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• The first word-sense-based study on academic vocabulary across disciplines. • Eighty-four semantic frames specific to research articles were identified. • Grouping of these 84 semantic frames corresponds to research articles' main social purposes. • Findings expand the conceptual scope of genre knowledge. Taking Frame Semantics as its theoretical framework, this corpus-based study addresses a lack of research on semantic knowledge in research articles at the genre level, as opposed to the discipline level, by identifying the dominant Semantic Frames in the academic portion of the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Semantic Frames in the corpus were first automatically identified with a pre-trained large language model fine-tuned with data from FrameNet, a large database built on the principles of Frame Semantics. Subsequently, 84 dominant Semantic Frames in research articles were extracted based on the frequency distributions of identified semantic frames, constituting a Research Article-specific Semantic Frame List. Based on their definitions and detailed analyses of typical example sentences, these 84 Research Article-specific Semantic Frames were classified into three groups: Academic Activity Frames, which describe typical activities for creating knowledge, Academic Communication Frames, which relate to typical ways for disseminating knowledge, and Academic Interest Frames, which include typical entities or attributes that interest researchers across disciplines. The Research Article-specific Semantic Frame List sheds light on the semantic knowledge that is characteristic of the research article genre and shared across disciplines, thereby paving the way for compiling a research article-specific framenet. Further research is encouraged to explore the Frame Element distribution patterns of Research Article-specific Semantic Frames and Semantic Frames specific to other academic genres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Introduces new Chinese reflexive data, zijimen. • Analyzes Minimalist theories of anaphora regarding Chinese ziji and zijimen. • Maintains that Chinese reflexives are pragmatically regulated. • Proposes a pragmatic account of ziji 's distributivity. Abstract This article introduces new Mandarin Chinese data on ziji 'self', namely it has been overlooked that ziji is able to take the collective suffix – men to form zijimen. This observation is gleaned from written material found in the mainstream Chinese news media, as well as among general Chinese websites. In evaluating this new reflexive data, there are two major theoretical traditions, syntactic and pragmatic, to consider. Assessing recent Minimalist anaphoric theories shows that there are challenges presented for these syntactic theories' mechanisms when applied to zijimen. In the field of pragmatics however, this new form presents little challenge to the revised neo-Gricean pragmatic theory of anaphora. Moreover, this new data sheds light on the distributivity problem of ziji , leading to a new pragmatic analysis. Consequently, in spite of recent syntactic advances in anaphoric theory, the best answer to Chinese reflexive pronouns is still a pragmatic one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Persian has both suffixal and prefixal deverbal nouns. • Persian deverbal nouns are divided into argument structure-nominals and result-nominals. • Persian suffixal deverbal nouns structures coincide with Borer's (2013) framework. • The categorial prefix is the head of the derived word in Persian derivational affixes. • Some of suffixes and all of prefixes can be polysemous in structure, as well. Abstract Nominalized words are complex nominals, which have their own particular derivational structure. These nominals can be derived from different parts of speech. Correspondingly, a deverbal nominal is a nominal that is derived from a verb; although, this is a critical issue in syntactic analysis, few researchers have addressed Persian deverbal nominals with no attention paid to their underlying syntactic structures. Therefore, the present study is an attempt to provide a descriptive syntactic analysis of Persian deverbal nominals based on the Exo-skeletal framework as developed in Borer (2013). Regarding nominalization process, Borer argues that derivational suffixes merge with their roots in the syntax rather than morphology, that is to say, there is a particular syntactic mechanism that underlies the formation of nominals. Also, she divides deverbal nominals into two groups: complex event nominals and result nominals. The results of the present study show that although Persian has suffixal deverbal nominals the syntactic structures of which correspond to Borer's Exo-skeletal framework, this language has prefixal deverbal nominals, too. Moreover, while Borer (2013) proposes that prefixes do not change the lexical category of words they attach to, in the present research a new syntactic structure is provided for the prefixal deverbal nominals in which the categorial prefix is regarded as the head of the derived word. In addition, based on Persian data, there are some nominals which consist of both a categorial prefix and a categorial suffix. Hence the research analysis reveals that the multiple affixation process does not occur simultaneously; instead, it happens sequentially. Finally, the research results indicate that Persian derivational affixes (some of suffixes and all of prefixes) can be polyfunctional in