LINGUIST List 14.381

Thu Feb 6 2003

Review: Syntax: De Kuthy (2002)

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  • oebel, Discontinuous NPs in German

    Message 1: Discontinuous NPs in German

     Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 14:03:34 +0000
    From: oebel <oebelcc.saga-u.ac.jp>
    Subject: Discontinuous NPs in German


    De Kuthy, Kordula (2002) Discontinuous NPs in German: A Case Study of the Interaction of Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics. CSLI Publications, paperback ISBN 1-57586-398-7, x+196pp, Studies in Constraint-Based Lexicalism. Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-1973.html

    Guido Oebel, Saga National University (Japan)

    The present book is Kordula De Kuthy's revised version of her Ph.D. thesis at the University of the Saarland (Germany) completed in November 2000.

    Synopsis

    The author investigates a particular word order phenomenon in German, the occurrence of discontinuous Noun Phrases (NPs) in order to explore the division of labour between the syntactic analysis and lexical as well as discourse constraints on this construction referred to as NP-PP (Noun Phrase-Prepositional Phrase) split construction. She argues that many of the factors previously focusing mainly on explaining syntactic restrictions on movement are in fact derivable from discourse factors.

    Following her brief and readily comprehensible introduction (1-3pp) addressing not only a readership of native German speakers and/or Germanistic linguists, in the first part of the book, De Kuthy provides an overview of the empirical characteristics of NP-PP split construction. Doing so, chapter 2: 'Basic Properties' (5-26pp) illustrates the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of the construction while chapter 3: 'Other Partial NP Phenomena' (27-40pp) is about comparing the NP-PP split construction to other phenomena involving discontinuous NPs.

    Founded on these empirical characteristics of the NP-PP split construction, in part two De Kuthy investigates two key questions, one concerned with the proper syntactic analysis of the construction, the other with the integration of such a syntactic analysis with an approach to the lexical and contextual factors involved.

    Starting with the 'Syntactic Aspects' and its analysis of NP-PP split construction in chapter 4: (41-92pp), De Kuthy reevaluates the empirical basis of the choice between the two syntactic analysis ideas proposed in the literature, extraction and reanalysis, thus providing an explicit theory licensing reanalysis-like structures for NP-PP split within the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Regarding the lexical-semantic effects observable for the NP-PP split construction, in chapter 5: 'Semantic Aspects' (93-105pp) she shows how an account based on the generative lexicon can be integrated into her syntactic HPSG analysis. Finally, in order to find an explanation for the context effects emerging with the construction, in chapter 6: 'Pragmatic Aspects' (107-177pp), De Kuthy explores the possible focus-background structures of NP-PP split constructions.

    In the following, De Kuthy integrates the empirical findings from this investigation of discourse requirements into her account of NP-PP split by developing an information-structure component for her HPSG fragment of German. Since this information structure component accounts for some of the restrictions traditionally viewed as part of syntax, according to the author, she wants her thesis to be 'understood as arguing for a more equal division of labor between syntax theory and a theory of discourse, which has been unevenly balanced as a result of the significant advances in syntactic theorizing in the generative enterprise'.

    In order to illustrate De Kuthy's focus of investigating the occurrence of discontinuous NPs in German, i.e. NP- PP split construction, in the following exemplary sentences from her book are cited. Focusing on the contextual factors influencing the grammaticality of the construction, the NP-PP split construction is exemplified in (Sentence 1 in German - German 'Umlaut', i.e. vowel mutation , sentence 1.1 word-for-word translation into English, sentence 1.2 English translation complying with grammatical and syntactical rules of the target language) - reviewer's annotation: in this review, German 'Umlaute', i.e. vowel mutation, are given as 'ae', 'oe' and 'ue' in order not to misrepresent their display on LinguistList-subscribers' screens):

    (1) Ueber Syntax hat Sarah sich (ein Buch) ausgeliehen. (1.1) About-syntax-has-Sarah-self-a-book-borrowed (1.2) Sarah borrowed a book on syntax.

    This construction often referred to as so-called 'extraction of PPs from NPs' for the PP-fronting 'ueber Syntax' in (1) is that the PP has been extracted from the NP 'ein Buch' of which the PP is a dependent specifying the topic of the book.

