Showing papers in "Natural Language and Linguistic Theory in 2014"

Word formation is syntactic: adjectival passives in English

Abstract: Since Wasow (1977), the differences between adjectival and verbal passives in English have been taken to motivate a division between lexical and syntactic word-formation processes. This paper shows with data from corpora that many accepted facts about adjectival passives are incorrect: adjectival passives can be formed from ECM/raising verbs, and they can also involve a subset of indirect or applied objects. On the other hand, adjectival passives do differ from verbal passives in special meanings and missing inputs. This means that the phenomena that are supposed to characterize syntactic versus lexical processes do not all pattern together: ECM/raising points to a syntactic derivation of adjectival passives, but special interpretations and missing inputs point to a lexical derivation. This paper instead proposes a purely syntactic account of adjectival passives that explains all of the facts, both the similarities and the differences between adjectival and verbal passives. This syntactic analysis also permits a simple account of the alleged class of non-intersective adjectives, and the predictions it makes provides support for the theory of applied arguments advanced by Bruening (2010).

Clitic doubling or object agreement: the view from Amharic

Abstract: Object agreement is the realization of phi features on v, whereas clitic doubling is often analyzed as the movement of a D head in order to attach to a verb. In principle, these two phenomena are distinct, but in practice they can be difficult to distinguish. In this paper, I take up the issue for the Amharic object marker, a morpheme that co-varies with the phi features of an internal argument. Evidence from its distribution and morphological form indicate that it is a doubled clitic, but it also displays a handful of properties characteristic of agreement. Building on some of the most recent clitic doubling research, I develop an Agree-based clitic doubling analysis of the object marker that accounts for both its doubled clitic-like and agreement-like properties. Overall, the paper is a case study in how to distinguish clitic doubling and agreement in a particular language, and an investigation of how to capture the relationship between these two deeply similar phenomena in linguistic theory.

The composition of INFL

Abstract: The central goal of this article is to argue that functional categories are universally associated with a core function but that their substantive content is subject to variation. We review evidence from Ritter and Wiltschko (2009) based on language variation: INFL may be associated with temporal, spatial, or participant marking. This paper explores the properties of the universal category INFL in clauses where it remains without substantive content. We show that languages pattern in similar ways in these contexts. That is, in the absence of variable substantive content, the universal formal properties of INFL emerge.

Clitic doubling at the syntax-morphophonology interface

Abstract: True clitic doubling involves multiple expression of a single argument in different structural positions. In clitic doubling configurations of this kind, a clitic expresses features of its full nominal phrase associate in argument position. True clitic doubling has traditionally been argued to arise via agreement, so that the clitic is the manifestation of an agreement relation between a verb and the associate. However, another possibility exists: the clitic could be a (pro)nominal element related to the associate via movement; then, clitic doubling involves the simultaneous realization of both the head and the foot of a movement chain. Here, I argue for the latter analysis, showing that true clitic doubling, at least in Bulgarian, has the properties of movement—i.e., it does not involve agreement, as is standardly assumed for this language. I provide support for this claim by considering a number of diagnostics which distinguish between clitics that reflect agreement processes and clitics that do not. Specifically, I argue that the clitic is a reduced articulation of the higher occurrence of a raised object. Thus, the proposed analysis treats clitic doubling as an interface phenomenon which results from the interaction of two independently motivated operations of the syntactic and morphophonological components of grammar: A-movement and morphological merger.

The structural ergative of Basque and the theory of Case

Abstract: We investigate the nature of morphological ergativity through the ergative/split-S system of Basque. We show that in Basque ergative case and agreement reflect structural rather than inherent Case: Agree/Move rather than selection. Evidence comes from the core distinctions between these dependency types, including ergative-absolutive alternations due to absolutive Exceptional Case Marking of external arguments and raising-to-ergative of internal arguments. In consequence, structural Agree/Case systems cannot be reduced to a nominative-accusative basis with an inherent ergative, as has been proposed. Our investigation sheds light on the nature of structural ergativity in Basque. First, ergativity like nominativity comes from the T-system, whereas absolutivity and accusativity are in the v-system. Second, ergative agreement can occur under unbounded c-command through Agree, like nominative, accusative, and absolutive case and agreement, but ergative case requires movement to Spec,T, bearing out the ergative as a ‘marked’ structural Case. Third, structural Agree/Case systems are parametrizable to give both ergative and accusative alignments and islands of exceptionality within each. We develop a theoretical account of these results in the Agree framework of the Principles-and-Parameters approach, building on previous theories of structural ergativity.

