Pub Date : 2023-04-20DOI: 10.1515/probus-2022-0016
Adam Ledgeway, Norma Schifano
Abstract In this article we bring to light one additional factor underlying so-called Jespersen’s Cycle (JC) in Romance which has to date gone unnoticed, namely the varying position of the finite verb within the IP. More specifically, we show that there exists an empirical correlation between the availability of clause-medial/high verb-movement and Stages II–III of JC in which a postverbal negator is licensed. Drawing on novel data, we demonstrate that this correlation holds not only across modern Romance varieties, but also across early varieties. Formally, we explain this link between negation and verb-movement from the (in)active status of the T-domain and the consequent (im)possibility of donating a [Neg] feature to the lower v-VP domain. Although verb-movement in itself is not a sufficient condition to trigger a shift towards Stages II–III negation, we argue that it is a necessary one, a fact which explains the peculiar distribution of negation strategies across the Romània.
{"title":"Negation and Verb-Movement in Romance: New Perspectives on Jespersen’s Cycle","authors":"Adam Ledgeway, Norma Schifano","doi":"10.1515/probus-2022-0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2022-0016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article we bring to light one additional factor underlying so-called Jespersen’s Cycle (JC) in Romance which has to date gone unnoticed, namely the varying position of the finite verb within the IP. More specifically, we show that there exists an empirical correlation between the availability of clause-medial/high verb-movement and Stages II–III of JC in which a postverbal negator is licensed. Drawing on novel data, we demonstrate that this correlation holds not only across modern Romance varieties, but also across early varieties. Formally, we explain this link between negation and verb-movement from the (in)active status of the T-domain and the consequent (im)possibility of donating a [Neg] feature to the lower v-VP domain. Although verb-movement in itself is not a sufficient condition to trigger a shift towards Stages II–III negation, we argue that it is a necessary one, a fact which explains the peculiar distribution of negation strategies across the Romània.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87565799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-13DOI: 10.1515/probus-2022-0017
J. Authier
Abstract While French does not display the kind of VP-ellipsis found in languages like English, it effects verbal anaphora by means of two constructions that have received relatively little attention in the literature. Both of these combine the generic ‘action verb’ faire ‘do’ with what appears to be a pronoun. The first one, which I call le-faire anaphora (LFA), uses the clitic le, whereas the second one, which I call faire-ça anaphora (FCA), brings into play the strong pronoun ça ‘it/that’. Taking such pronouns to be substitutive pro-forms devoid of inner structure cannot, however, explain why LFA, but not FCA, can appear in the standard of a comparative, a property that distinguishes English VP-ellipsis from VP-pro-forms like do it/that/so, which behave like FCA. On the other hand, LFA, unlike English VP-ellipsis, does not allow wh-extraction from a VP-internal position outside the realm of comparatives, which leads to a paradox left unresolved in the literature. In this article, I argue that LFA involves ellipsis of a whole vP phase. Specifically, I argue that faire in LFA, but not in FCA, is a (semi)auxiliary verb that takes a vP complement and bears an E-feature lexicalized by the clitic le. I show that this correctly predicts that A-movement out of the ellipsis site is possible and that A-bar movement of a degree wh-phrase out of vP in comparatives is made possible by the fact that French licenses Quantification at a Distance, a grammatical operation that allows degree quantifiers to escape vP before the next phasal head (C) is merged and triggers ellipsis. Other wh-quantifiers that do not benefit from the Quantification at a Distance option are then expected to not be able to escape vP prior to ellipsis, hence run-of-the-mill wh-extraction out of VP is correctly predicted to be incompatible with LFA. I then turn to what appears to be a related anaphoric phenomenon, which consists of the predicational copula être ‘be’ and the clitic le, which I call l’être anaphora (LEA), and show that it too is an instance of ellipsis in that it allows the full range of extraction phenomena out of the missing constituent introduced by the copula. I assume that in those cases in which the copula takes a small clause, it participates in an asymmetric structure where it lexicalizes Pred, a head that mediates between subject and predicate. In those cases in which the copula introduces a passivized VP, on the other hand, I assume that it lexicalizes v, an assumption in line with theories that posit multiple instantiations of predicate mediators (so-called ‘flavors of v’). In both cases, the copula in LEA heads a phase, bears an E-feature lexicalized by le, and is argued to license ellipsis of its phasal complement. Thus, elements are allowed to escape ellipsis by moving to the edge of the phase headed by the copula, and this correctly predicts that LEA permits a wider range of extractions out of the ellipsis site than LFA does.
