Syntax and Semantics – serie

This comprehensive overview of Icelandic syntax contains new analyses of word order and long-distance reflexivization, detailed studies of case-marking, and the first systematic description of the -st middles. It presents a complete picture of modern Icelandic syntax as seen in the tradition of generative grammar, striking a good balance between theory and description.

Complex Predicates in Nonderivational Syntax collects recent research in complex predicates within a variety of languages, such as German, Dutch, Italian, French, Korean, and Urdu. Recognizing that complex predicates is one of the most active research areas in nonderivational theories of grammar, contributors focus on diverse aspects of complex predicate phenomena, including order variation, constituency relations, interactions with other construction types, argument relations, and the syntax morphology interface. Their concentration on issues of linguistically adequate description open these articles to those interested in syntax, semantics, morphology, computational linguistics, and natural language processing. It includes essays written by the leading researchers in the field, including Ivan Sag. It makes the clearest and most advanced statement to date about complex predicates.

Argues that knowledge in language consists of being able to use it in speaking and understanding. This work analyses a variety of languages, from English to Japanese and Swahili. It is intended for those in the disciplines of language, linguistics, anthropology, education, psychology, cognitive science, law, media studies, and medicine.

While experimental data collection has been common in psycholinguistics for some time, only relatively recently have experimental methods been employed to collect data for research in formal linguistics. Experimental methods can be particularly useful for investigating phenomena at the interfaces of the components of grammar, where the sources of multiple types of information need to be carefully controlled. Experiments at the Interfaces, edited by Jeffrey T. Runner from the University of Rochester, brings together recent experimental research examining a variety of issues within syntax and semantics, and their interfaces with each other and with other domains of language. The volume showcases a wide range of experimental methods and illustrates how they can be applied to critical questions relevant to formal linguistics.Contributors are: Sergey Avrutin, Molly Diesing, Sam Featherston, Micah B. Goldwater, Martin Hackl, Justin Halberda, Edwin Howard, Tim Hunter, Arnout W. Koornneef, Hadas Kotek, Ellen F. Lau, Jeffrey Lidz, Darko Odic, Colin Phillips, Paul Pietroski, Eric Reuland, Jeffrey T. Runner, Yasutada Sudo, Klaus von Heusinger, Matthew W. Wagers, Hanna Weiland, Frank Wijnen, Draga Zec.

Crosslinguistic Studies on Noun Phrase Structure and Reference contains 11 studies on the grammar of noun phrases. Part One explores NP-structure and the impact of information structure, countability and number marking on interpretation, using data from Russian, Armenian, Hebrew, Brazilian Portuguese, Karitiana, Turkish, English, Catalan and Danish. Part Two examines language specific definiteness marking strategies in spoken and signed languages—differentiated definiteness marking in Germanic, double definiteness in Greek, adnominal demonstratives in Japanese, ‘weak’ definiteness in Martiniké and the special referring options made avilable by signing. Part Three examines the second-language acquisition of genericity in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. This volume will be of interest to researchers and students in syntax, formal semantics, and language acquisition.Contributors include: Željko Bošković, Patricia Cabredo Hofherr, Edit Doron, Nomi Erteschik Shir, Brigitte Garcia, Elaine Grolla, Tania Ionin, Loïc Jean-Louis, Makoto Kaneko, Marika Lekakou, Silvina Montrul, Ana Müller, Asya Pereltsvaig, Marie-Anne Sallandre, Helade Santos, Serkan Şener, Rebekka Studler, Kriszta Szendröi, Anne Zribi-Hertz.

Complex predicates can be loosely defined as a sequence of items that behave as a single predicate, projecting a single argument structure within a clause. Each of the members of the predicate contributes part of the information ordinarily associated with a single head.The present volume presents a collection of theoretical linguistic results on the study of complex predicates in different perspectives and with a variety of approaches. Important empirical and theoretical issues cutting across various subfields of linguistics are being addressed in this book, such as:• Syntactic and semantic modeling of complex predicate formation: compositionality, argument structure, event structure.• Differences between syntactic and morphological processes of lexeme formation.• Typological and diachronic issues in complex predicate formation.• Neo-Davidsonian analyses of abstract predicate decomposition and its morphological correlates.Contributors are: Ane Berro, Denis Creissels, Hannah Gibson, Adele Goldberg, Lutz Marten, Annie Montaut, Léa Nash, Pooja Paul, Pollet Samvelian, Peter Svenonius, and Susanne Wurmbrand.

Interactions of Degree and Quantification is a collection of chapters edited by Peter Hallman that deal with superlative, equative and differential constructions cross-linguistically, interactions of the comparative with both individual quantifiers and event structure, the use of the individual quantifier ‘some’ as a numeral, and the question of whether the very notion of ‘degree’ is reducible to a relation between individuals. These issues all represent semantic parallels and interactions between individual quantifiers (every, some, etc.) and degree quantifiers (more, most, numerals, etc.) in the expression of quantity and measurement. The contributions presented here advance the analytical depth and cross-linguistic breadth of the state of the art in semantics and its interface with syntax in human language.

This volume edited by Tabea Ihsane focuses on different aspects of the distribution, semantics, and internal structure of nominal constituents with a “partitive article” in its indefinite interpretation and of potentially corresponding bare nouns. It further deals with diachronic issues, such as grammaticalization and evolution in the use of “partitive articles”.The outcome is a snapshot of current research into “partitive articles” and the way they relate to bare nouns, in a cross-linguistic perspective and on new data: the research covers noteworthy data (fieldwork data and corpora) from Standard languages - like French and Italian, but also German - to dialectal and regional varieties, including endangered ones like Francoprovençal.

This volume explores the interface between morphosyntax and semantics-pragmatics in the domain of referential and quantificational nominal expressions. We present case studies from Romance and Germanic languages, dealing with both synchronic and diachronic aspects. Our aim is to empirically test, on the basis of comparative data, the most recent theoretical developments in the analysis of reference and quantification and to identify focal points for future research.