LINGUIST List 13.714

Sat Mar 16 2002

Review: Legendre et al, Optimality-Theoretic Syntax

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  • Jonathan White, Legendre, Grimshaw & Vikner, ed., Optimality-Theoretic Syntax

    Message 1: Legendre, Grimshaw & Vikner, ed., Optimality-Theoretic Syntax

     Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 11:38:03 +0100
    From: Jonathan White <jwhdu.se>
    Subject: Legendre, Grimshaw & Vikner, ed., Optimality-Theoretic Syntax


    Legendre, G�raldine, Jane Grimshaw, and Sten Vikner, ed. (2001) Optimality- Theoretic Syntax. MIT Press, xviii+548pp, paperback ISBN 0-262-62138-X, $42.00.

    Jonathan White, H�gskolan Dalarna, Sweden

    CONTENTS Chapter 1: An introduction to Optimality Theory in Syntax (Legendre) This introduction sets out the rationale behind Optimality theory and its application to syntax. In generative syntax, economy principles are strictly applied. That is, if one is violated, that derivation is finished ("crashes" in Chomsky's 1993 terms). In Optimality Theory (OT), some constraints are seen as being more important than others. This is achieved by hierarchically ordering them. A derivation that violates some low ranking constraints is preferred over one that violates a high ranking one, but no low ranking ones. This is the general framework the remaining papers in the volume are based on.

    Chapter 2: Competition between Syntax and Morphology (Ackema and Neeleman) This chapter deals with the fact that a particular meaning can be encoded as a full syntactic structure ("drive a truck") or as a morphological compound ("truck driver"). The proposal is that the syntactic and morphological components of grammar compete. It is the presence of the affix in the input which is crucial, in that it requires a morphological host. If there is no affix present, the syntactic path is taken.

    Chapter 3: Markedness and subject choice in OT (Aissen) This paper seeks to explain the fact that certain types of subject are more marked than others. This markedness may be expressed through morphology, for example a subject may appear as an ergative among other options. The solution offered is to adopt a solution from OT Phonology, namely Harmony of the input and output. Underlying this are hierarchies of person and animacy, and of semantic role and grammatical role. The advantage of this approach according to Aissen is that it eliminates the need for language-particular hierarchies.

    Chapter 4: Optimality and ineffability (Bakovic and Keer) This deals with a classic case of optionality in syntax, the Complementizer in English. The solution is to rank markedness constraints and faithfulness ones. The Complementizer is optional if the faithfulness constraints are ranked above the markedness ones, since, thereby, different inputs will have different outputs. If the markedness ones are ranked higher, the Complementizer is obligatory since the output will be the same no matter what the input.

    Chapter 5: The emergence of the unmarked pronoun (Bresnan) Personal pronouns may appear as full pronouns, weak forms or as clitics. Harmony constraints are argued to govern the choice, with the pronoun form linked to the properties of anaphoricity, topic-hood and agreement. Reduced forms only appear if the pronoun is a topic; person and number features are only present if the pronoun is overt.

    Chapter 6: Binding and discourse prominence: reconstruction in "focus" scrambling (Choi) Scrambling is shown to have mixed properties. It acts as a wh-movement-type operation, in that displays reconstruction effects, while it is similar to raising in admitting new binding relations in the target position. Scrambling as a phenomenon is explained by the interaction of discourse constraints that old and prominent information should precede new and non-prominent information with the syntactic one that subjects precede non-subjects. The binding facts stem from constraints that the binder must precede the element it binds and also that the former must outrank the latter on a functional hierarchy.

    Chapter 7: The emergence of unmarked word order (Costa) This paper examines how unmarked word order in languages comes about. The explanation is that syntactic constraints like the requirement that languages have subjects interact with discourse information. Discourse constraints outrank syntactic ones, so that focusing an element affects word order. If no focus is required, the syntactic constraints ensure the "normal" order.

    Chapter 8: Optional clitic positions and the Lexicon (Grimshaw) Two separate facts are explained in this chapter. Firstly, the actual clitic forms that are used depend on faithfulness constraints. That is, the input is matched with a particular clitic form. Then, the order of clitics is derived through a set of language-specific positional constraints.

