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This study aims to analyze and develop a detailed model of syntax and semantics of passive sentences in standard Indonesian in the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) (Pollard & Sag, 1994; Sag et al., 2003) and Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS) (Copestake et al., 2005), explicit enough to be interpreted by a computer, focusing on implementation rather than theory. There are two main types of passive in Indonesian, following Sneddon et al. (2010, pp. 256-260) and Alwi et al. (2014, pp. 352-356), called 'passive type 1' (P1) and 'passive type 2' (P2). Both types were analyzed and implemented in the Indonesian Resource Grammar (INDRA), a computational grammar for Indonesian (Moeljadi et al., 2015).
The copula construction in Hebrew has received much attention in the linguistic literature. Nevertheless, one non-canonical variant has been largely neglected. In this variant the copula, flanked by two NPs, exhibits agreement with the post-copular NP, contrary to the canonical variant, where the agreement controller is the initial NP. This phenomenon challenges the notion of subject and its relation to agreement. The current corpus-based study investigates the word order and agreement patterns exhibited by the Hebrew copular constructions and shows that their distribution is largely motivated by information structure considerations. The proposed analysis accounts for the syntactic symmetry and semantic asymmetry between the two NPs.
In this paper, we argue that by making a more detailed distinction of theta-roles, while at the same time investigating the correlation of case marking, theta-role assignment, and eventuality types, we can describe different psych-verb subclasses and explain their alignment patterns in Spanish and Korean. We propose a neo-Davidsonian treatment of psych-verbs in HPSG that allows us to account for the underspecification of theta-roles which are modeled in an inheritance hierarchy for semantic relations. By assuming linking properties modeled lexically, we can constrain the properties for psych-verbs which shows the mapping of semantic arguments (i.e. experiencer, stimulus-causer, subject matter and target) to the elements in the argument structure. The type hierarchy and lexical rules proposed here capture the alternation in case marking not only of the experiencer (as traditionally assumed in the literature), but also of the stimulus. This analysis leads us to a new fourfold classification of psych-verbs for both languages.
The paper shows how the plural semantic ideas of (Sternefeld, 1998) can be captured in Lexical Resource Semantics, a system of underspecied semantics. It is argued that Sternefeld's original approach, which allows for the unrestricted insertion of pluralisation into Logical Form, suffers from a problem originally pointed out by Lasersohn (1989) with respect to the analysis offered by Gillon (1987). The problem is shown to stem from repeated pluralisation of the same verbal argument and to be amenable to a simple solution in the proposed lexical analysis, which allows for restricting the pluralisations that can be inserted. The paper further develops an account of maximalisation of pluralities as needed to obtain the correct readings for sentences with quantiers that are not upward monotone. Such an account is absent in the orginal system in (Sternefeld, 1998). The present account makes crucial use of the possibility to have distinct constituents contribute identical semantic material offered by LRS and employs it in an analysis of maximalisation in terms of polyadic quantication.
We present an analysis of clausal nominalization developed in the context of the LinGO Grammar Matrix (Bender et al., 2002, 2010) to support the addition of subordinate clauses to the grammar customization framework. In particular, we examine the typological variation of nominalized clausal complements and nominalized clausal modifiers. To account for the range of variation in nominalized clauses across the world's languages and to support linguists in exploring alternative analyses, we propose a flexible library of analyses, allowing nominalization of the clause to occur at the V, VP or S level.
The paper addresses verbal agreement in German sign language from a constraint-based perspective. Based on Meir's Agreement Morphology Principles it presents an HPSG analysis of plain, regular and backwards agreement verbs that models the interaction between phonological (manual) features and syntactico-semantic relationships within a verbal sign by well-defined lexical restrictions. We argue that a sign-based declarative analysis can provide an elegant approach to agreement in sign language since it allows to exploit cross-modular constraints within grammar, and hence permits a direct manipulation of all relevant phonological features of a verb depending on its syntactic and semantic properties.
I describe an analysis of valence-changing verbal morphology implemented as a library extending the LinGO Grammar Matrix customization system. This analysis is based on decomposition of these operations into rule components, which in turn are expressed as lexical rule supertypes that implement specific, isolatable constraints. I also show how common variations of these constraints can be abstracted and parameterized by their axes of variation. I then demonstrate how these constraints can be recomposed in various combinations to provide broad coverage of the typological variation of valence change found in the world's languages. I evaluate the coverage of this library on five held-out world languages that exhibit these phenomena, achieving 79% coverage and 2% overgeneration.
