LINGUIST List 9.1562

Fri Nov 6 1998

Books: Syntax, Syntax (Historical Irish Ling)

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Rint Sybesma, M. Petter, Getting PRO Under Control
2. Rint Sybesma, I. Genee, Sentential complementation in Irish

SYNTAX

 New from Holland Academic Graphics
 
 Marga Petter
 Getting PRO Under Control
 A Syntactic Analysis of the Nature and Distribution of
 Unexpressed Subjects in Non-finite and Verbless Clauses
 
 Getting PRO under control investigates the nature and distribution
 of unexpressed subjects (PRO) in non-finite and verbless clauses
 within a generative framework. After critically discussing various
 earlier analyses of PRO, Petter provides a uniform characterization
 of all occurrences of PRO, defending the thesis that PRO is an
 empty pronoun. 
 Concentrating on data from Dutch and English, but including
 data from other languages whenever appropriate, the dissertation
 shows that the local domain for PRO can be defined in such a way
 that even obligatorily controlled PRO is free within its local
 domain. With respect to the syntactic visibility of PRO, Petter
 argues that PRO is formally licensed by structural nominative
 Case in the Specifier of the Tense projection in non-finite and
 verbless clauses. She further argues that the need for content-
 identification of empty pronouns induces obligatory control for PRO
 in constructions where PRO cannot be minimally identified for
 content by morphology. For other cases of obligatory control, Petter
 shows that the interpretation is often the same for lexical pronomi-
 nal subjects in finite clauses with an equivalent modal inter-
 pretation. From this she concludes that the interpretation of PRO
 and lexical pronominal subjects alike depends heavily on semantic
 properties of both the matrix clause and the embedded clause, as
 expected under a pronominal analysis of PRO. This study includes
 case-studies on permissive and causative laten `let/have' in Dutch
 and on control shift phenomena in deontic modal and infinitival
 relative environments.
 
 1998. xii+260 pp. ISBN 90-5569-051-1. Paperback. [LOT Inter-
 national Series 8. HIL/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam dissertation.]
 Price for individuals ordering directly from Holland Academic
 Graphics: hfl. 42,40 (excl. VAT and P&P).
 
 <http://www.hagpub.com>;

Holland Academic Graphics
PO Box 53292
2505 AG The Hague
The Netherlands

fax: +31 70 448 0177

SYNTAX (HISTORICAL IRISH LING)

New from Holland Academic Graphics

Inge Genee
Sentential complementation in a functional grammar of Irish

Sentential complementation in a functional grammar of Irish
offers a corpus-based description of this aspect of Irish syntax in
three periods: Old (700-900), Middle (900-1200) and Early
Modern Irish (1200-1600). The core of the study consists of a
classification of Complement Taking Predicates, and describes
correlations between formal and functional aspects of sentential
complement constructions, with special attention to the role played
by sentential complementation in the expression of modality. Nine
different parameters of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic nature
are shown to interact in producing the formal variation found in
each period. An analysis of key historical developments discusses
the different factors which result in the proliferation of non-finite
construction types at the expense of finite ones. 

This book is of interest to linguists working on typology,
subordination, modality and language change. It is of special
interest to anyone interested in Irish historical grammar and verbal
semantics.

1998. 510 pp. ISBN 90-5569-050-3. Paperback. [LOT Interna-
tional Series 7. IFOTT/University of Amsterdam dissertation.]
Price for individuals ordering directly from Holland Academic
Graphics: hfl. 66 (excl. VAT and P&P).

<http://www.hagpub.com>;

Holland Academic Graphics
PO Box 53292
2505 AG The Hague
The Netherlands

fax: +31 70 448 0177

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1998 Contributors