Reflexive -st verbs in Icelandic

Abstract: The -st morpheme in Icelandic resembles Romance and Slavic reflexive clitics and some Germanic simplex reflexives in that it is associated with a number of different uses on various verbs; this includes, among other uses, a middle/anticausative, a reciprocal, and a reflexive use. The reflexive use of -st is, however, much more restricted than that of typical reflexive clitics. In this article, I discuss in detail one particular class of reflexive -st verb, which I will refer to as the ‘figure reflexive’. With figure reflexive constructions, the subject bears an external agentive Θ-role and is also understood as a ‘figure’ with respect to a spatial ‘ground’, in the sense of Talmy (1985). I discuss two questions that reflexive -st verbs raise for a syntactic view of argument structure: what is the relationship between anticausatives and reflexives, and where does lexical idiosyncrasy arise? For the first question, I propose to analyze -st as an argument expletive, which in figure reflexive constructions is merged in SpecpP (cf. Svenonius 2003, 2007), but in anticausatives is merged in SpecVoiceP. Only in the former case can the Θ-role survive in semantics, which is argued to derive from the fact that VoiceP dominates pP, and not the other way around. For the second question, I argue that there are two separate issues: the first is the syntactic distribution of -st (which limits the kinds of reflexive -st verbs that can exist) and the second is the integration of roots into abstract event structure. This analysis supports a model of grammar where the semantics interprets the syntax, but the syntax operates autonomously from semantics: interpretation is determined ‘late’, just like phonological forms are.

The construction of viewpoint aspect: the imperfective revisited

Abstract: This paper argues for a constructionist approach to viewpoint Aspect by exploring the idea that it does not exert any altering force on the situation-aspect properties of predicates. The proposal is developed by analyzing the syntax and semantics of the imperfective, which has been attributed a coercer role in the literature as a de-telicizer and de-stativizer in the progressive, and as a de-eventivizer in the so-called ability (or attitudinal) and habitual readings. This paper proposes a unified semantics for the imperfective, preserving the properties of eventualities throughout the derivation. The paper argues that the semantics of viewpoint aspect is encoded in a series of functional heads containing interval-ordering predicates and quantifiers. This richer structure allows us to account for a greater amount of phenomena, such as the perfective nature of the individual instantiations of the event within a habitual construction or the nonculminating reading of perfective accomplishments in Spanish. This paper hypothesizes that nonculminating accomplishments have an underlying structure corresponding to the perfective progressive. As a consequence, the progressive becomes disentangled from imperfectivity and is given a novel analysis. The proposed syntax is argued to have a corresponding explicit morphology in languages such as Spanish and a nondifferentiating one in languages such as English; however, the syntax-semantics underlying both of these languages is argued to be the same.

A typology of partitive aspectual operators

Abstract: This paper proposes a typology of partitive aspectual operators based on whether an operator: (i) requires (non-)proper event parts in the extension of the VP that it combines with and (ii) imposes a ‘maximal stage requirement’, which is satisfied when a VP-event culminates or ceases to develop further in the actual world. I provide evidence for such a typology by looking at the Russian imperfective, the Hindi perfective and the English progressive. I argue that each of these languages has a partitive, aspectual operator that fills a distinct cell in the proposed typology. The typology is important because it allows us to dispense with Smith’s (The parameter of aspect. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1991) notion of ‘neutral aspect’ used to classify aspectual forms as having properties of both the perfective and the imperfective. In particular, the typology reveals that an operator is perfective if it requires a maximal stage of an event in the extension of the VP that it combines with; an operator is imperfective if it requires a stage of an event in the extension of the VP that it combines with, but this stage need not be maximal.

