LINGUIST List 17.1674
Sat Jun 03 2006
Diss: Syntax: Drury: 'Alternative Directions for Minimalist Inquiry...'
Editor for this issue: Meredith Valant
<meredithlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. John
Drury,
Alternative Directions for Minimalist Inquiry: Expanding and contracting phases of derivation
Message 1: Alternative Directions for Minimalist Inquiry: Expanding and contracting phases of derivation
Date: 02-Jun-2006
From: John Drury <john.drurymcgill.ca>
Subject: Alternative Directions for Minimalist Inquiry: Expanding and contracting phases of derivation
Institution: University of Maryland
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2005
Author: John E. Drury
Dissertation Title: Alternative Directions for Minimalist Inquiry: Expanding and contracting phases of derivation
Linguistic Field(s):
Syntax
Dissertation Director:
Norbert Hornstein
Howard Lasnik
Colin Phillips
Juan Uriagereka
Amy Weinberg
Dissertation Abstract:
This dissertation develops novel derivational mechanics for characterizingthe syntactic component of human language — Tree Contraction Grammar (TCG).TCG falls within a general class of derivationally-oriented minimalistapproaches, constituting a version of a Multiple Spell Out (MSO-)system(Chomsky 1999, Uriagereka 1999, 2002). TCG posits a derivational WORKSPACErestricting the size of structures that can be active at a given stage ofderivation. As structures are expanded, workspace limitations periodicallyforce contractions of the span of structure visible to operations. Theseexpansion-contraction dynamics are shown to have implications for ourunderstanding of locality of dependencies, specifically regardingsuccessive cyclic movement. The mechanics of TCG rely on non-standardassumptions about the direction of derivation — structure assembly isrequired to work top-down. TCG draws a key idea from TAG; that is,recursive structure ought to play a direct role in delimiting the range ofpossible interactions between syntactic elements in phases of derivation.TAG factors complex structures into non-recursive elementary trees andrecursive auxiliary trees that are combinable via TAG's twooperations(substitution/adjoining). In TCG the expansion of structure inthe workspace is similarly limited to containing only non-recursivestretches of structure. In the course of a derivation, encountering'repeated elements' in the expanding dominance ordering forcescontractions of the workspace (understood to happen in potentiallydifferent ways depending on the properties of repeated elements).In certaincircumstances, repeated elements are identified, allowing information fromearlier stages of derivation to be carried over to later stages,underwriting our (novel) view of successive cyclicity. Recursive structureis retained in the global 'output' structure, upon parts of which weunderstand the workspace to be superimposed.
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