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The papers in this volume address the general question what type of lexical specifications we need in a generative grammar and by what principles this information is projected onto syntactic configurations, or to put it differently, how lexical insertion is executed. Many of the contributions focus on what the syntactic consequences are of choices that are made with respect to the lexical specifications of heads. The data in the volume are drawn from diverse languages, among which: Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Polish, Russian.
This book investigates the concept of phase, aiming at a structural definition of the three domains that are assumed as the syntactic loci for interface interpretation, namely vP, CP and DP. In particular, three basic issues are addressed, that represent major questions of syntactic research within the Minimalist Program in the last decade. A) How is the set of minimally necessary syntactic operations to be characterised (including questions about the exact nature of copy and merge, the status of remnant movement, the role of head movement in the grammar), B) How is the set of minimally necessary functional heads to be characterised that determine the built-up and the interpretation of synta...
This book discusses the morpho-syntactic Balkan Sprachbund features in nine languages in which they are most numerous. It contains a wealth of Balkan linguistic material. The focus is on displaying similarities and differences in the representation of the most widely acknowledged Balkan Sprachbund morpho-syntactic features and their interaction with other features in the structure of the DP or the sentence of individual languages.
"The present volume consists of revised and edited versions of papers originally presented at the fourteenth annual meeting of Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics, held at Princeton University, May 6-8, 2005."--P. [v].
One of the principal challenges of historical linguistics is to explain the "causes" of language change. Any such explanation, however, must also address the actuation problem: why is it that changes occurring in a given language at a certain time cannot be reliably predicted to recur in other languages, under apparently similar conditions? The sixteen contributions to the present volume each aim to elucidate various aspects of this problem, including: What processes can be identified as the drivers of change? How central are syntax-external (phonological, lexical or contact-based) factors in triggering syntactic change? And how can all of these factors be reconciled with the actuation problem? Exploring data from a wide range of languages from both a formal and a functional perspective, this book promises to be of interest to advanced students and researchers in historical linguistics, syntax and their intersection."
This is the first of a two-volume selection of refereed and revised papers, originally presented at the international conference "From NP to DP" at the University of Antwerp. The papers address issues in the syntax and semantics of the noun phrase, in particular the so-called DP-hypothesis which takes noun phrases to be headed by a functional head D(eterminer). The major concerns can be grouped around 3 subthemes: the internal syntax of noun phrases, the syntax and semantics of bare nouns and indefinites and the expression of measurement in noun phrases. The wealth of data coming from over 40 different languages combined with a thorough introduction to the current issues in the field of NPs/DPs and some alternative syntactic and semantic analyses, provide a comprehensive reference work from both a descriptive and a theoretical point of view. The second volume is concerned exclusively with the expression of possession in noun phrases.
This volume presents a cross-section of current research on the internal syntax of 'Determiner Phrases` (DPs), with special emphasis on the analysis of DPs modified by genitival, adjectival and other non-finite attributes. Possessors, Predicates and Movement in the DP illustrates clearly the ongoing debate over older and more recent approaches to the syntax of DPs in particular in the wake of the minimalist program (Chomsky 1995) and Kayne's antisymmetry hypothesis (Kayne 1994). The relative theoretical coherence among the contributions permits detailed comparison of specific syntactic proposals, providing a solid basis for further debate. Several of the papers address the syntactic questions in parallel with related semantic or morphological issues. The value of this collection to the study of Universal Grammar is also underlined by its comparative bias. Analyses of Germanic, Romance and Balkan languages figure prominently, and a number of new empirical generalizations within and between languages are discussed.
The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.