LINGUIST List 20.781
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Tue Mar 10 2009
Books: Syntax: ter Beek - Syntax: Hartmann
Editor for this issue: Fatemeh Abdollahi
<fatemeh linguistlist.org>
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Links to the websites of all LINGUIST's supporting publishers are available at the end of this issue.
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Directory
1. Parcival
von Schmid,
Restructuring and Infinitival Complements in Dutch: ter Beek
2. Parcival
von Schmid,
Expletives in Existentials: Hartmann
Message 1: Restructuring and Infinitival Complements in Dutch: ter Beek
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Date: 07-Mar-2009
From: Parcival von Schmid <lotuu.nl>
Subject: Restructuring and Infinitival Complements in Dutch: ter Beek
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Title: Restructuring and Infinitival Complements in Dutch
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series 177
Published: 2008
Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke - LOT
http://www.lotpublications.nl/
Author: Janneke ter Beek
Paperback: ISBN: 9789078328513 Pages: 329 Price: Europe EURO 26.58
Abstract:
This dissertation deals with infinitival constructions in standard Dutch.
There are three types: some infinitivals are obligatorily transparent,
others are (apparently) optionally transparent, and still others are
opaque. An in depth study of the fine structure of the obligatorily and
optionally transparent complements shows that the possibility of
transparency does not correlate with the presence of functional heads. In
the class of obligatorily transparent complements, we find complements as
small as VP, but also complements as large as TP. As both obligatorily
transparent VPs and TPs show the same range of transparency phenomena, the
possibility of transparency phenomena does not depend on the presence of
particular functional heads. The same holds for the optionally transparent
complements: within this class, the fine structure of the complement may
range from vP to TP, but regardless of the fine structure, the same
transparency effects arise.
Transparency is instead ascribed to the absence of phase heads between the
complement and the matrix clause. Phase heads being locality boundaries, a
relation between the matrix and the complement cannot cross a phase head.
This explains the observation that opaque infinitivals are CPs. The status
of a head as a phase is argued to be variable. It is proposed that standard
Dutch v is a phase head only if it checks accusative case. With this
assumption, the observation that the various transparency phenomena
correlate with the possibility of long object raising follows
straightforwardly.
Linguistic Field(s):
Syntax
Subject Language(s): Dutch (nld)
Written In: English (eng )
See this book announcement on our website:
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=40002
Message 2: Expletives in Existentials: Hartmann
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Date: 07-Mar-2009
From: Parcival von Schmid <lotuu.nl>
Subject: Expletives in Existentials: Hartmann
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Title: Expletives in Existentials
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series 181
Published: 2008
Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke - LOT
http://www.lotpublications.nl/
Author: Jutta M . Hartmann
Paperback: ISBN: 9789078328551 Pages: 329 Price: Europe EURO 26.58
Abstract:
This thesis refutes the generally accepted claim within Generative Grammar
that English there is an expletive (meaningless element) that is only
present to satisfy a syntactic requirement. Instead it is argued that there
is a proform that picks up a situation (or location) from the context.
There is a part of the predication structure in existential sentences,
which state about the situation that it contains an individual (or amount
of a property) specified by the postverbal noun phrase.
New data that are relevant for the definiteness effect are presented and it
is demonstrated that we need to distinguish between two types of
there-sentences: the results of a Magnitude Estimation Experiment for
example show that these so-called there-BE and there-V sentences behave
differently with respect to whmovement (among other differences).
Therefore, the two construction types are analysed differently: in there-BE
sentences, there is proposed to function as the subject of predication,
whereas it functions as the predicate in there-V sentences (just like in
the locative inversion construction). The thesis concludes with applying
the result of the investigation of English there to German da, and shows
that also da is a proform that can pick up locations, times and complex
situations in the context.
The study offers new insights into the analysis of existential sentences
and has implications for the analysis of potential subject positions, the
EPP, and the classification of expletives in the Germanic languages. It is
therefore interesting for scholars working in these fields and syntax in
general.
Linguistic Field(s):
Syntax
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
German, Standard (deu)
Written In: English (eng )
See this book announcement on our website:
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=40005
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