Cross-linguistic variation in imperfectivity

Abstract: The paper examines variation in the interpretations of imperfectives in Slavic, Romance, and Je (Mẽbengokre). It develops a core modal analysis for an imperfective operator (IMPF) within situation semantics, coupled with language-specific constraints formally encoded in modal bases. Cross-linguistic contrasts in the interpretation of imperfectives are explained in terms of variation in modal bases for IMPF, lexicalization patterns, and its interactions with other operators. The proposal accounts for why Romance languages use imperfectives to make reference to past plans while most Slavic languages do not, as well as for narrative uses specific to Romance languages, and factual uses specific to some Slavic languages. The proposal also accounts for lexically specified aspectual operators in Mẽbengokre, as well as language-specific interaction between IMPF and other modal operators, as in the Bulgarian Renarrated Mood, and two different semantic instances of Slavic Involuntary States. Appealing to cross-linguistic evidence to argue for a view according to which IMPF makes significant semantic contributions in all occurrences, the paper shows how a modal analysis can account for well-known temporal properties of imperfectives. It also demonstrates that data from closely related as well as unrelated languages provide evidence for an invariant semantic core behind imperfectivity.

Binary tense and modality

Abstract: The present paper adopts as its point of departure the claim by Te Winkel (1866) and Verkuyl (2008) that mental temporal representations are built on the basis of three binary oppositions: Present/Past, Synchronous/Posterior and Imperfect/Perfect. Te Winkel took the second opposition in terms of the absence or presence of a temporal auxiliary zullen ‘will’. However, in a binary system Future loses the status it has in a ternary analysis as being at the same level as Past and Present. The present paper shows that Present and Past already may express posterior information, there being no temporal role for zullen ‘will’. Grice’s Maxim of Quantity determines which sort of interpretation (current or posterior) is to be associated with Present or Past. The infinitival form of zullen ‘will’ should be seen as an epistemic modal operator with a specific role in the interaction between speaker and hearer. This operator will be argued to be positioned between the first and the third opposition. The binary approach is not restricted to Dutch and so it points to a fundamental flaw in Kissine (2008) which proposed that the English auxiliary will is (only) temporal.

Aspect and temporal anaphora

Abstract: We extend the parallels established in the literature between tenses and pronouns to aspect on the basis of three simple assumptions. (i) Aspect, just like Tense, serves to order time intervals (Klein 1995). (ii) Anaphora can also serve to order time intervals. (iii) Just like anaphora between individual-denoting DPs can be resolved via either (variable) binding or coreference (with binding the default construal, Reinhart 1997), anaphora in the temporal realm (that is, between time-denoting DPs) can also be construed as binding or coreference—the null assumption on a referential approach to temporal phenomena. The claim is that when temporal anaphora between the time of the eventuality and the reference time is resolved via binding, the resulting aspectual viewpoint is imperfective, while when it is resolved via coreference, the resulting viewpoint is perfective. We show how this proposal nicely derives the range of temporal construals that non-root imperfective past modals in Spanish/French allow, in contrast to perfective past modals. While imperfective modals allow both past and present perspective epistemic construals, perfective modals only allow present perspective epistemic construals, and while past imperfective modals allow modification by a (deictic) future time adverb on their metaphysical construal, past perfective modals do not.

Finiteness in South Asian languages: an introduction

Abstract: Finiteness bears on issues pertaining to some of the most central properties of a clause: its tense, aspect, mood, agreement, the referential properties and case-marking of its subject and, more generally, the way in which the clause is anchored to a higher one or to the utterance context. And yet, given the increasing amount of empirical evidence challenging conventional definitions of finiteness, it remains one of the least understood concepts in linguistic theory. The series of eleven papers in this volume presents new evidence on the nature of finiteness from a number of hitherto under-studied languages, namely those of the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian language families spoken in South Asia. The hope is that these papers will encourage the reader to deepen their knowledge and simultaneously question their existing view of finiteness. The introduction below sets the stage for the rest of this volume: we briefly describe the content of the individual papers included here and situate them within the larger context of the rich dialogue on finiteness.

