The Syntax And Semantics Of Middle Constructions

Author : Sarah M. B. Fagan
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 1992-05-21
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0521410606

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The Syntax and Semantics of Middle Constructions by Sarah M. B. Fagan Pdf

This study provides a comprehensive description and analysis of the syntax and semantics of middle constructions in German, including those formed by using the auxiliary lassen 'let'. English and French middles are also treated in depth for comparative purposes. Sarah Fagan argues that middle constructions are not to be accounted for in the syntax, but rather in a bipartite lexicon consisting of Static and Dynamic components. This division of the lexicon helps to clarify the analysis in a number of ways. The author also considers middles in the context of recent work on generics, and examines Vendler's typology of aspectual verb classes in the light of middle formation in German and English. The study addresses a number of issues in the syntax of modern German relevant to our understanding of universal grammar: 1. the appearance of ergative predicates in German: 2. the implications of impersonal clauses in German: and 3. the use of reflexives in argument positions. The value of this study is greatly enhanced by the wealth of language data and descriptive detail given.

Author : Christiane Fellbaum,Anne Zribi-Hertz
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 56 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : English language
ISBN : UCSC:32106010329453

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The Middle Construction in French and English by Christiane Fellbaum,Anne Zribi-Hertz Pdf

Author : Markus Steinbach
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2002-06-27
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027297556

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Middle Voice by Markus Steinbach Pdf

This book offers a completely new analysis of the syntax and semantics of transitive reflexive sentences in German, which is embedded in the major phenomenon of the middle voice in Indo-European languages. It integrates the interpretation of non-argument reflexives into a modified version of recent theories of binding. The ambiguity of the reflexive pronoun is derived at the interface between syntax and semantics and does not rely on additional lexical or syntactic rules of argument suppression and argument promotion. This shift towards the semantic interpretation of syntactic arguments enables the author to offer a unified analysis of the middle, the anticausative and the reflexive interpretations. Furthermore, the crucial distinction between structural and oblique case forms is discussed and it is illustrated how specific properties of middle constructions such as adverbial modification or subject responsibility can be related to the generic interpretation of middle constructions.

Author : A. Butler,E. Mathieu
Publisher : Springer
Page : 223 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2004-04-07
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780230501607

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The Syntax and Semantics of Split Constructions by A. Butler,E. Mathieu Pdf

Split constructions are very widespread in natural languages. The separation of the semantic restriction of a quantifier from that quantifier is a typical example of such a construction. This study addresses the problem that such discontinuous strings exhibit a number of locality constraints, including intervention effects. These are shown to follow from the interaction of a minimalist syntax with a semantics that directly assigns a model-theoretic interpretation to syntactic logical forms. The approach is shown to have wide empirical coverage and a conceptual simplicity. The book will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of syntax and semantics.

Author : Jiajuan Xiong
Publisher : Springer
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2017-11-14
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789811061875

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Chinese Middle Constructions by Jiajuan Xiong Pdf

This book defines Chinese middle constructions as generic constructions, with their highest syntactically saturated argument always understood as an arbitrary one. This working definition sets “middle construction” apart from “middle voice” in that it can be instantiated by various constructions in Chinese. By scrutinizing these constructions in the framework of Generative Syntax, the book concludes that their formation takes place at the lexical level, without resorting to any syntactic mechanisms and thus that Chinese falls into the category of “lexical middle languages”, which are in contrast to “syntactic middle languages”.

Author : Denis Bouchard
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1995-12
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0226067335

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The Semantics of Syntax by Denis Bouchard Pdf

During the last thirty years, most linguists and philosophers have assumed that meaning can be represented symbolically and that the mental processing of language involves the manipulation of symbols. Scholars have assembled strong evidence that there must be linguistic representations at several abstract levels—phonological, syntactic, and semantic—and that those representations are related by a describable system of rules. Because meaning is so complex, linguists often posit an equally complex relationship between semantic and other levels of grammar. The Semantics of Syntax is an elegant and powerful analysis of the relationship between syntax and semantics. Noting that meaning is underdetermined by form even in simple cases, Denis Bouchard argues that it is impossible to build knowledge of the world into grammar and still have a describable grammar. He thus proposes simple semantic representations and simple rules to relate linguistic levels. Focusing on a class of French verbs, Bouchard shows how multiple senses can be accounted for by the assumption of a single abstract core meaning along with background information about how objects behave in the world. He demonstrates that this move simplifies the syntax at no cost to the descriptive power of the semantics. In two important final chapters, he examines the consequences of his approach for standard syntactic theories.

Author : Paul Hirschbuhler
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2016-11-10
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781315513515

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The Syntax and Semantics of Wh-Constructions by Paul Hirschbuhler Pdf

This title, first published in 1985, provides a detailed analysis of aspects of the semantics and the syntax of some wh-constructions. The first part of the book deals with the semantics of questions, whilst the other part discusses the syntax of que and quoi (what) in questions in French and the syntax of free relatives in French and other languages. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.

Author : Xiaoling He
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2019-06-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027262349

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Patient-Subject Constructions in Mandarin Chinese by Xiaoling He Pdf

As a distinctive syntactic structure in Mandarin Chinese, the Patient-Subject Construction (PSC) is one of the most interesting but least well-understood structures in the language. This book offers a comprehensive account of the history, structure, meaning and use of the PSC. Unlike previous descriptions which were framed in terms of pre-existing grammatical notions such as ‘topicalization’, ‘passivization’ and ‘ergativization’, this book offers a fresh look at the PSC, in which its syntactic and semantic as well as its discourse functions are examined within the system of major construction-types of the language as a whole. The PSC, being low in transitivity, serves primarily the function of backgrounding in discourse. Typologically, the PSC bears a resemblance to middle constructions in Indo-European and other languages, raising interesting questions about ways to understand congruent and divergent syntactic structures across the world’s languages. This book will be of interest to students of Chinese Linguistics as well as Language Typology.

