Against a uniform analysis of adnominal possessives in Jordanian Arabic: Evidence from nominal ellipsis

Arabic has two models of adnominal possession: the Construct State and the Free State. Despite their superficial differences, these constructions are traditionally given a uniform analysis, in which their base-generated structures are identical, with differences residing in the movement operations that affect the possessor and the noun. This paper argues against a uniform analysis, based on new evidence from Noun Phrase Ellipsis. Specifically, I argue that the possessor in the Construct State merges in complement position of the possessum, whereas in the Free State, the possessor is an adjunct attached to a higher functional projection above the possessum. An important consequence of this analysis is that a possessor can be introduced in a headcomplement relation.

Wh-P and the Intervention Effect of negation

Following the Government and Binding theory mainly developed by Chomsky (1981, 1982, 1986), I explore wh-P and the Intervention Effect of negation in Late Archaic Chinese (LAC). I propose that the inverted order of wh-P in LAC is generated via PP inversion followed by the separate preposing of wh and P. The wh-complement raises to [Spec, PP] and further moves to the specifier position of a functional projection. If the wh-PP is base-generated preverbally, the preposition moves to the head position of the functional projection directly; if the wh-PP is base-generated postverbally, the preposition must first incorporate to a V0 and then move to the head position of the functional projection through excorporation. In terms of the Intervention Effect, wh-arguments and adverbials that usually move to the Low focus position below negation are subject to a blocking effect caused by negation, so these wh-phrases have to land in the High focus position above negation which is expected to accommodate ‘high’ adverbials exclusively. I argue that the Intervention Effect in LAC is a consequence of Q-binding as feature movement of [wh], interacting with fronting into the hierarchy of clause-internal positions driven by [Focus] feature.

Punctual time adverbials in Italian

In past and future perfect sentences, punctual time adverbials like at five o’clock can specify either the Event Time or the Reference Time. In Italian, their interpretation is affected by syntactic position: a clause-peripheral adverbial allows for both interpretations, while a clause-internal adverbial only has the E-interpretation. Moreover, for clause-peripheral adverbials the presence of the adverb già (already) blocks the E-interpretation. It is shown that this pattern can be accounted for under a smuggling analysis, in which (i) the adverbial is merged as a DP in a functional projection intervening between T and the subject in the edge of v/VP, thus blocking Agree between them; (ii) smuggling of v/VP past the adverbial solves the intervention effect; and (iii) an E-adverbial originates in a projection below già (already), while an R-adverbial originates in a projection above it. A compositional semantic analysis is provided for the proposed syntactic structure.

Number-based noun classification

Nilo-Saharan languages are well-known for their complicated system of nominal number marking, which features a variety of singulative and plural affixes (Dimmendaal 2000). Even though these systems have received some attention in the typological literature, there has been limited theoretical work on their implications for the morphosyntax of number cross-linguistically. The goal of this paper is to fill this gap, by providing an analysis of nominal number morphology in Kipsigis (Nilotic, Kenya), based on data from original fieldwork. First, I show that singulatives in Kipsigis are true allomorphs of singular number, unlike singulatives with a classifier function in languages like Ojibwe (Mathieu 2012). The descriptive term ‘singulative’ is therefore misleading, as it corresponds to two very different types of morphemes. Second, I claim that the tripartite system of number marking of Kipsigis and other Nilo-Saharan languages is due to the classification of nouns into morphosyntactic classes defined by the presence of inherent number features on little n; the interaction of these features with interpretable number features on the functional projection Num (Ritter 1991 a.o.) in the post-syntactic component gives rise to the exponence pattern that we observe. Finally, my analysis corroborates the existence of noun classification based on number, which has only been argued for Kiowa-Tanoan before (Harbour 2007). The existence of three number classes in Kipsigis can only be explained by reference to bivalent number features; number-based noun classification systems thus strongly support the view that number features are bivalent and not privative, which is also argued by Harbour (2007, 2011) for Kiowa.

Wenn {aber} der Topf {aber} nun ein Loch hat ...

While the literature on adversative aber in German to date has almost exclusively focused on independent clauses, and at best treated its occurrence in adverbial clauses in passing as a variant of postinitial aber in independent clauses (M´etrich and Courdier 1995, Pasch et al. 2003), the current paper focuses on the distribution and interpretation of adversative aber in adverbial clauses. It is shown that aber can have two different scopes, either contrasting two clauses, or two smaller contituents. These scopes are shown to have different prosodic correlates. It is argued that aber occupies the specifier of a functional projection in the upper middle field, and that it interacts with the mapping from syntax to prosody. Some displacements are argued to be interface-driven, to enable constituents to reach or avoid positions where they can be assigned a (contrastive) pitch accent. The diachronic development of adversative aber is shown to interact with the diachronic development of the Wackernagel position for unstressed pronouns.

