What else is there to say about existential there ?

This article concerns a problem of syntax and pragmatics of circumstantial clauses (jumal ḥāliyya) in Egyptian Arabic, and particularly, in Egyptian proverbs. According to the most common definition, a circumstantial clause characterizes a state or condition (ḥāl – lit. “state, condition”) of a main clause subject or object at the moment described in the main clause. In Arabic, it is used “to express an action or event which took place simultaneously with the situation or event expressed in the main clause” (modal and temporal circumstantial clauses) [Woidich 2004: 191]. Firstly, we claim that ḥāl is not a clause, it is a syntactic position that could be represented by a single word (a participle) or a clause. In traditional Arabic grammar ḥāl is described as a “second predicate” (ḫabar), or comment, that forms the semantic and pragmatic focus of the sentence [Pak & Soukhareva 2008: 255]. So, when it occurs in Egyptian paremia, ḥāl represents the essence of a proverb. Secondly, the structure of a proverb which contains a circumstantial clause is one of three types: a circumstantial clause may accede a noun, a genitive construction or a clause; the conjunction w(i)- (waw al-ḥāl) is optional. The fact that a circumstantial clause may equally supplement a noun or a clause in the sentence demonstrates that pragmatically this noun is an equivalent of a whole clause. The question arises about the syntactic position that this single noun would have in a sentence.

Initial subordinate clauses in Old French: Syntactic variation and the clausal left periphery

Hyper-raising consists in raising a DP from an embedded finite clause into the matrix clause. HR introduces a phase problem: the embedded clause is finite, which is supposed to be impervious to raising. This can be overcome by postulating A-features at the C of the the embedded clause. They trigger the movement of the subject to [Spec, CP]. Being at the edge of a phase, it is visible to a matrix probe. If successful, this analysis provides support for the claim that syntactic positions are not inherently A or A-bar; they can be defined featurally instead.

The subject of an embedded finite clause in Mongolian can be marked with accusative case, alternating with canonical nominative case. Following previous proposals, I analyze this option as the consequence of the presence of φ-features in the complementizer of the embedded clause, which trigger the movement of the lower subject to Spec-CP. From that position, the embedded subject is accessible to the matrix v, which assigns case to it without violating the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC). A prediction that falls out from this analysis is that the accusative subject in Mongolian can move into the matrix clause, also without violating this locality condition. This type of construction is called hyperraising and is indeed found in the language. Hyperraising in Mongolian displays some of the signature properties of A-movement, including the absence of weak crossover effects and of reconstruction for Condition C. A comparison with covert Wh-movement in Mongolian will show that this type of movement does induce a WCO violation and reconstructs for Condition C. If the proposal that hyperraising in Mongolian involves a stopover position at Spec-CP is on the right track, this position would have to be an A-position. If correct, this paper contributes to the view that syntactic positions should not be considered as being intrinsically A or Ā: Spec-CP, which is usually taken to be an Ā-position, could potentially be an A-position too, at least in hyperraising in Mongolian.

The present article discusses crucial morpho-syntactic aspects of relative constructions in Shipibo-Konibo, a Panoan language spoken in the Peruvian Amazon. The analysis is predominantly based on data extracted from spontaneous texts. Shipibo-Konibo exhibits a number of features that are uncommon in the languages of the world, such as the coexistence of prenominal, postnominal, and internally-headed relative clauses using the gap strategy. Also, the anaphoric pronoun strategy is attested in subject relativization, even when the relative clause precedes its head nominal. Although the same form can be employed to relativize different syntactic positions (A, S, O), in transitive internallyheaded relative clauses it is the object argument that must be interpreted as nucleus and hence as co-referential with an argument in the matrix clause. Given that internally-headed relatives also allow for intransitive subject relativization, they show an absolutive distribution. This constitutes the only instance of syntactic ergativity in an otherwise morphologically ergative but syntactically accusative language.

ABSTRACTThis study examines the variable positioning of a finite adverbial subordinate clause and its main clause with the subordinate clause either preceding or following the main clause in native versus nonnative English. Specifically, we contrast causal, concessive, conditional, and temporal adverbial clauses produced by German and Chinese learners of English with those produced by native speakers. We examined 2,362 attestations from the Chinese and German subsections of the International Corpus of Learner English (Granger, Dagneaux, Meunier, & Paquot, 2009) and from the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (Granger, 1998). All instances were annotated for the ordering, the subordinate clause type, the lengths of the main and subordinate clauses, the first language of the speakers, the conjunction used, and the file it originated from (as a proxy for the speaker producing the sentence so as to be able to study individual and lexical variation). The results of a two-step regression modeling protocol suggest that learners behave most nativelike with causal clauses and struggle most with conditional and concessive clauses; in addition, learners make more non-nativelike choices when the main and subordinate clause are of about equal length.

