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Current Issues in Comparative Grammar illustrates the diversity and productivity of research within the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar. In combination, the papers in this volume address a rich and varied set of issues in the study of comparative grammar, including the theories of binding, case and government, the parametric effects of inflection, the syntactic properties of infinitival constructions, the analysis of expletives and of clitics, and the interpretation of anaphoric properties at the level of Logical Form. The collection employs several different research strategies, ranging from a broad survey of related constructions in a wide range of languages to the close analysis of an unusual construction in a single language and its consequences for the theory of Universal Grammar. Some of the papers collected here are commentaries on others, or responses to commentaries.
This book provides a new analysis for the syntax of comparatives, focusing on various deletion phenomena affecting the subclause. In particular, the proposed account shows that Comparative Deletion is merely a surface phenomenon that can be drawn back to the overtness of the comparative operator and the availability of lower copies of a movement chain, and it is thus subject to both language-internal and cross-linguistic variation. The main focus of the book is on English, yet other languages are also discussed for comparative purposes, with the aim of showing what the idiosyncratic properties of English comparatives are.
The study of comparative grammar has been a concern of linguistic theory. Our notion of how grammatical systems vary and our ability to provide sophisticated analyses of this variation is greater than it has been at any time in the past. Concentrating on principles-and-parameters theory, this work presents an overview of what has been achieved.
These essays by an outstanding group of linguists present case studies in contemporary comparative grammar, illustrating the rich and varied ways in which the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar can provide explanations for both the underlying universal properties of the world's languages and the ways in which they differ. The final essay by Noam Chomsky offers a new perspective on the principles and parameters approach to comparative grammar. In his introduction, Freidin describes the historical background of current work in comparative grammar and compares this work to the comparative studies of the nineteenth century. He notes how the current approach traces the fundamental unity of all languages to the language faculty, in contrast to that of the nineteenth century which was primarily concerned with the ancestral relations among languages. The essays that follow convey the wide scope of the interaction between current theory and crosslinguistic studies. Topics include the relevance of binding theory for crosslinguistic studies; the interaction between the syntax/lexical semantics interface and the theory of UG; the role of phrase structure and levels of representation in accounting or syntactic variation; crosslinguistic variation in word order phenomena; and the ways in which the study of comparative grammar can itself contribute to the understanding of UG. Contributors Joseph Aoun. Adriana Belletti. Noam Chomsky. Robert Freidin. Wayne Harbert. Norbert Hornstein. C.-T. James Huang. Anthony S. Kroch. Howard Lasnik. Yen-hui Audrey Li. David Lightfoot. Luigi Rizzi. Ken Safir. Beatrice Santorini. Rex A. Sprouse. Timothy Stowell. Tarald Taraldsen. Lisa deMena Travis. Edwin Williams
This book provides a comprehensive typological account of voice syncretism, focusing on resemblance in formal verbal marking between two or more of the following seven voices: passives, antipassives, reflexives, reciprocals, anticausatives, causatives, and applicatives. It covers voice syncretism from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, and has been structured in a manner that facilitates convenient access to information about specific patterns of voice syncretism, their distribution and development. The book is based on a survey of voice syncretism in 222 geographically and genealogically diverse languages, but also thoroughly revisits previous research on the phenomenon. Voice syncretism is approached systematically by establishing and exploring patterns of voice syncretism that can logically be posited for the seven voices of focus in the book: 21 simplex patterns when one considers two of the seven voices sharing the same marking (e.g. reflexive-reciprocal syncretism), and 99 complex patterns when one considers more than two of the voices sharing the same marking (e.g. reflexive-reciprocal-anticausative syncretism). In a similar vein, 42 paths of development can logically be posited if it is assumed that voice marking in each of the seven voices can potentially develop one of the other six voice functions (e.g. reflexive voice marking developing a reciprocal function). This approach enables the discussion of both voice syncretism that has received considerable attention in the literature (notably middle syncretism involving the reflexive, reciprocal, anticausative and/or passive voices) and voice syncretism that has received little or not treatment in the past (including seemingly contradictory patterns such as causative-anticausative and passive-antipassive syncretism). In the survey almost all simplex patterns are attested in addition to seventeen complex patterns. In terms of diachrony, evidence is presented and discussed for twenty paths of development. The book strives to highlight the variation found in voice syncretism across the world’s languages and encourage further research into the phenomenon.
As populations become more mobile, so interest grows in bi- and multilingualism, particularly in the context of education. This volume focuses on the singular situation in Israel, whose complex multiculturalism has Hebrew and Arabic as official languages, English as an academic and political language, and tongues such as Russian and Amharic spoken by immigrants. Presenting research on bi- and trilingualism in Israel from a multitude of perspectives, the book focuses on four aspects of multilingualism and literacy in Israel: Arabic-Hebrew bilingual education and Arabic literacy development; second-language Hebrew literacy among immigrant children; literacy in English as a second/third language; and adult bilingualism. Chapters dissect findings on immigrant youth education, language impairment in bilinguals, and neurocognitive features of bilingual language processing. Reflecting current trends, this volume integrates linguistics, sociology, education, cognitive science, and neuroscience.
The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.