PP-over-V meets Universal 20

It has proven hard to force a decision between rival analyses of Universal 20. This is because new typological data are scarce, and the number of syntactic tests applicable in the noun phrase is relatively small. I therefore consider a related set of facts that involve language-internal word order variation in the verb phrase. I first show that the pattern of grammatical and ungrammatical orders in Dutch verb phrases containing three PPs closely matches the pattern of attested and unattested orders in the noun phrase. I then use the distribution of the particle pas ‘only’ to argue that PP extraposition results from variation in the linearization of sister nodes. This means that the symmetric account of Universal 20 in Abels and Neeleman (Syntax 15:25–74, 2012) extends to the Dutch data, but the antisymmetric account in Cinque (Linguist Inquiry 36:315–332, 2005) does not

AP Adjacency as a Precedence Constraint

Attributive APs precede certain other categories (PPs, genitive DPs, and so on), when the noun precedes both (Giurgea 2009, Adger 2012). This observation may suggest an analysis in terms of X-bar-style ‘structural layering’. However, such an account faces several problems: (i) in languages with PP-AP-N order, scrambling of the AP is permitted, (ii) in languages with AP-N- PP order or PP-N-AP order, there is evidence that the AP can c-command the PP, as well as the other way around, and (iii) in languages with N-AP-PP order, the AP can take scope over the PP, as well as the other way around, arguably as a consequence of a structural ambiguity. We therefore develop an alternative analysis based on a striking parallel between the syntax of attributive APs and that of objects: while OV languages systematically allow adverbs to intervene between object and verb, VO languages tend to require verb-object-adverb order. This aspect of verbal syntax is familiar and can be captured in terms of a well-known linear constraint: Case Adjacency (Stowell 1981; Janke and Neeleman 2012). We propose that this constraint has a nominal counterpart that ensures N-AP adjacency in noun-initial structures. Thus, this instance of NP/VP parallelism has its source in parallel constraints, rather than parallel structural layers

Radical pro drop and the morphology of pronouns

We propose a new generalization governing the crosslinguistic distribution of radical pro drop (the type of pro drop found in Chinese). It occurs only in languages whose pronouns are agglutinating for case, number, or some other nominal feature. Other types of languages cannot omit pronouns freely, although they may have agreement-based pro drop. This generalization can for the most part be derived from three assumptions. (a) Spell-out rules for pronouns may target nonterminal categories. (b) Pro drop is zero spell-out (i.e., deletion) of regular pronouns. (c) Competition between spell-out rules is governed by the Elsewhere Principle. A full derivation relies on an acquisitional strategy motivated by the absence of negative evidence. We test our proposal using data from a sample of twenty languages and The World Atlas of Language Structures (Haspelmath et al. 2005)

The interpretation and distribution of temporal focus particles

Among the scalar usages of only, there is one that has a temporal dimension. In Carla understood the problem only on Sunday, for instance, Sunday is considered late for Carla to have understood the problem. In this paper, we explore the interpretation and distribution of temporal only along with other focus particles that permit a temporal reading. We focus on the Dutch counterpart of temporal only, pas (see Barbiers 1995). This particle is formally distinct from both exclusive only (alleen) and non-temporal scalar only (maar). We concentrate on two core issues. The first concerns the observation that temporal focus particles systematically support two modes of interpretation, a purely temporal one and a lack-of-progress reading. The latter is found in an example like Billy has only read three books (so far), which implies that three is a low number of books for Billy to have read at the reference time. The second issue concerns ‘Barbiers’s Generalization,’ the requirement that temporal focus particles immediately c-command the category they interact with. We propose a semantic analysis that captures these observations, building on previous work by König (1979, 1981), Löbner (1989), Krifka (2000) and Klinedinst (2004), among others

What Divides, and What Unites, Right-Node Raising

We argue, following Barros and Vicente (2011), that right-node raising (RNR) results from either ellipsis or multidominance. Four considerations support this claim. (i) RNR has properties of el- lipsis and of multidominance. (ii) Where these are combined, the structure results from repeated RNR: a pivot created through ellipsis contains a right-peripheral secondary pivot created through multidominance. (iii) In certain circumstances, one or the other derivation is blocked, so that RNR behaves like pure ellipsis or pure multidominance. (iv) Linearization of RNR-as-mul- tidominance requires pruning. The same pruning operation delivers RNR-as-ellipsis, which ex- plains why the two derivations must meet the same ordering constraints

Dynamical Characterization of Galaxies at z~4-6 via Tilted Ring Fitting to ALMA [CII] Observations

Until recently, determining the rotational properties of galaxies in the early universe (z>4, Universe age <1.5Gyr) was impractical, with the exception of a few strongly lensed systems. Combining the high resolution and sensitivity of ALMA at (sub-) millimeter wavelengths with the typically high strength of the [CII] 158um emission line from galaxies and long-developed dynamical modeling tools raises the possibility of characterizing the gas dynamics in both extreme starburst galaxies and normal star forming disk galaxies at z~4-7. Using a procedure centered around GIPSY's ROTCUR task, we have fit tilted ring models to some of the best available ALMA [CII] data of a small set of galaxies: the MS galaxies HZ9 & HZ10, the Damped Lyman-alpha Absorber (DLA) host galaxy ALMA J0817+1351, the submm galaxies AzTEC/C159 and COSMOS J1000+0234, and the quasar host galaxy ULAS J1319+0950. This procedure directly derives rotation curves and dynamical masses as functions of radius for each object. In one case, we present evidence for a dark matter halo of O(10^11) solar masses. We present an analysis of the possible velocity dispersions of AzTEC/C159 and ULAS J1319+0950 based on matching simulated observations to the integrated [CII] line profiles. Finally, we test the effects of observation resolution and sensitivity on our results. While the conclusions remain limited at the resolution and signal-to-noise ratios of these observations, the results demonstrate the viability of the modeling tools at high redshift, and the exciting potential for detailed dynamical analysis of the earliest galaxies, as ALMA achieves full observational capabilities.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap