Asymmetry and the Language Faculty

In Syntactic Structures, Chomsky argues for the autonomy of syntax with respect to semantics on the one hand, and phonology on the other. In this paper, we argue that the autonomy of syntax is further supported by the derivation of sometime unpronounced functional categories. We propose an analysis of the pronunciation/silence of coordinate conjunction and prepositions in additive cardinal numerals and time counting expressions. We provide independent justifcations for our analysis as well as we identify extensions to recursive DP coordination and co-compounds. The analysis relies on structural asymmetries derived by the computational procedure of the Language Faculty and is enforced by principles of efcient computation. ---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31513/linguistica.2017.v13n2a1403

On Morphological compositionality

We argue that the properties of indefinite pronouns such asthe quantifiers someone and everything, are derived by theoperations of the grammar and are interpreted compositionallyat the semantic interface. This is not what is generallyassumed in current practice, as indefinite pronouns are oftensemantically taken to be unanalyzed expressions(KARTTUNNEN, 1976; MONTAGUE, 1974; GROENENDIJK;STOKHOF, 1990). We bring further evidence that semanticcompositionality holds for wh-words in English, e.g., what andwhere, and in other languages, as proposed in Di Sciullo (2005).We attribute the fact that the interpretation of these elementsis derived compositionally to the core compositionality ofmorphological domains (DI SCIULLO, 2004). We drawconsequences of our analysis for the properties of the interfacebetween morphological structure and semantics.Neste artigo, argumentamos que as propriedades dos pronomesindefinidos como os quantificadores, someone e everything,por exemplo, são derivadas pelas operações da gramática e sãointerpretadas composicionalmente na interface semântica. Nãoé essa a visão assumida geralmente na prática corrente, já quenela os pronomes indefinidos são frequentemente tomadoscomo expressões semanticamente não decomponíveis(KARTTUNNEN, 1976; MONTAGUE, 1974; GOENENDIJK;STOKHOF, 1990). Apresentamos ainda outras evidências deque a composicionalidade semântica está presente em palavraswh do inglês, por exemplo, what e where , e de outras línguas,como proposto em Di Sciullo (2005). Atribuímos o fato de quea interpretação desses elementos seja derivadacomposicionalmente à centralidade da composicionalidade nosdomínios morfológicos (DI SCIULLO, 2004). Mostramos asconsequências de nossa análise para as propriedades dainterface entre estrutura morfológica e semântica

The Asymmetry of Merge

This paper addresses the following question: What kind of properties must the structure-building operation Merge have such that, given a Numeration, the grammar will build the ‘right’ structure and avoid generating ill-formed configurations? The answer we will propose is that Merge should be seen as an asymmetric operation in the sense of relating two items whose sets of morpho-syntactic features are in a proper inclusion relation. In addition, we propose a partition of features into two stacks: categorial features and operator features. This distinction is independently motivated as it feeds into the definition of External Merge and Internal Merge (Chomsky’s 2001). The proper inclusion condition will be assumed to hold for both of these operations, but the set of features under consideration for the evaluation of the proper inclusion relation differs: strictly categorial features for External Merge, and the whole set of features of lexical items for Internal Merge

The Biological Nature of Human Language

Biolinguistics aims to shed light on the specifically biological nature of human language, focusing on five foundational questions: (1) What are the properties of the language phenotype? (2) How does language ability grow and mature in individuals? (3) How is language put to use? (4) How is language implemented in the brain? (5) What evolutionary processes led to the emergence of language? These foundational questions are used here to frame a discussion of important issues in the study of language, exploring whether our linguistic capacity is the result of direct selective pressure or due to developmental or biophysical constraints, and assessing whether the neural/computational components entering into language are unique to human language or shared with other cognitive systems, leading to a discussion of advances in theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, comparative animal behavior and psychology, genetics/genomics, disciplines that can now place these longstanding questions in a new light, while raising challenges for future research

Time-counting expressions as aspectual complex numerals

We compare the syntactic and semantic properties of time-counting expressions to those of better studied counting systems, such as complex cardinal numerals (Kayne 2005, 2016; Ionin & Matushansky 2006; Stavrou & Terzi 2008; Di Sciullo 2012, 2015, a.o.). From a typological point of view, we will focus on Romance languages. We argue that time-counting expressions, as opposed to complex numerical expressions, may have specific aspectual properties. We observe first that time-counting expressions involve a “salient” reference time, henceforth SRT, on the basis of Italian and Spanish. We argue that this salient reference hour-time may denote either a time‑point or a time-interval. The time-point interpretation of the SRT gives rise to telic construals in some cases. The lack of SRT makes number phrases not interpretable as time denoting expressions. The telic construals usually involve locative or goal prepositions, such as a “to” in Italian, para “for” in Portuguese or to in English. On the other hand, time-interval interpretations of SRT are typical of time-counting expressions involving pseudo‑partitives in languages like Catalan. In these cases, the reference-time is not viewed as the endpoint of a telic interval. We also discuss telic cases similar to the pseudo-partitive ones in that they involve [quarter + minutes] constituents, but involving aspectual prepositional projections. We analyze time‑counting expressions in terms of extended prepositional projections including RelView categories, discussed in Cinque & Rizzi (2010) for the syntax-semantics of locative/directional prepositions, in order to formalize the spatial location of time. By doing so, we propose a unified account for the variety of Romance languages time-counting expressions