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Dynamic Antisymmetry and the Syntax of Noun Incorporation
TLDR
In this article, it is shown that the non-projecting head moves to the specifier of the projecting head to eliminate symmetric c-command and establish linear order, and this process triggers successive compl-to-spec movement until a phonologically empty head is merged into the derivation.Abstract:
This thesis is concerned with how syntactic structures are mapped into a linear order. As a starting point, I consider the initial merger of two heads, a and b, which forms the unordered set {?, {a, b}}, where ? is the label of the set. The two heads, a and b c-command each other, in violation of Kayne’s Linear Correspondence Axiom. Adopting Moro’s Dynamic Antisymmetry, I propose that the non-projecting head moves to the specifier of the projecting head to eliminate symmetric c-command and establish linear order. This process triggers successive compl-to-spec movement until a phonologically empty head is merged into the derivation. Since phonologically empty elements do not need to be linearized, compl-to-spec movement is not required to break symmetric c-command. This process is the theoretical kernel of this thesis – that phrase structure is sensitive to the needs of PF, namely, the need to attain linear order, and that phrase structure is manipulated early in the derivation to achieve linear order. Empirically, this thesis is concerned with noun incorporation principally in Oneida (Iroquoian), but other languages are considered. It recognizes the robust cross-linguistic generalization for noun incorporation constructions to form N+V sequences, while non-incorporated constructions exhibit V+DP sequences (SOV languages aside, whose word order properties reduce to factors extraneous to those considered here). This thesis puts forth the proposal that noun incorporation arises by the need for grammar to be able to linearize the derivation. Thus, when a verb merges with a bare noun the {V, N} set is symmetric, thus non-linearizable. This symmetry forces compl-to-spec raising, giving rise to the observed N + V order. When the verb merges with a full DP, the verb asymmetrically c-commands material inside the DP, thus no compl-to-spec movement is required here. The empirical kernel of this thesis then is a Dynamic Antisymmetric treatment of the syntax of noun incorporation in which the cross-linguistically robust N + V sequence falls out as a consequence of the attempt on the part of phrase structure to achieve linearity.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Restricting noun incorporation: root movement
TL;DR: The authors argued that the phenomenon of noun incorporation in Inuktitut derives from the fact that the set of verbs involved are all light verbs in the sense of being functional elements excluding lexical or root material.
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Third Factors and the Performance Interface in Language Design
TL;DR: The performance interface in language design contributes to the biolinguistic research program in three ways: it can provide additional support for current views on UG, as shown in the context of complex center-embedding, and contribute to explaining heretofore unexplained data that are disallowed by the grammar, but can be explained by systematic properties of the performance systems.
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Noun incorporation and phrasal movement
Michael Barrie,Eric Mathieu +1 more
TL;DR: The authors argued that incorporating nominals can be much larger than bare roots with a structure incompatible with head movement, and they used phrasal movement for noun incorporation in Ojibwe and Onondaga.
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A unified theory of verbal and nominal projections
TL;DR: Ogawa as mentioned in this paper argued that noun phrases are parallel to clauses in many respects and provided a unified theory of clauses and noun phrases, ultimately helping to simplify numerous thorny issues in the syntax/morphology interface.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
Ann S. Ferebee,Noam Chomsky +1 more
TL;DR: Methodological preliminaries of generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence; theory of performance; organization of a generative grammar; justification of grammar; descriptive and explanatory theories; evaluation procedures; linguistic theory and language learning.
Book
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
TL;DR: Generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence as discussed by the authors have been used as a theory of performance for language learning. But they have not yet been applied to the problem of language modeling.
Book
The Minimalist Program
TL;DR: This twentieth-anniversary edition reissues Noam Chomsky's classic work The Minimalist Program with a new preface by the author, which emphasizes that the minimalist approach developed in the book and in subsequent work "is a program, not a theory."