Development of the syntax-discourse interface / by Sergey Avrutin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Avrutin, Sergey.

Contributor:

Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

Series:

Studies in theoretical psycholinguistics ; v. 23.

Studies in theoretical psycholinguistics ; v. 23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Discourse analysis.

Language acquisition.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Pronoun.

Aphasic persons--Language.

Aphasic persons.

Physical Description:

xii, 213 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Kluwer Academic, 1999.

Contents:

Chapter I Establishing Reference 8

2. Pronominals in Adult and Child Speech 10

2.1. Pronominals in Natural Languages 10

2.2. Previous Acquisition Results 16

Chapter II Syntax, Discourse and Interpretation of Pronominals 23

1. General Model 23

2. Syntactic Constraints and Interpretation of Indices 25

3. File Change Semantics 30

4. Interpretation of Indices in Syntax and Discourse 32

5. Various Uses of Definite NPs 38

6. Incorporation and Accommodation 42

7. Constraints on Bridging 50

Chapter III Anomalous Indexation 54

1. Principle A and Principle B Constructions 54

2. Good Performance with Pronouns 60

3. Weak Pronouns 64

4. Principle C Constructions 66

Chapter IV Experimental Evidence for the Proposed Model 69

1. Experimental Evidence for the Existence of two Different Mechanisms: Incorporation and Accommodation 69

2. Deictic Use of Definite NPs in Children's Discourse 72

2.1 Pronominalization in Children's Discourse 72

2.2 Children's Use of R-expressions 74

3. Limitations of Inferential Capacity 78

Chapter V Possessive Pronouns and Reflexives in Russian 83

1. Overview of Russian Possessives 83

2. Experimental Results 85

Chapter VI Plural Pronouns 93

1. Distributivity and Binding in Child Grammar 93

2. Plural Pronouns 95

3. Experiment 97

4. Results 100

Chapter VII Children's Interpretation of the Discourse-dependent Reflexives 103

1. The Standard Binding Theory, Reflexivity and Logophors 105

2. Locative PPs and "Picture NPs" 111

3. General Method 116

3.1 Experiment 1: Reflexives in Locative PPs 117

3.2 Experiment Two: Reflexives in "Picture NPs" 125

Chapter VIII Discourse-Based Analyses of Root Infinitives 131

1. The Data 132

2. Hyams' Underspecification Theory of Root Infinitives 135

3. Root Infinitives in Adult Russian 138

3.1. The Role of Indices in the Representation of NPs, Tenses and Events 140

3.2. Discourse Representation of Russian Root Infinitives 144

3.3. Further Constraints on Russian RIs 149

4. The Headline Register 152

5. Mad Magazine Register 158

6. Achievement Predicates, Perfective Constructions, and Pronouns in Tenseless Clauses 159

6.1 Achievement Predicates 160

6.2 Perfective Constructions 161

6.3 Pronouns in Tenseless Clauses 162

7. The Optional Infinitive Stage 165

7.1 Presuppositional Introduction of an Event File Card 165

7.2 Null Subject Languages 169

8. Root Infinitives in the speech of Broca's aphasics 172

1. The Limitation of Processing Resources as an Explanation of Linguistic Performance 176

2. Child Language and Aphasia 179.

Notes:

A revision and extension of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-206) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0792359364

OCLC:

42021485