虽然法语没有表现出英语等语言中发现的那种vp -省略，但它通过两种结构影响言语回指，这两种结构在文献中受到的关注相对较少。这两种用法都将一般的“行为动词”faire“do”与代词结合在一起。第一种，我称之为“le-faire anaphora”(LFA)，它使用了修饰词“le”，而第二种，我称之为“faire- a anaphora”(FCA)，它使用了强烈的代词“it/that”。然而，将这些代词视为缺乏内部结构的替代形式并不能解释为什么LFA而不是FCA可以出现在比较级的标准中，这是区分英语vp -省略和do it/that/so等VP-pro-forms的特性，后者的行为类似于FCA。另一方面，与英语的vp省略不同，LFA不允许从比较级领域之外的vp内部位置提取wh，这导致了一个文献中未解决的悖论。在本文中，我认为LFA涉及整个vP相的省略。具体来说，我认为faire在LFA中(而不是在FCA中)是一个(半)助动词，它采用vP补语，并具有由clitic le词汇化的e特征。我表明，这正确地预测了a -移出省略号位置是可能的，并且在比较级中a -移出vP的程度h-短语是可能的，因为法语允许远距离量化，这是一种语法操作，允许程度量词在下一个相头(C)合并并触发省略号之前逃避vP。其他没有从远距离量化选项中受益的wh-量词预计无法在省略之前转义vP，因此可以正确地预测从vP中提取wh-与LFA不兼容。然后，我转向似乎是一个相关的回指现象，它由谓词连词être ' be '和我称之为l ' être回指(LEA)的clitic le组成，并表明它也是省略的一个实例，因为它允许从连词引入的缺失成分中提取出所有的提取现象。我认为，在这些情况下，连词采用一个小从句，它参与了一个不对称结构，它词化了Pred，一个介于主语和谓语之间的头部。另一方面，在联结引入钝化VP的情况下，我假设它词汇化了v，这一假设与假设谓词中介的多个实例化(所谓的“v的味道”)的理论一致。在这两种情况下，LEA中的连词都是一个相位，具有由le词汇化的e特征，并被认为允许省略其相位补语。因此，元素可以通过移动到以联结键为首的相位的边缘来逃避省略，这正确地预测了LEA比LFA允许更大范围的提取出省略位置。
{"title":"French Predicate Anaphora, Comparatives, and Ellipsis","authors":"J. Authier","doi":"10.1515/probus-2022-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2022-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While French does not display the kind of VP-ellipsis found in languages like English, it effects verbal anaphora by means of two constructions that have received relatively little attention in the literature. Both of these combine the generic ‘action verb’ faire ‘do’ with what appears to be a pronoun. The first one, which I call le-faire anaphora (LFA), uses the clitic le, whereas the second one, which I call faire-ça anaphora (FCA), brings into play the strong pronoun ça ‘it/that’. Taking such pronouns to be substitutive pro-forms devoid of inner structure cannot, however, explain why LFA, but not FCA, can appear in the standard of a comparative, a property that distinguishes English VP-ellipsis from VP-pro-forms like do it/that/so, which behave like FCA. On the other hand, LFA, unlike English VP-ellipsis, does not allow wh-extraction from a VP-internal position outside the realm of comparatives, which leads to a paradox left unresolved in the literature. In this article, I argue that LFA involves ellipsis of a whole vP phase. Specifically, I argue that faire in LFA, but not in FCA, is a (semi)auxiliary verb that takes a vP complement and bears an E-feature lexicalized by the clitic le. I show that this correctly predicts that A-movement out of the ellipsis site is possible and that A-bar movement of a degree wh-phrase out of vP in comparatives is made possible by the fact that French licenses Quantification at a Distance, a grammatical operation that allows degree quantifiers to escape vP before the next phasal head (C) is merged and triggers ellipsis. Other wh-quantifiers that do not benefit from the Quantification at a Distance option are then expected to not be able to escape vP prior to ellipsis, hence run-of-the-mill wh-extraction out of VP is correctly predicted to be incompatible with LFA. I then turn to what appears to be a related anaphoric phenomenon, which consists of the predicational copula être ‘be’ and the clitic le, which I call l’être anaphora (LEA), and show that it too is an instance of ellipsis in that it allows the full range of extraction phenomena out of the missing constituent introduced by the copula. I assume that in those cases in which the copula takes a small clause, it participates in an asymmetric structure where it lexicalizes Pred, a head that mediates between subject and predicate. In those cases in which the copula introduces a passivized VP, on the other hand, I assume that it lexicalizes v, an assumption in line with theories that posit multiple instantiations of predicate mediators (so-called ‘flavors of v’). In both cases, the copula in LEA heads a phase, bears an E-feature lexicalized by le, and is argued to license ellipsis of its phasal complement. Thus, elements are allowed to escape ellipsis by moving to the edge of the phase headed by the copula, and this correctly predicts that LEA permits a wider range of extractions out of the ellipsis site than LFA does.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86586990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-19DOI: 10.1515/probus-2022-0014
