Lexical-Functional Syntax

533 Pages·2015·10.264 MB·English

by  Joan Bresnan, Ash Asudeh, Ida Toivonen, Stephen Wechsler

LEXICAL-FUNCTIONAL
SYNTAX
JOAN BRESNAN, ASH ASUDEH,
IDA TOIVONEN AND STEPHEN WECHSLER
SECOND EDITION

Lexical-Functional Syntax
Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics
Thebooksincludedinthisseriesprovidecomprehensiveaccountsofsomeofthe
mostcentralandmostrapidlydevelopingareasofresearchinlinguistics.Intended
primarilyforintroductoryandpost-introductorystudents,theyincludeexercises,
discussionpointsandsuggestionsforfurtherreading.
1. Liliane Haegeman,Introduction to Government and Binding Theory (Sec-
ondEdition)
2. AndrewSpencer,MorphologicalTheory
3. HelenGoodluck,LanguageAcquisition
4. RonaldWardhaughandJanetM.Fuller,AnIntroductiontoSociolinguistics
(SeventhEdition)
5. MartinAtkinson,Children’sSyntax
6. DianeBlakemore,UnderstandingUtterances
7. MichaelKenstowicz,PhonologyinGenerativeGrammar
8. DeborahSchiffrin,ApproachestoDiscourse
9. John Clark,Colin Yallop,and Janet Fletcher,An Introduction to Phonetics
andPhonology(ThirdEdition)
10. NatsukoTsujimura,AnIntroductiontoJapaneseLinguistics(ThirdEdition)
11. RobertD.Borsley,ModernPhraseStructureGrammar
12. NigelFabb,LinguisticsandLiterature
13. IreneHeimandAngelikaKratzer,SemanticsinGenerativeGrammar
14. LilianeHaegemanandJacquelineGue´ron,EnglishGrammar:AGenerative
Perspective
15. StephenCrainandDianeLillo-Martin,AnIntroductiontoLinguisticTheory
andLanguageAcquisition
16. Joan Bresnan, Ash Asudeh, Ida Toivonen and Stephen Wechsler, Lexical-
FunctionalSyntax(SecondEdition)
17. BarbaraA.Fennell,AHistoryofEnglish:ASociolinguisticApproach
18. HenryRogers,WritingSystems:ALinguisticApproach
19. Benjamin W.Fortson IV,Indo-European Language and Culture: An Intro-
duction(SecondEdition)
20. Liliane Haegeman,Thinking Syntactically: A Guide to Argumentation and
Analysis
21. MarkHale,HistoricalLinguistics:TheoryandMethod
22. Henning Reetz and Allard Jongman,Phonetics: Transcription,Production,
AcousticsandPerception
23. BruceHayes,IntroductoryPhonology
24. BettyJ.Birner,IntroductiontoPragmatics
25. RonaldWardhaughandJanetM.Fuller,AnIntroductiontoSociolinguistics
Lexical-Functional Syntax
Second Edition
Joan Bresnan
Stanford University
Ash Asudeh
University of Oxford & Carleton University
Ida Toivonen
Carleton University
Stephen Wechsler
The University of Texas at Austin
Thissecondeditionfirstpublished2016
©2016JoanBresnan,AshAsudeh,IdaToivonen,andStephenWechsler
EditionHistory:BlackwellPublishersLtd(1e,2001)
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bresnan,Joan,author.
Lexical-functionalsyntax/JoanBresnan.–Secondedition.
pagescm.–(Blackwelltextbooksinlinguistics)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-4051-8781-7(paperback)
1.Grammar,Comparativeandgeneral–Syntax. 2.Lexical-functionalgrammar. I.Title.
P291.B7262015
415–dc23
2015006866
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
Coverimage:©dpaint/Shutterstock
Setin10/13ptSabonbyAptaraInc.,NewDelhi,India
1 2016
Contents
PrefacetotheFirstEdition xi
PrefacetotheSecondEdition xv
Acknowledgments xvii
I MotivationfortheLFGArchitecture 1
1 Nonconfigurationality 3
Furtherreading 10
2 MovementParadoxes 11
2.1 Theoreticalassumptions 15
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 19
3 LexicalityandArgumentStructure 21
3.1 Twoapproachestopassiverelationchanges 21
3.2 Thelexicalityofrelationchanges 23
3.2.1 Englishpassiveverbforms 24
3.2.2 Adjectivesversusverbs 24
3.2.3 Participle–adjectiveconversion 25
3.2.4 Passiveparticiplesconverttoadjectives 25
3.2.5 Differencesbetweenadjectivalandverbalpassives
explained 27
3.2.6 Differencesbetweenadjectivalandverbalpassives
unexplained 28
3.2.7 Conclusion:passivizationislexical 32
3.3 Passivizationwithandwithoutmovement 32
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 36
II FormallyModelingtheArchitecture 39
4 AFormalModelofSyntacticStructure 41
4.1 Designprinciples 41
4.1.1 PrincipleI:variability 41
4.1.2 PrincipleII:universality 42