A minimalist approach to the syntax of p

This paper proposes a minimalist analysis of locative prepositions in Central Catalan, from a comparative perspective. Specifically, I claim that certain semantic and syntactic properties that are usually considered part of the field of the extended projection of PPs in cartographic approaches (categories like Place, Degree, K, and AxPart, for example) are in fact properties of the DP in the complement of a preposition. This claim takes the view that adpositions are a functional projection that relates two DPs, the Figure and the Ground, and not a lexical head that projects a functional domain on its own, as Ns, Vs or As (cf. den Dikken 2010; Koopman 2000). The final part of the paper proposes a model to account for the variation that locative prepositions exhibit across Romance languages following the Conjecture of Borer (1984) (known as the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture since Baker 2008). More precisely, I propose a model in which microparametric differences among Romance simple locative prepositions depend on the particular composition of features in p.

Back to restitutives (again): A syntactic account of restitutive and counterdirectional verbal particles in Hungarian

This paper discusses two Hungarian verbal particles that belong to the semantic group of repetitive elements. The main focus is on the verbal particle újra ‘again’, which has primarily been discussed as an adverb with repetitive and restitutive meanings (with the exception of Csirmaz 2015) but can be a verbal particle, which is distinct both from the adverb and from most other verbal particles. The verbal particle vissza ‘back’, which expresses counterdirectionality will be claimed to be like typical, primarily directional verbal particles and to be a part of the result component of the argument structure. Újra ‘again’ as a verbal particle is analyzed on a par with some non-directional particles and idiomatic resultative phrases that are inserted into the structure in a functional projection below the external argument.

The diachrony of participles in the (pre)history of Greek and Hittite

This article discusses two case studies of diachronic “voice flipping” in which the syntax of a participle appears to change from active or “subject-oriented” to passive (Ancient Greek ‑menos to Modern Greek ‑menos) and from resultative/stative to active (Proto-Indo-European *-nt-; Hittite ‑ant‑ vs. Ancient Greek ‑nt‑). While the first type of change is the result of a diachronic reanalysis by which a functional projection (VoiceP) is lost, the second type in fact adds an active Voice head. Both changes are the result of the simultaneous availability of a stative and an eventive reading in deverbal adjectival forms and could belong to a larger “participle cycle”. However, unlike in other changes usually discussed under the label “cycle”, unidirectional economy principles do not apply in these cases. Rather, these cases provide evidence that some types of morphosyntactic change, especially those related to event and argument structure, are driven by reanalysis of the feature content of functional heads under local structural ambiguity.

The syntax of the addressee in imperatives: What Levantine Arabic attitude datives bring to the table

The imperative subject constitutes a special category compared to the subjects of other types of clauses in that it is required to be the addressee. Zanuttini (2008) argues that this requirement follows from a special syntactic status: imperative subjects enter the computation with gender and number but no person features. They acquire a second-person specification later by entering an agreement relation with the head of a jussive phrase, a functional projection that is unique for imperative clauses and that occupies the left periphery. This paper provides independent evidence from attitude dative constructions in Levantine Arabic in support of this approach. Attitude datives are optional pronominal elements that make pragmatic contributions to utterances without altering their meaning. The paper shows that attitude datives whose referent coincides with the referent of the subject are less restricted in terms of the interpretation they may receive in imperative versus other types of clauses. Imperative clauses are more permissive, a characteristic that follows from the special status of their subject.

NP/DP Parameter and Classifier Languages: A Case of Magahi

The paper presents the structural evidence for the existence of DP in the article-less language, Magahi. Article-less languages can be divided into two types: class languages and non-class languages. Most of the debate surrounding the treatment of article-less languages as DP/NP languages see only the binary distinction (article and non-article languages). In this paper, it is argued that the class-languages present richer structural evidences for the presence of the functional projection above NP. Along with presenting few structural evidences against the generalization presented by Bošković (2005), language-independent motivation for the functional projection like DP is also discussed. It is also argued that merit of the projection of the DP is also semantically justified. The argument that there can be various functional projections in the extended projection of NP weakens the strongest claim that article-less languages lack DP.