SyntaxPub Date : 2024-02-15DOI: 10.1111/synt.12270
Ali Alzayid
{"title":"On the Parataxis of Arabic split questions","authors":"Ali Alzayid","doi":"10.1111/synt.12270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12270","url":null,"abstract":"In this article I present an analysis of split questions (SQs) in Modern Standard Arabic. I argue that this construction is best analyzed as a biclausal articulation, where two clauses are meditated by a special relation of coordination dubbed “Specifying Coordination.” Contrary to the previous literature on SQs, I maintain, on empirical and conceptual grounds, that SQs are best derived in a movement-free fashion by treating them as a constellation of two well-motivated operations in the grammar: ellipsis and coordination. If on track, the merit of this proposal is to derive peripheral phenomena, such as SQs, from core principles of the grammar.","PeriodicalId":501329,"journal":{"name":"Syntax","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139947637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SyntaxPub Date : 2024-02-12DOI: 10.1111/synt.12273
Tomoya Tanabe, Ryoichiro Kobayashi
{"title":"Arguments against head-stranding ellipsis in Japanese: A reply to Funakoshi (2016)","authors":"Tomoya Tanabe, Ryoichiro Kobayashi","doi":"10.1111/synt.12273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12273","url":null,"abstract":"Whether syntactic head movement exists in Japanese has been hotly debated because of the strictly head-final character of the language. This paper addresses this issue, focusing on data regarding null adjuncts. We demonstrate that the head-stranding ellipsis (HSE) analysis of null adjuncts is not conclusive. To achieve this, we show that null adjuncts are more widely observed than the HSE analysis predicts. Specifically, we provide a new set of data that challenges Funakoshi's (2016) generalization regarding null adjuncts, which he claims his verb-stranding VP-ellipsis analysis explains. We also present a novel observation that some null adjuncts take scope over negation, contrary to what the HSE analysis predicts. Furthermore, we show that null adjuncts are derived even if the verb does not raise. Given these findings, we explore alternative analyses of null adjuncts that do not assume head movement. In particular, we discuss the pragmatic enrichment analysis as well as the adjunct ellipsis analysis, and suggest that the distribution of null adjuncts is better analyzed by a pragmatic account in line with Landau (2023). This paper concludes that any arguments for head movement based on the HSE analysis of null adjuncts are inconclusive at best.","PeriodicalId":501329,"journal":{"name":"Syntax","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139767209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SyntaxPub Date : 2024-02-07DOI: 10.1111/synt.12265
Irene Amato
{"title":"Auxiliary selection in Italian restructuring: An insight into the size of the clause","authors":"Irene Amato","doi":"10.1111/synt.12265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12265","url":null,"abstract":"In Standard Italian, restructuring clauses are characterized by apparently optional transparency effects in the choice of the clausal perfect auxiliary. In the perfect periphrasis, the auxiliary associated with the modal verb can be either HAVE or the one corresponding to the lexical verb (BE or HAVE). In this paper, I argue that there is no true optionality: different auxiliaries show up because the modal verb can select complements of different sizes. Assuming that auxiliary selection is a form of person Agree, different complement sizes determine different Agree domains. In particular, the “transparent” auxiliary results from a vP complement, while a TP complement leads to HAVE insertion.","PeriodicalId":501329,"journal":{"name":"Syntax","volume":"48 37","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139798090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SyntaxPub Date : 2024-02-07DOI: 10.1111/synt.12265
Irene Amato
{"title":"Auxiliary selection in Italian restructuring: An insight into the size of the clause","authors":"Irene Amato","doi":"10.1111/synt.12265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12265","url":null,"abstract":"In Standard Italian, restructuring clauses are characterized by apparently optional transparency effects in the choice of the clausal perfect auxiliary. In the perfect periphrasis, the auxiliary associated with the modal verb can be either HAVE or the one corresponding to the lexical verb (BE or HAVE). In this paper, I argue that there is no true optionality: different auxiliaries show up because the modal verb can select complements of different sizes. Assuming that auxiliary selection is a form of person Agree, different complement sizes determine different Agree domains. In particular, the “transparent” auxiliary results from a vP complement, while a TP complement leads to HAVE insertion.","PeriodicalId":501329,"journal":{"name":"Syntax","volume":"42 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139857942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SyntaxPub Date : 2023-12-14DOI: 10.1111/synt.12262
Rania Al-Aqarbeh, Jon Sprouse
{"title":"Island effects and amelioration by resumption in Jordanian Arabic: An auditory acceptability-judgment study","authors":"Rania Al-Aqarbeh, Jon Sprouse","doi":"10.1111/synt.12262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12262","url":null,"abstract":"This study brings evidence from Jordanian Arabic, a primarily spoken grammatical-resumption language, into the (formal-experimental) empirical base of both theories of island effects and theories of island amelioration by resumption. We report four auditory judgment studies exploring two dependency types and four island types with a gap or resumption in the tail of the dependency, yielding 16 distinct quantified effects. Our experiments identified two notable sources of variation: variation across dependency types in the sets of island effects that occur with gaps and variation across island types in amelioration by resumption. We discuss the challenges these results raise for four major classes of theories of island effects, and we point to paths forward for each. We also discuss the consequences of the variation in amelioration for theories of the source of resumption, concluding that both base generation and movement must be available options to learners of Jordanian Arabic. We also observe some evidence of individual variation in the availability of resumption across dependency types that could be explored in future studies.","PeriodicalId":501329,"journal":{"name":"Syntax","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138688527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SyntaxPub Date : 2022-05-20DOI: 10.1111/synt.12232
Rebecca Tollan, Diane Massam
{"title":"Licensing unergative objects in ergative languages: The view from Polynesian","authors":"Rebecca Tollan, Diane Massam","doi":"10.1111/synt.12232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12232","url":null,"abstract":"Transitive and unergative verbs have long received a uniform syntactic analysis, where they differ in whether an overt object is present (in transitives) or absent (in unergatives). We examine how objects of unergative verbs are case licensed when they <i>are</i> present, focusing on a contrast between two related Polynesian languages: Samoan and Niuean. Both languages have ergative case systems, with subjects of intransitive verbs receiving absolutive case. When unergatives have an overt object, however, a difference emerges. In Samoan, ergative case is absent: the subject of a transitivized unergative is absolutive, and the object receives “middle case.” In Niuean, the resulting transitive exhibits an ergative–absolutive frame. Working within a split-vP system, we propose that the contrast between Samoan and Niuean results from the interaction of three parametric differences. This comparative analysis highlights the importance of considering unergative constructions when determining the underlying syntax of any given case system.","PeriodicalId":501329,"journal":{"name":"Syntax","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138521483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}