Back to Search Start Over

Argument or no argument?

Authors :
Pullum, Geoffrey
Rawlins, Kyle
Source :
Linguistics & Philosophy; Apr2007, Vol. 30 Issue 2, p277-287, 11p
Publication Year :
2007

Abstract

We examine an argument for the non-context-freeness of English that has received virtually no discussion in the literature. It is based on adjuncts of the form ‘X or no X’, where X is a nominal. The construction has been held to exemplify unbounded syntactic reduplication. We argue that although the argument can be made in a mathematically valid form, its empirical basis is not claimed unbounded syntactic identity between nominals does not always hold in attested cases, and second, an understanding of the semantics of the construction removes the necessity of making reference to any syntactic reduplication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
01650157
Volume :
30
Issue :
2
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Linguistics & Philosophy
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
26210752
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-007-9013-y