Richard S. Kayne
Abstract French hypercomplex inversion can be used as a probe into the question whether or not the language faculty countenances the existence of true expletive pronouns, i.e. pronouns that make no interpretive contribution of any kind. The conclusion is that there are no expletive pronouns (in any language) in the strict sense of the term.
{"title":"Hypercomplex Inversion and the Status of Expletive Pronouns","authors":"Richard S. Kayne","doi":"10.1515/probus-2022-0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2022-0014","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract French hypercomplex inversion can be used as a probe into the question whether or not the language faculty countenances the existence of true expletive pronouns, i.e. pronouns that make no interpretive contribution of any kind. The conclusion is that there are no expletive pronouns (in any language) in the strict sense of the term.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79637476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-24DOI: 10.1515/probus-2022-0015
S. Menza, V. Bianchi
Abstract This paper investigates two Italo-Romance discourse particles, which we analyze as ‘cooperativity markers’, conveying the conventional implicature that a future action to be accomplished by the speaker fulfills a set of maximal preferences that they share with the addressee; by means of this implicature, the speaker conveys that they intend their action to be cooperative. We show that clauses introduced by these particles share core syntactic and semantic properties with jussive expressions such as imperatives, most notably future orientation and a constraint on the person specification of the null subject. We argue that these particles occupy a functional projection which encodes preferential meanings and takes scope above Tense.
{"title":"Cooperativity Markers in the Left Periphery. Evidence from Sicilian and from Lombard Italian","authors":"S. Menza, V. Bianchi","doi":"10.1515/probus-2022-0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2022-0015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper investigates two Italo-Romance discourse particles, which we analyze as ‘cooperativity markers’, conveying the conventional implicature that a future action to be accomplished by the speaker fulfills a set of maximal preferences that they share with the addressee; by means of this implicature, the speaker conveys that they intend their action to be cooperative. We show that clauses introduced by these particles share core syntactic and semantic properties with jussive expressions such as imperatives, most notably future orientation and a constraint on the person specification of the null subject. We argue that these particles occupy a functional projection which encodes preferential meanings and takes scope above Tense.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78575184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-05DOI: 10.1515/probus-2022-0012
Alice Corr
Abstract This study examines a little-known case of grammaticalized distributivity in the Romance branch, as found in tenth to fifteenth century texts produced in the Iberian Peninsula. Analysis of a newly compiled, hand-annotated corpus demonstrates that, in Old Ibero-Romance, the reduplication of an adnominal cardinal numeral on the internal argument of the verb mandates a distributive reading at the sentential level. The distributive construction is characterized as ‘double-object’-like structure occurring only in expressions of dynamic and static possession. Whilst a cross-categorial operation originating in the DP edge triggers pluralization of the event itself, an applicative treatment of the clausal syntax not only captures the ‘double-object’-like structure of the construction, but the nature of the distributive relation itself.