structure, as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Linguistic expressions of interest were examined in 640 research articles. • The research articles were sampled by geo-academic location and time of publication. • A 4-element semantic frame was proposed to examine these linguistic expressions. • The grouping variables reliably predicted the overall use of interest markers. • They were also significant predictors of the presence of several frame elements. Linguistic expressions of interest that signal academic authors' epistemic attitude toward propositional content in their research articles are inherently associated with knowledge-making practices. Drawing on a semantic frame developed for expressions of interest, this study examined how an academic author's geo-academic location and time of publication mediated the deployment of such interest markers in a 4-million-word corpus of 640 research articles sampled from four disciplines. To complement the corpus-based analyses of the interest markers, text-based interviews were conducted with 16 specialists from the four disciplines to explore their considerations in employing these markers. The corpus-based analyses found that time of publication and geo-academic location reliably predicted the overall use of interest markers and/or the presence of several frame elements. As revealed by the analysis of the interview data, these identified patterns of use were attributable to the Periphery-based scholars' disadvantaged positions in academia and increasing competition for international publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze the hierarchy of genitive PP arguments within the Spanish DP and their replacement by a prenominal possessive in a process known as possessivization. Through the thematic proto-role approach, I propose a principle of argument projection valid for all DPs with argument structure in Spanish and I suggest two different hierarchies for the possessivization of arguments according to the type of head: deverbal and ‘picture’ nouns have an argument structure closer to verbs and follow the hierarchy {Possessor > Proto-Agent > Proto-Patient}, whereas deadjectival and relational nouns have a strictly nominal argument structure and, consequently, conform to the hierarchy {Proto-Whole > Proto-Part}. The conditions for the possessivization of an argument follow a similar pattern to that of the extraction movements through the different syntactic domains of the DP. The proposed system offers a more precise analysis of argument selection in the Spanish DP that extends beyond the standard cases of parallelism with the verb domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is twofold: to assess the role of choice in imperatives by looking at imperatives themselves as well as imperatives with items such as any and or , and to show that choice is not granted invariably. I argue that free choice inference in imperatives can be efficiently analyzed as an allocation of preference in a decision-making frame. In support of the proposed analysis, I show that imperatives suggest preference and by being a nonveridical modal space they induce a preference allocation frame in either of two ways: preference-to-authority or preference-to-addressee (this means that choice/preference is determined (or delegated) by the authority or by the addressee) (e.g., Staraki, 2015b ). Thus, an essential component in free choice in imperatives, as I argue, is preference allocation which is triggered by a shift of preference from one to another conversational participant in a decision-making frame. The allocation of preference is then forced into a free choice inference. Evidence will be provided that the indefinite any and the disjunctive or are overt exhaustifiers which imply logical relations among the set of alternative intensional states contributed by imperatives and postulate inferential exhaustification — a modest extension of Giannakidou's (2001) exhaustive variation — as a weak requirement on any and or , i.e., as a conversational implicature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We suggest a disentangling approach according to which the use of referring expressions obeys two types of guidelines. Deviance in repeating referential expressions (R-expressions) can result from two possible sources: one is the violation of the syntactic principle C, ruling out configurations in which c-command holds between the two identical R-expressions; the other is a Go-Lighter (GL) economy principle, applying in discourse and arguably based on shared knowledge and theory of mind (TOM), operative also in environments in which c-command does not hold. To examine this disentangling approach, we tested 36 brain-damaged patients: 20 who had aTOMia, a deficit in TOM, and 16 brain-damaged patients with good TOM, and 29 healthy control participants. Experiment 1 tested the comprehension of principles A and B using a sentence-picture-matching task. Experiment 2 tested principles C and GL using a sentence-choice task. Experiment 3 tested sentence interpretation according to principles C and GL using sentence-picture matching. In line with the disentangling approach, the individuals with poor TOM (and good syntax) failed to rule out and interpret repeating expressions that rely solely on the Go-Lighter principle, but succeeded in judging and interpreting sentences in which the repetition is ruled out by the syntactic principle C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustained and intense interaction of massive groups of English and Spanish speakers