Thematic Theory in Syntax and Interpretation
Title | Thematic Theory in Syntax and Interpretation PDF eBook |
Author | Robin Clark |
Publisher | Routledge |
Total Pages | 219 |
Release | 2016-11-10 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 1315519879 |
In recent years, lexical argument structure, in the guise of thematic roles, has come to play an increasingly important part in syntactic theory. The first part of this book, first published in 1990, explores the interplay between thematic role assignment and movement processes, with particular reference to the explanatory problem of nominalisation. The second part explores the relationship between thematic roles and control. Particularly close attention is paid to implicit arguments, arbitrary control and adverbs of quantification. A theory of control is presented which unifies obligatory and non-obligatory control. The theory of control, furthermore, generalises to account for the binding gaps in purposive clauses, tough movement constructions, infinitival clauses and other constructions which have typically been analysed as involving long-distance dependencies. This title will be of interest to students of linguistics.
Thematic Relations
Title | Thematic Relations PDF eBook |
Author | Wendy Wilkins |
Publisher | BRILL |
Total Pages | 322 |
Release | 2020-01-13 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9004373217 |
Thematic Relations provides information pertinent to thematic relations, which focus both on what sematic roles are expressible in the grammar and how these roles come to be associated with noun phrases. This book presents the interaction of components of the language faculty and other aspects of cognition. Organized into 13 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the semantic relations involved in verb-argument structure. This text then examines the predicate-argument representations, which have come to figure prominently in all current generative theories of syntax. Other chapters consider the generalizations about thematic relations that are most insightfully captured at the level of syntax of at the level of semantics. This book discusses as well the importance of thematic roles to the grammar. The final chapter deals with the central role of thematic roles in language comprehension. This book is a valuable resource for linguists, syntacticians, and semanticists with an active involvement in research on natural language.
The grammatical relevance of thematic roles
Title | The grammatical relevance of thematic roles PDF eBook |
Author | Dorothea Kallfass |
Publisher | GRIN Verlag |
Total Pages | 27 |
Release | 2007-01-15 |
Genre | Literary Collections |
ISBN | 3638592324 |
Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, Humboldt-University of Berlin, course: Ergativity: A Comparative Perspective, language: English, abstract: Thematic roles are a linguistic phenomenon describing the more specific relations between a predicate and its respective arguments. This is especially important in the field of language acquisition, or, more generally stated, for the process of understanding. A discussion of thematic roles is closely linked to one of the most complex questions ever: what is meaning? Thematic roles are a linguistic approach to this question which is characterized by its comparative simplicity. Still, it is a complex theory. It ist acknowledged that if you know the grammar of a language you really know this language. Since grammar takes a closer look at units of speech such as sentences, and smaller chunks of sentences, one has to come up with some strategies for interpreting these chunks and the sort of relation they have with each other in order to know grammar. Theta theory is one of these strategies, focusing on "who does what to whom in a clause". In short: a predicate is able to assign certain thematic roles to its respective arguments - we say that predicates have a thematic structure. The part of grammar whicht regulates the assignment of these roles is called theta theory. As an issue of linguistic interest, thematic roles have gained importance during the last two decades. Theta theory as part of the Government and Binding Theory will be discussed in the following chapters. First, the theory has to be localized in the field of grammar. Then, there follows a brief introduction to Noam Chomsky's current theory of principles and parameters. After these introductory sections the main issues will be addressed, for example the grammatical relevance of thematic roles, and also the question as to which extent theta marking is grammatically realized.
The Syntax of Aspect
Title | The Syntax of Aspect PDF eBook |
Author | Nomi Erteschik-Shir |
Publisher | Oxford Studies in Theoretical |
Total Pages | 348 |
Release | 2005 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9780199280438 |
This collection of new work focuses on issues at the lexicon-syntax interface. It presents innovative analyses of theoretical issues of aspectual interpretation in a variety of languages. The authors address questions such as to what extent can variation in verbal meaning, and thematic information can be determined in the syntax, and how the interpretation of various syntactic constructions is derived, once lexical information is minimized. A subset of the articles develops theories that take as their starting point the lexical-syntactic framework of the late Ken Hale and Jay Keyser, prominent among which is their own chapter.
Flexible Syntax
Title | Flexible Syntax PDF eBook |
Author | A. Neeleman |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Total Pages | 261 |
Release | 2012-12-06 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9401142890 |
Most linguistic theories assume that each grammatical relation is established in a unique structural configuration. Neeleman and Weerman take issue with this view, arguing for a more flexible approach on the basis of conceptual considerations and data taken mostly, but not exclusively, from the Germanic languages. In-depth analyses of word order phenomena as well as diachronic and typological generalizations motivate a re-evaluation of the role of case in the projection of arguments. Case is shown to provide a syntactic foothold for thematic interpretation, something which is necessary in a grammar that does not allow fixed theta-positions. Thus, this study does not only offer a genuine alternative to many standard assumptions, it also explains why there should be such a thing as case in natural language.
Thematic Structure in Syntax
Title | Thematic Structure in Syntax PDF eBook |
Author | Edwin Williams |
Publisher | MIT Press |
Total Pages | 284 |
Release | 1994 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9780262731065 |
This important monograph summarizes, rethinks, and extends a decade of the author's work on therole assignments - the ways in which the roles implied by verbs of a given type play out in terms of position and other syntactic functions. The study of theta roles and the locality of theta-role assignment leads into many interesting areas of linguistic theory, such as scope, the ECP, X-bar theory, binding theory, and the weak crossover condition; Williams's reconstruction thus offers a systematic integration of a remarkably wide range of syntactic phenomena.Williams starts by outlining a theory of the clause,specifically, of the distribution of Nominative Case and Tense. He then develops a formalism for the notion of"external argument" that is used throughout the rest of the book. Subsequent chapters review the issues surrounding the syntactic expression of the subject-predicate relationship, extend the notion of external argument to include NP movement, and reanalyze the verb movement constructions as deriving from the calculus of theta roles rather than movement.The last chapter distinguishes referential dependence and coreference, showing that a general Leftness condition governs the former, while the binding theory restated in terms of theta relations governs the latter.Edwin Williams is Professor of Linguistics at Princeton University.
An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory
Title | An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory PDF eBook |
Author | Dominique Sportiche |
Publisher | John Wiley & Sons |
Total Pages | 472 |
Release | 2013-09-30 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 1118470478 |
An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory offersbeginning students a comprehensive overview of and introduction toour current understanding of the rules and principles that governthe syntax of natural languages. Includes numerous pedagogical features such as‘practice’ boxes and sidebars, designed to facilitateunderstanding of both the ‘hows’ and the‘whys’ of sentence structure Guides readers through syntactic and morphological structuresin a progressive manner Takes the mystery out of one of the most crucial aspects of theworkings of language – the principles and processes behindthe structure of sentences Ideal for students with minimal knowledge of current syntacticresearch, it progresses in theoretical difficulty from basic ideasand theories to more complex and advanced, up to date concepts insyntactic theory