    Chapter 9: Masked second-position effects and the linearization of functional features (Legendre) The verb second effect is compared to the clitic second effect in many languages. Legendre seeks a phonologically-based, rather than a syntactically-based, explanation for both. Specifically, two constraints interact, one that the element must not be realised at the edge of a prosodic domain, and the other that the element must be realised at the left edge of the domain of the relevant syntactic head. If the first constraint outranks the second, the element appears in second position. With the other order of the constraints, the element appears at the front of the clause.

    Chapter 10: Order preservation, parallel movement and the emergence of the unmarked (M�ller) C-command relations between elements are preserved across levels of syntactic representation. This constraint interacts with those that require or prohibit movement, such as the wh-criterion. If such a criterion may be satisfied by two different structures, one involving movement and one with no movement, the structure that preserves the c-command relations between elements is chosen.

    Chapter 11: Cross-linguistic typologies in OT (Samek-Lodovici) SVO and VSO orders are derived through the interaction of constraints on movement and phrase structure. Language-particular choices determine which orders are possible, and in which situations. The effect of discourse is one factor which affects typologies.

    Chapter 12: Form and function in the typology of grammatical voice systems (Sells) The relative markedness of particular grammatical functions is examined by Sells. For instance, in an active construction, the agent is more prominent than a patient. In a passive, the situation is reversed. Prominence hierarchies ensure that the output stays faithful to the input.

    Chapter 13: Constraints on null pronouns (Speas) The environments where null pronouns are allowed are argued to be governed by a number of constraints, those relating to binding and control are particularly relevant. The relative ranking of these constraints allows us to derive the facts of many languages such as English (the null pronoun can only be the subject of a non-finite clause), Spanish (the null pronoun can be any subject) and Thai (the null pronoun can be any subject or object).

    Chapter 14: V-to-I movement and "do"-insertion in OT (Vikner) The position of a finite verb with respect to sentential adverbials and to negation is analysed from the perspective of a number of languages. Language-specific constraint rankings explain the different orders.

    Chapter 15: Bi-directional optimization and the theory of anaphora (Wilson) Two different situation are argued to exist in the theory of anaphora. One is that Wilson calls an interpretive competition, where one syntactic structure allows two interpretations. In English, this situation arises when an anaphor can be associated with one of two NPs. There, the closest NP is the one chosen. The second situation is an expressive competition, where one interpretation may be realised in two syntactic structures. In Icelandic, a single NP may be associated with either a pronoun or an anaphor, depending on the syntactic situation.

    Chapter 16: Case patterns (Woolford) There are some examples where a simple view of Case, that it is licensed by a head, has problems, namely when a particular Case is strongly dependent on other factors. For instance, in Hindi, the case of the object is strongly dependent on the case of the subject. Burzio's generalisation also comes under this heading, in that case depends on the transitivity of the verb. Woolford derives these problematic examples through a combination of constraints against marked Cases and those ensuring faithfulness to lexical requirements of Case.

    GENERAL EVALUATION All in all this volume is a very impressive presentation of current research in Optimality-Theoretic Syntax. It does, though, show up the fact that the approach is a new one. The issue that many of the papers come back to is what the input to the Evaluation process actually comprises. Here the debate that is on-going in syntactic theory in general is apparent. Within the functional tradition, the role of discourse in determining syntactic form is highly important (Giv�n 1997). Whereas within the generative tradition, this is not recognised to the same degree. As a result of this, we can argue that Optimality Theory as applied to syntax is really a meta-theory. That is, it is simply a particular view about how to formulate syntactic theory. There can be functional syntactic OT accounts of phenomena, and there can be more generative accounts (Newmeyer 2000). This should not be seen as a criticism of the approach, but it is an important point that needs to be made.

    REFERENCES Chomsky, N. 1993. A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory. In Hale and Keyser (eds.). The view from Building 20. Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press.

    Giv�n, T. 1997. Syntax. Amsterdam, John Benjamins.

    Newmeyer, F. 2000. Optimality and functionality. Rutgers Optimality Theory Archive.

    REVIEWER'S RESEARCH INTERESTS Phrase structure, syntax and semantics of adverbials, interfaces between syntax and semantics and between syntax and morphology.