Alternating predicates in Icelandic and German: a sign-based construction grammar account

A long-standing divide between Icelandic and German in the literature takes for granted that there are non-nominative subjects in Icelandic, while corresponding arguments in German have been analyzed as objects (Zaenen, Maling & Thráinsson 1985, Sigurðsson 1989). This is based on two differences between these languages, a) differences with regard to control and conjunction reduction, and b) an apparent subject behavior of the nominative in Dat-Nom constructions in German. This article focuses on the latter, introducing into the discussion the concept of alternating predicates, that is, Dat-Nom predicates that systematically alternate between two diametrically-opposed argument structure constructions, Dat-Nom and Nom-Dat. A comparison between Icelandic and German shows that Icelandic Dat-Nom predicates are of two types, a non-alternating líka type and an alternating falla í geð type, whereas German seems to exhibit only the alternating type. On this assumption, the apparent subject behavior of the nominative in German is easily explained, since such occurrences in fact involve the Nom-Dat construction and not the Dat-Nom construction. Therefore, the subject behavior of the nominative does not invalidate a subject analysis of the dative in Dat-Nom constructions in German. The analysis is couched in the framework of Sign-Based Construction Grammar (Sag 2012)

Inductive types in the Calculus of Algebraic Constructions

In a previous work, we proved that an important part of the Calculus of Inductive Constructions (CIC), the basis of the Coq proof assistant, can be seen as a Calculus of Algebraic Constructions (CAC), an extension of the Calculus of Constructions with functions and predicates defined by higher-order rewrite rules. In this paper, we prove that almost all CIC can be seen as a CAC, and that it can be further extended with non-strictly positive types and inductive-recursive types together with non-free constructors and pattern-matching on defined symbols.Comment: Journal version of TLCA'0

Complex Predicates and Light Verb Constructions in Modern Irish

This paper characterises complex predicates and light verb constructions in Modern Irish. Light verbs are attested in many of the world’s languages (Alsina, Bresnan & Sells, 2001; Butt, 1995, 2003). Cross linguistically, there appears to be a common class of verbs involved in these constructions and generally there is agreement that light verbs contribute to the formation of complex predicates. Light verbs seem have a non-light or ‘heavy’ verb counterpart. In this paper we discuss the light verb constructions (LVC) as found in modern Irish and how they form complex predicates. We claim that the light verb (LV) encodes the event process initiation (or cause) and the matrix verb indicates the bounded component or result. In light verb constructions, the matrix verb appears in Modern Irish syntax as a verbal-noun form. The function of light verbs in these constructions is to modulate the event and sub-event semantics. We distinguish between auxiliary verbs constructions (AVC) and those constructions involving complex predicated and light verbs (Aikhenvald & Dixon, 2006; Anderson, 2006). We provide evidence based on an analysis of Irish data that shows how aspect and argument structure considerations are resolved for the complex predicate within the light verb construction via the linking system between semantics and syntax. We motivate a functional account, based on Role and Reference Grammar (Nolan, 2012; Nolan & Diedrichsen, 2013; Van Valin, 2005; Van Valin & LaPolla, 1997), that appeals to the analysis of complex predicates within a consideration of the layered structure of the clause

Person prominence and relation prominence : on the typology of syntactic relations with particular reference to Yucatec Maya

