Function spreading in coordinate structures

We propose an analysis in lfg of a particular asymmetric sentential coordination pattern in Welsh. In this construction, the main verb of the first clause is marked for tense and the remaining conjuncts have non-finite verb forms. This single instance of tense marking (occurring on the finite verb of the first conjunct) is semantically interpreted with respect to each conjunct. The coordinate structure also shares a single subject. In this paper we show how the approach to coordination in lfg can provide a simple and straightfoward analysis of this tense and subject asymmetric coordination pattern found in Welsh. The lfg approach to constituent coordination (a) posits an exocentric (or multiply-headed) coordinate schema at c-structure and (b) interprets coordinate structures as sets at f-structure. We extend the constituent coordination schema to permit the coordination of IP and VP, and postulate explicit "spreading" equations for the shared information. We show that the spreading analysis is also motivated by similar data from a range of typologically diverse languages. Finally, we show how the approach is superior to a structurally symmetric alternative involving VP level coordination, with the finite verb in I and the subject DP nodes outside the structural scope of coordination. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Automatic F-Structure Annotation from the AP Treebank

We present a method for automatically annotating treebank resources with functional structures. The method defines systematic patterns of correspondence between partial PS configurations and functional structures. These are applied to PS rules extracted from treebanks. The set of techniques which we have developed constitute a methodology for corpus-guided grammar development. Despite the widespread belief that treebank representations are not very useful in grammar development, we show that systematic patterns of c-structure to f-structure correspondence can be simply and successfully stated over such rules. The method is partial in that it requires manual correction of the annotated grammar rules

Negative Sensitive Indefinites in Maltese

This paper looks at sentential negation in Maltese and the syntactic be- haviour of a group of negative sensitive indefinite items in Maltese, for which existing literature offers only a partial (and indeed partially incorrect) charac- terisation. We focus on syntactic aspects of the interplay between sentential negation and negative sensitive items (NSIs), both negative concord items (NCIs) and negative polarity items (NPIs). Our primary aim is to provide a solid description of the somewhat complex facts and some formalisation of the syntactic aspects in LFG, building on previous work on syntactic aspects of negation in this framework

Posture Verbs and Aspect: A View from Vernacular Arabic

This paper discusses a construction found in contemporary Arabic ver- naculars (but not in Modern Standard Arabic (henceforth MSA)) which con- stitutes an instance of a common grammaticalisation path in which a posture verb with a core lexical meaning of ‘sitting’ has grammaticalised into an ASPECTual marker. We bring together data from a range of dialects and pro- vide substantial evidence of grammaticalisation, in which the active participle (ACT.PTCP) of the ‘sit’ verb has developed a range of ASPECTual senses. Here we concentrate on the PROGRESSIVE interpretation, which exists in all of the vernaculars. We argue that there is also evidence for a further grammaticalisation of the posture verb form into a copula. Our aim is to present a comprehensive cross-dialectal picture of the data and consider synchronic and diachronic aspects from an LFG perspective

Nominal Tense in Crosslinguistic Perspective

It is a general assumption in linguistic theory that the categories of tense, aspect, and mood (TAM) are inflectional categories of verbal classes only. In a number of languages around the world, however, nominals and other NP constituents are also inflected for these categories. In this article we provide a comprehensive survey of tense/aspect/mood marking on NP constituents across the world's languages. Two distinct types are identified: PROPOSITIONAL, NOMINAL TAM, whereby the nominal carries TAM information relevant to the whole proposition, and INDEPENDENT NOMINAL TAM, in which the TAM information encoded on the nominal is relevant only to the NP on which it is marked - independent of the TAM of the clause as a whole. We illustrate these different types and their various properties using data from a wide range of languages showing that, while certainly unusual, the phenomenon of nominal tense/aspect/mood marking is far less marginal than is standardly assumed. Nominal TAM inflection must be accepted as a real possibility in universal grammatical structure, having significant implications for many aspects of linguistic theory

Tense Beyond the Verb: Encoding Clausal Tense/Aspect/Mood on Nominal Dependents

It is generally held that clausal temporal, aspectual and modal features, when encoded morphologically, are expressed by or on clausal heads. However nominals and modifiers within NP can also be inflected for tense, aspect and modal features interpreted with respect to the clausal predication rather than with respect to the nominal argument itself. Such nominals (and dependents within NP) therefore contribute syntactic tense, aspect and mood features to the clause, but do not themselves have syntactically active TAM features. Building on previous work we show how a simple account of this phenomenon can be given in the lexicalist, constraint-based theory of LFG. In particular, the use of inside-out function application in LFG permits us to capture directly the role of nominal morphology in defining clausal TAM properties without recourse to derivational or feature passing mechanisms

Multiple Controllers in Nominal Modification

The standard view of predicate-argument agreement in LFG is based on co-specification, such that both the target and the controller specify values of f-structure features of the controller. The same co-specificational view is generally extended to cases of NP-internal concord. For both types of agreement, a feature-sharing approach, in which the agreement features are represented in the f-structures of both the target and the controller, is also possible. Recent work by Haug & Nikitina (2012, 2015) motivates a symmetrical feature-sharing analysis in a case of long- distance agreement in which an agreement target itself operates as a controller in a further agreement domain. We argue that a feature-sharing analysis is also motivated in the analysis of a particular class of adjectivally headed nominal modifiers in Arabic in which a single agreement target reflects the intrinsic properties of two different controllers

Case stacking in realizational morphology

Case stacking, the phenomenon whereby a single word may bear multiple cases reflecting its relation to a number of different syntactic elements, is an important phenomenon both for the development of theories of inflectional morphology and for our understanding of the relation between morphology and syntax. However, to date it has received virtually no attention from theoretical morphology. Working within the inferential-realizational framework of paradigm function morphology (PFM), we provide a morphological analysis of the phenomenon of case stacking as found in the Australian Aboriginal languages Kayardild (Tangkic) and Martuthunira (Pama-Nyungan). We argue that the standard assumptions concerning morphological property sets in PFM are too weak to satisfactorily accommodate case stacking morphology, and we propose that (in some languages) the morphological property sets which define paradigm cells are structured rather than being the simple objects of the standard view. We show how this provides a comprehensive analysis of the complex case and number stacking facts and further, allows for a straightforward (although nontrivial) mapping between the morphology and the syntax as outlined in Sadler and Nordlinger (2004). © Walter de Gruyter

THE BIG MESS CONSTRUCTION

Abstract An LFG treatment is proposed for the 'Big Mess' construction in English, in which under certain circumstances adjectival expressions appear before the determiner (as in 'that big a mess'), rather than in the normal position between the determiner and noun ('a very big mess', compare '*a that big mess'). Empirically, the analysis is superior in coverage to existing treatments