Except for finite verbs in main clauses, verbs in Standard Dutch cluster together in a clause-final position. In certain Dutch dialects, non-verbal material can occur within this verb cluster (Verhasselt 1961; Koelmans 1965, among many others). These dialects vary with respect to which types of elements can interrupt the verb cluster, varying from particles to various types of arguments and adverbs (Barbiers, van der Auwera, Bennis, Boef, de Vogelaer & van der Ham 2008). A study amongst forty Dutch dialect speakers reveals an ordered ranking of grammatical types, reflecting their acceptability in a verb cluster. I argue that this ranking directly follows from syntactic principles: The syntactic size and position of the intervening element affect its acceptance in a verb cluster. Potentially, these principles interact with a preference of performance dubbed ‘minimize domains’ (Hawkins 1994, 2003, 2004), which requires both the higher verb and the intervening element to be adjacent to the main verb, leading to two conflicting structures.

The dissertation investigates syntactic and semantic aspects of the indefinite pronoun system in Modern Hebrew and consists of an experimental part and a theoretical part. The experimental part presents the grammaticality judgment task conducted to test three theoretical questions: (1) the relation between negation and the licensing of AF `any' and KOL `any'; (2) the contrast between EYZE `some' and EYZESEHU `some' in terms of specificity; and (3) the correlation between syntactic position and free choice readings. Three main theoretical findings are contributed by this work. First, it is shown that from a typological viewpoint, Hebrew, a Semitic language, patterns with Romance and Germanic languages, rather than Japanese-type languages, in having indefinite pronouns specialized for particular operators available in the discourse. Second, the thesis proposes a novel unified syntax-semantics for KOL which accounts for its interpretational variability. Working with the Kratzer and Shimoyama (2002) framework where indefinite pronouns generate sets of individual alternatives, the semantics of a KOL--modified noun phrase is formalized as a variable and containing a restriction. When this restriction ranges over kinds, KOL receives a generic reading; when the restriction is over a contextually specified set of entities, KOL has an episodic reading. In these cases, the KOL--phrase moves to the argument position of a universal quantifier which binds the individual alternatives generated by the KOL--phrase. If KOL stays in situ, the individual alternatives are allowed to expand into propositional alternatives, resulting in the free choice reading. Third, I discuss the DP-internal structure of [eyze(N)se-hu (N)] and [(N) kol(N)se-hu], treating 'se-hu' as a CP. I propose that there is a correlation between the postnominal position and the free choice readings of these pronouns, suggesting that domain restrictions, usually derived in the semantics-pragmatics, may also be encoded in the syntax. If this hypothesis is on the right track, it could provide us with a better understanding of how and when in the process of language acquisition domain restrictions found with indefinite pronouns are acquired.

This paper examines three borrowed pragmatic markers from Nigerian Pidgin into Nigerian English,abeg, sefandna, with a view to exploring their meanings, frequencies, spelling adaptability, syntactic positions, collocational patterns and discourse-pragmatic functions in Nigerian English. The data which were extracted from the International Corpus of English-Nigeria and the Nigerian component of the corpus of Global Web-based English were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively, using the theory of pragmatic borrowing. The results indicate that the three pragmatic markers differ distinctly in their frequency across text types, syntactic position, the range of pragmatic meanings, the number of spelling variants and their collocations:abegis used as a mitigation marker which can also function as an emphasis marker,sefis an emphasis marker but has additive and dismissive functions, whilenais used purely as an emphasis pragmatic marker. The study shows the influence of Nigerian Pidgin on Nigerian English.

