The Infinitive Marker across Scandinavian

In this paper I argue that the base-position of the infinitive marker in the Scandinavian languages and English share a common origin site. It is inserted as the top-most head in the VP-domain. The cross-linguistic variation in the syntactic distribution of the infinitive marker can be accounted for by assuming that it undergoes head movement. This movement is optional in Danish, English, Norwegian, and Early Modern Danish and is not feature-driven. In Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish, on the other hand, it is triggered by φ-feature checking on Finº. In Icelandic and Swedish these φ-features are strong and induce obligatory vº→Finº movement, whereas they are weak in Faroese and do not induce vº→Finº movement

Hvad tror danskerne på? En kortlægning af tro, overtro og overbevisning

Tror danskerne på spøgelser? Tror de at køn er en social konstruktion? Tror de på UFO’er og horoskoper? Mener de at videnskaben kan forklare vores oplevelse af skønhed? Er kvinder mere overtroiske end mænd? Tror de mere på intuition? Og er danskerne mere eller mindre overtroiske end folk i andre lande? Denne rapport er lavet på baggrund af en stor spørgeskemaundersøgelse som er gennemført i 2017-2018. Vi satte os for at kortlægge danskernes tro og overbevisning fordi der mangler viden på dette felt. Empirisk viden om befolkningens tro og overbevisning er væsentlig i et demokratisk samfund, ikke mindst i en tid hvor fake news og udsagn om det ’post-faktuelle’ og fakta-resistente samfund spiller en væsentlig rolle i den offentlige debat. Kritisk tænkning og videnskabelig oplysning er nødvendige midler i kampen mod misinformation og konspirationsteorier. Eksempelvis spillede diskussionen om voldsomme bivirkninger af HPV-vaccinen mod livmoderhalskræft en væsentlig rolle i den offentlige debat i 2015 og fremefter. Diskussionen blev især affødt af en dokumentarudsendelse, ’De vaccinerede piger’, som blev sendt på TV2 i marts 2015 og som mødte betragtelig videnskabelig kritik for manglende evidens. Selvom der stadig ikke foreligger videnskabelig evidens for bivirkninger af den slags der er blevet fremført af HPV- skeptikere, er resultatet af denne diskussion et markant fald i udbredelsen af vaccinen blandt danske piger. Blandt piger født i 2003 har 26% modtaget HPV-vaccine i Danmark. Til sammenligning er tallet i Sverige 73% og i Norge 84%. Den offentlige diskussion om HPV-vaccine og eventuelle bivirkninger illustrerer nødvendigheden af videnskabelig dannelse og oplysning i et demokratisk samfund hvor borgerne skal være i stand til at træffe beslutninger på baggrund af solid evidens og ikke bare anekdoter og mavefornemmelser. For at kortlægge danskernes overbevisninger inden for en række udvalgte områder, fra overtro til videnskabelig overbevisning, konstruerede vi et spørgeskema som blev distribueret via sociale medier. Flere end 2.200 personer besvarede undersøgelsen. I det følgende præsenterer og diskuterer vi de væsentligste resultater.

Forord til Cognition/Kognition

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Negative and affirmative sentences increase activation in different areas in the brain

Abstract Though negation is unique and central to human language, it has so far received little attention in cognitive neuroscience. The goal of the present study was to investigate the contrast between affirmative and negative sentences using fMRI, focusing on two central aspects, namely, (1) a semantic difference: affirmation is upward entailing, whereas negation is downward entailing; (2) a syntactic difference: negation involves more syntactic structure than affirmation. The behavioural data showed that negation significantly increased response times (but not the level of performance), even when negation was only in the preceding context to the response condition. The imaging results showed increased activation in the left premotor cortex from negation, compatible with rule-governed memory processing, and increased activation in the right supramarginal gyrus from affirmation, compatible with semantic processing. Finally, affirmation showed ''default mode'' activation in the cingulate cortex

Interdisciplinary: To Be or Not to Be? Working Across Disciplinary Boundaries in the Humanities (and Beyond)

This article introduces student readers to the realm of the interdisciplinary, with a primary focus on the humanities. We first introduce interdisciplinarity and other related terms as concepts. We then present eight specific examples, on which we illustrate interdisciplinary research. Finally, we address the question of when one should be interdisciplinary

Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language. This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language. This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language. This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure &nbsp