Volume 7
2011
The co-editors of the seventh volume are Lena BAUNAZ, Anamaria BENTEA and Joanna BLOCHOWIAK.
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Peter Herbeck (herbeck@uni-wuppertal.de)
In this paper, we will examine some instances of overt subjects in Spanish control infinitives and the consequences for current control theory. We will claim that the licensing mechanism of the overt/covert distinction in Spanish control infinitives is more similar to the mechanisms employed in finite pro-drop clauses than to raising configurations. Thus, the empty subject in pro-drop as well as control is licensed by the feature make up of the embedded T head. We will furthermore pursue the question of how an Agree-based theory of control could work without the problematic lexical entry PRO. We argue that the [-R] marking of T is restricted to interpretable phi-features, which makes it possible for the embedded T head to directly satisfy the corresponding argument of the predicate. Hence, null subjects in control work similarly to null subjects in pro-drop, the difference lying in the referential value of T: [-R] in the former and [+R] in the latter construction. In this approach, the possibility of overt subjects is crucially linked to the availability of discourse-sensitive positions and not exclusively to Case theory.
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Masakazu Kuno (kuno@waseda.jp)
This paper argues, in support of Pesetsky and Torrego (2007) and contra Chomsky (2000, 2001), that feature interpretability should be separated from feature values so that syntax allows four distinct feature types. This point is empirically supported by an analysis of negative concord items in Japanese, where a probe shows up as an interpretable but unvalued feature whereas a goal appears as an uninterpretable but valued feature.
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Koichiro Nakamura (nakamura@gaines.hju.ac.jp)
This paper has three aims. The first one is to claim that wa-marked phrases are divided into three: Thematic Topic (TT), Contrastive Topic (CT) and Contrastive Focus (CF) with the focal stress on it. The second aim is to propose that Japanese phrase structure has two topic slots, or Topic Phrase (TopP): the upper one is for TT, and the lower one is for CT. The third aim is to show that a focussed wa-marked phrase (CF wa) is interpreted as focus, and moves into Spec-Focus Phrase (FocP). We furthermore extend the claim to the analysis of DP scrambling in Japanese. Our crucial point is that Japanese object scrambling is regarded as focus movement, which targets Spec-FocP.
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Tomislav Sočanac (tomislav.socanac@unige.ch)
My paper deals with the subjunctive mood in Serbian/Croatian (SC), with a particular focus on the area subjunctive complementation, i.e. contexts where subjunctive is selected in the embedded complement of the matrix predicate. I deal with the issues related to the syntactic realization and distribution of these complements in SC. First I show that SC realizes subjunctive complements in the same way as other Balkan languages. Unlike Romance languages, which mark subjunctive on the verb, Balkan languages mark it by using mood particles, which are separate from the verb and which appear on the left periphery of the subjunctive clause. I demonstrate that SC contains the same type of mood particle and then study the influence of this element on the syntax of subjunctive complements in SC. Once I have studied the derivation of this type of complements in SC, I focus on their distribution. The problem that one is faced with is this context is that SC, like most other Balkan languages, appears to exhibit very wide subjunctive distribution due to the fact that its infinitive was partially lost and replaced with finite control complements that overtly resemble subjunctives. Nevertheless, I argue, using semantic and syntactic type of evidence, that the latter type of complements should not be considered as true subjunctives and that subjunctive distribution in SC (and possibly other Balkan languages as well) is not wider than the one observed, for instance, in Romance languages.
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Boris Haselbach (haselbbs@ims.uni-stuttgart.de)
In this paper, I analyze the German verb particle nach (‘after’) at the syntax-semantics interface. The claim is that nach accesses an properties of an underlying eventuality (e.g. direction or manner of an event, or result or progressive state properties) and triggers a presupposed preceding eventuality of the same kind. Assuming a syntactic analysis where the particle enters the structure at a light verb on top of VP, I claim that different argument structures, with regard to a dative DP, emerge as a consequence of which type of eventuality is accessed by nach: if event properties of the underlying VP are accessed by nach a dative DP is licensed, if state properties of the underlying VP are accessed no dative DP is licensed. Further, I provide five semantic unfoldings of nach: two event-relating interpretations (copy-direction reading and copy-manner reading) and three state relating interpretations (copy-creation reading, once-more/restitution reading, and continuation reading).
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Sveta Krasikova (contact@svetakrasikova.eu)
The paper examines the properties of quantity words, like ‘many’, in Russian, which is known to realize proportional and cardinal readings by two distinct morphological forms, and addresses the long-standing problem of resolving this kind of ambiguity. We implement an analysis of ‘many’ based on comparison classes within a degree-based approach. The main claim is that the ambiguity is resolved by the choice of the comparison class, and this choice is constrained by such grammatical mechanisms as association with focus and non-intersective modification. The proportional reading corresponds to the adjectival ‘many’, which is realized as a modifier whose comparison class is lexically fixed to the noun it combines with. Various cardinal readings arise with the adverbial ‘many’, whose comparison class depends on the focus-structure of the clause.
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Sonja Müller (sonja.mueller@uni-bielefeld.de)
This paper develops a (discourse) semantic analysis and explanation of the negative influence that factive matrix verbs have on extractions from that-complement clauses. For decades, questions of locality have been a central issue for (generative) syntactic approaches. Although the complement clause’s opacity caused by a factive matrix verb can obviously be modelled within syntactic accounts, such theories usually do not explain why factivity leads to the that-clauses losing their transparency for extraction. As moving the wh-phrase to the front in syntax serves the purpose of forming a question in semantics and pragmatics and as the formation of this communicative entity is, however, prevented by factive verbs, the account attempts to answer the ‘why question’ (cf. above) by analysing the Context Change Potential of the resulting question.
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Sonja Thoma (thoma@interchange.ubc.ca)
In this paper I show that Miesbach Bavarian Discourse Particles do not form a natural class. I investigate some phonological, semantic and syntactic properties, and show that, despite the appearance of discourse particles as a class, they are not homogeneous in behaviour. This suggests that no unified syntactic licensing conditions for discourse particles exist.
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