Grammatical Categories : Variation in Romance Languages / M. Rita Manzini, Leonardo M. Savoia.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Manzini, Maria Rita.

Savoia, Leonardo Maria, 1948-

Series:

Cambridge books online.

Cambridge Studies in Linguistics ; no. 128

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Grammatical categories.

Language and languages--Variation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (364 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

PDF

Summary:

Grammatical categories (e.g. complementizer, negation, auxiliary, case) are some of the most important building blocks of syntax and morphology. Categorization therefore poses fundamental questions about grammatical structures and about the lexicon from which they are built. Adopting a 'lexicalist' stance, the authors argue that lexical items are not epiphenomena, but really represent the mapping of sound to meaning (and vice versa) that classical conceptions imply. Their rule-governed combination creates words, phrases and sentences - structured by the 'categories' that are the object of the present inquiry. They argue that the distinction between functional and non-functional categories, between content words and inflections, is not as deeply rooted in grammar as is often thought. In their argumentation they lay the emphasis on empirical evidence, drawn mainly from dialectal variation in the Romance languages, as well as from Albanian. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The structure and interpretation of (Romance) complementizers 13

1.1 Romance complementizers are nominal and head their own noun phrase 14

1.2 Structure of the complementizer phrase 19

1.2.1 Combining a left periphery in the complementizer phrase and in the embedded sentence; combining two complementizers 23

1.2.2 Some potential problems 30

1.3 The left periphery beyond complementizers 37

1.3.1 Is order dictated by interpretation - or interpretation by order? 38

1.3.2 Embedded contexts 43

1.4 Conclusions 47

2 Variation in Romance k-complementizer systems 49

2.1 Systems with twok-complementizers 49

2.1.1 Definite and indefinite complementizers - and alternative analyses 54

2.1.2 Generalized wh-complementizers 61

2.2 'If 65

2.3 The interaction with (non-)finiteness 73

3 Sentential negation: adverbs 80

3.1 Sentential negation adverbs are nominal and argumental 83

3.1.1 Further evidence 88

3.1.2 Sentential negation adverbs as nominal arguments 92

3.2 Ordering sentential negation with respect to other adverbs 94

3.2.1 The order of negation with respect to aspectual adverbs 106

3.2.2 The order of negation with respect to quantificational and manner adverbs 111

3.2.3 General discussion 118

3.3 The interaction of adverbial and verbal positions: the participle 120

4 Sentential negation: clitics 128

4.1 Interactions of negation clitics and subject clitics 131

4.2 Interactions of negation clitics with object clitics 138

4.2.1 Non-negative n 145

4.3 Negative concord and negative doubling 152

5 The middle-passive voice: evidence from Albanian 159

5.1 Data 160

5.1.1 Middle-passive morphologies 160

5.1.2 The interpretation of the middle-passive morphologies 164

5.1.3 The Arbëresh varieties 169

5.2 The u-clitic 172

5.3 Specialized inflections 184

5.3.1 Be-participle 188

6 The auxiliary: have/be alternations in the perfect 196

6.1 Evidence 196

6.1.1 Theoretical background 203

6.2 Auxiliary selection independent of transitivity/voice 208

6.2.1 Auxiliary selection according to person 209

6.3 Splits according to transitivity/voice 216

6.3.1 Auxiliary selection according to voice 216

6.3.2 Auxiliary selection according to transitivity 218

6.3.3 Irreversibility 222

6.4 Finer parametrization 223

6.4.1 Interactions between auxiliary selection according to transitivity/voice and according to person 224

6.4.2 The third auxiliary 228

6.5 Some conclusions 233

7 The noun (phrase): agreement, case and definiteness in an Albanian variety 236

7.1 Theoretical and empirical background 237

7.1.1 Nominal inflections in Albanian 239

7.1.2 Generative approaches to case 244

7.2 Analysis of Albanian nominal inflections 246

7.2.1 Consonantal inflections 250

7.2.2 Vocalic case inflections and lack of inflections 255

7.2.3 Prepositional contexts 259

7.2.4 Summary 261

7.3 The Albanian noun phrase 262

7.3.1 The genitive 262

7.3.2 The adjective 266

7.3.3 Adjectives as heads of the noun phrase 272

7.4 Concluding remarks 275

8 (Definite) denotation and case in Romance: history and variation 276

8.1 The Latin case system 277

8.2 Romance case systems: Romanian 286

8.3 Other Romance case systems - and alternative accounts 295

8.4 Loss of case in Romance: Romansh-s 302

8.5 Pronouns - and some conclusions 308.

Notes:

Title from publishers bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Mar 2012).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9780511974489

9780521765190

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