LINGUIST List 22.470
Wed Jan 26 2011
Diss: Ling Theories/Syntax: 'Rethinking Syntactocentrism: Lessons ...'
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1. Andreas Trotzke ,
Rethinking Syntactocentrism: Lessons from recent generative approaches to pragmatic properties of left-periphery-movement in German
Message 1: Rethinking Syntactocentrism: Lessons from recent generative approaches to pragmatic properties of left-periphery-movement in German
Date: 25-Jan-2011
From: Andreas Trotzke <trotzkeuni-potsdam.de>
Subject: Rethinking Syntactocentrism: Lessons from recent generative approaches to pragmatic properties of left-periphery-movement in German
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Institution: Universität Freiburg
Program: Hermann Paul Graduate School of Language Sciences
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2010
Author: Andreas Trotzke
Dissertation Title: Rethinking Syntactocentrism: Lessons from Recent Generative Approaches to Pragmatic Properties of Left-Periphery-Movement in German
Dissertation URL: http://www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/7918
Linguistic Field(s):
Linguistic Theories
Syntax
Subject Language(s): German, Standard (deu)
Dissertation Director:
Wolfgang Raible
Juergen Dittmann
Dissertation Abstract:
In this thesis, I show that Ray Jackendoff's notion of syntactocentrism ismisguided, since characterizing the concept this term refers to as adogmatic assumption that does not lend itself to participate in the generalfield of mentalist linguistics does not do justice to both recent models ofmainstream generative grammar and to the conceptual consequences ofapplying these concepts to specific phenomena like the pragmatics ofleft-periphery-movement in German.
Chapter 1 approaches the notion of syntactocentrism by sketching itsinitial conception in the 1950s and 1960s. I clarify why even Jackendoffconsiders this nascent perspective on grammatical knowledge to be a quitereasonable view, given the by-then available approaches to phonology andsemantics. In chapter 2, I amend Jackendoff's claim that recentsyntactocentrism ignores progress in both phonology and semantics andentirely dispenses with formal accounts of these components. Chapter 3demonstrates that Jackendoff misses another crucial point in hisdiscussions of syntactocentrism by marginalizing and sometimes evenignoring significant changes involved in the recent shift fromrepresentational to derivational syntactocentrism. Based on this up-to-datenotion of syntactocentrism, chapter 4 shows two theoretical alternatives tosyntactocentrism: Cognitive Linguistics and the Parallel Architecture. Ipoint out that bridging the gulf between syntactocentrism and itstheoretical alternatives is not inconceivable but a quite realisticenterprise. I finish this chapter by arguing in favor of a comparison ofthe syntactocentric view with its alternatives in light of the amendednotion of syntactocentrism developed in chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 5undertakes such a comparison with respect to the Parallel Architecture andshows that, once the consequences of the recent changes withinsyntactocentrism are taken seriously, some points of convergence betweenrecent syntactocentrism and the Parallel Architecture can be demonstrated.I reduce the comparison of recent syntactocentrism and the ParallelArchitecture to tractable size and thus focus on the analysis of onespecific phenomenon, namely the pragmatics of left-periphery-movement inGerman. I argue that the strong derivational view of syntactocentrismimplies significant points of convergence with conceptual aspects of theParallel Architecture. First, both approaches share the assumption that adirect interaction between phonology and semantic interpretation isrequired in order to deal with phenomena like prosodically-expressed focusor contrast. Second, both models imply that this interaction is establishedby pragmatic rather than by syntactic factors and, third, both accountsregard pragmatics as an independent component. In order to look also forconvergence between recent syntactocentrism and Cognitive Linguistics,chapter 6 compares an approach to language evolution that is based on thegeneral conception of derivational syntax exemplified in chapter 5 with anaccount that is associated with concepts of Cognitive Linguistics. Ihighlight that both the Computational and the Communicative view regardrecursive operations of the mind as a sine qua non for the emergence ofgrammar and that both accounts postulate a representational format thatcontains these recursive operations. In chapter 7, I conclude bysummarizing the main results of this thesis and by turning to the questionwhether these results vindicate the notion of syntactocentrism as used byJackendoff.
Page Updated: 26-Jan-2011
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