Explaining syntax : representations, structures, and computation / Peter W. Culicover.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Culicover, Peter W.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Syntax.

English language.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Physical Description:

xiii, 380 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Contents:

1 Prologue. The Simpler Syntax Hypothesis (2006) 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Two views on the relation between syntax and semantics 2

1.3 Mainstream syntactic structures compared with Simpler Syntax 3

1.4 Application to Bare Argument Ellipsis 5

1.5 Some other cases where Fregean compositionality does not hold 7

1.5.1 Metonymy 7

1.5.2 Sound + motion construction 7

1.5.3 Beneficiary dative construction 7

1.6 Choosing between the two approaches 8

1.7 Rules of grammar are stored pieces of structure 9

1.8 Conclusion 11

Part I Representations

2 OM-sentences: on the derivation of sentences with systematically unspecifiable interpretations (1972) 15

2.1 Introduction 16

2.2 On OM-sentences 16

2.2.1 The readings of OM-sentences 17

2.2.2 A possible source for and-OM-sentences 18

2.2.3 The conjunction 19

2.2.4 Or-OM-sentences 22

2.3 What can a consequential OM-sentence mean? 25

2.4 Some proposals for derivation 28

2.4.1 Can there be deletions? 28

2.4.2 Do consequential OM-sentences have if's in deep structure? 31

2.4.3 How do you derive an OM-sentence? 36

2.4.4 Comparing approaches 41

2.4.5 Sequence of tenses 42

2.4.6 The consequences for phrase structure 45

2.5 The incongruence reading of and-OM-sentences 46

2.6 Rhetorical OM-sentences and the incongruence reading 49

2.7 Summary 52

3 On the coherence of syntactic descriptions (1973) 53

3.1 Rules for tags 53

3.2 Orderings 55

3.3 Neg-contraction 57

3.4 More orderings 58

3.5 Emphatic tags 59

3.6 Some implications 60

3.7 The impossibility of collapsing tag rules 61

3.8 Similarity 63

3.9 Capturing similarity 65

3.10 Definitions 66

3.11 Coherence 68

3.12 Towards a general notion of similarity 69

4 Stress and focus in English (1983) 71

4.1 Introduction 71

4.2 Prosodic structure 74

4.2.1 The mapping 78

4.2.2 Accent placement 83

4.2.3 Stress 85

4.2.4 Wh-constructions 88

4.2.5 Cliticization 97

4.3 Assignment of focus 100

4.3.1 The formal representation of focus 101

4.3.2 Some applications of focus assignment 104

4.4 The interpretation of focus 105

4.5 Summary and review 114

5 Control, PRO, and the Projection Principle (1992) 120

5.1 Introduction 121

5.2 A theory of predication 122

5.2.1 Phrase structure and lexicon 124

5.2.2 A coindexing rule 127

5.2.3 VP predicates and control 134

5.2.4 Non-obligatory control and secondary predication 139

5.2.5 Control in Spanish 141

5.3 Arguments against syntactic PRO 146

5.3.1 Gapping (I) 147

5.3.2 Gapping (II) 147

5.3.3 Pseudo-clefts 148

5.3.4 Appositive relatives 148

5.3.5 Conjunction 149

5.3.6 Stylistic Inversion 149

5.4 Arguments of Koster and May (1981) for syntactic PRO 150

5.4.1 Wh-infinitives 151

5.4.2 Redundancy of base rules 152

5.4.3 Pseudo-clefts 153

5.4.4 Extraposition 153

5.4.5 Coordination 154

5.4.6 Construal 154

5.5 Comparison with the Projection Principle 155

5.5.1 The categorial component and the lexicon 156

5.5.2 Raising to subject 159

5.5.3 NP-trace 160

5.5.4 Acquisition 161

5.6 Conclusion 162

6 Negative curiosities (1982) 163

6.1 Introduction 164

6.2 Tags: the polarity facts 165

6.2.1 Types of tag 166

6.2.2 Syntactic analysis of tags 168

6.2.3 Determinants of tag polarity 171

6.2.4 Deriving the ambiguity 175

6.2.5 Tags and surface structure scope 177

6.3 Any 179

6.4 More curiosities 184

6.5 Conclusion 188

Part II Structures

7 Deriving dependent right adjuncts in English (1997) 191

7.1 Introduction 191

7.2 Properties of extraposition constructions 192

7.2.1 Relative clause extraposition 192

7.2.2 Result clause extraposition 196

7.3 The Complement Principle 199

7.4 Extraposition is not rightward movement 199

7.5 Leftward movement 200

7.5.1 Stranding 200

7.5.2 Low adjunct 201

7.5.3 High specifier 202

7.6 HNPS and PTI 203

7.6.1 Properties 203

7.6.2 Leftward movement and rightmost heavy noun phrases 206

7.6.3 Phrase bounding 209

7.7 Conclusion 210

8 Topicalization, inversion, and complementizers in English (1992) 212

8.1 Introduction 213

8.2 Two landing sites 215

8.3 Additional evidence 219

8.3.1 Suspension of that-t ECP effects 219

8.3.2 Subject Aux Inversion (SAI) 223

8.3.3 Whether 228

8.3.4 Elliptical constructions 230

8.3.5 Why and how come 233

8.4 Extension to focus 239

8.4.1 Licensing subjects 239

8.4.2 Implications of internal PolP 244

8.4.3 Pol as focus in English 247

8.4.4 Comparative Germanic 252

8.5 Summary 255

9 The Adverb Effect: evidence against ECP accounts of the that-t effect (1992) 256

9.1 The Adverb Effect 257

9.2 Other complementizers 262

9.3 Parasitic gaps 264

9.4 Summary 268

10 Stylistic Inversion in English: a reconsideration (2001) 269

10.1 Introduction 270

10.2 PP is a subject 271

10.3 Light and heavy inversion 276

10.4 Conclusion 289

Part III Computation

11 A reconsideration of Dative Movements (1972) 295

11.1 Introduction 296

11.2 The syntax of indirect objects 296

11.3 Perceptual strategy constraints on acceptability 301

11.4 Application of perceptual strategy to dative movements 305

12 Markedness, antisymmetry, and complexity of constructions (2003) 309

12.1 Introduction 310

12.2 Change and clustering 311

12.2.1 The simulation model 311

12.2.2 Gaps 312

12.3 Markedness and computational complexity 317

12.3.1 OT 317

12.3.2 The basis for markedness 319

12.4 The computation of complexity 324

12.4.1 Distance 324

12.4.2 Stretching and twisting 329

12.5 Summary 332

13 Morphological complexity outside of universal grammar (1998) 334

13.1 Background 334

13.1.1 Types of inflectional morphology 335

13.1.2 A classical example: prefix-suffix asymmetry 336

13.2 Our approach 338

13.2.1 Complexity 339

13.2.2 Acquisition complexity: the dynamical component 339

13.3 Relevant studies in acquisition and processing 340

13.3.1 Lexical processing 340

13.3.2 External cues for morphology acquisition 340

13.3.3 Computational acquisition of paradigms 341

13.4 The complexity model 343

13.4.1 Semantic similarity 343

13.4.2 Similarity of forms 344

13.4.3 Model 0: standard Levenshtein distance 344

13.4.4 Model 1: matching strings in time 346

13.4.5 Possible further extensions 351

13.5 Conclusion 354

13.A Morphology acquisition by neural networks 354

13.B Templatic morphology, metathesis 355

13.B.1 Templatic morphology 355

13.B.2 Metathesis 356.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199660230

0199660239

OCLC:

834435387