    The reverse case, however, with NP-fronting is equally possible, as illustrated in the following example:

    (2) (Ein Buch) hat Sarah sich ueber Syntax ausgeliehen. (2.1) a-book-has-Sarah-herself-about-Syntax-borrowed (2.2) Sarah borrowed a book about Syntax.

    It has often been observed that grammatical examples of NP-PP split become ungrammatical when the embedding verb (see sentences 1 and 2: 'ausleihen') is replaced by a verb (see sentences 3 and 4: 'klauen') which has the same syntactic properties but a different semantics.

    (3) *Ueber Syntax hat Sarah (ein Buch) geklaut. (3.1) about-syntax-has-Sarah-a-book-stolen (3.2) Sarah stole a book about syntax.

    (4) *(Ein Buch) hat Sarah ueber Syntax geklaut. (4.1) a-book-has-Sarah-about-syntax-stolen (4.2) Sarah stole a book about syntax.

    De Kuthy argues that given an appropriate context as in (5) sentences like (3) and (4), interestingly, become much more acceptable.

    (5) Gestern wurde in der Bibliothek eine Anzahl von Linguistikb�chern geklaut. Vor allem Semantikb�cher verschwanden dabei. Ueber Syntax wurde jedoch (nur ein einziges Buch) gestohlen. (5.1) yesterday-was-in-the-library-a-number-of-linguistics-books- stolen//mostly-semantics-books-disappeared-(?on that occasion - added by the reviewer!)//about-syntax-was-however- only-one- single-book-stolen (5.2) Yesterday, a number of linguistics books were stolen from the library. Mostly books on semantic disappeared. There was, however, only one book about syntax stolen.

    To find an explanation for these context effects, De Kuthy examines the possible focus-background structures of the construction observing that separating a PP from an NP is only acceptable if not both the NP and the PP are part of the same focus projection or the background of a sentence. An important consequence of this observation is that some of the supposed syntactic restrictions on the construction, such as the Specificity Effect and the Specified Subject Condition, can straightforwardly be explained as falling out of the discourse restrictions for this construction. To integrate these observations into the HPSG account of German, we De Kuthy develops an information structure component in which the focus-background structure of signs can be represented. This enables her to formulate a principle which restricts the syntactic occurrence of NP-PP split constructions to adequate focus-background structures.

    Critical evaluation

    This book represents a comprehensive investigation of the particular word order phenomenon in German, the so-called NP-PP split construction. In the first part of her book, De Kuthy explores the empirical characteristics of the NP-PP split construction, actually as a basis for its theoretical interpretation. Concerning syntax, she shows both elements of the construction the partial NP as well as the split PP can freely occur independently of each other in the so-called 'Vorfeld' and in the 'Mittelfeld' whereas their occurrence in the 'Nachfeld' -- I wonder whether there is a proper English translation for these specifically German technical terms? -- is subject to several restrictions. Concerning the syntactic and semantic function of the partial NP and the split PP, the author proves that only PP adjuncts modifying the noun may occur separately from the NP. Simultaneously, PP arguments can never be separated from their nominal head as they occur with deverbal nouns. On the lexical-semantic and pragmatic side, according to De Kuthy, splitting a PP from an NP appears possible only in certain verb-noun combinations. Provided an appropriate context, even cases so far regarded ungrammatical thus become acceptable. At the end of the introducing part of the book, De Kuthy delivers criteria for distinguishing the NP-PP split construction from apparently similar phenomena such as secondary predication, NP split, etc.

    In the second part of the book, De Kuthy discusses theoretical investigations of the NP-PP split construction along with two established syntactic approaches proposed for the construction in the literature, extraction and reanalysis. In my opinion, she succeeds in questioning the empirical arguments for preferring extraction, thus concluding that certain word order phenomena support a reanalysis approach to the construction. She even proves capable of formalizing a reanalysis-like theory in the HPSG-paradigm using the dependent-raising mechanism - undisputedly the most valuable contribution within her thesis along with her formulating a principle restricting the syntactic occurrence of NP-PP split constructions to adequate focus-background structures.

