The syntax-information structure interface : clausal word order and the left periphery in Galician / by Timothy Gupton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gupton, Timothy, author.

Series:

Interface explorations ; 29.

Interface explorations, 1861-4167 ; 29

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Galician language--Syntax.

Galician language.

Galician language--Grammar.

Galician language--Word order.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Topic and comment.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (308 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boston : De Gruyter Mouton, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

It is quite remarkable that, after over a half-century of generative grammar, there is still uncertainty with respect to the analysis of preverbal subjects in a number of languages. According to canonical analyses, preverbal subjects are arguments (A-elements). However, following non-canonical analyses, preverbal subjects are not arguments, but rather A'-elements that behave like topical preverbal direct and indirect objects, which have received a CLLD analysis in the literature (e.g. Cinque 1990). The implications of this debate are far-reaching for generative theory: if preverbal subjects are non-arguments, one must question the universality of the EPP (as in e.g. Alexiadou & Agnostopoulou 1998), as well as its associated features and feature-strengths. Galician is an under documented Romance language within the generative paradigm. In this book, I develop an experimental program for establishing clausal word order preferences for a number of information structure contexts. The preference data suggest that preverbal subjects behave like canonical elements, and not CLLD elements. These results inform the model of the preverbal field that I propose for Galician, which also takes into account the enclisis-proclisis divide and reco.

It is quite remarkable that, after over a half-century of research in generative grammar, there is still uncertainty and debate surrounding the analysis of preverbal subjects in a number of null-subject languages. The implications of this debate are far-reaching for generative theory: if preverbal subjects are analyzed as non-arguments, it calls into question the proposed universality of the EPP (as in e.g. Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 1998), as well as its associated features and feature-strengths. Galician, spoken in the northwest of Spain, is an under-documented Romance language within the generative paradigm. In this book, the author details an experimental program for establishing clausal word order appropriateness and preferences in a variety of information structure contexts, while informing theoretical debate on preverbal subjects. The experimental methodology and information structure assumptions employed create several testable predictions. The statistical data suggest that Galician is a predominantly SVO language and that preverbal subjects behave like canonical subjects, and not CLLD constituents. The empirical data discussed inform the modified model of the preverbal field that the author proposes for Galician, which takes into account a number of recent analyses of Western Iberian Romance clausal phenomena such as the enclisis-proclisis divide, topicalization, focalization, and recomplementation.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Preface

1. Introduction

2. The interaction between syntax and information structure

3. Methodology

4. Statistical analysis of quantitative and qualitative measures

5. Toward a Left-peripheral Syntactic Analysis of Galician

6. Appendix A. Linguistic questionnaire for initial tasks

7. Appendix B. Task 1: Appropriateness Judgment Task

8. Appendix C. Task 2: Word order preference task

9. APPENDIX D. Task 3: Recorded field interview

10. Appendix E. Follow-up WPT: for narrow-focus in Task 2

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781614512059

1614512051

9781501500305

1501500309

OCLC:

898769661