Pub Date : 2020-12-15DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0002
R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam
This chapter provides a descriptive introduction to unbounded dependency constructions, and to the range of filler-gap dependency patterns they allow. These are two very different topics. The former concerns the repertoire of syntactic constructions in which extraction takes place, and their grammatical idiosyncrasies, whereas the latter concerns the types of interaction between fillers and gaps. We survey of the various kinds of interrogative, declarative, and subordinate UDCs that exist in English. The resulting picture is one of astonishing richness and complexity. There are three major families of UDCs which sub-divide into smaller families, each with their peculiar syntactic, pragmatic and phonological similarities, as well as their idiosyncrasies. Such idiosyncratic meaning and structure must be stipulated somewhere in the grammar, regardless of which theory one adopts. The chapter next focuses on the nature of the linkage between fillers and gaps, and shows that these can interweave and create complex dependencies, beyond what is recognized in the literature.
{"title":"Extraction types","authors":"R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter provides a descriptive introduction to unbounded dependency constructions, and to the range of filler-gap dependency patterns they allow. These are two very different topics. The former concerns the repertoire of syntactic constructions in which extraction takes place, and their grammatical idiosyncrasies, whereas the latter concerns the types of interaction between fillers and gaps. We survey of the various kinds of interrogative, declarative, and subordinate UDCs that exist in English. The resulting picture is one of astonishing richness and complexity. There are three major families of UDCs which sub-divide into smaller families, each with their peculiar syntactic, pragmatic and phonological similarities, as well as their idiosyncrasies. Such idiosyncratic meaning and structure must be stipulated somewhere in the grammar, regardless of which theory one adopts. The chapter next focuses on the nature of the linkage between fillers and gaps, and shows that these can interweave and create complex dependencies, beyond what is recognized in the literature.","PeriodicalId":267575,"journal":{"name":"Unbounded Dependency Constructions","volume":"330 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115875637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-15DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0004
R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam
This chapter discusses how the Minimalist Program (MP) strives to model unbounded dependency constructions and island constraints, and discusses the empirical, theoretical and cognitive status of syntactic displacement (movement), as formalized in terms of Internal Merge. At the present time, modelling filler-gap dependencies via movement faces significant theoretical and empirical issues. There is no parsimonious account of successive cyclic movement in the MP because of the Triggering Problem, nor of convergent and cumulative filler-gap dependencies. Other problems concern island phenomena, which have been argued to follow from core architectural economy constraints, but which make incorrect predictions not only about islands, but also about unbounded dependency constructions more generally. Finally, the MP has also been difficult to reconcile with extant psycholinguistic evidence about language processing. All recent attempts to make the MP consistent with incremental sentence processing adopt phrase-structural information, and abandon movement altogether.
{"title":"Movement-based approaches","authors":"R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses how the Minimalist Program (MP) strives to model unbounded dependency constructions and island constraints, and discusses the empirical, theoretical and cognitive status of syntactic displacement (movement), as formalized in terms of Internal Merge. At the present time, modelling filler-gap dependencies via movement faces significant theoretical and empirical issues. There is no parsimonious account of successive cyclic movement in the MP because of the Triggering Problem, nor of convergent and cumulative filler-gap dependencies. Other problems concern island phenomena, which have been argued to follow from core architectural economy constraints, but which make incorrect predictions not only about islands, but also about unbounded dependency constructions more generally. Finally, the MP has also been difficult to reconcile with extant psycholinguistic evidence about language processing. All recent attempts to make the MP consistent with incremental sentence processing adopt phrase-structural information, and abandon movement altogether.","PeriodicalId":267575,"journal":{"name":"Unbounded Dependency Constructions","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133008538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-15DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0003
R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam
This chapter offers a detailed survey of the constraints that restrict filler-gap dependencies (island constraints), and argues that there are several different kinds of island constraints, due to different combinations of independently motivated factors. Most importantly, it argues that most islands are not cross-constructionally active. That is, most island phenomena are restricted to certain kinds of unbounded dependency constructions (e.g. interrogatives, or relative clauses). In particular, several island types are primarily caused by drawing the hearer’s attention to a fronted referent that is not at-issue, and is of little consequence to what the utterance convey. Such an account emerges naturally from the observation that not all propositions express equally likely states of affairs and that different constructions come with different biases with respect to how information structure is packaged, and consequently, to which referents it is pragmatically licit to single out. The chapter concludes with a discussion of resumption and supposed island effects in other types of construction.
