Proceedings of the 34th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium
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03/13/2011
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Publication Scrambling Verb-Final Languages and the Underlying Order of Objects in Ditransitive Constructions(2011-01-01) Georgala, EffiIn this paper I provide evidence from depictive stranding to show that German and Turkish, scrambling verb-final languages which have been assumed to be an exception to the crosslinguistic generalization of IO>DO base order in double object constructions, in fact support the generalization. Following Georgala's et al. (2008) analysis of applicative constructions, which predicts that indirect objects (IOs) originate higher than direct objects (DOs), I argue that German and Turkish have two types of applied arguments (thematic and raising) with different underlying but the same surface position, namely [Spec, ApplP]. By showing that IO>DO is the base order of Turkish double object constructions, I also contribute to the discussion of the nature of scrambling in Turkish. In particular I corroborate Öztürk's (2005) view that scrambling in Turkish can be treated as either A-bar or A-movement.Publication Right Node Raising Requires both Ellipsis and Multidomination(2011-01-01) Barros, Matthew; Vicente, LuisExisting analyses of Right Node Raising (RNR) implicitly assume that all instances thereof can be subsumed under a single mechanism, whether it be movement, ellipsis, or multidomination. We challenge this assumption by showing that English RNR can be divided into (at least) two distinct subtypes, one which shows properties of ellipsis and one which shows properties of multidomination. Moreover, we also show that these two subtypes are in complementary distribution, and that neither one can be reduced to the other. The overall result is that RNR is not a single process, but rather a cover term for a family of processes with superficially identical outputs.Publication On Strategies of Question-Formation and the Grammatical Status of the Q-particle huwwa in Egyptian Arabic Wh-Questions(2011-01-01) Soltan, UsamaThis paper addresses two salient properties of wh-interrogatives in EA: First, the utilization of the in-situ and ex-situ strategies to form wh-questions, and second, the optional occurrence of the (Q)uestion-particle huwwa in the initial position of such structures. In the first half of the paper, I argue that scope in wh-questions in EA is licensed via unselective binding by an interrogative operator, which may either bind a wh-phrase in the lexical domain, thereby giving rise to an in-situ wh-question, or a wh-phrase in SpecFocP, thereby giving rise to an ex-situ wh-question. In the second half of the paper, I turn to the discussion of the grammatical status of the Q-particle huwwa, arguing, on the basis of theoretical and empirical evidence, against both Wahba’s (1984) claim that huwwa is obligatorily needed to define the scope of in-situ wh-phrases, as well as Eid’s (1992) analysis of huwwa as derived from an underlying pronominal copula. Instead, I argue that huwwa is a clause-typing Q-morpheme that occupies a head position in an articulated left-periphery of the clause, has f-features, and induces (a degree of) presupposition. Diagnostics such as felicity of negative answers and suspension of the associated proposition underlying a question suggest that different degrees of presupposition underlie different types of wh-questions in EA, hence lending support to a fine-grained approach to the interpretation of questions, as has been argued recently in Romero and Han 2004, Tomioka 2009, and Eilam and Lai 2009.Publication Learning classes of sounds in infancy(2011-01-01) Cristià, Alejandrina; Seidl, Amanda; Gerken, LouAnnAdults' phonotactic learning is affected by perceptual biases. One such bias concerns learning of constraints affecting groups of sounds: all else being equal, learning constraints affecting a natural class (a set of sounds sharing some phonetic characteristic) is easier than learning a constraint affecting an arbitrary set of sounds. This perceptual bias could be a given, for example, the result of innately guided learning; alternatively, it could be due to human learners‚Äô experience with sounds. Using artificial grammars, we investigated whether such a bias arises in development, or whether it is present as soon as infants can learn phonotactics. Seven-month-old English-learning infants fail to generalize a phonotactic pattern involving fricatives and nasals, which does not form a coherent phonetic group, but succeed with the natural class of oral and nasal stops. In this paper, we report an experiment that explored whether those results also follow in a cohort of 4-month-olds. Unlike the older infants, 4-month-olds were able to generalize both groups, suggesting that the perceptual bias that makes phonotactic constraints on natural classes easier to learn is likely the effect of experience.Publication The Syntactic Structure of Palauan Resultatives(2011-01-01) Nuger, JustinEmbick (2004) has recently challenged the widely held view that English resultative participles (or adjectival passives) are formed in the lexicon while (verbal) passives are built syntactically (a proposal originally formalized in Wasow 1977; see also Bresnan 1982, Levin and Rappaport 1986, and many others). Instead, Embick argues for a syntactic analysis to explain why only certain arguments of a verb may serve as externalized arguments of a corresponding resultative, which must be stipulated on lexical analyses. I enrich the debate by examining the structure of resultatives in Palauan, an Austronesian language with about 15,000 speakers in Micronesia. I provide empirical evidence for a particular syntactic and semantic analysis of Palauan resultatives that is compatible with Kratzer's (2000, 2005) semantic analysis of German resultatives and Embick's (2004) syntactic analysis of English resultatives.Publication On the DP/NP Analysis of Mandarin Chinese and its Implications(2011-01-01) Cheng, Hsu-Te JohnnyIn this paper, I examine the nominal structure in Mandarin Chinese (MC). Specifically, I discuss the issue of whether the DP projection is always present in syntax (the Universal DP Hypothesis) or the existence of DP may be dependent on languages (the DP/NP Parameter). Based on a test established in Despić (2009), I examine the relevant data in MC