics for HPSG, we believe that the benefits of HPSG glue include the following: (1) simplification of the Semantics Principle; (2) a simple and elegant treatment of modifier scope, including empirical phenomena like quantifier scope ambiguity, the interaction of scope with raising, and recursive modification; (3) an analysis of control that handles agreement between controlled subjects and their coarguments while allowing for a property denotation for the controlled clause; (4) re-use of highly efficient techniques for semantic derivation already implemented for LFG, and which target problems of ambiguity management also addressed by Minimal Recursion Semantics. 

Linguistic intuitions and the puzzle of gradience

2020 ◽  
pp. 233-254
Author(s):  
Jana Häussler ◽  
Tom S. Juzek
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Inquiry ◽  
Syntactic Theories ◽  
Linguistic Intuitions

This chapter addresses the question of whether gradience in acceptability should be considered evidence for gradience in grammar. Most current syntactic theories are based on a categorical division of grammatical versus ungrammatical sentences. In contrast, acceptability intuitions, that is, the data used to build those theories, have long been recognized to be gradient. The chapter presents two experiments collecting acceptability ratings for 100 sentences extracted from papers published in Linguistic Inquiry. The results show a gradient pattern. It is argued that this gradience in acceptability is highly unlikely to be due to methodological and other known extra-grammatical factors. Unless another factor can be identified, it seems reasonable to assume that the observed gradience comes (also) from the grammar. Furthermore, the chapter presents a proposal concerning diacritics, according to which the traditional asterisk is reserved for ungrammaticality only, and a new diacritic (“^”) indicates reduced acceptability.

21. Conclusions: On the use of the comparison of syntactic theories

2019 ◽  
pp. 573-582
Author(s):  
András Kertész ◽  
Csilla Rákosi
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Theories

Syntactic Categorization of Roots

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terje Lohndal
Keyword(s):  
Building Block ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Distributed Morphology ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Fundamental Building Block ◽  
The Status ◽  
Relevant Category ◽  
Syntactic Theories

A root is a fundamental minimal unit in words. Some languages do not allow their roots to appear on their own, as in the Semitic languages where roots consist of consonant clusters that become stems or words by virtue of vowel insertion. Other languages appear to allow roots to surface without any additional morphology, as in English car. Roots are typically distinguished from affixes in that affixes need a host, although this varies within different theories. Traditionally roots have belonged to the domain of morphology. More recently, though, new theories have emerged according to which words are decomposed and subject to the same principles as sentences. That makes roots a fundamental building block of sentences, unlike words. Contemporary syntactic theories of roots hold that they have little if any grammatical information, which raises the question of how they acquire their seemingly grammatical properties. A central issue has revolved around whether roots have a lexical category inherently or whether they are given a lexical category in some other way. Two main theories are distributed morphology and the exoskeletal approach to grammar. The former holds that roots merge with categorizers in the grammar: a root combined with a nominal categorizer becomes a noun, and a root combined with a verbal categorizer becomes a verb. On the latter approach, it is argued that roots are inserted into syntactic structures which carry the relevant category, meaning that the syntactic environment is created before roots are inserted into the structure. The two views make different predictions and differ in particular in their view of the status of empty categorizers.

Cognitive Constraints on the Order of Subject and Object in German

1985 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Zubin ◽  
Klaus-Michael Köpcke
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Performance Factors ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Syntactic Theories

The ordering of subject and object, especially in the so-called clause "middle-field," is a perennial problem both for the grammar of German, and for syntactic theories of linearization. While formalist accounts (e.g. Engel, 1977) and semantic accounts (e.g. Lerenz, 1977a) have made valuable contributions to an understanding of S/O order, their monocausal approaches have only limited descriptive adequacy. This paper presents evidence that the ordering of S and O in the clause middle-field in German results from the interaction of multiple cognitive performance factors: agency, animacy, situational definiteness, and contextual givenness.

Syntactic theories and syntactic methodology: a reply to Seuren

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 637-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM CROFT
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Syntactic Representation ◽  
Radical Construction ◽  
Syntactic Theories

In his review of Radical Construction Grammar: syntactic theory in typological perspective (Croft 2001), Pieter Seuren argues that the theory of syntactic representation argued for in that book is fundamentally misguided. S also raises a number of general methodological and philosophical issues, as well as some empirical data, which he claims are problematic for RCG. I begin by dealing with the general critique, then turn to S's discussion of the specific major theses of RCG and his empirical data.

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