This is a reference grammar of Munya, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the western part of Sichuan province in China. The data that this thesis draws from were collected during a one-year immersion fieldwork and are analyzed within the framework of Basic Linguistic Theory. This study covers the core aspects of the language, including phonetics and phonology, morphology, word classes, grammatical categories, clause structures, and discourse and pragmatics. Munya has a fairly large phoneme inventory, with forty consonants and thirteen vowels. The language has a binary tonal contrast, a high tone and a low tone, and the two tones constitute a range of patterns. Morphological processes in Munya include cliticization, affixation, reduplication and vowel alternation. The language has a wide variety of vowel harmonies. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are open word classes and there are in addition eight closed classes. The major syntactic function of nouns is to function as arguments. They can take numeral classifiers and plural markers. The major syntactic function of verbs is to act as predicates. Most verbs can be morphologically analyzed as consisting of a root and a directional prefix. There are altogether seven directional prefixes in Munya. Verbs show person-number inflection and derivations of causative and pluractionality. The predominant person-number inflectional paradigm is first person singular, second person singular, and first or second person non-singular. Adjectives can modify nouns and function as predicates, and tend to be inherently reduplicated. There are ten cases in Munya. Core syntactic functions can be marked by the ergative case i, the absolutive case (in zero form), the genitive case ɣɛ, the dative case le and the experiential case ɣɛ. The patterns of alignment are different for different types of verbs. For control verbs, the pattern is basically ergative-absolutive, and for non-control verbs, the pattern is consistently nominative-accusative. There are three aspects, which are the stative aspect, the perfective aspect and the imperfective aspect. There are also three evidential markers, which are the direct evidential, the indirect evidential and the reported evidential. There are two egophorics in Munya. ŋo can only be used in context of first or second person subject and control predicate. nyi can occur with all persons and all types of predicates. Copula verbs in Munya can denote IDENTITY, LOCATION, EXISTENCE, and POSSESSION. The senses of LOCATION, EXISTENCE and POSSESSION can be expressed with one copula. Munya has multiple copula verbs of existence, the choice of which is determined by the semantics of the Copula Determining Referent (CDR), which can be realized as copula subject or copula complement. Some copulas have extended functions. When attached to copulas, the directional prefix tʰo - 'away from the speaker' can mark perfectiveness. Polar interrogatives and negations are expressed with prefixes on verbs or auxiliaries. Imperatives can be categorized into second-person imperative clauses and first person imperative clauses, and the former can be further classified into immediate imperative, future imperative and polite imperative. Munya has relative clauses and complement clauses, and the two types of structures are closely related to nominalization. Munya has indirect, direct, and semi-direct speech reports. In semi-direct speech report, the subject in the matrix clause and the embedded clause are co-referential, and the subject in the embedded clause needs to shift to the reflexive form. Meanwhile, the verb or auxiliary in the embedded clause inflects for the person-number of the subject before it is shifted. The narrative genre of Munya discourse features prevalent bridging constructions, including recapitulative linkage and summary linkage. In the first type of linkage, a dependent clause is used to recapitulate in verbatim or in close paraphrase the preceding clause, and in the second type, a clause containing a demonstrative anaphorically summarizes the content of a discourse unit, typically a paragraph. At the end of the thesis there is an appendix of a long story and a vocabulary of around 2,800 words.

This paper discusses four Dutch constructions in which adverbs occur in marked syntactic positions: (i) Adverbs that occur in an embedded clause but must be interpreted in the main clause; (ii) Adverbs that occur in the main clause but can be interpreted in the embedded clause; (iii) Extraposed adverbs; (iv) Predicate adverbs that occur in the position of sentence adverbs. These phenomena provide evidence for an analysis of adverb placement in Dutch along the lines of the Cinque hierarchy (Cinque 1999), supplemented with the traditional split between sentence adverbs and predicate adverbs (Jackendoff 1972). A new analysis is proposed for the bridge verbs denken ‘think’ and willen ‘want’ in which they move from a position in the embedded clause into the matrix clause.

The system of feature inheritance from C to T entails the syntactic presence of C in any tensed clause where Agree and Case assignment take place. However, the complementizer that, which is conventionally assumed to head a tensed clause, never appears in a main clause in English, and this empirical fact implies that the complementizer occupies a higher syntactic position than C. Here emerges the necessity to postulate a CP shell above CP. The author suggests labeling this shell as cP, headed by the complementizer that. The specifier of little c is the target of wh-movement in embedded clauses whereas the null head C contains various features associated with such syntactic operations as feature inheritance, negative inversion, and wh-movement in main clauses.

Latin relative clauses have rarely been analyzed from a typological point of view. This paper applies the most relevant typological parameters —i.e. (a) accessibility hierarchies, (b) relativization strategies, (c) position of relative clauses in relation to the lexical head and the matrix clause, (d) relative clauses nominalization degree— to the analysis of relative clauses in de bello Gallico . Data show that the most relativized syntactic position is the subject, even though all positions can be relativized by the relative pronoun. Relative pronoun and non-reduction are the only relativization strategies available in Classical Latin. On the other hand, all possible positions of relative clauses in relation to the lexical head and the matrix clause are documented in the corpus , which have the nominalization degree identified by typologists. Differently from what is expected according to a general view of typology, in Classical Latin the non-reduction strategy is not restricted to preposed and circumnominal relative clauses, but it also occurs in postnominal and postposed ones, showing a different behavior according to the restrictiveness or non-restrictiveness of the relative clause.