Making sense of silence: finiteness and the (OC) pro vs. pro distinction

Abstract: In this commentary paper, I discuss and further develop three points raised in Kissock (2013). First, I focus on Kissock’s proposal that all instances of null subject in Telugu are pro rather than OC pro. I argue that such a claim must be re-evaluated in light of the idea that (OC) pro and pro are not primitives: they both happen to be silent on the surface, but what crucially distinguishes them is that the former is always a bound-variable anaphor, whereas the latter can refer deictically. Thus, the claim that a language lacks OC pro reduces to a question about whether obligatorily bound variables are capable of being silent. The second part of the paper looks at whether there might be evidence for a lurking OC pro in Telugu after all. To this end, I take a closer look at complements embedded under the verb prajatninc- (roughly translated as “try”) and also investigate new evidence from clauses embedded under modalu- (“begin”), the latter showing that the subject of these clauses bears the classic fingerprint of OC pro. The third and final part of the paper expands on a minor point in Kissock’s paper involving non-finite clauses in Telugu, a subject pro-drop language, that allow both overt non-coreferent, and null coreferent subjects. Kissock assumes that the possibility of an overt non-coreferent subject automatically entails the possibility of a pro subject and argues, on this basis, that the null subjects in these clauses are pro, not pro. I propose that Kissock’s assumption is not an innocuous one to make and argue, on the strength of comparable examples from a range of languages, that subject pro-drop is restricted in non-finite clauses for independent reasons. Thus, the availability of an overt, non-coreferent subject in non-finite clauses doesn’t entail that of a pro subject.

How much syntax is there in metalinguistic negation

Abstract: This paper explores the syntax of unambiguous metalinguistic negation (MN) markers in European Portuguese (EP) with the main goal of demonstrating the syntactic import of MN. Taking the EP facts as a means to gain insight into the grammatical encoding of MN in natural language, the paper shows that unambiguous MN markers split into two types: peripheral and internal. This split is confirmed by their contrasting behavior with respect to different syntactic tests, e.g., availability in isolation and nominal fragments; ability to take scope over negation and emphatic/contrastive high constituents; compatibility with VP Ellipsis. Peripheral MN markers respond positively to all the tests, whereas internal ones respond negatively. These facts are derived from a syntactic analysis where CP plays a central and unifying role. It is proposed that while the cross-linguistically pervasive peripheral MN markers directly merge into Spec,CP, the more unusual sentence-internal MN markers are rooted in the TP domain and reach Spec,CP by movement. The centrality of the CP field is motivated by elaborating on Farkas and Bruce’s (2010) model of polarity features. Under the hypothesis that besides the relative polarity features [same] and [reverse], there is a feature [objection] that singles out MN declaratives among responding assertions, this is taken to be the edge feature that drives unambiguous MN markers into the CP space.

Control vs. complex predication

Abstract: This paper comments on Davison’s (2013) analysis of the Hindi/Urdu permissive as: (1) a control construction with an ‘allow to do’ reading; (2) an ecm construction with an ‘allow to happen’ reading. The paper reiterates Butt’s (1995) original reasons for positing a complex predicate analysis of the ‘allow to do’ permissive and extends the analysis to the ‘allow to happen’ reading of the permissive. The argumentation covers different theoretical perspectives and brings out issues with respect to finiteness and different degrees of embedding that pertain to how “tight” a given predication ranging over subevents is. The paper argues that events embedded under a control or raising predicate are less tightly connected to the matrix verb/event than is the case in complex predication and that the different degrees of cohesion between events must be understood as reflecting embedding within different modules of grammar.

No N-raising out of NPs in Spanish: ellipsis as a diagnostic of head movement

Abstract: In this paper, we present a novel test for diagnosing head movement across languages, based on the availability of X-stranding XP-ellipsis. As we argue, X-stranding XP-ellipsis phenomena should exist in languages where XP-ellipsis and X-movement out of XP are both available (as is the case in V-stranding VP-ellipsis in Hebrew or Portuguese, see Goldberg 2005 and references cited there). This has the effect that if a language has XP-ellipsis but lacks X-stranding XP-ellipsis, X-movement out of XP must be lacking in the language. We show the application of this test in the nominal domain, for the particular case of Spanish, one of the languages for which N-raising out of the NP has been proposed in the literature (Bosque and Picallo 1996). Spanish indeed has productive instances of NP-ellipsis, but lacks N-stranding NP-ellipsis. Carefully ruling out other reasons for the lack of N-standing NP-ellipsis, the paper shows that it can only be due to the lack of N-movement out of NP.

