The article argues that in constructions where there is more than one phrase at a phasal edge, only the highest edge is available for movement and anaphor binding. This shows that only the outermost edge counts as the edge of a phase for the Phase Impenetrability Condition ( PIC). The article also demonstrates that moving the element that counts as the phasal edge in multiple specifier/adjunct cases can affect the PIC status of the remaining edges. These conclusions provide a new argument for the contextuality of phasehood. A number of recent works have argued that the phasal status of a phrase can be affected by the syntactic context in which it occurs. This article goes one step further: it shows that the concept of phasal edge, more precisely the status of a specifier/adjunct regarding the PIC, can also be affected by the syntactic context in which the specifier/adjunct occurs. The article also discusses several issues regarding the syntax and semantics of adjectives, possessors, and demonstratives, in...

Getting Really Edgy: On the Edge of the Edge

Abstract:I investigate patterns of preverbal fronting in Toba Batak, a predicate-initial Austronesian language of northern Sumatra. Contrary to the claims of previous work on the language, I show that multiple constituents can be simultaneously fronted, though only in limited configurations. I argue that the distinct heads C and T are present in Toba Batak, with their common division of labor, but extraction patterns are restricted by the limited means of nominal licensing (abstract Case) in the language. In addition, the features of C and T have the option of being bundled together on a single head, inheriting properties of both C and T and probing together for the joint satisfaction of their probes. This study sheds light on the relationship between western Austronesian voice system languages and the clause periphery in other language families.*

https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/08_94.3Erlewine.pdf

Extraction and licensing in Toba Batak

A notable feature of Welsh is a number of agreement phenomena, all of which only occur with pronouns. Finite verbs agree with a following pronominal subject, prepositions agree with a following pronominal complement, and a particle which introduces non-finite clauses agrees with a following pronominal subject. Similarly, nouns have a preceding clitic agreeing with a following pronominal possessor, non-finite verbs have a preceding clitic agreeing with a following pronominal object, and what looks like the non-finite form of bod “be”, which introduces certain subordinate clauses, has a preceding clitic agreeing with a following pronominal subject. There seems to be a single phenomenon here. Approaches that involve an abstract level face problems and there is no evidence that the phenomenon involves an abstract level. It seems quite plausible to suggest that superficial linear order is crucial, and this idea can be implemented in a straightforward way within linearization-based Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). The properties of agreement also entail that unexpressed noun phrases of various kinds must be represented in the superficial constituent structure and not just at some abstract level, contrary to the view of some frameworks.

On the superficiality of Welsh agreement

This article offers a critical examination of De Vries's (2006) account of appositive relatives, which treats appositive relatives and nominal appositions alike and assimilates both to coordinate structures. Its main focus is on the following properties of appositive relatives: (a) the category of the appositive head, (b) the case of the appositive head, (c) relative pronoun selection, (d) extraction phenomena, (e) the typology of specifying coordinators, and (f) the lack of prenominal appositives. It examines these properties from both an empirical and a theoretical perspective, contrasting De Vries's account with a version of an adjunction account.

An Argument against Assimilating Appositive Relatives to Coordinate Structures

/pdf/danish-in-head-driven-phrase-structure-grammar-42c6pncase.pdf

Danish in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

The Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

In this paper, we examine the syntactic behaviour of agentive and recipient passives in Dutch and German. Despite the fact that passives in Germanic languages have been discussed quite extensively in the literature (e.g., Haider (1984), Reis (1986)), no accounts exist that provide evidence which convincingly support the to-date predominant analyses of these phenomena as raising structures (Muller (2002; 2003)). Thus, in our effort to provide a uniform syntactic analysis of passives in Germanic languages, we are looking at equi structures, as well as raising phenomena, also in relation to case in Germanic languages, for as far as passivisation phenomena are concerned the challenge lies in the fact that recipient passives exhibit a change in the case value of arguments that maintain their case in agentive passives. The paper provides an elaborate discussion of all related phenomena, proposing as an outcome a well founded and motivated uniform raising syntactic analysis in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (henceforward HPSG, Pollard & Sag (1994)) for the agentive and the recipient passives in both Dutch and German.

/pdf/passives-in-germanic-languages-the-case-of-dutch-and-german-5bnfwt5vnw.pdf

van Gerardus Noord

Papers

The Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Passives in Germanic Languages: the case of Dutch and German