In this paper, we study Old French declension, a system which exhibits the theoretically challenging phenomenon of morphological reversal (Baerman, 2007). Furthermore, the declension system of Old French only recognises a single exponent -s, which marks different case/number combinations in different paradigms, contrasting with the unmarked form. We show that reversal is only one of several syncretism patterns found in the language and propose that Old French declension is best understood in terms of two systematic syncretisms: a natural split between singular and plural for feminines, and a Paninian split for masculines that systematically marks the objective plural. Reversal, and other seemingly morphomic splits arise as a result of idiosyncrasy in the NOM.SG cell, comprising inflection class-specific s-marking, as well as stem alternation and overabundance. We provide a formal analysis in terms of Information-based Morphology (Crysmann & Bonami, 2016) that effortlessly captures the systematic splits, as well as the variation in the nominative singular. We suggest that the high degree of idiosyncrasy in this cell paired with the reduced frequency of overt nominative NPs when compared to objective NPs may serve to explain why the system was actually quite short-lived.
Dutch is well-known for the formation of verb clusters. A characteristic aspect of such constructions is that the order of the verbs may differ from the order in which they are selected. Across the Dutch language area verb clusters show different types of word order variation. This paper proposes a constructivist account of word order variation in Dutch verb clusters. Linearization is not modelled in terms of the GVOR feature, after Kathol (2000). Instead, it relies on the bidimensional phrase hierarchy initiated by Ginzburg & Sag (2000), which is extended for the analysis of constructions with verb clusters. This proposal accounts for the most common instances of word order variation in Dutch verb clusters, and it can be easily adapted to model a specific variety or dialect.
This paper discusses the syntactic properties of 'prepositional numeral constructions (PNCs)' in English, which is exemplified by 'about 250 babies' and 'over 16,000 animals'. In PNCs a preposition is followed by a numeral. Previous analyses have claimed that the preposition and the numeral make a prepositional phrase in PNCs, but we argue that this is not a satisfactory approach. In HPSG there are some possible analyses that might be proposed, but there are reasons for supposing that the best analysis is one in which the preposition is a functor, a non-head selecting a numeral head.
This paper investigates the syntax of the English "not only ... but also ..." construction, focusing on the linearization possibilities of "not only". Based on novel corpus data, I argue that the "not only ... but also ..." construction exhibits different properties from the "not ... but ..." construction or the adverbial "only". I propose that a linearization-based account, along with coordinate ellipsis, can explain the various linearization possibilities of "not only". I also propose that the construction as a whole is a subtype of the type correlative-coord-ph, which is a novel subtype of coord-ph. Finally, I argue that subject-auxiliary inversion triggered by the clause-initial not only is a new subtype of the type "negative-inversion-ph".
Partial inversion in English
(2017)
A typical finite clause in English has a single constituent that serves as subject. This constituent precedes the finite verb in non-inverted clauses like simple declarative clauses, follows the finite verb in inverted clauses like polar questions, agrees in person and number with the finite verb and with a tag subject when a tag is present, undergoes subject raising, and so on (Postal 2004). Five constructions violate these generalizations and in the literature have called into question the identity of the subject constituent. In each of these five constructions the finite verb agrees with a following constituent in a declarative clause despite the fact, among others, that the constituent preceding the verb exhibits subject behaviors of the kind identified by Keenan (1976). To the authors' knowledge, despite intensive analysis of several of these patterns, the group as a whole has not been subject to prior study. The constructions are: Presentational Inversion (e.g., On the porch stood marble pillars), Presentational there (e.g., "The earth was now dry, and there grew a tree in the middle of the earth"), Deictic Inversion (e.g., "Here comes the bus"), Existential there (e.g., There’s a big problem here) and Reversed Specificational be (e.g., "The only thing we’ve taken back recently are plants"). The approach of Sign-Based Construction Grammar (Sag 2012) enables us to establish precisely what all five patterns have in common and what is particular to each, revealing that a constructional, constraint-based approach can extract the correct grammatical generalizations, not only in 'core' areas of a grammar, but also in the hard cases, where concepts such as subject, which readily handle the more tractable facts, fail to fit the facts at hand. We see further that the five split-subject patterns, sometimes identified as clausal, yield to a strictly lexical analysis.
Against split morphology
(2017)
In this paper I present data from several Niger Congo languages, illustrating how the paradigms which make up the noun class systems of these languages are problematic to analyze within traditional morphosyntactic frameworks. I outline possible solutions to this problem, and argue for the introduction of an exemplar based Word and Paradigm (Blevins 2006) approach to morphology within SBCG. I then outline the consequences of this approach for the structure of the SBCG lexicon.
In this paper I present an incremental approach to gapping and conjunction reduction where it is assumed that the first sentence in these constructions is fully parsed before the second sentence with the elided verb is parsed. I will show that the two phenomena can be given a uniform analysis by letting the construction type of the first conjunct be carried over to the second conjunct. This construction type imposes constraints on the arguments that the second conjunct can have. The difference between gapping and conjunction reduction is captured by the already existing constructions for sentence and VP coordination. The analysis is implemented in an HPSG grammar of Norwegian.