Author : Markus Steinbach
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2002-01-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9027227713

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Middle Voice by Markus Steinbach Pdf

This book offers a completely new analysis of the syntax and semantics of transitive reflexive sentences in German, which is embedded in the major phenomenon of the middle voice in Indo-European languages. It integrates the interpretation of non-argument reflexives into a modified version of recent theories of binding. The ambiguity of the reflexive pronoun is derived at the interface between syntax and semantics and does not rely on additional lexical or syntactic rules of argument suppression and argument promotion. This shift towards the semantic interpretation of syntactic arguments enables the author to offer a unified analysis of the middle, the anticausative and the reflexive interpretations. Furthermore, the crucial distinction between structural and oblique case forms is discussed and it is illustrated how specific properties of middle constructions such as adverbial modification or subject responsibility can be related to the generic interpretation of middle constructions.

Author : Benjamin Lyngfelt,Torgrim Solstad
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2006-12-06
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027293077

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Demoting the Agent by Benjamin Lyngfelt,Torgrim Solstad Pdf

Passives, middles, and other voice phenomena are issues at the core of modern linguistic research. This volume brings together different perspectives on voice different theoretical viewpoints, different languages, and different kinds of voice phenomena. The eleven articles each make a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion, offering new data, new analyses, and bringing new light to long-standing issues. In combination, they present a multi-faceted and yet coherent picture of the topics at hand.

Author : William Croft
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0198299540

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Radical Construction Grammar by William Croft Pdf

This book is based on the results of research in language typology, and motivated by the need for a theory to explain them. Croft proposes intimate links between syntactic and semantic structures, and argues that the basic elements of any language are not syntactic but rather syntactic-semantic "Gestalts." He puts forward a new approach to syntactic representation and a new model of how language and languages work.

Author : Adele E. Goldberg
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1995-03-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780226300863

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Constructions by Adele E. Goldberg Pdf

Drawing on work in linguistics, language acquisition, and computer science, Adele E. Goldberg proposes that grammatical constructions play a central role in the relation between the form and meaning of simple sentences. She demonstrates that the syntactic patterns associated with simple sentences are imbued with meaning—that the constructions themselves carry meaning independently of the words in a sentence. Goldberg provides a comprehensive account of the relation between verbs and constructions, offering ways to relate verb and constructional meaning, and to capture relations among constructions and generalizations over constructions. Prototypes, frame semantics, and metaphor are shown to play crucial roles. In addition, Goldberg presents specific analyses of several constructions, including the ditransitive and the resultative constructions, revealing systematic semantic generalizations. Through a comparison with other current approaches to argument structure phenomena, this book narrows the gap between generative and cognitive theories of language.

Author : Chiara Gianollo,Agnes Jäger,Doris Penka
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 366 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2014-12-12
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783110352306

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Language Change at the Syntax-Semantics Interface by Chiara Gianollo,Agnes Jäger,Doris Penka Pdf

Bringing together diachronic research from a variety of perspectives, notably typology, formal syntax and semantics, this volume focuses on the interplay of syntactic and semantic factors in language change - an issue so far largely neglected both in (mostly lexical) historical semantics as well as historical syntax, but recently brought into focus by grammaticalization theory as well as Minimalist diachronic syntax. The contributions draw on data from numerous Indo-European languages including Vedic Sanskrit, Middle Indic, Greek as well as English and German, and discuss a range of phenomena such as change in negation markers, indefinite articles, quantifiers, modal verbs, argument structure among others. The papers analyze diachronic evidence in the light of contemporary syntactic and semantic theory, addressing the crucial question of how syntactic and semantic change are linked, and whether both are governed by similar constraints, principles and systematic mechanisms. The volume will appeal to scholars in historical linguistics and formal theories of syntax and semantics.

Author : Jia-Fei Hong,Qi Su,Jiun-Shiung Wu
Publisher : Springer
Page : 820 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2018-11-25
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9783030040154

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Chinese Lexical Semantics by Jia-Fei Hong,Qi Su,Jiun-Shiung Wu Pdf

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the 19th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop, CLSW 2018, held in Chiayi, Taiwan, in May 2018. The 50 full papers and 19 short papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 150 submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: Lexical Semantics; Applications of Natural Language Processing; Lexical Resources; Corpus Linguistics.

Author : Mirjam Fried,Jan-Ola Östman
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2004-12-23
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027294968

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Construction Grammar in a Cross-Language Perspective by Mirjam Fried,Jan-Ola Östman Pdf

This volume gives an easily accessible, yet comprehensive, sophisticated, and example-rich introduction to Construction Grammar as it has been developed from the early 1980’s by Charles J. Fillmore and his associates. It also provides a succinct account of the historical and intellectual background of the model and shows how Construction Grammar can easily be applied to typologically very different languages and to a variety of language-specific phenomena. All of the contributors to the volume came out of the Fillmorean school at UC-Berkeley and have worked consistently on applying and further developing the model in various domains of linguistic analysis.The 'Thumbnail sketch' by Fried & Östman is the only extensive introduction published so far to Fillmorean Construction Grammar.