Journal Issue: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Penn Linguistics Conference
Volume
Number
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Date Published
Journal Volume
Description
Keywords
Collection
34 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 34
Publication The Particle Mo in Japanese and its Roles in Numeral Indeterminate Phrases(2017-01-01) Mohri, FumioThe main purpose of this paper is to provide an appropriate explanation for the so-called numeral indeterminate (NI) constructions, in which mo is accompanied by an indeterminate pronoun+ Cl(assifier). The quirky character of this construction is that apparently mo is applied to the denotation of a numeral indeterminate nan-nin as a syntactic binder and at the same it invokes a scalar reading. The assumption that mo should be a syntactic binder can be corroborated from the fact that the NI construction is degraded without the particle mo. Also mo as a scalar particle attributes an implicit large reading. This large reading can also be observed in cases where the indeterminate is replaced by a specific numeral, e,g, yo-nin-mo ‘four-Cl-mo’. To the best of my knowledge, Kobuchi-Philip (2010) and Oda (2012) are the only works that deal with this construction. Especially Oda extensively discusses every possible means to explain this construction and works out a solution by assuming that the suffix mo functions multiply as an existential quantifier and a scalar particle. Through this paper, I will support her claim for its double functions, but I will clarify that the functions are both derived from a core semantic property of mo, namely, maximality. In other words, these functions work individually, but the component of maximality is placed in the center of the semantics of both usages.Publication The Semantic Ontology of Agent and Theme: A Case Study with Event Partitioning Quantifiers in Japanese(2017-01-01) Nakamura, TakanobuThe primary aim of this paper is a description of a previously unanalyzed kind of numeral quantifiers in Japanese. While the purpose is modest, I believe that it might shed light on the Neo-Davidsonian semantic architecture (see Parsons 1990, Schein 1993 and Kratzer 1996 among others). Specifically, I will introduce Event Partitioning Quantifiers (EPQs), which have not been analyzed in literature and show that with an EPQ, agents of events and themes of events are quantified independently of both an event expressed by a lexical verb and host nominals in the subject or in the object. Based on this observation, I discuss the semantic independence of thematic roles Agent and Theme from their corresponding verb.Publication Swiping without Sluicing(2017-01-01) Tyler, MatthewIn English, when a question involving a prepositional wh-phrase (wh-PP) undergoes sluicing, the wh-word may be inverted around the preposition, in a process known as 'swiping'. I show, contrary to previous work, that swiping is not restricted to sluicing contexts: it is also permitted when the inverted wh-PP is coordinated with another wh-phrase (e.g., "When and who by was this first discovered?"). I argue that English syntax is able to generate swiped structures in all questions involving wh-PPs, including 'simple' (non-sluiced, non-coordinated) wh-questions. Swiping in simple wh-questions is subsequently ruled out on prosodic grounds. The account crucially relies on coordinated wh-questions having the same prosodic signature as Right Node Raising constructions.Publication Syntactic Constraints on Quantifier Domains: An Experimental Study of Adult Interpretation of the Mandarin Chinese Quantifier dou(2017-01-01) Ke, Alan Hezao; Epstein, Sam; Pires, AcrisioWhich NP does all associate with in “The pandas, the children have all seen”, the pandas or the children, or both? The intuition of adult Mandarin native speakers regarding the interpretation of the adverbial quantifier dou ‘all’ remains unclear and controversial, and based on these unclarities, various incommensurate theories of domain selection have been proposed. This paper points out that previous studies were confused by dou-domain selection because they used non-optimal testing materials. We present experiments on adults’ interpretation of dou, designed to avoid these pitfalls to test predictions of several influential theories. Despite extensive theoretical proposals in the literature, this is the first experimental study of adult knowledge and use of syntactic constraints on the quantifier domain of dou. We advance the hypothesis that the quantifier dou can take one and only one c-commanding NP as its domain, and an analysis based on a locality restriction are not operative in the domain we explore.Publication Scope as a Diagnostic for the Position of Negation in Persian(2017-01-01) Shafiei, Nazila; Storoshenko, Dennis RyanNegation in Persian is expressed by a pro-clitic with three different possible positions, either attached to a sentence-final main verb, a light verb in a sentence-final complex predicate, or a sentence-medial auxiliary. Because of this positional promiscuity, the overt morphology is a poor diagnostic for the syntactic position of a Neg head. This paper reports on studies using the scope of negation with respect to subject and object quantifiers in order to determine the position of the Neg head. Determining that the existing argumentation for high negation is inconclusive, we present results on a study using the relative scopes of negation and argument quantifiers to diagnose the position of negation. Combined with the finding that Persian is a scope rigid language, our results suggest that negation must originate quite low in the structure, contra existing analyses, but that some speakers have an overt string-vacuous movement which extends the scope of negation. This is not surprising from a typological perspective, as Korean and Japanese, two other SOV languages, have also been argued to demonstrate the same movement present in only a portion of the population.Publication Social and Structural