The distribution of pronoun case forms in English / Heidi Quinn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Quinn, Heidi.

Series:

Linguistik aktuell ; Bd. 82.

Linguistik aktuell = Linguistics today, 0166-0829 ; v. 82

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Pronoun.

English language.

English language--Case.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (423 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub., c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book offers an in-depth analysis of Modern English pronoun case. The author examines case trends in a wide range of syntactic constructions and concludes that case variation is confined to strong pronoun contexts. Data from a survey of 90 speakers provide new insights into the distributional differences between strong 1sg and non-1sg case forms and reveal systematic case variation within the speech of individuals as well as across speakers. The empirical findings suggest that morphological case is best treated as a PF phenomenon conditioned by semantic, syntactic, and phonological factors. In order to capture the way in which these linguistic factors interact to produce the pronoun case patterns exhibited by individual speakers, the author introduces a novel constraint-based approach to morphological case. Current case trends are also considered in a wider historical context and are related to a change in the licensing of structural arguments.

Contents:

The Distribution of Pronoun Case Forms in English

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

dedication

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

1. THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CASE SYSTEM

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Morphological case in Old English

1.2 Morphological case in Middle English (ME)

1.3 Lexical and structural case marking in the history of English

1.4 Morphological changes in the pronominal paradigm during the Early Modern English period

2. FORMAL APPROACHES TO CASE AND THE THREE CASE CONSTRAINTS

2.0 Introduction

2.1 Case and argument structure

2.2 Case and structural position

2.3 Argument Case, Positional Case and (Positional) Default Case

2.4 A constraint-based approach to agreement

3. CASE AND THE WEAK/STRONG DISTINCTION IN THE ENGLISH PRONOUN SYSTEM

3.0 Introduction

3.1 Strong and deficient pronouns in languages other than English

3.2 The syntactic properties of constructions with pronoun case variation

3.3 The prosodic properties of pronouns that exhibit case variation

3.4 Summary of differences between weak and strong pronouns

4. THE EMPIRICAL SURVEY

4.0 Introduction

4.1 Constructions and pronoun combinations tested

4.2 Task types

4.3 Fillers

4.4 The contents of the five questionnaires

4.5 The sample

4.6 Data collection

5. THE SURVEY RESULTS

5.0 Introduction

5.1 Pronoun case in coordinates

5.2 Pronoun-NP constructions

5.3 Pronoun case in it-clefts

5.4 Pronoun case in than-comparatives

5.5 Summary of the most important case trends

6. RELATIVE POSITIONAL CODING AND THE INVARIANT STRONG FORM CONSTRAINTS

6.0 Introduction

6.1 The limitations of a purely case-based analysis

6.2 Relative Positional Coding

6.3 The Invariant Strong Form constraints.

6.4 The interaction of case and non-case constraints

7. MODELLING THE INTERACTION OF THE CONSTRAINTS

7.0 Introduction

7.1 Optimality Theory (OT)

7.2 An alternative constraint-weighting approach

7.3 Summary

8. THE DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONAL PRONOUN FORMS IN OTHER STRONG PRONOUN CONTEXTS

8.0 Introduction

8.1 Topicalised pronouns

8.2 Left-dislocated pronouns

8.3 Right-dislocated pronouns

8.4 Independent pronouns

8.5 Pronoun case after be

8.6 Pronoun case in V-ing constructions

8.7 Pronoun case in to-infinitives

8.8 Pronoun case in small clauses

8.9 Pronoun case in gapping constructions

8.10 Pronoun case in bare argument ellipsis

8.11 Pronouns following but, save, except

8.12 Pronouns following not

8.13 Pronoun case after only

8.14 The case of modified pronouns

8.15 Summary and conclusions

9. THE DISTRIBUTION OF WH-PRONOUN FORMS IN MODERN ENGLISH

9.0 Introduction

9.1 wh-pronouns in matrix questions

9.2 The case of subject pronouns after fronted auxiliaries

9.3 wh-pronouns in echo questions

9.4 wh-pronouns in embedded questions

9.5 wh-pronouns in sluicing constructions

9.6 wh-pronouns in free relatives

9.7 wh-pronouns in headed relatives

9.8 Summary and conclusions

10. SPECULATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

10.0 Introduction

10.1 Morphological and positional licensing in the history of English

10.2 The rise of Positional Case

10.3 The divergence of the weak and strong pronoun series in English

REFERENCES

Primary sources of OE and ME examples taken from secondary sources

NAME INDEX

SUBJECT INDEX

the series Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [384]-397) and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612156489

9781282156487

1282156489

9789027294197

9027294194

OCLC:

191951527