PM3969, ISO 639-3 : -, Maya language--Syntax1. Introduction 2. Theoretical background 2.1. The cognitive structure of a situation 2.1.1. Situation, situation core, and participants 2.1.2. Participant features 2.1.3. Participant roles 2.2. Syntactic functions 2.3. Correlation between syntactic functions and participant roles 3. Prominence in typology 3.1. Subject prominence vs. topic prominence 3.2. Reference domination vs. role domination 3.3. Person prominence vs. relation prominence 4. Languages investigated 4.1. Yucatec Maya 4.2. Samoan 4.3. Maori 4.4. Tamil 4.5. Lezgian 4.6. Korean 5. Prominence in syntactic constructions 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Higher predicates 5.2.1. Modal predicates 5.2.2. Phase predicates 5.2.3. Tense, aspect, and aktionsart auxiliaries 5.3. Possessive constructions 5.3.1. Part-whole relations 5.3.2. Ascription of possession 5.3.3. Predication of belonging 5.3.4. Ascription of property to body part 5.3.5. Affection of possessor 5.4. Mental, sensual, and emotional states and processes 5.4.1. Preliminaries 5.4.2. Sensual states and processes 5.4.3. Emotional states and processes 5.4.4. Mental states and processes 5.4.5. Conclusion 5.5. Benefactive 6. Relation prominence in YM: a historical-comparative perspective 6.1. Colonial Yucatec Maya 6.1.1. Preliminaries 6.1.2. Modal predicates 6.1.3. Phase predicates 6.1.4. Aspect auxiliaries 6.1.5. Conclusion 6.2. Cognate languages 6.2.1. Preliminaries 6.2.2. Higher predicates 6.2.3. Possessive constructions 6.2.4. Mental, sensual and emotional states and processes 6.2.5. Benefactive 6.2.6. Conclusion 7. Typology 7.1. Empirical generalizations 7.1.1. The domain of possession 136 7.1.2. Higher predicates 7.1.3. Participant roles 7.2. Grammatical correlations 7.3. Conclusion Indices Abbreviations Morpheme glosses & syntactic categories Languages Sources of data Bibliographical references LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLE

Definitions by Rewriting in the Calculus of Constructions

The main novelty of this paper is to consider an extension of the Calculus of Constructions where predicates can be defined with a general form of rewrite rules. We prove the strong normalization of the reduction relation generated by the beta-rule and the user-defined rules under some general syntactic conditions including confluence. As examples, we show that two important systems satisfy these conditions: a sub-system of the Calculus of Inductive Constructions which is the basis of the proof assistant Coq, and the Natural Deduction Modulo a large class of equational theories.Comment: Best student paper (Kleene Award

Encoding information structure in Yucatec Maya : on the Interplay of prosody and syntax

The aim of this paper is to outline the means for encoding information structure in Yucatec Maya. Yucatec Maya is a tone language, displaying a three-fold opposition in the tonal realization of syllables. From the morpho-syntactic point of view, the grammar of Yucatec Maya contains morphological (topic affixes, morphological marking of out-of-focus predicates) and syntactic (designated positions) means to uniquely specify syntactic constructions for their information structure. After a descriptive overview of these phenomena, we present experimental evidence which reveals the impact of the nonavailability of prosodic alternatives on the choice of syntactic constructions in language production

More on in situ WH- and focus constructions in Hausa

Hausa is conventionally analyzed as having only one strategy for both focus and wh-constructions--fronting, with special inflectional marking on the TAM. Recently, however, some new facts have emerged which demonstrate that focus can also occur IN SITU, with a general TAM (Jaggar 2001:496-98; Green & Jaggar 2003). Hausa in situ wh-questions and focus constructions are especially common with adverbial (especially locative) elements and/or nonverbal predicates and so are more restricted in their distribution than the ex situ strategies, but they represent an interesting new problem which requires extensive study of naturally occurring discourse and detailed syntactic analysis. The Hausa facts also need to be viewed in the wider comparative-historical context of the syntax of in situ focus and wh-constructions in related West Chadic languages

The Scope and the Subtleties of the Contextualism/Literalism/Relativism Debate

In recent years, a number of new trends have seen light at the intersection of semantics and philosophy of language. They are meant to address puzzles raised by the context-sensitivity of a variety of natural language constructions, such as knowledge ascriptions, belief reports, epistemic modals, indicative conditionals, quantifier phrases, gradable adjectives, temporal constructions, vague predicates, moral predicates, predicates of personal taste, etc. A diversity of labels have consequently emerged, such as 'contextualism', 'indexicalism', 'invariantism', 'literalism', 'minimalism', 'relativism', variously qualified. The goal of this essay is to pinpoint the issues that lie at the heart of the recent debates, clarify what is at stake, and provide a snapshot of the current theoretical landscape