{"title":"Extraction constraints","authors":"R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter offers a detailed survey of the constraints that restrict filler-gap dependencies (island constraints), and argues that there are several different kinds of island constraints, due to different combinations of independently motivated factors. Most importantly, it argues that most islands are not cross-constructionally active. That is, most island phenomena are restricted to certain kinds of unbounded dependency constructions (e.g. interrogatives, or relative clauses). In particular, several island types are primarily caused by drawing the hearer’s attention to a fronted referent that is not at-issue, and is of little consequence to what the utterance convey. Such an account emerges naturally from the observation that not all propositions express equally likely states of affairs and that different constructions come with different biases with respect to how information structure is packaged, and consequently, to which referents it is pragmatically licit to single out. The chapter concludes with a discussion of resumption and supposed island effects in other types of construction.","PeriodicalId":267575,"journal":{"name":"Unbounded Dependency Constructions","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127731919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-15DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0006
R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam
This chapter presents experimental evidence suggesting that the acceptability of certain island violations is contingent on the prior experience that speakers have with both main situation type described by the proposition itself, and the particular syntactic construction in which it is conveyed. Highly coherent and prototypical complex structures more easily lend themselves to licensing extraction from otherwise deeply embedded positions, and comprehenders can adapt to the frequency of the input in order to overcome the processing difficulty caused when the input is unusual and inconsistent with their prior experience. Acceptability ratings thus range from highly acceptable to unacceptable, suggesting that the plausibility of the proposition itself, the degree to which the extracted phrase plays a role in the main action, and the frequency of such dependencies create a malleable acceptability cline. Acceptability differences likely stem from the proposition itself, the world knowledge it evokes, and the degree to which the extracted relevant matters for the main state-of-affairs that the utterance conveys.
{"title":"Experience-based effects","authors":"R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents experimental evidence suggesting that the acceptability of certain island violations is contingent on the prior experience that speakers have with both main situation type described by the proposition itself, and the particular syntactic construction in which it is conveyed. Highly coherent and prototypical complex structures more easily lend themselves to licensing extraction from otherwise deeply embedded positions, and comprehenders can adapt to the frequency of the input in order to overcome the processing difficulty caused when the input is unusual and inconsistent with their prior experience. Acceptability ratings thus range from highly acceptable to unacceptable, suggesting that the plausibility of the proposition itself, the degree to which the extracted phrase plays a role in the main action, and the frequency of such dependencies create a malleable acceptability cline. Acceptability differences likely stem from the proposition itself, the world knowledge it evokes, and the degree to which the extracted relevant matters for the main state-of-affairs that the utterance conveys.","PeriodicalId":267575,"journal":{"name":"Unbounded Dependency Constructions","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123859240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-15DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0007
R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam
This chapter focuses on behavioral evidence concerning acquisition of unbounded dependency constructions and island phenomena. It provides a general overview of their acquisitional trajectory in normal developing L1, focusing on the emergence of filler-gap dependencies from one-word constructions to multi-clausal constructions, as well as island effects. The chapter argues that the gradual and frequency-based developmental evidence is consistent with an exemplar-based approach that contains rich morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic information along the lines of the empiricist perspective. In particular, the extant evidence supports a usage-based view in which the growth of a grammar proceeds from simple units to more complex ones, exploiting the frequency of simple as well as complex exemplars. The chapter concludes by describing a exemplar- and chunk-based account of grammar development, composed of rich information that is probabilistic in nature, and shaped by experience.
{"title":"The acquisition of UDCs","authors":"R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780198784999.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on behavioral evidence concerning acquisition of unbounded dependency constructions and island phenomena. It provides a general overview of their acquisitional trajectory in normal developing L1, focusing on the emergence of filler-gap dependencies from one-word constructions to multi-clausal constructions, as well as island effects. The chapter argues that the gradual and frequency-based developmental evidence is consistent with an exemplar-based approach that contains rich morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic information along the lines of the empiricist perspective. In particular, the extant evidence supports a usage-based view in which the growth of a grammar proceeds from simple units to more complex ones, exploiting the frequency of simple as well as complex exemplars. The chapter concludes by describing a exemplar- and chunk-based account of grammar development, composed of rich information that is probabilistic in nature, and shaped by experience.","PeriodicalId":267575,"journal":{"name":"Unbounded Dependency Constructions","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126656809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-15DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0008
R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam
This chapter summarizes the main empirical, theoretical, and experimental contributions of the book and argues that both experimental and linguistic research must continue to shape and change our understanding of linguistic phenomena and the relationship between grammar and the mind.
{"title":"Conclusion","authors":"R. Chaves, Michael T. Putnam","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198784999.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter summarizes the main empirical, theoretical, and experimental contributions of the book and argues that both experimental and linguistic research must continue to shape and change our understanding of linguistic phenomena and the relationship between grammar and the mind.","PeriodicalId":267575,"journal":{"name":"Unbounded Dependency Constructions","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130833635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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