Bare coordination: the semantic shift

Abstract: This paper develops an analysis of the syntax-semantics interface of two types of split coordination structures. In the first type, two bare singular count nouns appear as arguments in a coordinated structure, as in bride and groom were happy. We call this the N&N construction. In the second type, the determiner shows agreement with the first conjunct, while the second conjunct is bare, as in the Spanish example el hornero y hornera cobraban en panes (‘thesg.m bakersg.m and bakersg.f werepl paid in bread loaves’). We call this the DN&N construction. Both N&N and DN&N constructions are common in languages that otherwise require an article or determiner on singular count nouns in regular argument position, and give rise to ‘split’ readings that cannot be accounted for by the standard semantics of conjunction in terms of set intersection. Furthermore, they are restricted to instances of ‘natural’ coordination. We formalize the semantics of split conjunction in terms of intersection between sets of matching pairs, which correlates with the lexical semantics and pragmatics of natural coordination. We maintain that an N&N construction gets either a definite or an indefinite interpretation by covert type-shifting, because projection of an article ranging over the coordination as a whole is blocked in languages like English and Spanish. For DN&N structures, we propose a syntactic structure in which D is in construction with the first conjunct. Coordination with a second, bare conjunct requires a covert type-shift that is licensed only under the special matchmaking semantics of conjunction. The analysis addresses a range of issues these coordinate structures raise about syntactic and semantic agreement, in particular with respect to number. Next to English and Spanish we will look into Dutch and French in detail.

The futurity of the present and the modality of the future: a commentary on Broekhuis and Verkuyl

Abstract: In this commentary, I address two aspects of Broekhuis and Verkuyl’s (2013) paper Binary Tense and Modality, pertaining to the analysis of the present and the future. Broekhuis and Verkuyl propose an analysis of the morphological present in Dutch as a prospective interval allowing reference to times after the speech time. This renders the Dutch auxiliary zullen redundant as a future marker—and relegates its function to the realm of epistemic modality. The present-as-interval analysis extends to Greek and beyond, but I show that additional language-systemic constrains are needed to precisely specify when a particular present form will be allowed to future-shift, and whether it designates a present or a nonpast. The epistemic use of the future forms is also supported crosslinguistically, as can be seen in recent discussions on the Greek and Italian future words (Giannakidou 2012; Giannakidou and Mari 2012, 2013). I present examples from Greek and Italian showing that future morphemes crosslinguistically induce commitment weakening, and are therefore very similar to modal particles in Dutch and German (Zimmermann 2011) which appear to have exactly the same effect.

Aspect vs. relative tense: the case reopened

Abstract: Klein (1994) points out that within the treatment of the temporal semantics of English that he proposes, there is no need to maintain the traditional distinction between perfect aspect and anterior tense. An analysis of the semantics of perfect aspect in terms of placing the topic time in the post-time of the event under description can account for the anterior tense readings of the pluperfect as well. In this article, I argue that “Klein’s Conjecture” appears more problematic once extended to other languages, drawing on evidence from Japanese, Kituba, Kalaallisut, Korean, and Yucatec Maya. Languages such as Japanese have expressions of anterior tense that do not fit Klein’s analysis of perfect aspect (topic time after event time), while others—e.g., Yucatec Maya—have expressions that fit Klein’s analysis, but do not have anterior tense readings. The additions to Klein’s theory necessary so it can accommodate the new evidence comprise a revised viewpoint aspect component that distinguishes not only relations between topic and event time, but also relations between topic time and the runtimes of states preceding and following the event in a causal chain, as well as an updated tense module that distinguishes relations between topic time and perspective times in addition to relations between topic time and utterance time.

Deriving variable linearization

Abstract: This paper argues that the ‘nonfinite’ contexts in which negation is preverbal in Bangla are not directly correlated with the possibility of tense inflection, agreement, or the availability of subject licensing positions. Rather, we must make the special word order depend on the difference between deictic anchoring and anaphoric dependence of the clause’s temporal information. This specific view of finiteness is therefore different from the kind of finiteness that the licensing of overt subjects is sensitive to, but is related rather to the notion of independent assertability. In addition, this commentary argues that we need to move towards a Direct Linearization view of deriving word order effects. The solution proposed here is argued to provide a simpler and more elegant statement of the word order pattern, without using word order movements such as head-movement, roll-up and remnant movements that have no feature checking motivations.