Summary: Grammaticalization of indefinite pronouns through human nouns (e.g. HOMO, PERSONA) is a very common path within the Romance languages. Catalan also knows the grammaticalization of HOMO to an indefinite pronoun (although it is used more often in rather formal texts and depicts a marked use in other texts), while today’s Catalan uses other strategies such as the passiva reflexa and third person plural. Well then, what have been the individual stages in the different languages? Why did Spanish start to use other strategies although the first steps of the HOMO-grammaticalization can be proved in medieval Spanish? This article is the product of a comparative corpus study. The period that has been studied is the 13th century. We want to show the state of the grammaticalization in Catalan, Spanish and French within that very period, demonstrate differences regarding the context (assertive vs. non-assertive), the syntactic position and modifications, and give a possible explication for the stopped HOMO-grammaticalization in Spanish. Keywords: Human impersonal pronouns, grammaticalization, Spanish, French, Catalan, 13th century, HOMO

The proposed article deals with revealing the syntactic profile of the Old Germanic languages, name- ly, the particularities of the functioning of the syntax and grammatical framework structure of sentences with concessive semantics in the Germanic languages of the ancient period (Old English, Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Norse (Old Icelandic), Gothic, Old Frisian). The study aims to outline the models of syntactic structures of complex sentences with a subordinate / coordinate concessive action in four semantic types of concessive sentences with pure (concessive), conditional, contrastive, and causative semantics of con- cession across six Old Germanic languages. To meet this objective, a seven-stage methodology was devel- oped based on the use of interdisciplinary tools involving such methods as the method of internal recon- struction, comparative-historical, structural-syntactic, semantic, descriptive methods, analytical and syn- thetic analysis, and the method of continuous sampling. Based on the internal grammatical reconstruction of Old Germanic concessive sentences of various semantic types, three basic types of their internal framework structure with the governing position of the main V-finite verb in the principal and concessive (or subordinate / coordinate) clauses have been identi- fied as: 1) VXS- / VSX-model with a V-finite verb in the initial position; 2) SVX- / XVS-model with a V-finite verb in the secondary position; 3) SXV- / XSV-model with a V-finite verb in the final position. It has been de- termined that the syntax of concessive sentences with various semantics of concession in the dynamic syn- chrony demonstrates the functioning of the identified syntactic models in most semantic types of conces- sive clauses depending on the specific Old Germanic language. Common and distinctive syntactic particularities of Old Germanic concessive clauses are observed in six configurations as SXV / XSV / VXS / VSX / SVX / XVS with an emphasis on the initial / secondary / final slot positions of the main V-finite verbs in the principal and subordinate (coordinative) clauses. Common syn- tactic particularities are identified by way of the presence of the same syntactic slot position of the main fi- nite verb – V-initial, V-secondary, V-final as a mutual signal syntactic function or feature in all or certain se- mantic types of the concessive action in the ancient languages under study. Distinctive syntactic particular- ities are established by the absence of a certain syntactic slot position of the main finite verb – V-initial, V- secondary, V-final as a unique signal syntactic feature of the functioning of a certain type of a concessive clause in a certain Old Germanic language. The framework structure of concessive sentences is outlined in terms of the syntactic coherence between pure (concessive), conditional, contrastive, and causative concessive clauses and their corre- sponding main clauses within the concessive sentences as: “contact – distant” arrangement of the inter- nal framework slot positions of the clausal conjunction with “contact – distant” arrangement of the exter- nal framework clause allocation within the whole concessive sentence. The syntactic coherence of conces- sive / non-concessive conjunctions within clauses of concessive sentences is established as: “contact – dis- tant” arrangement of internal framework conjunction concordance slot positions with “contact – distant” arrangement of internal framework conjunction position within the frame. It was found that the contact clausal conjunction slot positions were common across all Old German- ic languages in four semantic types of sentences with pure (concessive), conditional, contrastive, and caus- ative concession. The distant clausal conjunction slot positions prevailed in Old High German sentences of pure (concessive), contrastive concession; in Gothic sentences of conditional, contrastive, and causative concession. The contact conjunction concordance slot positions are witnessed only in Gothic conditional and Old Frisian causative concessive clauses. The distant conjunction concordance slot positions were com- mon in Old High German conditional, causative concessive clauses, Gothic contrastive concessive clauses, Old Frisian contrastive, causative concessive clauses, and Old English causative concessive clauses.