Postverbal subjects in child Italian: Argument structure, discourse and the definiteness effect

While previous work on postverbal subjects in Italian has shown that young children are sensitive to the effects of argument structure and definiteness, little is known about the acquisition of postverbal subjects at the VP-periphery. In response, the present study investigated such subjects under new-information focus by monolingual Italian children (6;1 – 7;4). For this, we employed an elicitation task and a forced-choice task. The results indicated that the children use postverbal subjects at the VP-periphery felicitously, although they do not perform at ceiling. Unexpectedly, the results also suggested possible remnant difficulty with the definiteness effect. However, after comparison with adult data we argue that this is not a developmental issue and instead may suggest that our children were aware that the definiteness effect is not about definiteness per se.

Definiteness Effect in the PP

This paper demonstrates that abessive PPs impose the same type of definiteness restriction on their complements that existential predicates impose on their subjects. The DE in PPs is accounted for in the framework of the DE theory of Szabolcsi (1986a,b), who derives the DE from the incompatibility of a presuppositional subject and a logical predicate of existence that is present in a wide class of predicates (including verbs meaning ‘(cause to) come to exist in a particular fashion’, and nominal predicates meaning ‘(non-)existence at a particular location’). The analysis points out this predicate of existence in the small clause complements of abessive Ps.

Demonstratives, definiteness effects and the type-token distinction

Definiteness effects have been attested in the literature for some DPs complementing HAVE (= English have and their counterparts in other languages). In this paper, which focuses on English and Spanish, demonstrative DPs are shown to be affected by the type-token distinction in HAVE contexts: the internal argument of HAVE receives a type reading in these cases and rejects a to-ken interpretation. The “type restriction on demonstrative DPs” (TRD) is shown to follow from the need for narrow focus NPs complementing HAVE to receive a hearer-new reading, a well-known property of presentational structures. Type readings of demonstrative DPs are shown to meet this condition. Apparent exceptions to the TRD effect include (i) DPs in so-called “remainder contexts”; (ii) structures in which the relevant DP is the subject of a small clause (sometimes with a non-overt predicate); and (iii) structures containing a number of anti-assertive operators. The contexts in (i) are shown to be hearer-new, in spite of being definite. Those in (ii) and (iii) provide DPs which escape the narrow focus interpretation that gives ride to this variety of the definiteness effect.

existential in Xhosa in relation to indefiniteness

Bare nouns in languages without articles can be semantically ambiguous between definite and indefinite interpretations. It is here assumed that speakers of such languages can still signal to the hearer when they refer to unique and identifiable referents. This paper contributes to the long-standing cross-linguistic question of how bare nouns are interpreted and what means languages without articles have to disambiguate between definite and indefinite readings. This question is largely unexplored for Bantu languages. The answer is sought in the use of different word orders and morphosyntactic constructions, with a focus on the existential in this paper. In many languages of the world, there is a restriction on definites as pivots in existential constructions, serving as a motivation for exploring these constructions in Xhosa. Xhosa makes use of a non-verbal copula in prototypical existentials as well as predicate locatives, to express the existence or presence of a referent. The paper argues that the existential is used for inactive referents and the predicate locative for (semi-) active referents. The inactive referents of the existential are mainly indefinite referential or non-referential. The active referents of the predicate locative are referential indefinite or definite. There is no absolute definiteness effect in the existential. A further motivation for this study is the occurrence of this copula in a short and a long form, giving rise to four different structures. The paper reveals an unexpected analogy between the use of the short and long form and the use of the so called conjoint and disjoint forms in Xhosa tense-aspect paradigms.

