LINGUIST List 12.1455

Wed May 30 2001

Sum: Verb Movement

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. sharbani, Verb movement

Some time back I had posted the following query to the LINGUIST. I wish 
to thank all those who helped me either by suggesting some bibliographic 
references or by sending me their own papers, which have been cited 
below:

Q1) Can someone please suggest some literature on 'Verb Movement' in 
the narrow syntax----or send me some paper(s)/suggest some site from 
where I can download the work?

Q2) In my Ph.D thesis on Bangla Syntax, I have observed the following 
points regarding 'verb movement'.

1) When the verb moves to the head of a phrase, that phrase freezes 
there.

2) In some cases, movement of the verb to the head of the 'Binder', 
destroys Binding possibilities-be it anaphoric binding 
/Q-Binding/Wh-Binding.

3) The adverbs must remain in a relation of c-command vis-a-vis the 
verb. When the verb moves up, the adverbs must move up too.

4) The scope of Negation is determined by the position of the verb.

5) Whether a phrase has a Specific Reading or an indefinite reading is 
once again determined by the position of the verb.
 
I am looking for an explaination to all these effects. I have had 
no literature on the subject.

The responses were:

1) Murakami Madoka suggested the following reference:

a) Lightfoot and Hornstein (eds.) VERB MOVEMENT, Cambridge, 1994
b) Tomita, Madoka Murakami (1992) FROM INFL FEATURES TO V MOVEMENT:
THE SUBJUNCTIVE IN ENGLISH, Master's thesis, Univ. of Hawaii.
This is available through the UMI dissertation services.

 M U R A K A M I M a d o k a (Ms.)
Lecturer at the Prefectural University of Kumamoto
Address: Dept. of English Language and Literature
 Kumamoto-shi, Japan
<madoka-mpu-kumamoto.ac.jp>

2) D8ystein Nilsen wrote:

Your observations on verb movement in Bangla are very interesting, and
they might be taken to suggest that the verb is not moving as a
head. In particular your observation that adverbs must move in tandem
with the verb might be made to follow by letting an XP containing the
adverbs and the verb move. One would also then expect verb movement to
influence binding possibilities, scope, etc. I have attached an
article (too app. in Jan-Wouter Zwart (ed.) proceedings of
CGSW15). How can I obtain a copy of your dissertation?
The article is:
V2 and Holmberg's Generalization*----D8ystein Nilsen-Utrecht institute 
of Linguistics OTS-----oystein.nilsenlet.uu.nl

<oystein.nilsenlet.uu.nl>

3)Connie Cummings-Graduate Student-New York University
suggested the following books:

i)Koopman, Hilda, and Anna Szabolcsi. 2000. Verbal complexes. 
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

ii) Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional heads. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

4) AndrE9 Meinunger
sent the following squib that will appear in one of the next LI
issues. 

' Restrictions on verb raising' -AndrE9 Meinunger -ZAS, Berlin / 
UniversitE4t Leipzig
<andrezas.gwz-berlin.de>

5) Ken Natakani wrote:
I myself have been working on verbal complexes in Japanese, and
am interested in your observations. Among them, I am interested
in the following points.

 1) When the verb moves to the head of a phrase, that phrase freezes
 there.
 2) In some cases, movement of the verb to the head of the 'Binder',
 destroys Binding possibilities-be it anaphoric binding
 /Q-Binding/Wh-Binding.
 4) The scope of Negation is determined by the position of the verb.

Would you show me some example sentences exhibiting these points?

She suggested the following literature:

Li, Yafei (1990). X^0-binding and verb incorporation. Linguistic
Inquiry 21: 399-426.
knakatanfas.harvard.edu

6) Gisbert wrote:
 what you say about your thesis sounds VERY interesting.
Can I get a copy (as an attachment)
and sent me the following paper:

'On the Correlation between Morphology & Syntax: The case of V-to-I
Artemis Alexiadou & Gisbert Fanselow
U.Potsdam/AUTH & U.Potsdam

<fanselowrz.uni-potsdam.de>

7) Heather Newell wrote:

I am currently doing research on the scope of negation. Could you give 
me some examples - with glosses - of what you are seeing. I would 
appreciate it very much.

heatherpage.ca

Thank you all very very much !

SHARBANI BANERJI
sharbevsnl.net

Contact address:
D-84, 'Matri Mandir', Sector-IX,
New Vijay Nagar, Ghaziabad-201,009,
U.P. India
(C/o Centre for Applied Linguistics & Translation Studies,
University Of Hyderabad, Hyderabad-500,046, India.)