{"title":"Numeral Reduplication and Clausal Syntax: Grammaticalized Distributivity in Medieval Iberia","authors":"Alice Corr","doi":"10.1515/probus-2022-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2022-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study examines a little-known case of grammaticalized distributivity in the Romance branch, as found in tenth to fifteenth century texts produced in the Iberian Peninsula. Analysis of a newly compiled, hand-annotated corpus demonstrates that, in Old Ibero-Romance, the reduplication of an adnominal cardinal numeral on the internal argument of the verb mandates a distributive reading at the sentential level. The distributive construction is characterized as ‘double-object’-like structure occurring only in expressions of dynamic and static possession. Whilst a cross-categorial operation originating in the DP edge triggers pluralization of the event itself, an applicative treatment of the clausal syntax not only captures the ‘double-object’-like structure of the construction, but the nature of the distributive relation itself.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88304624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-03DOI: 10.1515/probus-2022-0013
Stefano Rastelli
Abstract In this experiment, 62 university students, native speakers of Italian living in Northern Italy, were asked to choose between two nearly identical sentences featuring intransitive verbs which, according to the literature, can take either auxiliary (AUX) essere “be” or avere “have” in compound tenses. A binary logistic regression showed that for 40% of the time, participants preferred one AUX over the other. In general, the frequency of verbs and association scores between the AUX and the past participle in the input straightforwardly determined the remaining preferences, and especially the choice of essere. The impact of verb semantics on participants’ choices depended on the AUX. In the presence of telic completions and inanimate subjects, the likelihood of AUX essere to be chosen increased, whereas no effect of animacy and completion type was found for the AUX avere. Based on these data, one may conclude that (a) AUX essere is more permeable to both frequency effect and verb semantics than avere; and (b) among educated young adult native speakers living in Northern Italy, there is much less optionality in the choice of the AUX than it is assumed by some linguists.
在这个实验中，62名生活在意大利北部的以意大利语为母语的大学生被要求在两个几乎相同的句子中选择一个，根据文献，这两个句子的不及物动词可以在复合时态中使用助动词“be”或平均动词“have”。二元逻辑回归显示，在40%的时间里，参与者更喜欢一个AUX而不是另一个。一般来说，输入中动词的频率和AUX与过去分词之间的关联分数直接决定了剩余的偏好，尤其是essere的选择。动词语义对参与者选择的影响取决于AUX。在有远端完成和无生命被试的情况下，选择AUX essere的可能性增加，而没有发现有生命和完成类型对AUX average的影响。基于这些数据，我们可以得出结论:(a) AUX essere对频率效应和动词语义的渗透性比平均值更强;(b)在居住在意大利北部的受过教育的年轻成年母语人士中，选择AUX的可选择性比一些语言学家所假设的要少得多。
{"title":"Italian Verbs with Two Auxiliaries: A Forced-Choice Experiment","authors":"Stefano Rastelli","doi":"10.1515/probus-2022-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2022-0013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this experiment, 62 university students, native speakers of Italian living in Northern Italy, were asked to choose between two nearly identical sentences featuring intransitive verbs which, according to the literature, can take either auxiliary (AUX) essere “be” or avere “have” in compound tenses. A binary logistic regression showed that for 40% of the time, participants preferred one AUX over the other. In general, the frequency of verbs and association scores between the AUX and the past participle in the input straightforwardly determined the remaining preferences, and especially the choice of essere. The impact of verb semantics on participants’ choices depended on the AUX. In the presence of telic completions and inanimate subjects, the likelihood of AUX essere to be chosen increased, whereas no effect of animacy and completion type was found for the AUX avere. Based on these data, one may conclude that (a) AUX essere is more permeable to both frequency effect and verb semantics than avere; and (b) among educated young adult native speakers living in Northern Italy, there is much less optionality in the choice of the AUX than it is assumed by some linguists.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83862713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-18DOI: 10.1515/probus-2022-0011
E. Todisco, R. Rocca, M. Wallentin
Abstract Recent studies using the Demonstrative Choice Task (DCT), where participants pair words with a demonstrative with no additional context, have shown that this choice is influenced by word semantics. Here, we applied the DCT to Catalan. We aimed at replicating previous findings and assessing how semantic factors play out in Catalan. We focused specifically on the second term aqueix (that), currently falling out of use. We hypothesized that its residual use would be influenced by the semantic factor valence, due to a hypothesized derogatory meaning. We also explored whether its use differed across varieties (Central Catalan versus Balearic Catalan). Our results replicate previous findings from English and Spanish on the role of manipulability, valence and psychological proximity to the self in preferences for proximal versus distal forms, reinforcing the hypotheses that these factors underlie demonstrative choices in the DCT, cross-linguistically. The use of aqueix was overall infrequent, highlighting the ongoing reduction of Catalan demonstratives from a three- to a two-term system. No significant association between valence and aqueix was found, but a small unpredicted effect for taste/smell indicated an increased use of aqueix. Frequency in the use of aqueix, but not semantic factors driving its use, differed across peninsular and insular speakers.