Plurality and definiteness in Chengdu Chinese

The authors identify a plural marker -ɕiɛ in Chengdu Chinese that can apply to both count and mass nouns, encoding plurality as well as definiteness. This post-nominal -ɕiɛ differs from the pre-nominal ɕiɛ, as the latter is purely plural but not inherently definite. Our analysis shows that the pre-nominal ɕiɛ functions as a quantifier, which occupies the [Spec, NumP] position, whereas the suffixal -ɕiɛ, by virtue of being a plural marker, is base-generated in the Num0 position and move to D0 to encode both plurality and definiteness. Moreover, the two ɕiɛs can co-occur in one and the same nominal phrase, exhibiting the double definiteness effect. The syntactic analysis of ɕiɛ in Chengdu Chinese, coupled with the study of di in Cantonese, has theoretical impacts on nominal phrase structures, in particular, on “plurality” and “definiteness”. First, plural markers in classifier languages contrast with those in number languages, as the former, but not the latter, defies numerical modification. Second, definiteness can be expressed by a non-D element, which may check its [+def] feature either by undergoing an upward movement to D (or [Spec, DP]) or by agreeing with the [+def] feature of a demonstrative. Third, the DP-NP distinction is strongly supported by our account of Chengdu Chinese.

Notes on Expletive There

Sentences with the verb exist and with a lexical DP in subject position show no definiteness effect. This suggests that the definiteness effect is keyed in English to the presence of expletive there. More strongly put, a definiteness effect is invariably found whenever expletive there (or a counterpart of it in other languages, whether pronounced or not) is present. This effect may in some languages be limited to the case of unstressed pronouns.Expletive there and its counterparts originate within the associate (in a way that accounts for the expletive being there, and not then). In part, this conclusion is driven by anti-homophony. Freeze noted that English is exceptional in having expletive there in subject position. The proposal will be that this is related to English allowing preposition-stranding under A-movement.The definiteness effect itself results from a blocking effect, probably not specific to existential sentences, that certain determiners such as the impose on the movement of expletive there from its DP-internal position up to a sentential subject position.

There be- and have-sentences: Different semantics, different definiteness effects

Edward Keenan coined the term “existential-have” for have-sentences containing a relational noun in object position that present a definiteness effect (DE) similar to the one in there be-sentences. We begin this paper by showing in detail that the DE in these sentences is in fact different from the one found with there be-sentences. We then explain how these contrasts reflect differences in the semantics of the two sorts of sentences that we have independently argued for in previous work. We will specifically challenge two assumptions that are frequently made about the definiteness effect in have-sentences: (1) that it is related to any version of the so-called “weak”/“strong” distinction that has been used to characterize the effect in there be-sentences; and (2) that it is limited to relational nouns like handle and follows from treating such nouns as two-place predicates. Finally, we show how our account is superior to other accounts that have been offered of the definiteness effect in have-sentences.

An interface analysis of marked copular constructions: The case of there-sentences

This paper proposes an interface account of existential sentences, in which the examination of the semantic, morphosyntactic, discourse and prosodic properties of these and related constructions is aimed to explore the similarities and differences with other types of IS-marked copular structures. In particular, a structural parallelism is proposed between existentials and clefts, as well as between (inverted) locatives and (inverted) pseudoclefts. In the analysis of existential constructions, the investigation of the Definiteness Effect reveals the need for a distinction across there-sentences; in particular, the interface properties of the relevant structures suggest that different analyses should be provided for existential and presentational there-sentences, which present crucial formal asymmetries at various levels of analysis.

The syntax, information structure, and prosody of German ‘VP’-fronting

This paper explores fronted verb phrases in German, drawing attention to the difference between passive/unaccusative VPs and fronted agentive vPs. While both kinds of verb phrases have been discussed in the literature as being frontable, it has been largely overlooked that fronted vPs typically come with a certain kind of post-fronting context and a rise-fall or bridge-contour intonation, which is characteristic of I-topicalization. We observe that, unlike VPs, agentive vPs essentially need to be I-topics, with a high tone at the right edge of the fronted domain, in order to be frontable. Given the special context required for fronted vPs, the situation described by the vP does not contain new information but must already have been under discussion and is now being commented on. We present the results of two experimental studies and appeal to the thetic/categorical distinction to offer a new angle on the definiteness effect that has been associated with fronted verb phrases. We propose that a subject-containing fronted vP is associated with a thetic rather than the default categorical judgment, which means that the fronted subject and predicate form only one information-structural unit (a topic) rather than two (topic and comment). Contributing to the literature on theticity, we observe that, unlike in non-fronting thetic statements, the subject in fronted vPs cannot be a true definite. We attribute this to clashing intonation restrictions on theticity in non-fronting constructions versus theticity in just the fronted portion of a sentence.