Constraints on a Phonetically-Motivated Change in Progress: (str) Retraction in Raleigh, NC(2017-01-01) Wilbanks, EricThe current project examines the status of (str) retraction, an ongoing, phonetically-motivated sound change, in the Raleigh, NC corpus of sociolinguistic interviews (Dodsworth & Kohn, 2012). Investigating the status of this sound change in apparent time, acoustic analyses of 140 Raleigh-natives was carried out. All tokens of /s/ and /S/ were automatically extracted and the spectral characteristics of the resulting 99,150 tokens were analyzed. Results demonstrate the retracted variant in the speech of the youngest Raleigh women and it is argued that the emergence of (str) retraction in the community in the 1960s corresponds with massive demographic shifts caused by urbanization and immigration from the North. While the specific causes of (str) retraction, whether it reflects a diffusion of an externally developed change or the community-internal innovation based on clear phonetic motivation, is unclear, the variant is clearly an emergent phenomenon of Raleigh speech. Additionally, it is argued that medial word position was the locus for actuation of the sound change and remains the environment which most strongly favors the retracted variants. This structural constraint has been observed in other communities but its role as the position in which change began has previously only been hypothesized. At the level of the community, (str) retraction is still heavily restricted and its spread to other linguistic environments and into the systems of other speakers is currently unfolding. These data, in addition to improving our knowledge of the sociolinguistic characteristics of Raleigh's speech, inform our understanding of the overarching principles governing the progression of sound change.Publication On Cognate Objects in Sason Arabic(2017-01-01) Akkuş, Faruk; Öztürk, BalkızThis paper investigates the patterns of cognate objects (COs) associated with unergatives and unaccusatives in Sason Arabic. We propose that COs of both unergatives and unaccusatives are not true arguments, as evinced by their highly productive and unrestricted use, but constitute rhematic complements in the sense of Ramchand (2008), therefore cannot be used as diagnostics for unergative-unaccusative distinction in the language.Publication The German Definite Article and the ‘Sameness’ of Indices(2017-01-01) Hanink, Emily A.The German definite article may contract with a preceding preposition under certain circumstances; the contracted form is referred to in the literature as weak, while the non-contracted form is referred to as strong. Schwarz (2009) gives an analysis of this contrast according to which the weak form is required when the referent of an NP is unique, while the strong form is required when it is also anaphoric, i.e., when it refers back to an antecedent. However, as Schwarz himself points out, anaphoric uses in which the anaphoric NP is modified by the adjective same surprisingly surface with the weak form, and not the strong. The use of the weak form with the clearly anaphoric uses of same pose a challenge to the generalization that anaphoric uses of the definite article always require the strong form. I provide an account of the strong/weak distinction in the German definite article that explains the puzzling use of the weak form in anaphora involving same by proposing the following. P-D contraction in the general case is achieved through P-D Lowering (Embick and Noyer 2001). In the strong form however, D selects for the index-hosting head idx, to which it may lower and bleed the environment for P-D contraction. However, D may optionally not lower to idx, in which case P-D contraction freely occurs while idx spells out as same. Same in this account is therefore treated as an allomorph of an otherwise non-exponed anaphora-encoding head that is usually occupied by D. This account draws support from cross-linguistic evidence from English and Hebrew that same may undergo alternations with pronominal expressions.Publication Pseudo-gapping: Evidence for Overt Quantifier Raising(2017-01-01) Tanaka, HideharuThis paper explores the grammatical process of pseudo-gapping. In the literature, pseudo-gapping has been analyzed as a series of two operations: the syntactic movement of a remnant out of a VP (Move-R) and the phonological deletion of the VP (VP-deletion). Given this movement + deletion theory, I address what type of movement Move-R is. This paper makes a new argument against Takahashi’s (2004) approach, and for Johnson’s (2008) approach; the former identifies Move-R with the combination of Heavy NP Shift and Object Shift, while the latter identifies it with Quantifier Raising (QR), whose output is covert in general cases. Specifically, it is shown that the latter, but not the former, can predict two facts: that the object of a preposition in an NP-PP argument construction can be a remnant and that no predicate NP can be a remnant. The QR approach is then extended by adopting the single output model of syntax (e.g., Bobaljik 1995). In particular, a new phonological theory of QR is proposed, which provides four possible ways to reduce the chain of QR, depending on whether VP-deletion applies and whether the moved element is focused. This new theory is shown to explain why the output of QR can be overt in pseudo-gapping. Considering the possibility of overt QR, this paper concludes by arguing against the traditional T model of grammar, or the dual output model of syntax (e.g., Chomsky and Lasnik 1977).Publication Case in Polish Predication and Control(2017-01-01) Lindert, PatrickIn this paper, a unification of case markings in Polish predication and control is proposed. It is argued that adjectives with instrumental case marking in control environments are actually modifiers of DPs, and not bare APs, therefore following the predictable case assignment mechanism of Polish predication. This paper discusses cases of subject control and non-obligatory control.