The logic of complex predicates

Abstract: In the literature, there are two major proposals for resolving the syntax-semantics mismatch characterizing complex predicates. The ‘verb-raising’ approach resolves the mismatch via syntactic movement (or its analog), whereas the ‘argument-sharing’ approach does so by positing merged argument structures for complex predicates at the syntax-semantics interface. Focusing on two types of complex predicates in Japanese—syntactic compound verbs and the so-called -te form complex predicate—I discuss some novel empirical data posing challenges to both approaches in addition to the set of well-known observations from the literature illustrating the tension between the two strategies. The paper then argues for a synthesis of these two approaches within a variant of categorial grammar, taking advantage of the logical perspective on the syntax-semantics interface characteristic of certain recent variants of categorial grammar. The proposed analysis integrates the analytic insights of the two previous approaches seamlessly, and has both theoretical and empirical advantages over the two: theoretically, it clarifies the deeper connection between the theory-neutral analytic intuitions guiding the two approaches; empirically, it provides straightforward solutions for both the old and new empirical problems, enabling a previously unattained unified treatment of complex predicates that has a wider empirical coverage than its competitors.

Finiteness, negation and the directionality of headedness in Bangla

Abstract: This paper investigates a pattern in the South Asian language Bangla which strongly resembles the finite/non-finite positioning of verbs in English and French reported in Pollock (1989). In finite clauses in Bangla, verbs precede negation, as in English, while in non-finite clauses verbs follow negation, as in French. The paper considers whether the analysis of (leftwards) movement of the verb to Tense/Agreement in finite clauses argued for by Pollock for French should be assumed to operate in the SOV language Bangla as well, potentially supporting a Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA) head-initial analysis of Bangla, which has elsewhere regularly been taken to be a head-final language. Considering other patterns in the language relating to negative polarity item (NPI) licensing and quantifier scope in finite and non-finite clauses, it is argued that a leftwards head-movement analysis is unable to account for such patterns. A different analysis of the alternating position of negation and verbs is then suggested, which attributes this to the realization of negation either in the specifier or head position of NegP, drawing on Pollock’s (1989) analysis of the dual location of negative morphemes in French and on much recent work on alternations between specifier and head lexicalization (van Gelderen 2004 and others).

Separating tense and finiteness: anchoring in Dravidian

Abstract: Finiteness cannot be identified with Tense. What is currently understood as Tense must be seen as a complex of features with two functions: event anchoring or finiteness, and temporality and tense interpretation; these features need not always occur together on one element. Finite negative clauses in Dravidian languages are matrix non-finite complements to a negative element. The non-finite clause can have a tense interpretation, but the constructs ‘selected tense’ or ‘dependent tense’ (Landau 2004) appear to be irrelevant to it. Finite negative clauses seem rather to separate tense interpretation and clausal anchoring. Dravidian anchors the clause to the world of the utterance by virtue of Mood: the anchors are a finite neg element, agreement, and modals. Neg and agreement select different verbal complements, in accordance with their polarity; consequently, affirmative and negative clauses look superficially very different.

Licensing silent structure: the spatial prepositions of Shupamem

Abstract: This article offers a systematic account of the spatial expressions of Shupamem, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon that has very few items clearly identified as spatial prepositions, a good number of nouns that are used to denote locational relations, and a small and well-defined set of items in the extended projection of spatial Ps that denote the speaker’s point of view, but often give the impression of locative or directional Ps.

Loanword accentuation in Yanbian Korean: a weighted-constraints analysis

Abstract: This paper analyzes the factors that determine the assignment of accent to Western (primarily English) and Japanese loanwords in the Yanbian dialect of Korean. The study is based on a corpus of 1,737 words. The major findings are as follows. In Yanbian loanwords, the accent is basically located in a two-syllable window at the right edge of the word. The accent pattern differs between disyllabic and longer words. The penultimate syllable receives the strong default accent in disyllabic loanwords, and syllable weight affects the distribution gradiently. On the other hand, the default accent in Yanbian native words is final. Statistical analysis shows that the different accent distributions between the native words and loanwords are attributed to the lexical class difference. The discrepancy between native words and loanwords is supported by a wug test. Our hypothesis is that Yanbian loanword accentuation results from the grammar of the source language and lexical statistics, along with some adjustments by Yanbian native grammar. By comparing the three different loanword categories in Yanbian that derive from different source languages with different prosodic types (English—stress, Japanese—pitch accent, Mandarin—tone), we show statistically that each has its own accentual adaptation system. We propose a loanword adaptation model in which the loanword adaptation is understood as an induction process from a faithfulness constraint to the source language into relevant markedness constraints. Through a learning process, the original faithfulness constraints to the source language are demoted below relevant markedness constraints. These markedness constraints are weighted by the learning algorithm so that the weight hierarchy can achieve a more or less “faithful adaptation” of the source language. Under this view, each separate sublexicon can have a different weight hierarchy of markedness constraints.

