This paper investigates prominence scale interactions in verbal agreement in Hayu (Kiranti). The agreement system is very complex in several ways. First, the person and the number scale interact in interesting ways, i.e. they need to be ranked in order to produce the correct output in cases of conflicting preferences; second, the general ranking seems to be reversed in one particular context. This pattern poses a challenge to existing analysis of scale-driven agreement. I propose a Harmonic Grammar-based analysis where an argument’s prominence is quantified. In this way, all interactions are correctly derived. The apparent exceptions fall out automatically as cumulative effects.
{"title":"On prominence scale interactions in Hayu: a Harmonic Grammar account","authors":"Doreen Georgi","doi":"10.7557/12.4206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/12.4206","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates prominence scale interactions in verbal agreement in Hayu (Kiranti). The agreement system is very complex in several ways. First, the person and the number scale interact in interesting ways, i.e. they need to be ranked in order to produce the correct output in cases of conflicting preferences; second, the general ranking seems to be reversed in one particular context. This pattern poses a challenge to existing analysis of scale-driven agreement. I propose a Harmonic Grammar-based analysis where an argument’s prominence is quantified. In this way, all interactions are correctly derived. The apparent exceptions fall out automatically as cumulative effects.","PeriodicalId":29976,"journal":{"name":"Nordlyd Tromso University Working Papers on Language Linguistics","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74946181","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}
It has long been known that children learning English optionally omit finite forms of the verb be (both copula and auxiliary). What makes be omissions possible? A classic answer is that be is semantically empty, hence a good choice to omit under performance-related pressures. What would this hypothesis lead us to expect about the infinitive form of be? In terms of semantic vacuity, nonfinite be is an even better choice for omission than finite be , since it does not carry tense or agreement information—most such deletions would be completely recoverable. Thus, the semantic vacuity hypothesis would lead us to expect omission of nonfinite be to be at least as frequent as omission of finite be . This is contrasted with the suggestion that be omission be incorporated into the Root/Optional Infinitive phenomenon. The latter finiteness hypothesis makes different predictions from the semantic vacuity hypothesis with respect to the relative rate of nonfinite be omission. The finding is that, in each relevant transcript, omission of finite be is attested, use of nonfinite be is attested, but there are no instances of omission of nonfinite be , contra the prediction of the semantic vacuity hypothesis. I develop an analysis within the Agreement/Tense Omission Model of the underspecification of Infl (cf. Schütze 1997). I claim that finite forms of be in (adult and child) English are fused V+I heads, in the sense of Halle & Marantz’s (1993) Distributed Morphology. Their locus for vocabulary insertion has values for person/number, tense, and lexical category. The fused vocabulary items cannot be inserted in a syntactic structure in which INFL features have been underspecified. Overt be arises only when both AgrS and Tense are fully specified. Null be , i.e. Ø, the default member of the paradigm, arises from underspecification of Tense and/or underspecification of AgrS.
{"title":"The Non-omission of Nonfinite Be","authors":"Carson T. Schütze","doi":"10.7557/12.46","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7557/12.46","url":null,"abstract":"It has long been known that children learning English optionally omit finite forms of the verb be (both copula and auxiliary). What makes be omissions possible? A classic answer is that be is semantically empty, hence a good choice to omit under performance-related pressures. What would this hypothesis lead us to expect about the infinitive form of be? In terms of semantic vacuity, nonfinite be is an even better choice for omission than finite be , since it does not carry tense or agreement information—most such deletions would be completely recoverable. Thus, the semantic vacuity hypothesis would lead us to expect omission of nonfinite be to be at least as frequent as omission of finite be . This is contrasted with the suggestion that be omission be incorporated into the Root/Optional Infinitive phenomenon. The latter finiteness hypothesis makes different predictions from the semantic vacuity hypothesis with respect to the relative rate of nonfinite be omission. The finding is that, in each relevant transcript, omission of finite be is attested, use of nonfinite be is attested, but there are no instances of omission of nonfinite be , contra the prediction of the semantic vacuity hypothesis. I develop an analysis within the Agreement/Tense Omission Model of the underspecification of Infl (cf. Schütze 1997). I claim that finite forms of be in (adult and child) English are fused V+I heads, in the sense of Halle & Marantz’s (1993) Distributed Morphology. Their locus for vocabulary insertion has values for person/number, tense, and lexical category. The fused vocabulary items cannot be inserted in a syntactic structure in which INFL features have been underspecified. Overt be arises only when both AgrS and Tense are fully specified. Null be , i.e. Ø, the default member of the paradigm, arises from underspecification of Tense and/or underspecification of AgrS.","PeriodicalId":29976,"journal":{"name":"Nordlyd Tromso University Working Papers on Language Linguistics","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88620360","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}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：