and argue that, contrary to the claim traditionally held in the literature, DP does not exist in MC. Using tests from binding paradigm, it is further shown that classifiers do head their own projections in MC, as previously argued in the literature. Similar examination is also applied to Japanese to show that Japanese behaves alike with MC in two respects. First, DP does not exist in Japanese, either. Second, classifiers are also heading their projection, not merely adjoined to NPs. Lastly, as a result of the paradigm, I discuss some of the consequences on the nature of classifiers and argue that, while classifiers in MC and Japanese are enclitics and need a preceding host, classifiers in Cantonese are free morphemes and can occur alone by themselves.Publication Experimental Evidence for the Syntax of Phrasal Comparatives in Polish(2011-01-01) Pancheva, Roumyana; Tomaszewicz, BarbaraPancheva (2009) argues that phrasal comparatives in Polish exhibit a subject-island effect. She proposes an account of the island effect as a combination of several factors: than has a small clause complement in phrasal comparatives; wh-movement turns the than-clause into a degree predicate; wh-movement of the vP subject is prohibited by an anti-locality constraint; sub-extraction of the vP subject is then the only option, but it causes an island violation. Informally elicited judgments support this proposal but there is a fair amount of variability among and even within speakers. Given this variability in speakers’ responses, we need to elicit judgments in controlled conditions allowing subsequent quantitative analysis. We conducted two acceptability-rating studies on Polish comparatives following standard experimental procedures and testing a large number of speakers. The results support the small clause analysis of phrasal comparatives.Publication Inherent Case and Locality Requirement: Evidence from Ditransitives and their Nominalizations(2011-01-01) Dvorak, VeraInherent Case is understood as Case, the assignment of which has to be accompanied by theta-assignment (Chomsky 1995). While Nominative on the subject and Accusative on the direct object are typical representatives of structural Case, Genitive or Dative are usually taken as representatives of inherent Case. In this paper I first review the properties of ditransitive verbs in Czech explored in Dvořák (in press) who argues that there are two types of inherent Datives in Czech: a high Dative assigned by an applicative head and associated with a recipient/benefactive theta-role, and a low Dative associated with a path theta-role. I provide the evidence for the independent existence of both of these Datives outside of ditransitives: in unaccusative structures and in structures with only a dative object. After that I draw my attention to the properties of the postnominal Genitive in Czech, especially the Genitive that is assigned to the direct object of nominalized ditransitive verbs. Even though these constructions reveal that Genitive is similar to Dative in terms of the local relationship between the Case-assigning head and the Case-assigned DP, I show that we do not need to refer to Genitive’s “inherentness” in order to derive the fact that the Genitive DP always immediately follows the assigning noun. I employ the data from nominalized ditransitives, in which the theta-marking and Case-marking of the object DP is dissociated, complemented by data on nominalizations with small clause subjects in Genitive, to argue for the “structuralness” of the postnominal Genitive in Czech.Publication Case Mis-matching as Kase Stranding(2011-01-01) Daskalaki, EvangeliaDepending on whether and how argumental Free Relatives (FRs) resolve instances of case conflict between the requirements of the External (i.e., the matrix) and the Internal (i.e., the relative) Predicate, they can be classified into three main categories: (i) Strictly Matching FRs (e.g., Polish), where the FR pronoun has to comply in morphological case with both predicates (Citko 2000), (ii) I(nternal)-Matching FRs (e.g. German), where the FR pronoun has to comply in morphological case with the Internal Predicate, but not necessarily with the External one (Grosu 1994), and (iii) E(xternal)-Matching FR (e.g., Greek), where the FR pronoun has to comply in morphological case with the External Predicate, but not necessarily with the Internal one ((Stavrou & Philippaki 1987; Horrocks & Stavrou 1987; Chila-Markopoulou 1991; Philippaki & Spyropoulos 1997; Alexiadou & Varlokosta 2007; Vogel 2001; Agouraki 2005; Daskalaki 2008; Spyropoulos 2007). In this paper, I use the Greek pattern as my starting point, and I develop a formal account of the observed cross-linguistic variation, which builds on the KP hypothesis (Lamontagne & Travis 1987).Publication Asymmetries in Conjunct Agreement(2011-01-01) Bhatt, Rajesh; Walkow, MartinHindi-Urdu displays an asymmetry with respect to the availability of Closest Conjunct Agreement. It is available only to objects and not to subjects. Agreement with subjects is always agreement with the full conjunct. We argue that this asymmetry in Conjunct Agreement is related to another asymmetry between subject and object agreement in Indo-Aryan languages: object agreement never involves person. We derive these properties of object agreement from the fact that object agreement is an instance of dissociated agreement, agreement that takes place independent of case-licensing. As a result when the probe (T) accesses the direct object goal, the person features of the goal have already been deactivated by the case-licenser (v) and T must look inside the DP at the phi-P, where only gender and number features are available. This yields the absence of person features in object agreement. With subjects, T is both the case-licensor and phi-agreement trigger. Hence the person features of the subject are visible to T. By a similar logic, the features of conjoined objects are not visible to the probe and a subpart must be identified whose features are visible. The identification of the subpart is subject to linearity considerations and we present a mechanism that allows for this. The resulting proposal sheds light on the distribution of features within the DP and the proper analysis of dissociated agreement. It is also a first step towards an integration of linearization and structural considerations in the treatment of agreement.
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