Nonfinite Inquiries : Materials for a Comparative Study of Nonfinite Predicative Domains / Alain Rouveret.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rouveret, Alain, Author.

Series:

Studies in Generative Grammar [SGG] Series

Studies in Generative Grammar [SGG] , 0167-4331 ; 138

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (XVII, 465 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter Mouton, [2023]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This study aims at developing a unified perspective on nonfiniteness, encompassing its morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects. It puts the emphasis on clause types distinct from standard infinitives (gerund clauses, Celtic verbo-nominal structures, Portuguese inflected infinitives, Latin dominant participle constructions) and takes advantage of the most recent developments in syntactic theory. The notions of defectiveness and completeness, the inheritance hypothesis, the labeling requirement, the syntactic definition of lexical categories, once combined together, appear to make accessible tighter and more elegant analyses than previous accounts.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Foreword

I Questions about nonfiniteness

1 Finiteness, tense, person agreement

2 How nonfinite domains differ from finite ones

3 Crossing the verb/noun border

4 A program

II Key concepts and emerging issues in recent syntactic theorizing

Introduction

5 Categories and their labels

6 Categories and their features: Inheritance and the C-T connection

7 The licensing of overt and controlled subjects

8 The semantics of nonfinite tense

III The morphosyntax of English gerund forms

9 The syntax/morphology interface

10 Transcategorial items, mixed projections

11 A preliminary classification of gerund phrases

12 Lexical approaches to trancategoriality

13 Syntactic accounts of transcategoriality

14 Conclusion

IV The syntax of English gerund clauses

15 Some semantic properties of gerund domains

16 How gerund constructions differ from one another

17 A labeling analysis of Acc-ing constructions

18 A category-switching analysis of Poss-ing constructions

19 A note on nominal gerund constructions

21 Summary

V The morphosyntax of verbo-nominal heads in contemporary Welsh

22 The two uses of the verb-noun

23 The internal structure of VNP projections

24 Aspectual properties of Welsh verb-nouns

25 Conclusion

VI The syntax of Welsh verbo-nominal clauses

26 i-initial verbo-nominal clauses

27 Bod-initial constructions

28 Labeling Welsh VN-clauses

29 The tense of VN-clauses

30 Conclusion

VII Verbo-nominal root clauses in Middle Welsh

31 Some remarkable data

32 A short excursus on unergative VNs

33 Against the nominal analysis

34 The ergativity of verbo-nominal root and embedded clauses

35 Making the ergative analysis explicit

36 Coexistence of ergative-absolutive and nominative-accusative patterns

37 The interpretation of tense

38 Conclusion

39 Appendix: Proposals for the analysis of ergative structures

VIII The syntax of inflected infinitives in European Portuguese

40 Introduction

41 Three asymmetries

42 The non-existence of an auxiliary/main verb asymmetry

43 The case licensing of IIC subjects

44 The eventive/stative divide

45 The factive/nonfactive asymmetry and the categorial identity of IICs

46 Labeling IICs

47 Inflected/uninflected infinitive clauses with a null subject

48 Conclusion

49 Appendix: Verb classes in European Portuguese

IX Extraposition phenomena

50 The extraposition of embedded finite clauses

51 Why Welsh VN-clauses obligatorily extrapose, why Welsh VN-phrases cannot

52 A principled approach to extraposition

53 Why gerund clauses don’t extrapose

54 Why Portuguese inflected infinitive structures sometimes extrapose, sometimes don’t

55 Conclusion

X The Latin ab urbe condita construction

56 Domain of study

57 Basic syntactic and semantic properties of the DPC

58 The analysis of passive past participles: A few landmarks

59 DPCs as mixed projections

60 Agreement and case in DPCs

61 The origin of linguistic variation

62 Conclusion

XI Facts and events, attitudinal objects and states of affairs

63 Do gerund clauses name facts?

64 Verbo-nominal clauses

65 On attitudinal objects

66 Inflected infinitive constructions

67 Taking stock

XII Conclusion: The many faces of defectiveness

68 Semantics

69 Morphosyntax

70 Syntax

71 On defectiveness

References

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Feb 2023)

ISBN:

3-11-076928-X

OCLC:

1371573813