Coordination, relativization and finiteness in Dravidian

Abstract: In the Dravidian languages, finite clauses cannot be coordinated, relative clauses cannot be finite, and relative clauses cannot be coordinated. I offer an explanation of these facts by making a typological claim about the Dravidian clausal left periphery: apart from a high ForceP, there is only one position in this domain. The coordination marker, the relativizer, and the elements that instantiate Mood—Mood being the realization of finiteness in Dravidian—must compete for this position.

About the primitives of aspect across languages

Abstract: This introduction presents the matter that this Topic/Comment issue addresses—namely, the encoding of aspectual information in the syntax and morphology. The main aim of this issue is to shed light on the identification of the semantic primitives underlying the most prominent viewpoint aspectual forms referred to in the literature (e.g., Imperfect, Perfective, Perfect, and Neutral), and to give a principled explanation of the way in which these semantic primitives are represented in the syntax and mapped onto the morphology. The introduction surveys and compares the different proposals that the authors in the issue defend in this regard and discusses the need of finer grained analyses so that more accurate crosslinguistic correspondences, which are crucial for answering questions in realms such as that of second language acquisition, can be established.

Non-finite complements and modality in de-na ‘allow’ in Hindi-Urdu

Abstract: The meaning ‘to allow’ is expressed in Hindi-Urdu by the verb de-na ‘give’ with an oblique infinitive complement, which I argue is syntactically as well as semantically ambiguous. It has a biclausal control analysis, meaning ‘allow X to do A’, as well as an Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) complement with the meaning ‘allow A to happen’. The complements are smaller than finite CP and larger than the non-clausal causative complement, and the ECM complement is smaller than the control complement. I offer syntactic arguments for the syntactic ambiguity associated with the two meanings; where the control reading is unavailable, the ECM structure and meaning are available, sometimes by coercion from the context. The modal meaning associated with the control structure suggests that modals do not occur only in ECM/Raising constructions. The arguments are couched in minimalist syntactic terms, opening up a cross-theoretical dialogue with Butt’s (1995) analysis in Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) terms of the permissive as a complex predicate in argument structure.

Evidence for ‘finiteness’ in Telugu

Abstract: Surface morphology is notoriously inconsistent both language-internally and cross-linguistically in providing any kind of reliable reflex of covert syntactic features. This paper addresses the difficult question of how the acquirer is able to deduce the presence/absence of particular (covert) features on functional items, here features of finiteness, given that they cannot rely on morphology. The paper has the following goals. First, it makes a fairly narrow empirical claim, specifically, that Telugu does not have PRO in its lexicon (and therefore does not have Control). Clausal subjects can easily be accounted for by pro, needed in Telugu for independent reasons. Second, because PRO/Control is so closely associated with finiteness, the paper explores whether there are other elements in Telugu that correspond to those usually associated with finiteness cross-linguistically. Third, the paper argues that, although traditional aspects of finiteness seem to be lacking, a more coherent notion of finiteness, based upon requirements of temporal and logophoric anchoring, should be adopted.

Capturing simultaneity: a commentary on the paper by Hamida Demirdache and Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria

Abstract: How does grammar represent simultaneity? More precisely, how do grammatical representations of sentences indicate that two events or situations are located at the same time? This is a question of central importance for the theory of tense and aspect, and one to which Hamida Demirdache and Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria (Nat. Lang. Linguist. Theory, doi:10.1007/s11049-014-9231-2, 2014) (D&UE) propose some provocative new answers. Their empirical focus is the semantics of perfective, imperfective, and progressive aspect in French and Spanish, with special attention to the temporal semantics of modal verbs, but their account has broader implications for the theory of simultaneous time reference and the imperfective/perfective distinction in general.