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Theta Theory explores the lexicon as an interface in the strict sense, as facilitating the flow of information between cognition and the computational system of language. It argues for the traditional concept of a listed lexicon, where semantic roles are encoded as features of verbs, and against event decomposition. Part one of the book discusses the link between cognition and the lexicon. Mainstream theories of lexical semantics are critically reviewed. Furthermore, this part provides an extensive description of the relevant data in German, including agentivity, causation, psychological predicates, and different types of diathesis alternations. Part two is devoted to the link between the lexicon and syntax. It develops a parallel model of grammatical derivation, which allows the formulation of robust generalizations over thematic role assignment, but at the same time acknowledges the relevance of other components, in particular morpho-phonology and narrow syntax. The theory is applied to a wide range of German constructions including modal infinitives, the present and gerundive participle, the past/passive/adjectival participle, verbal particles, auxiliary selection, and unaccusatives/reflexives. The book is of interest for students and scholars of lexical semantics, for descriptive German linguistics, and for linguists concerned with the development of the Minimalist Program.
This book considers the recent results and evaluations of the Theta System in both theoretical and experimental domains. Distinguished linguists from all over the world examine the theory in the context of an impressive array of new empirical data ranging from Germanic, Romance, and Slavic to Ugro-Finnish, and Semitic languages.
This book, by one of Spain's most eminent philosophers, provides a lively and very accessible introduction to philosophy. Written for those who have no prior knowledge of the field, it reveals how the central problems of philosophy remain high"
Originally published: New York: Rinehart and Winston, 1961.
This important monograph summarizes, rethinks, and extends a decade of the author's work on therole assignments - the ways in which the roles implied by verbs of a given type play out in terms of position and other syntactic functions. The study of theta roles and the locality of theta-role assignment leads into many interesting areas of linguistic theory, such as scope, the ECP, X-bar theory, binding theory, and the weak crossover condition; Williams's reconstruction thus offers a systematic integration of a remarkably wide range of syntactic phenomena.Williams starts by outlining a theory of the clause,specifically, of the distribution of Nominative Case and Tense. He then develops a formalism for the notion of"external argument" that is used throughout the rest of the book. Subsequent chapters review the issues surrounding the syntactic expression of the subject-predicate relationship, extend the notion of external argument to include NP movement, and reanalyze the verb movement constructions as deriving from the calculus of theta roles rather than movement.The last chapter distinguishes referential dependence and coreference, showing that a general Leftness condition governs the former, while the binding theory restated in terms of theta relations governs the latter.Edwin Williams is Professor of Linguistics at Princeton University.
The second edition of The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory presents a comprehensive introduction to cutting-edge research in contemporary theoretical and computational semantics. Features completely new content from the first edition of The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory Features contributions by leading semanticists, who introduce core areas of contemporary semantic research, while discussing current research Suitable for graduate students for courses in semantic theory and for advanced researchers as an introduction to current theoretical work
In recent linguistic theory, there has been an explosion of detailed studies of language variation. This volume applies such recent analyses to the study of child language, developing new approaches to change and variation in child grammars and revealing both early knowledge in several areas of grammar and a period of extended development in others. Topics dealt with include question formation, "subjectless" sentences, object gaps, rules for missing subject interpretation, passive sentences, rules for pronoun interpretation and argument structure. Leading developmental linguists and psycholinguists show how linguistic theory can help define and inform a theory of the dynamics of language development and its biological basis, meeting the growing need for such studies in programs in linguistics, psychology, and cognitive science.
3. 1 Kashmiri is not "non-Configurational" 45 3. 1 . 1 Agreement 51 3 . 1. 2 Binding Theory 52 3. 1. 3 Distribution of PRO 56 3 . 1. 4 Additional Evidence 57 3. 1. 4. 1 Weak Crossover (WCO) 57 3. 1. 4. 2 Constituent Fronting 60 3. 1. 4. 3 Superiority-Like Effects 62 3. 2 Word Order Constraints: Kashmiri Phrase Structure 64 3. 2. 1 N-complements 65 3. 2. 2 Postpositions 67 3. 2. 3 Adjectives 67 3. 2. 4 The Structure ofVP 68 3. 3. The Functional Projections 71 3. 4 Complement ki clauses 74 3. 5 Summary 79 4 Verb-Second (V2) Phenomena 80 4. 0 Introduction 80 4. 1 Kashmiri Vo rfe ld 84 4. 1. 1 V2 Clauses 85 4. 1. 1. 1 Main Clauses 85 4. 1. 1. 2 ki-Clauses 98 4. 1. 2 V3 Clauses 102 4. 1. 2. 1 Declarative Clauses 102 4. 1. 2. 2 Interrogative Clauses 107 4. 2 Some Exceptional Orders 116 vm 4. 2. 1 VI Order 116 4. 2. 1. 1 Declaratives 116 4. 2. 1. 2 Yes/No Questions 120 V-Final Order 4. 2. 2 121 4. 2. 2. 1 Relative Clauses and Adverbial Clauses 121 4. 2. 2. 2 Nonfinite Clauses 126 4. 3 Summary 129 5 Motivating Verb Movement 131 5. 0 Introduction 131 5. 1 The "Standard" Account 131 5. 2 Yiddish and Icelandic 136 5. 2. 1 Diesing (1990) 138 5. 2. 2 Weerman (1989) 141 5. 2. 3 Vikner (1991) 146 5.
This book contains lectures on theta functions written by experts well known for excellence in exposition. The lectures represent the content of four courses given at the Centre de Recherches Mathematiques in Montreal during the academic year 1991-1992, which was devoted to the study of automorphic forms. Aimed at graduate students, the book synthesizes the classical and modern points of view in theta functions, concentrating on connections to number theory and representation theory. An excellent introduction to this important subject of current research, this book is suitable as a text in advanced graduate courses.
Point Counterpoint offers a series of papers and replies originally presented at a special session of the Second Language Research Forum, UCLA, March 1989. The focus of the papers is primarily the role of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition, though the agenda also includes discussion of other fundamental questions, viz., the explanatory potential of linguistic theory in native-language development. It may come as no surprise that the contributors and their respondents often present very different perspectives on the issues, for most of the authors were known in advance to hold contrasting points of view. Contributors (c) and Respondents (r) are: Wolfgang Klein (c)/Nina Hyams (r); Sascha Felix (c)/Jacquelyn Schachter (r); Suzanne Flynn & Sharon Manuel (c)/David Birdsong (r); Lydia White (c)/Robert Bley-Vroman (r); Peter Jordens (c)/Lynn Eubank (r); Jurgen Meisel (c)/Bonnie Schwartz (r); Sharon Hilles (c)/William O'Grady (r); Daniel Finer (c)/Margaret Thomas (r); Usha Lakshmanan (c)/Nina Hymans & Ken Safir (r).