This paper explores the conundrum posed by two different control constructions in Yucatec Maya, a Mayan language spoken by around 800,000 speakers in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. Basic syntactic structure of the language is introduced, and a general SBCG treatment of control in YM is presented, alongside with an example of motion verbs as control matrices. The unruly case of intransitive subjunctive control, where the controllee appears with an unexpected status (incompletive) and without set-A morphology, is discussed and a proposal to treat it as nominalization is evaluated. The nominalization proposal is rejected based on the following grounds: (1) nominalization tends to attract definitive morphology, which is absent from intransitive subjunctive control constructions, (2) nominalization does not truly explain the lack of set-A morphology if one desires to provide a unified account of set-A morphemes, (3) verbs bereft of otherwise expected set-A morphemes have an independent motivation in the form of agent focus constructions.
In this paper we discuss two contrasting views of exponence in inflectional morphology: the atomistic view, where content is associated individually with minimal segmentable morphs, and the holistic view, where the association is made for the whole word between complex content and constellations of morphs. On the basis of data from Estonian and Swahili, we argue that an adequate theory of inflection should be able to accomodate both views. We then show that the framework of Information-based Morphology (Crysmann and Bonami, 2016) is indeed compatible with both views, thanks to relying on realisation rules that associate m units of forms with n units of content.
Over the past few years, there has been renewed interest in the treatment of resumption in HPSG: despite areas of convergence, e.g. the recognition of resumptive dependencies as dependencies, as motivated by Across-the-Board (ATB) extraction, there is no unified theory to date, with differences pertaining, e.g., to the exact formulation of amalgamation (Ginzburg and Sag, 2000), or the place of island constraints in grammar. While Borsley (2010) and Alotaibi and Borsley (2013) relegate the difference in locality of gap and resumptive dependencies to the performance system, Crysmann (2012, 2016) captures insensitivity to strong islands as part of the grammar. Harmonising existing proposals becomes even more acute, if we consider the cross-linguistic similarity of the phenomenon, in particular, if we compare languages like Hausa and Arabic, which both feature island insensitivity to some degree, as well as bound pronominal resumptive objects and zero pronominal resumptive subjects, to name just a few of the parallels. In this paper, I shall reexamine resumption (and extraction) in Modern Standard Arabic (henceforth: MSA) and propose a reanalysis that improves on Alotaibi and Borsley (2013) in several areas: first, I shall argue that controlling the distribution of gaps and resumptives by means of case is not only empirically under-motivated but also leads to counter-intuitive constraint specifications in the majority of cases. Second, I shall show that the case-based account of Alotaibi and Borsley (2013) can be straightforwardly supplanted with the weight-based account I proposed in Crysmann (2016): in doing this, one does not only get a better alignment of case assignment constraints with overtly observable manifestations of case, but such an account is also general enough to scale from case languages, such as MSA, to languages without case, such as Hausa, or many Arabic vernaculars. Finally, I shall address case in ATB extraction and propose a refinement of the Coordination Constraint of Pollard and Sag (1994) that accounts for exactly the kind of mismatch observed in mixed gap/resumptive ATB extraction
Explanations and "engineering solutions"? Aspects of the relation between Minimalism and HPSG
(2017)
It is not simple to compare Minimalism and HPSG, but it is possible to identify a variety of differences, some not so important but others of considerable importance. Two of the latter are: (1) the fact that Minimalism is a very lexically-based approach whereas HPSG is more syntactically-based, and (2) the fact that Minimalism uses Internal Merge in the analysis of unbounded dependencies whereas HPSG employs the SLASH feature. In both cases the HPSG approach seems to offer a better account of the facts. Thus, in two important respects it seems preferable to Minimalism.
The Polynesian language Tongan appears to lack surface-oriented motivation for a VP constituent. Even so, adverbial elements appear in both a rightwards location and a leftwards location, superficially similar to the S-adverbs and VP-adverbs in well-studied western European languages. This paper explores how the Tongan ''VP-adverbs'' (as well as others) can be analyzed in HPSG without a VP for those adverbs to attach to. Several kinds of analyses, representing different strands of research on the syntax of adjuncts in HPSG, are explored: a Adjuncts-as-Valents analysis, a VAL-sensitive Adjuncts-as-Selectors analysis, and a WEIGHT-sensitive Adjuncts-as-Selectors analysis. All suggest that an analysis of the adverbs without a VP is possible; a WEIGHT-sensitive Adjuncts-as-Selectors seems to have the fewest issues.