Modality in the nominal domain: Yalnhej DPs in Chuj

How do modal expressions determine which possibilities they invoke? Do they do it the same way across categories? Recent work proposes that modal auxiliaries project the domain of possibilities that they quantify over from an event variable, which can get different values in different syntactic positions (Hacquard 2006, 2009, 2010, see also Kratzer 2013). Based on the behaviour of the Spanish random choice indefinite uno cualquiera, Alonso-Ovalle & Menéndez-Benito (2018) conclude that the same strategy is available for modal indefinites. This paper brings evidence from Chuj, an understudied Mayan language, which supports this conclusion further. The paper focuses on yalnhej DPs, a type of quantifier that makes a non-upper bound existential claim and that contributes a modal component with a flavour that depends on syntactic position.

Expletive negation in exclamatives – Evidence from Hungarian

This paper examines expletive negation in root clauses (surprise negation sentences and wh-exclamatives) in Hungarian. We argue that Hungarian has three distinct negation positions, each corresponding to a truth-reversal operation on a different level. When the negator nem ‘no’ is merged in the CP layer (in the head position of the Speaker Deixis Phrase), this yields surprise negation sentences, corresponding to negation at the level of presuppositions (expletive negation). The negator being merged as the head of NegP within the extended TP yields standard negation (at the propositional level). In wh-exclamatives, the negator is head-adjoined to T0, which results in negation at the level of implicatures (expletive negation). In addition to pointing out this mapping between syntactic position and semantic-pragmatic interpretation, we also argue that the data from Hungarian present a strong case against a raising analysis of expletive negation.

Defining Definiteness in Turoyo

This paper puts forth an expanded typology of definiteness marking, which includes not only ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ but also ‘super-weak’. It also proposes a methodology for identifying ‘super-weak’ definites, and applies it to Ṭuroyo, an endangered Semitic language. Data from questionnaires and interviews shows that Ṭuroyo’s definite article has a very wide distribution, including anti-uniqueness effects with exclusives, suggesting ‘super-weak’ status. Syntactic factors also affect their distribution: We find definiteness-spreading uses with demonstratives and possessives, even in non-contrastive environments, and superlative adjectives appear to compete for the article’s syntactic position. On the semantic side, we propose that Ṭuroyo’s definiteness-markers are not ‘weak’ but ‘super-weak’ articles. To explain their anaphoric uses, typical of ‘strong’ articles, we propose that the typology is arranged as a cline ordered by entailment, so that stronger articles entail weaker ones.

Pronominalization and Expectations for Re-Mention: Modeling Coreference in Contexts With Three Referents

The relationship between pronoun production and pronoun interpretation has been proposed to follow Bayesian principles, combining a comprehender’s expectation about which referent will be mentioned next and their estimate of how likely it is that a potential referent will be re-mentioned using a pronoun. The Bayesian Model has received support from studies in several languages (English, Mandarin Chinese, Catalan, German), but tested contexts have been limited to two event participants, whereas natural language discourse often involves contexts with more than two event participants. In this study, we conducted three story continuation experiments to assess how the Bayesian Model performs in more complex contexts. Our results show that even in contexts with three event participants, comprehenders can behave rationally when interpreting pronouns, but that they appear to require sufficient context to build up a coherent representation of the situation to do so. In addition to testing the basic claim of the Bayesian Model (Weak Bayes), we test the central prediction of the Strong form of the hypothesis: that the two components of the model (next-mention expectations and choice of referring expression) are influenced by dissociated sets of factors. In a model comparison, Experiments 2 and 3 confirm the closest fit from the Bayesian Model, which supports Weak Bayes, and none of our experiments find evidence that the predictability of a referent affects pronominalization rates, which corroborates Strong Bayes. Finally, we test whether the rate of pronominalization is sensitive to factors related to ambiguity and argument/adjunct status of referents; we find that participants vary their production of pronouns most strongly based on the grammatical role of the antecedent (subject or not), with a smaller effect from the presence/absence of a gender-matched competitor and no effect from the syntactic position of this competing referent.

Potentials for grammaticalization

This paper discusses the grammaticalization of motion verbs in Mandarin. A class of motion verbs in Mandarin that regularly appears at either V1 or V2 position in the V1+V2 construction is only grammaticalized at the V2 position, where the verb becomes a directional complement. We provide a cognitive semantic account and propose a new hypothesis that we call the syntactic position and event type sensitivity hypothesis in grammaticalization. We analyze corpus data across five historical stages for 11 simplex directional complements. The analysis draws on Talmy’s macro-event theory and Lehmann’s grammaticalization parameters. It is concluded that motion verbs at the V1 position are most likely to have agentive subjects, which foregrounds the idea of motion in V1, while V2 focuses on the Agent’s purpose. Motion verbs at V2 are relatively more likely to have non-agentive subjects, which foregrounds the Path element in V2 and complements the action of V1, rather than the purpose of the Agent. What triggers the grammaticalization of the V2 is the foregrounding of the Path element in V2, which complements the action of V1, and its non-agentive subject.