in the U.S. has the potential to deepen our understanding of continuity and innovation in linguistic systems under heavy contact. The current study focuses on Spanish as it is spoken in the largest urban center of the United States: New York City. It examines a range of variable phenomena in the most extensive collection of Spanish in New York to date: the Otheguy Zentella Corpus of Spanish in NYC (OZC). The data represent original research by the first author as well as the efforts of several other scholars who have examined aspects of the OZC in detail. When synthesized, results reveal two broad patterns in the Spanish of long-time NYC residents: diminished regional differentiation and structural convergence with English. These trends emerge across numerous levels of linguistic structure, manifesting in patterns of syntactic, morphological, and phonological variation. The coherence of these phenomena is consistent with the view that contact-induced change is tightly constrained, both socially and structurally, and that it is unlikely to manifest as haphazard bricolage. This is because, while the intensity of linguistic innovations and the time required for their onset and implementation may vary from feature to feature, such changes derive ultimately from a single source; namely, the set of linguistic and social factors that characterize the contact situation. As such, we can expect contact-induced changes to be restricted and of a kind, imbued with the character of the whole to which they belong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cypriot Greek presents an interesting case of what may appear to be an ‘incoherent’ variety. The Cypriot Greek koine displays patterns that could be seen as dense code-mixing between Cypriot and Standard Greek; moreover, local subvarieties are being levelled out, the result being a shift from a geographical to a register continuum, with remnants of local variants indexing ‘lower’ registers. This invites the hypothesis that the range of variants that speakers have at their disposal is used for various indexical purposes and that one ought not to expect consistency in rates of occurrence of particular variants. In this paper we test this hypothesis by examining four phonological, morphological and syntactic variables with variants at the Cypriot and the Standard-like end of the continuum. The data provide a rather complex picture: while there is overall coherence across variables in the sense that the higher the use of the more Cypriot phonological forms, the higher the use of the more Cypriot morphological and syntactic variants, the behaviour of different variants also depends on particular configurations of extralinguistic factors such as sex, age and education. The data therefore attest to the complexity of the notion of ‘coherence’ but do not suggest its abandonment as an analytical construct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Informed by frame semantics, this study examined expressions of three knowledge emotions. • Expressions of surprise, interest and confusion were identified in a corpus of 640 research articles. • All semantic frames evoked by these linguistic expressions and their relations were analyzed. • A knowledge emotion frame was generated to capture their semantic and cognitive properties. • Elements of the generic frame were examined for their epistemic and rhetorical functions. While academic writing is traditionally expected to be objective, linguistically expressed surprise, interest, and confusion indexing authors' affective attitudes toward their propositions are not uncommon in research articles. These emotions, collectively known as knowledge emotions, are inherently cognitive and can contribute to the construction of scientific knowledge. Taking a cognitive semantic approach, this study examines linguistic expressions of knowledge emotions found in a corpus of 640 research articles sampled from four disciplines (i.e., Applied Linguistics, Biology, History, and Mechanical Engineering). To understand how these expressions partake in knowledge construction, a knowledge emotion frame is proposed that comprises five frame elements (i.e., Trigger, Degree, Explanation, Resolution, and Experiencer) and their various subcategories. The study demonstrates that this frame is well capable of capturing the shared/distinctive semantic and cognitive properties of knowledge emotion markers deployed for scientific communication. Accordingly, it provides a useful conceptual tool for furthering our understanding of deep-seated knowledge-making practices and the heuristic role that knowledge emotions play in these epistemic practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The present study views comparison-and-contrast as the builder and transmitter of scientific knowledge. • The present study builds a comparison-and-contrast frame for research articles of applied linguistics. • The frame consists of three core (i.e. Comparative_item, Dimension and Agent) and two non-core (i.e. Evaluation and Indication) frame elements. • The five frame elements work in tandem to disclose the nature of academic writing as a syncretic practice of generating and promoting scientific knowledge. This article reports on a corpus-based study that examined the comparison-and-contrast markers in research articles of applied linguistics. The main argument is that comparison-and-contrast in academic writing functions as a rhetorical act that realises text organisation or dialogic contraction and as a cognitive act that fulfils representational