{"title":"Aqueix Caught in the Middle. A Demonstrative Choice Task Study of Catalan Demonstratives","authors":"E. Todisco, R. Rocca, M. Wallentin","doi":"10.1515/probus-2022-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2022-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Recent studies using the Demonstrative Choice Task (DCT), where participants pair words with a demonstrative with no additional context, have shown that this choice is influenced by word semantics. Here, we applied the DCT to Catalan. We aimed at replicating previous findings and assessing how semantic factors play out in Catalan. We focused specifically on the second term aqueix (that), currently falling out of use. We hypothesized that its residual use would be influenced by the semantic factor valence, due to a hypothesized derogatory meaning. We also explored whether its use differed across varieties (Central Catalan versus Balearic Catalan). Our results replicate previous findings from English and Spanish on the role of manipulability, valence and psychological proximity to the self in preferences for proximal versus distal forms, reinforcing the hypotheses that these factors underlie demonstrative choices in the DCT, cross-linguistically. The use of aqueix was overall infrequent, highlighting the ongoing reduction of Catalan demonstratives from a three- to a two-term system. No significant association between valence and aqueix was found, but a small unpredicted effect for taste/smell indicated an increased use of aqueix. Frequency in the use of aqueix, but not semantic factors driving its use, differed across peninsular and insular speakers.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88303817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-10DOI: 10.1515/probus-2021-0012
Giuseppe Rugna
Abstract This paper addresses the restrictions of Italian relative che ‘what’ to finite environments and direct case gaps. While the standard analysis takes these restrictions to follow from the C status of che, this paper argues for an alternative approach, according to which che is a DP, on a par with other interrogative and relative elements. Specifically, it is argued that relative che is identical to interrogative che and relative cui ‘what.obl’ in the narrow syntactic derivation, up to the point of transfer. Realization of relative che is then blocked at ext with oblique case gaps by the more specific cui, along the lines of the Elsewhere Principle. The status of cui as a specialized relative element is also discussed. The restriction to finiteness for relative che is treated as an instance of a more general phenomenon that precludes bare DPs from occurring at the edge of infinitival relatives. Here I adopt and extend (Richards, Norvin. 2010. Uttering trees. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press) Distinctness Theory to account for the facts of Italian.
{"title":"The Case and Finiteness Restrictions of Italian Relative che","authors":"Giuseppe Rugna","doi":"10.1515/probus-2021-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2021-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper addresses the restrictions of Italian relative che ‘what’ to finite environments and direct case gaps. While the standard analysis takes these restrictions to follow from the C status of che, this paper argues for an alternative approach, according to which che is a DP, on a par with other interrogative and relative elements. Specifically, it is argued that relative che is identical to interrogative che and relative cui ‘what.obl’ in the narrow syntactic derivation, up to the point of transfer. Realization of relative che is then blocked at ext with oblique case gaps by the more specific cui, along the lines of the Elsewhere Principle. The status of cui as a specialized relative element is also discussed. The restriction to finiteness for relative che is treated as an instance of a more general phenomenon that precludes bare DPs from occurring at the edge of infinitival relatives. Here I adopt and extend (Richards, Norvin. 2010. Uttering trees. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press) Distinctness Theory to account for the facts of Italian.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72916558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1515/probus-2022-0001
Jean-Yves Pollock
Abstract In addition to the Qu-est-ce que questions in (1) which, as their translations indicate, are mono-clausal despite their bi-clausal form, French has yes/no questions such as (2) in which the est-ce que sequence shows up again. (1) a. Où est-ce qu’il est parti? ‘Where is ce that he is gone?’ = Where did he go? b. Qu’est-ce qu’il fait? ‘Que is ce that he does ?’ = What is he doing? (2) a. Est-ce qu’il est parti? ‘Is ce that he is gone?’ = Has he gone? b. Est-ce qu’il fait beau? ‘Is ce that it is nice?’ = Is the weather nice? (2) are also ‘ordinary’ polar questions. Since French seems to be unique in the Romance domain in accepting the Qu-questions in (1) and the polar questions in (2) it is tempting to suggest that a proper analysis of the former should also shed light on the latter. This article will verify whether this a priori desirable generalisation is valid. As a first step, it will look at the analysis of Est-ce que as an interrogative head ESK merged in the CP domain suggested by Cheng and Rooryck (2000. Licensing WH-in situ. Syntax 3.1. April 2000, 3–19.) which expresses it in its strongest possible form: Est-ce que yes/no questions like (2) would seem to only differ from their Qu-counterparts in missing the Qu-element. The article will show that their ESK proposal should be challenged empirically and theoretically in sections 2, 3 and 4. It will investigate Est-ce que polar questions and related constructions in detail in section 5 and will show in 6 that they do indeed share one crucial property with qu’est-ce que questions, although the generalisation it arrives at in section 7 substantially differs from Cheng & Rooryck’s proposal.
