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Title:
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Strong Linearity: Three case studies towards a theory of morphosyntactic templatic constructions
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Author:
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Jeff Good
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://email.eva.mpg.de/~good/
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Degree Awarded:
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University of California, Berkeley
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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2003
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Morphology
Syntax
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Subject Language(s):
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Chechen
Saramaccan
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Language Family(ies):
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Narrow Bantu
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Director(s):
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Larry Hyman
Johanna Nichols
Andrew Garrett
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Abstract:
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The focus of this work is on templatic constructions in morphology and syntax, and its central argument is that their form is consistent with the Strong Linearity Domain Hypothesis. This hypothesis states that all templatic constructions must be coextensive with some prosodic constituent and that their templatic restrictions must be consistent with the characteristic phonology of that constituent.
The introductory chapter lays the groundwork for later discussion, and the primary support for the Strong Linearity Domain Hypothesis comes from three case studies. The first of these is an examination of the ordering restrictions of three verbal extensions found on the Bantu verb stem, the 'long' causative, the applicative, and the 'short' causative. The second case study is on a minimal-size restriction found in the Chechen core verb phrase. The final case study is on the order of verbs within serial verb phrases, with a focus on Saramaccan.
While each of the three case studies on its own offers support for the Strong Linearity Domain Hypothesis, taken together they further illustrate how it can model a cline of templatic restrictions, from more specific to less specific, as linguistic constituents go from smaller to larger size.
In addition, each of the case studies can be understood as exemplifying some well-known type of templatic construction. The Bantu case study exemplifies morphosyntactic verbal templates, the Chechen case study exemplifies templates conditioned by special clitics, and the Saramaccan case study exemplifies a class of templatic syntactic phenomena often given the label 'constructions'.
The concluding chapter of this work discusses possible explanations for the Strong Linearity Domain Hypothesis. In particular, an evolutionary account is offered wherein it is understood as falling out naturally from a model of the diachronic development of templates in which they arise out of the reanalysis of
prosodic restrictions as templatic restrictions.
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