Interfaces in the returnees’ heritage language: Is the complete (re-)activation possible?

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The aim of this study is to examine whether the complete (re-)activation of interface domains in the heritage language (HL) is possible or whether interfaces are likely to preserve features typical for the HL even after many years of residing in the country of origin. Design/methodology/approach: We present the group analysis of direct object marking in Turkish, which is a morphology-syntax-pragmatics interface, of Turkish-German returnees, who returned to Turkey after puberty and have been residing in the country for a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 34 years, and compare them with the control group consisting of Turkish speakers who have been living in Turkey all their lives. Data and analysis: The data were collected using a narrative task, a completion task and a grammaticality judgement task, and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings/conclusions: The analysis of the narrative task revealed that the returnee participants used case-marking on direct objects productively depending on the discourse and syntactic position of the direct object in their heritage Turkish. However, their performance on the completion and grammaticality judgement tasks diverged from those of the control group. These findings can be considered as a piece of evidence that interface domains stay obstinate to complete (re-)activation and may preserve features typical for the HL many years after the return to the country of origin. Originality: The study suggests relevance of the Interface Hypothesis to the process of HL (re-)activation. Significance/implications: The study contributes to the research on the HL development of returnees after their return to the country of origin.

Connectors as emotive signs

This chapter is a contribution to exploring the interrelations between syntactic position, semiotic status, and pragmatic function. Ways of identifying the kind of expressivity encoded by sentence-final connectors and related phenomena like the ‘et ceteras’ are discussed, focusing on German triple und ‘and so on’ from a cross-linguistic perspective. Expressivity is effected by an interplay of factors: the innovative sentence-final placement of a connector, the status of the sentence-final connector as emotive sign (Marty 1908), and its function as a general extender. This interplay leads to rigid ‘packages’ which surface in lexical entries like triple und and multiple et cetera. It is argued that und und und, like other sentence-final particles, belongs to the class of Wackernagel elements, which recently have emerged in sentence-final position. Triple und is linked to the on-going discussion of the functions of the left and right sentence peripheries.

Restricted and Unrestricted Syntactic Distribution of ar in Bangla

This approach examines the syntactic distribution of ar in Bangla language. Apparently, it seems to occur almost every plausible position across a clause. It may occur clause initially, internally and finally. In some extreme cases, it may occur with each word in a clause. This surface observation does not specify what its exact syntactic distribution is. So, its across clause distributional phenomenon is controversially disputed. In this paper, I shall argue that ar can be restrictedly and unrestrictedly distributed in their respective contexts, thus its apparent multiple syntactic position is a misconception. However, each syntactic distribution either restricted or unrestricted producing a distinct semantic interpretation has specific significance depending on its particular contextual circumstances. This investigation aims at enunciating how every plausible interpretation of ar can be determined based on its restricted and unrestricted syntactic distribution only which in turn reflects its forming of a constituent with the elements following it in a clause. It also shows that the distribution of ar in Bangla is both syntactically and semantically determined.

Category Mismatches in Coordination Vindicated

Bruening and Al Khalaf (2020) deny the possibility of coordination of unlike categories. They use three mechanisms to reanalyze such coordination as involving same categories: conjunction reduction, supercategories, and empty heads. We show that their attempt leaves many cases of unlike category coordination unaccounted for and we point out various methodological, technical, and empirical problems with their proposal. We conclude that the so-called Law of the Coordination of Likes is a myth. Instead, all conjuncts must satisfy any external restrictions on the syntactic position they occupy. Such restrictions may be rigid, resulting in categorial sameness, but when they are underspecified or disjunctive, category “mismatches” may arise.

Processing possessives in simultaneous interpreting from English to Polish

The present paper reports on an experiment in which the use of possessives is investigated in an interpreting task from English to Polish. The English possessive determiner system is neutral with respect to the syntactic position of the antecedent possessor, while Polish distinguishes lexically between locally bound – i.e. reflexive – and non-reflexive possessive modifiers. The interpreter therefore has to ‘compute’ mentally the syntactic position of the antecedent possessor in order to make the correct choice in Polish as the target language. The study shows that this is cognitively a very demanding task in simultaneous interpreting, as many errors as well as self-corrections occur. The study furthermore shows that interpreters adapt their language to their audience, and adequate omissions, as well as correct form of the possessive occur more often when they have a group of engineers in mind than when they interpret for language specialists. We understand this to mean that the cognitive complexity of solving the cross-linguistic asymmetry in the possessive system causes more errors when the interpreter stays closer to the source text in speaking to language specialists.