除了(1)中的“est-ce - que”问句(从翻译上看，这些问句虽然是双分句形式，但却是单分句)之外，法语中还有(2)等“是”/“否”问句，其中est-ce - que序列再次出现。(1) a. Où est-ce quil est parti?“他到哪儿去了?”他去哪儿了?b.好吧，好吧，好吧。他在做什么?(2) a. est -ce qu 'il est parti?“难道他走了吗?”他走了吗?好吧，我的朋友，你会喜欢的。“这是不是很好?”天气好吗?(2)也是“普通的”极性问题。由于法语在罗曼语领域中似乎是独一无二的，它接受了(1)中的q -questions和(2)中的极性问题，因此很容易认为，对前者的适当分析也应该揭示后者。本文将验证这种先验的理想概括是否有效。作为第一步，它将着眼于分析Est-ce que作为一个疑问句头ESK合并在CP域由Cheng和Rooryck(2000)提出。现场许可。3.1语法。(4月2000日，3-19日)，它以最强烈的形式表达了它:Est-ce que yes/no问题，如(2)，似乎与它们的q -对应物的唯一不同之处在于缺少q元素。文章将表明，他们的ESK建议应挑战经验和理论在第2,3和4节。它将在第5节中详细研究Est-ce - que极性问题和相关结构，并将在第6节中展示它们确实与qu 'est-ce - que问题共享一个关键属性，尽管它在第7节中得出的概括与Cheng & Rooryck的建议有很大不同。
{"title":"On French Est-ce que Yes/No Questions and Related Constructions","authors":"Jean-Yves Pollock","doi":"10.1515/probus-2022-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2022-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In addition to the Qu-est-ce que questions in (1) which, as their translations indicate, are mono-clausal despite their bi-clausal form, French has yes/no questions such as (2) in which the est-ce que sequence shows up again. (1) a. Où est-ce qu’il est parti? ‘Where is ce that he is gone?’ = Where did he go? b. Qu’est-ce qu’il fait? ‘Que is ce that he does ?’ = What is he doing? (2) a. Est-ce qu’il est parti? ‘Is ce that he is gone?’ = Has he gone? b. Est-ce qu’il fait beau? ‘Is ce that it is nice?’ = Is the weather nice? (2) are also ‘ordinary’ polar questions. Since French seems to be unique in the Romance domain in accepting the Qu-questions in (1) and the polar questions in (2) it is tempting to suggest that a proper analysis of the former should also shed light on the latter. This article will verify whether this a priori desirable generalisation is valid. As a first step, it will look at the analysis of Est-ce que as an interrogative head ESK merged in the CP domain suggested by Cheng and Rooryck (2000. Licensing WH-in situ. Syntax 3.1. April 2000, 3–19.) which expresses it in its strongest possible form: Est-ce que yes/no questions like (2) would seem to only differ from their Qu-counterparts in missing the Qu-element. The article will show that their ESK proposal should be challenged empirically and theoretically in sections 2, 3 and 4. It will investigate Est-ce que polar questions and related constructions in detail in section 5 and will show in 6 that they do indeed share one crucial property with qu’est-ce que questions, although the generalisation it arrives at in section 7 substantially differs from Cheng & Rooryck’s proposal.","PeriodicalId":45039,"journal":{"name":"Probus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72425018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","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：