Argument licensing and agreement / Claire Halpert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Halpert, Claire, author.

Series:

Oxford studies in comparative syntax

Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zulu language--Grammar, Comparative--Bantu.

Zulu language.

Bantu language--Grammar, Comparative--Zulu.

Bantu language.

Zulu language--Syntax.

Zulu language--Agreement.

Physical Description:

xvi, 296 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016]

Summary:

In Argument Licensing and Agreement, Claire Halpert investigates the strikingly unrestricted syntactic distribution of nouns in Bantu languages such as Zulu. While this property has led to proposals that syntactic case does not play an active role in the grammar of Bantu languages, Halpert offers a different conclusion: Zulu has not only a system of structural case, but also a complex system of morphological case comparable to systems found in languages like Icelandic. By comparing the system of argument licensing found in Zulu to those found in more familiar languages, Halpert introduces a number of insights into the organization of the grammar. First, Halpert locates the positions where case is assigned in Zulu as lower in the clause than in nominative-accusative languages. Halpert demonstrates that syntactic facts from two separate domains converge to identify the low domain for case-licensing in Zulu. This evidence is mirrored by the syntactic distribution of "tone cases" in another Bantu language, Otjiherero. In addition, Zulu shows evidence that case and agreement are independent operations in the language, unlike what is found in many nominative-accusative languages. Despite the unfamiliar location of case, Zulu displays the same the timing relationships between operations found in languages like Icelandic. Second, this book proposes a novel type of morphological case that obscures many of the structural licensing effects in Zulu by providing an intrinsic source of case-licensing. While the effects of this case are unfamiliar, Halpert argues that its existence is expected given typological patterns and demonstrates that it is part of a richer picture of case morphology in Zulu that interacts with agreement and phi-features in a predictable and familiar way. Finally, this book explores the consequences of case and agreement as dissociated operations, showing that other unusual properties of Bantu languages, such as hyper-raising, are a natural result. This exploration yields the conclusion that some of the more unusual properties of Bantu languages in fact result from small amounts of variation to deeply familiar syntactic principles such as case, agreement, and the EPP. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Bantu Exceptionalism: What Varies, and Why? 1

1.2 Familiarity in the Unfamiliar: Insights on Syntax and Variation 4

1.3 A Note on Zulu 8

2 A-movement and Phi 10

2.1 Anatomy of a Nominal 11

2.2 Flexible Word Order 12

2.3 Subjects and Agreement 14

2.3.1 Properties of vP-external Subjects 16

2.3.2 Properties of vP-internal Subjects 22

2.3.3 Optionality for Subjects 28

2.4 Raising Constructions in Zulu 30

2.4.1 Raising-to-subject 30

2.4.2 Raising-to-object 41

2.5 Beyond Subject Distribution: Adding Arguments 44

2.6 Summary 53

3 Uncovering Argument Licensing 54

3.1 Nominal Distribution and Case Theory in Bantu 55

3.1.1 The Profile of Abstract Case 56

3.1.2 Against Standard Case Theory in Bantu 60

3.2 Augmentless Nominals 65

3.2.1 The Distribution of Augmentless Nominals 66

3.3 Augmentless Nominal Licensing 72

3.3.1 The vP-internal Restriction on Augmentless Nominals 73

3.3.2 Augmentless Nominals within vP 78

3.3.3 Summary 89

3.4 Augmentless Nominals and the Case for Case: A Cross-linguistic Comparison 90

3.4.1 Revisiting the Question of Case in Bantu 91

3.4.2 Restricting Augmentless Nominals without Case? 94

3.4.3 Clues from the Broader Bantu Landscape 101

3.5 Augmentless Nominals as Bare Negative NPs? 111

3.5.1 Syntactic Licensing of Negative Indefinites 112

3.6 Summarizing the Case for Case 116

4 Licensing and uP 118

4.1 Introduction 118

4.2 The Conjoint/Disjoint Alternation: Basic Distribution 120

4.2.1 The Conjoint/Disjoint Alternation and Argument Position 123

4.2.2 The Conjoint/Disjoint Alternation with Locatives and Adverbs 126

4.2.3 Diagnostics for vP Edge 128

4.2.4 Against a Prosodic Account of the Conjoint/Disjoint Alternation 134

4.2.5 The Conjoint/Disjoint Alternation as a Marker of Syntactic Constituency 137

4.3 A Familiar Signature 140

4.3.1 Asymmetric Probe-Goal Relationships 143

4.4 The Nature of L as a Probe 146

4.4.1 The Conjoint/Disjoint Alternation and Clausal Complements 147

4.4.2 The Nature of Locative and Adverb Categories 157

4.4.3 The Selectiveness of L 160

4.4.4 Summary 163

4.5 Movement and the Timing of the Derivation 163

4.5.1 Activity and the Lack of Optionality 169

4.6 Investigating L and Case: Clues from Otjiherero 174

5 Case Morphology in Zulu and Beyond 178

5.1 Case Classification 179

5.2 Structural Licensing: Recap 184

5.3 Zulu Nominal Prefixes and Licensing 185

5.3.1 Classification of Oblique Prefixes 186

5.3.2 Structural Restrictions on Obliques 190

5.3.3 Case Morphology in Zulu 195

5.4 The Augment and the Role of Case Morphology in Zulu 197

5.5 Case and Agreement Interactions 204

5.5.1 On Agreeableness 204

5.5.2 Timing of Agreement and Case 206

5.5.3 The Status of Augment-permitting Prefixes 209

5.5.4 Case Concord? 212

5.6 Examining the Augment inside DP 217

5.6.1 Augmentless nominals at the NP level 217

5.6.2 DP-level processes 220

5.7 Conclusion 228

6 Optional Agreement and Other Consequences 229

6.1 Subject Agreement: Rule and Exceptions 232

6.1.1 Complex NP Subjects 232

61.2 Raised Subjects 234

6.1.3 Tallying the Score 242

6.2 Understanding Optional Agreement 242

6.2.1 Clausal Agreement 243

6.2.2 Complex NP Subjects 245

6.2.3 Raised Subjects 250

6.3 EPP Insights 256

6.3.1 Exotic Cases of Raising: English and Greek 259

6.4 Conclusion 262

7 Variation in the Syntactic Landscape 264

7.1 Accounting for Zulu 264

7.2 Morals for Syntactic Theory 269

7.2.1 Zulu and the Organization of the Grammar 269

7.2.2 Some Final Thoughts: Zulu and the Nature of Syntactic Variation 274.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780190256487

0190256486

9780190256470

0190256478

OCLC:

909081204