    My general impression of De Kuthy's book is a thoroughly positive one! Of course, this revised version of her thesis can be absolutely regarded a comprehensive investigation of the word order phenomenon NP-PP split construction, particularly occurring in German. Furthermore, I consider it a valuable contribution to the general question of how and to what extent the factors influencing word order phenomena are to be localized syntactically, semantically or pragmatically and how they interact with each other. Despite my high regard I can't avoid mentioning some few but only slight 'drops of bitterness' (in German: 'Wermutstropfen') regarding misspellings and omissions, respectively, I came across:

    (24) c. *Nach exotischen Geruechen konnte (sic!) selbst (ausgefallene Wuensche) befriedigt werden. (43) b. Von Peter habe ich bislangen (sic!) nur (den Vater) kennengelernt. (213) Karls (sic!) has given the book to the child. (219) What did none of (sic!) do?

    It is just deplorable that these avoidable slips of the pen have even been carried over to the revised version.

    Then there are some borderline cases I detected while reading and examining most of de Kuthy's exemplary sentences. The reason why I consider the following sentences at least doubtful might be founded on my subtle feeling of language ('Sprachgefuehl') as a native speaker of German rather than on facts. At any rate, I am far from intending to do her wrong, maybe the reason for my doubts stems from my own lack of understanding, at least with regard to this specific topic. Anyhow, I would appreciate if my remarks get a further discussion on the grammaticality and/or acceptability of the following sentences going:

    (40) a. *Von Maria bewundere ich die Schoenheit. of Maria-admire-I-the-beauty I admire Maria's beauty.

    Reviewer's proposed German sentence of improvement: 'An Maria bewundere ich die Schoenheit. 'Why not simply exchanging the German preposition 'von' for 'an' and the sentence becomes perfectly acceptable for native speakers?

    (170) a. ?? Hans las (ein Buch ueber ihn). Hans-read-a-book-about-him Hans read a book about himself.

    Reviewer's proposed English sentence of improvement: 'Hans read a book about him.' - in this case 'him' being a third person apart from Hans otherwise the source sentence should read: 'Hans las ein Buch ueber sich' in order to match the English translation 'himself'.

    (173) a. Hans schenkte mir ein Buch von sich. Hans-donated-me-a-book-from-himself Hans gave me a book of him as a present.

    Reviewer's proposed English sentence of improvement: 'Hans gave me a book of his as a present. '

    (299) Ich habe mir das Buch ueber Syntax gekauft, das du mir letztlich empfohlen hast. I bought the book about syntax that you recently recommended to me.

    Reviewer's proposed German sentence of improvement: 'Ich habe mir das Buch ueber Syntax gekauft, das du mir letztens empfohlen hast. ' (the German 'letztlich' is in English 'in the end' and unfortunately not corresponding to 'letztens' as suggested by 'recently')

    (302) b. *Von Marga habe ich (das Buch) gekauft. of-Marga-have-I-the-book-bought

    Reviewer's proposed German sentence of improvement: 'I bought the book from Marga' with Marga as the seller of the book rather than its author.

    Lastly, may I suggest considering a list of abbreviations which are used throughout the thesis just in case further editions of the book should be printed so that apart from experts in linguistics even less experienced readers might find easier access to this book worth reading!?

    References (online):

    http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/site/1575863987.html http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-1973.html#1 http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~dm/events/hpsg00tue/abstracts.html#dekuthy http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~kdk/papers/dekuthy00.html http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~kdk/papers/dekuthy00.html

    References (print):

    De Kuthy, Kordula: Splitting PPs from NPs. In Walt Detmar Meurers and Tibor Kiss (eds.): Constraint-based Approaches to Germanic Syntax, Stanford: CSLI Publications.

    ABOUT THE REVIEWER

    Guido Oebel (PhD in linguistics) is a native German currently teaching German as A Foreign Language (DaF) and FLL at Saga National University and Kurume University both on the Southern island of Kyushu (Japan). His main areas of research are: DaF, sociolinguistics, bilinguism, adult education and autonomous learning and approaches, particularly 'Learning by Teaching' (LdL).