changes and knowledge creation. Drawing upon the methodologies developed in the FrameNet project, this study retrieved and analysed comparison-and-contrast markers in a corpus of 30 research articles. A total of 1285 markers in the corpus were found to evoke nine interrelated semantic frames defined in FrameNet. Altogether, these nine frames contained 12 conceptually distinct elements. Based on their semantic overlap and conceptual necessity, we identified three core (Comparative_item, Dimension and Agent) and two non-core (Evaluation and Indication) frame elements and generated a comparison-and-contrast frame for research articles of applied linguistics. This frame serves as a cognitive device for understanding how comparison-and-contrast, shaped by disciplinary norms and epistemological assumptions, contributes to the creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge in applied linguistics. Recommendations are made about how this frame can serve as a basis for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Native and nonnative English students used a similar number of p-frames in essays. • Native English students used more p-frames with high predictability and fixedness. • Native English students overused more participant-oriented p-frames. • Nonnative English students overused more text-oriented p-frames. A phrase frame (i.e., p-frame) is a type of recurrent discontinuous multiword sequence. So far, many studies have investigated the p-frames used in written texts in various genres, disciplines, and registers. However, few previous p-frame studies have attempted a comparative analysis of the p-frames used by native and nonnative English students. This scarcity prevents us from obtaining a full understanding of phraseological competence development in nonnative English learners. Using a corpus-driven approach, the current study identified and compared the 5-word p-frames used by native and nonnative English students in their college essays. The results showed no statistically significant difference between these two groups with respect to the types and tokens of p-frames used in their essays. However, significant intergroup differences could be observed when the predictability, variability, structural characteristics, and discourse functions of the identified p-frames were considered. These findings on the use of p-frames by native and nonnative English students could complement the comparative studies of recurrent continuous multiword sequences and thus advance our understanding of phraseological competence development in nonnative English learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The study investigates the effect of givenness on word order in Russian and Ukrainian. [•] We compare elicited production data from adults and monolingual children. [•] Like adults, children place given recipients before themes resulting in DPDAT–DPACC. [•] Unlike adults, children prefer this order in theme-given contexts as well. [•] This might be indicative of a preference for the underlying syntactic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Icelandic Fronting is an instance of syntactic back-grounding. [•] Sardinian Fronting is an instance of syntactic focusing. [•] Information structure can successfully be implemented in the theory of syntax. [•] Stylistic variation can be revealing of a competition between underlying grammars. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The study of the syntax–semantics interface is concerned with linguistic phenomena that are the product of interactions between principles of syntactic organization and principles of semantic interpretation. Such interactions abound in natural language and can be found in all subsystems of the grammar. This paper examines a particular subclass of such phenomena revolving around quantificational expressions. The central concern of the discussion are the grammatical mechanisms that mediate between the syntactic position a quantifier appears in and the semantic import it has on the sentence meaning. Of particular interest are cases where a quantifier is interpreted in a position that is different from the position it seems to occupy in the syntax. A leading hypothesis to explain cases of this sort, which exemplify a general property of natural language called displacement, is that they are the product of overt or covert movement operations. Empirical support for this approach is presented in the form of correlations between three grammatical phenomena – Quantifier Scope, Antecedent Contained Deletion, and Extraposition – which receive a uniform account under the above hypothesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Others have noticed that taboo terms in spoken language present unusual morphological and syntactic behavior. In this paper we examine a number of predicates in American Sign Language that have recently been formed from what were, historically, taboo-terms, as well as one more recently coined mildly taboo-term, and we show that they, likewise, behave in unusual ways morphologically and syntactically. We look at conversion from noun to verb that restricts the movement of the resultant verb to that typically associated with continuative aspect, at a non-presentational predicate that takes a sentential subject, at a verb that agrees with something properly within its sentential object, at a verb that takes an adverbial clause following it, and at a verb string that involves neither conjoining nor embedding. Thus, while taboo terms have been severely understudied in sign languages, their analysis offers new insights on linguistic structure. We suggest that the (historical) taboo nature of these terms makes them susceptible to innovation, particularly among adolescent males. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Based on a Chinese–English code-mixed treebank, this paper reports the probable syntactic consequences of code-switching. Compared with monolingual Chinese and English corpora, in the mixed corpus there are syntactic variations: variation in dependency distances and word-order variation in dependency direction. In the mixed corpus, there are two types of dependencies: monolingual and mixed dependencies. Mixed dependencies present longer dependency distances than monolingual ones. Major grammatical relations (subject, object, attribute and adverbial) and certain properties of code-switching (peripherality, flagging and dislocation) contribute to the variability of dependency distances. It is the distributions of major grammatical relations with different dependency directions in monolingual and mixed dependencies that cause the word-order variation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines word order variation and change in Old French, in which subordinate clauses that immediately precede a main declarative can occur in at least two distinct syntactic positions with respect to the main clause. Data from a corpus of Old French texts from the 10th until the early 14th centuries show that most initial subordinates are situated outside the main clause proper, although some examples occur in the first position of the main clause. Adopting a richly articulated clausal left periphery (), the SceneSetting projection of FrameP is proposed as the default syntactic position for extra-clausal initial subordinates. Although Old French is considered a verb-second language, initial subordinates often yield sequences in which the finite verb of the main clause appears in third or higher position. Following Labelle (2007) and others, I argue that a complex left periphery accounts for descriptively non-V2 word orders, while upholding a V2 analysis for Old French. Finally, following , who examined the role of initial subordinates in the loss of V2 in Old French, I show that for most of the Old French period, the grammar of main declaratives that follow initial subordinates is characteristically V2. Only over the course of the 13th century does the subject–verb order become dominant. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Although language utterances primarily consist of sequences of phonemes, morphemes and words, language is not limited to linearity. There are many linguistic phenomena that show a certain degree of simultaneity: cases in which two (or more) meaningful elements are realized at the same time. Typical cases include intonation contours to mark e.g., focus, topic, questions, etc. While it may be argued that such examples are marginal from the perspective of syntax and can therefore be safely ignored, the same cannot be said for sign languages. Sign languages make extensive use of simultaneity, using it even for negation and adverbial modification, phenomena that are generally considered to be syntactic. Trying to analyze simultaneous constructions syntactically, we run into the problem that under standard assumptions, all terminal elements in a syntactic tree have a unique position in the linear string (Exclusivity & Nontangling Conditions, ). The sign language examples obviously violate these conditions. In order to account for these data, we need to extend ideas behind prosodic morphology to syntax: not only morphemes but also syntactic elements can map onto prosodic forms in phonology. Standard principles of the syntax/phonology interface and of the phonological module then apply to construct the simultaneous expression. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article examines the distribution and interpretation of the bare classifier phrase [Cl+N] in three Sinitic languages of Mandarin, Wu and Cantonese. We show that [Cl+N] can be interpreted as definite or indefinite depending on pragmatic factors related to information structure and word order. Syntactically, we claim that indefinite [Cl+N] has the maximal projection of ClP and that definite [Cl+N] is a DP, where the D head is filled by the classifier via Cl-to-D raising. Semantically, we claim that indefinite [Cl+N] is predicative, denoting sets of atomic entities and that definite [Cl+N] is derived from indefinite [Cl+N] by lifting it from predicates to Generalized Quantifiers. We further claim that the definiteness expressed by [Cl+N] is characterized by the pragmatic notion of ‘familiarity/identifiability’ as it can be linked to information structure and not ‘uniqueness’. Definite classifiers differ from the English definite article ‘the’ and they are not full-fledged grammaticalized definiteness markers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper discusses a typologically unusual relativization strategy attested in several Southeastern Mande languages. In this construction, the relativized noun phrase appears in its own non-reduced clause and is referred to by a pronoun in the main clause, as in constructions with correlative clauses (literally, “That man invited us, I am writing to him” for ‘I am writing to the man who invited us’). Unlike in typical cases of correlative clauses, however, the clause containing the relativized noun phrase appears inside the main clause, immediately preceding the resumptive pronoun (literally, “I am writing – that man invited us – to him”). I discuss the syntactic properties of this unusual construction and suggest a possible diachronic path for its development. In particular, I argue that the rise of clause-internal correlatives in Southeastern Mande is licensed by a typologically unusual syntactic property of those languages: clause-internal extraposition of noun phrases, which is in turn related to the clause-level adjunction of postpositional phrases. More generally, besides adding a previously unattested type to the typology of relativization strategies, I seek to illustrate how typologically unusual morphosyntactic properties provide the basis for the subsequent development of rare or unique constructions (the “Propagation of Rara” principle). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper I examine two types of splits in the otherwise ergative-absolutive person marking system of Chol Mayan. First, Chol shows what is known as a “split-S” system: subjects of unergatives pattern as transitive subjects (ergative), while subjects of unaccusatives pattern as transitive objects (absolutive) (). This pattern is obscured in the non-perfective aspects, where we find an aspect-based split (see ): both transitive and intransitive subjects receive the same morphological marking. Specifically, in the non-perfective aspects, all intransitive subjects pattern with transitive subjects. I argue below, extending proposal for Basque, that the appearance of these splits results from differences in syntactic structure, rather than from different rules of Case assignment or agreement. I show that these different structures fall out from independent facts about the language; neither split represents a departure from Chol''s ergative system. While the analysis focuses on Chol, I propose that a biclausal analysis of split ergativity may account for splits in a number of unrelated languages. Finally, I examine other language with splits that lend themselves to this type of analysis, and suggest a grammatical basis for the universal tendency for languages with aspectual splits to always retain the ergative pattern in the perfective aspect. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper makes two main contributions to our understanding of ergativity. First, it supports the claim that ergative is an inherent case, through a study of the Warlpiri lexicon: no ergative-marked subjects are derived, in accordance with Marantz’ Generalization. Second, it reanalyses syntactic ergativity in Dyirbal. It demonstrates that the language underlyingly has an ergative–nominative–accusative case system, with imperfect morphological realization of these cases. It further shows that syntactic ergativity in Dyirbal is not sensitive to the absolutive, but rather underlying nominative and accusative, regardless of morphological realization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Illocutionary force and modality are grammatical phenomena that are traditionally considered to operate at a ‘high level’, scoping over entire clauses and represented in the upper regions of the syntactic tree or of the semantic representation. This is supported by the observation that (most) subordinate clauses do not have their own illocutionary force, but depend on the main clause in this respect. Still, English exhibits a number of constructions where an NP appears to come with its own illocution, independent of the illocutionary force of the clause of which the NP is a part. In other languages as well, NPs are known to occur with illocutionary and modality operators. In this article, several of these constructions will be brought together, and it is then considered how they can be accounted for in two closely related structural–functional syntactic theories, namely Role and Reference Grammar and Functional Discourse Grammar. It is shown that both approaches can accommodate these odd constructions, provided a number of minor adjustments are made to the technical apparatus. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article addresses some puzzles regarding the properties of light verb constructions that have been amply documented in many code-switching pairs, with particular focus on some well-known asymmetries. This article should be viewed as an argument that generative analyses of code-switching are conceptually and empirically superior to the mainstream approach, referred to as the Matrix Language Frame Model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper investigates the syntactic restrictions on subject wh-questions in Kîîtharaka, an SVO Bantu language spoken in Kenya (Code E54, according to the classification by Guthrie). Subject wh-phrases exhibit two closely linked restrictions. First, they cannot appear in situ in the matrix position. In situ wh-phrases lack focus marking in Kîîtharaka. Secondly, subject wh-phrases cannot appear in situ in the immediate complement of verbs that select interrogative complements. This paper suggests a unifying solution to the two restrictions. Specifically, it argues that subject wh-phrases are subject to an anti-locality condition, a condition that prevents wh-phrases to be immediately subjacent to their binder. The binder in this respect is a wh-operator in the left periphery of the clause, an operator in Spec, FocP. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Dative Substitution, i.e. the change from accusative to dative subjects, has been explained in the generative literature as thematic case marking ousting idiosyncratic case marking (cf. ). A major anomaly for this account is the late onset of Dative Substitution, not documented in Icelandic texts until the latter part of the 19th century. As the prerequisites for Dative Substitution existed already in Old Norse-Icelandic, the question arises as to why this change did not take place earlier. I show in the present comparative study of Old Norse-Icelandic and Modern Icelandic texts that the semantic structure of the Dative Subject Construction has changed from denoting happenstance and experience-based events equally in Old Norse-Icelandic to a situation where experience-based events are in majority in Modern Icelandic. This change in language use entails that experience-based events are now in the spotlight of the Dative Subject Construction, which in turn makes the construction considerably more coherent semantically in Modern Icelandic, a known precondition for the productivity of argument structure constructions that are low in type frequency (cf. ). This change in the semantic structure of the Dative Subject Construction, i.e. this narrowing and focusing of its semantic scope, is the motivating factor behind the late onset of Dative Substitution in the history of Icelandic. More generally, this investigation illustrates how productivity may increase despite a reduction in the type frequency of a construction, contra claims in the literature that type frequency is the most important factor for productivity (). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper argues that wordhood in the polysynthetic Inuit language is predictable from syntactic structure and that words correspond to the domains of CP and DP. This entails that Inuit''s morphological component need not be any more complex than that of more isolating languages and that individual morphemes are not idiosyncratically specified as affixes. As evidence for our approach, we contrast a variety of free and bound elements, showing that in every case, subparts of words are smaller than CP/DP and full words correspond to CP/DP. We also discuss “stem” ellipsis, which we argue is further evidence that the elements which are usually bound in Inuit are not genuinely affixes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Relativized Minimality approach to A′-dependencies (Friedmann et al., 2009) predicts that headed object relative clauses (RCs) and which—questions are the most difficult, due to the presence of a lexical restriction on both the subject and the object DP which creates intervention. We investigated comprehension of center-embedded headed object RCs with Italian children, where Number and Gender feature values on subject and object DPs are manipulated. We found that, Number conditions are always more accurate than Gender ones, showing that intervention is sensitive to DP-internal structure. We propose a finer definition of the lexical restriction where external and syntactically active features (such as Number) reduce intervention whereas internal and (possibly) lexicalized features (such as Gender) do so to a lesser extent. Our results are also compatible with a memory interference approach in which the human parser is sensitive to highly specific properties of the linguistic input, such as the cue-based model (Van Dyke, 2007). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An expletive use of the third person pronoun ta in Mandarin Chinese poses a number of theoretical challenges which have not been met satisfactorily by existing analyses. In this paper we propose a unitary analysis of expletive and referential uses of the pronoun within the framework of Dynamic Syntax (). Since the distinction between the different uses of the same pronominal form is determined only by looking at the context that involves both local and external linguistic content, ta can be treated uniformly as a place-holder projecting an interim value which is contextually provided. While the referential pronoun takes its value from an antecedent, the expletive takes its value from a postverbal indefinite expression. Both processes are pragmatic in nature, in that the content of different types of pronouns, though underspecified by their form, is enriched from context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: presents 10 arguments against an analysis of sluicing that posits an elided cleft in the ellipsis site. This seems at odds with the growing body of literature that argues sluicing can resort to underlying clefts in order to circumvent otherwise illicit instances of preposition stranding. In this short paper I reexamine Merchant''s arguments and show (a) that some of them are orthogonal to the issue at hand, and (b) that the remaining ones are compatible with the Last Resort scenario adopted by the sluicing-as-cleft literature. As such, the discussion sheds new light on the precise form of the unpronounced syntactic structure found in sluicing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Chinese comparative correlative involves a quantificational tripartite structure. The mapping between its syntactic tree structure and the corresponding quantificational tripartite structure is subject to the Revised Extended Mapping Hypothesis. Semantically, the correlative degree adverb yue ‘more’ functions to regulate a relationship between a pair of degree/quantity variables and a comparison relation. The relationship between these two variables is subject to the condition: For every x1, there must exist an x2; the degree value of x2 on the scale denoted by the predicate modified by the adverb yue ‘more’ must be larger than that of x1 on the same scale, and vice versa. These two degree/quantity variables ‘directly’ compared with each other along the scale denoted by the predicate modified by the adverb yue ‘more’ must be associated with two ‘corresponding’ variables (syntactically or semantically) predicated by the same predicate, respectively. These two ‘corresponding’ variables are those that are ‘indirectly’ compared with each other along the scale denoted by the predicate modified by the adverb yue ‘more’. The type of predicate modified by the adverb yue ‘more’ provides further information to help identify the nature of the ‘indirect’ variables (i.e. individuals, times or worlds). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper we investigate the occurrence of Greek and Hebrew locative expressions in two syntactic frames: (i) direct complementation, and, (ii) complementation mediated by a ‘light’ P(reposition). The main claim is that these two frames correspond to two Case mechanisms: PF Case licensing in the domain of a prosodic word, and syntactic Case checking via a light P, respectively. We attribute the particular implementation of each frame to the different syntactic status of locatives in each language; Hebrew locatives are argued to be P heads, while their Greek counterparts are phrasal modifiers. Consequently, direct complementation resulting in PF Case licensing is widely attested in Hebrew, because most Hebrew locatives are construct heads, forming a Construct State, namely, a single prosodic word, with their complements. Direct complementation is limited to clitics in Greek, because only they can be part of the prosodic word of the locative. Syntactic Case checking via a light P is widespread in Greek because Greek locatives are phrasal, therefore, unable to check Case of their DP complements in syntax. The same mechanism is limited in Hebrew to a particular variety of locatives, which are argued to be free P heads, lacking a Case feature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In response to Panagiotidis' objections (Panagiotidis, 2005) to Barner and Bale (2002), we review the questions of overgeneration and predictability of meaning with regards to narrow syntactic explanations of noun-verb innovation (and specifically the case of non-lexicalist theories of grammar). Regarding overgeneration, it is argued that syntactic proposals, whether lexicalist or non-lexicalist, fail to generate ungrammatical strings of the type described by Panagiotidis, and that the productivity of innovation could not be explained by a rule that did. Also, it is argued that a metalinguistic theory of innovation could not likely improve on syntactic accounts. Regarding the systematicity of meaning, it is argued that while certain lexicalist theories may be committed to the systematicity of derived meanings, non-lexicalist theories like Distributed Morphology are not. We conclude that the systematic interpretation of purely syntactic features supports a narrow syntactic theory of noun-verb innovation, but that the residual idiosyncrasy argues for a non-lexicalist theory where syntactically generated forms need not have meanings that are completely predictable from those of their syntactic parts and internal structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report an investigation into the that-trace effect, a phenomenon which, in part because it is poorly understood, has played a significant role in syntactic theory building in the generative tradition. In spite of this, the effect is standardly thought to be absent from German. Using the methodology of magnitude estimation of well-formedness, which permits the elicitation of judgement data with increased definition, we tested the German equivalents to the English structures in which the that-trace effect is uncontroversially present (e.g. Cowart, 1997). The results showed the effect to be robustly active in the grammar of German too, independent of matrix verb. We further tested for the same effect in topicalization structures, with positive results. We argue that these outcomes provide support for a model of grammaticality incorporating gradience, in which constraint violations are survivable, since constraint application and output selection are separate functions of linguistic processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Direct comparison of naturalistic VYK and KM data reveals great overall similarity. • Differences in select morpho-syntactic features (e.g. subject honorification). • Shared Hamgyeong and Yukchin dialectological heritage reflected in VYK and KM. • Suggestive of Mufwene's 'founder effect' in transplanted, non-creole varieties. This paper identifies and examines numerous points of morpho-syntactic contrast in two transplanted varieties of Korean—Central Asian Koryo Mar (KM) and Chinese Vernacular Yanbian Korean (VYK). This allows us to evaluate implicit claims made about the synchronic forms of these dialects, for example those concerning their relationship to peninsula varieties of Korean, and also provides insights into the factors underlying the development of languages in transplanted contexts. The main findings of this paper confirm that KM and VYK's shared features, such as particle forms and verb endings, are strongly associated with the North Hamgyeong and Yukchin varieties of Korean and their common dialectological origins in the North East of the Korean peninsula. The longevity of these features suggests a 'founder effect' in the development of these transplanted varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]