4.1.3 PrincipleIII:monotonicity 43
vi Contents
4.2 Thedefinitionoff-structures 44
4.3 Thedescriptionoff-structures 46
4.4 Thecorrespondencebetweenc-andf-structures 48
4.5 Thesolutionalgorithm 54
Problems 58
4.6 Definingversusconstrainingequations 59
4.7 Completenessandcoherence 62
Problems 63
4.8 Functionaluncertainty 63
4.9 Setsoff-structures 70
4.10 Conclusion 71
Furtherreading 72
5 MonotonicityandSomeofItsConsequences 73
5.1 Monotonicity 73
5.2 Relationchangesandmonotonicity 76
5.3 Informationandform 79
5.3.1 Thefragmentabilityoflanguage 79
5.3.2 Thenonconfigurationalityoflanguage 82
5.3.3 Apparentinformationflowthroughexternalstructure 83
5.3.4 Noncompositionality 84
5.4 Conclusion 85
III InflectionalMorphologyandPhraseStructureVariation 87
6 ATheoryofStructure–FunctionMappings 89
6.1 Grammaticalfunctions 94
6.1.1 Basicsofgrammaticalfunctions 94
6.1.2 Classificationofgrammaticalfunctions 100
6.2 Theorganizationofc-structurecategories 101
6.2.1 EndocentricityandX′ structures 101
6.2.2 Endocentricmappingtof-structure 104
Problems 111
6.3 Exocentriccategories 112
6.3.1 LexocentricityandS 112
6.3.2 Sandendocentricity 115
6.3.3 Nonprojectingwords 116
6.3.4 Summaryofthestructure–functionprinciples 117
6.4 Towardatypology 118
6.5 Effectsofeconomyofexpression 119
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 124
Appendix:X′ theory 125
Contents vii
7 EndocentricityandHeads 129
7.1 Headmobility 129
7.1.1 VerborderinWelsh 130
7.2 Endocentricityandextendedheads 135
7.3 Distributedexponence 138
7.3.1 Wambayac-structure 139
7.3.2 TheWambayatensesystem 144
7.4 Conclusion 146
Problems 147
Exercise 147
8 PronounIncorporationandAgreement 151
8.1 Chichewˆa 157
8.1.1 Wordorder 161
8.1.2 Independentpronouns 162
8.1.3 Contrastivefocus 164
8.1.4 Interrogativesandrelatives 165
8.1.5 Othersyntacticandphonologicaldifferences 166
8.1.6 Functionalambiguityofsubjectandtopic 167
8.2 Navajo 171
Exercise1 180
Exercise2 180
8.3 PlainsCreeandinverseagreement 182
Exercise3 185
Problems 186
8.4 Twotypesofagreement:indexandconcord 186
Exercise4 192
8.5 Conclusion 192
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 193
9 TopicalizationandScrambling 196
9.1 Englishtopicalization 196
9.2 Russiantopicalization 199
9.3 Economyofexpression 205
Problems 207
9.4 Topicalizationversusscrambling 207
9.5 Detectingemptycategories 210
Exercise 223
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 223
Thecrossovereffect 223
Twotypesofnullpronominals 224
Generalizationtooperatorcomplexes 225
Otherfactors 226
viii Contents
IV OnFunctionalStructures:Binding,Predication,andControl 227
10 BasicBindingTheory 229
10.1 Basicconcepts 229
10.2 Atoybindingtheory 231
10.3 PrincipleC 239
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 246
10.4 Formalizationofthebindingconstraints 247
11 TypesofBoundAnaphors 254
11.1 Dimensionsofanaphoricbinding 254
11.2 Icelandic:subjectiveandanti-subjectivepronouns 256
11.3 Norwegian:subjective/nuclearpronouns 259
11.4 Logophoricityversussubjectivity 261
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 273
11.5 Thetypologyofreflexivesandtheoriginsofnuclearity 275
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 283
11.6 Formalization 284
12 PredicationRelations 286
12.1 Predicatecomplementsversusadjuncts 286
12.2 F-structuresofxcomps 289
Exercise1 295
Exercise2 295
12.3 F-structureofPPcomplements 295
12.4 C-structureofpredicatecomplements 301
12.5 Raising 304
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 307
13 AnaphoricControl 309
13.1 GerundiveversusparticipialVPsinEnglish 309
13.2 StructureofgerundiveVPs 311
13.3 Anaphoriccontrolversusfunctionalcontrol 319
13.4 Conclusion 323
Problems 323
Furtherreadinganddiscussion 323
14 FromArgumentStructuretoFunctionalStructure 324
14.1 Whatisargumentstructure? 326
14.2 Thetheoryofa-structures 329
14.3 Mappinga-structurestosyntacticfunctions 333
14.4 Examplesandconsequences 334
14.4.1 Unaccusatives 334
14.4.2 Resultatives 336
14.4.3 “Fake”reflexivesand“nonsubcategorizedobjects” 336
14.4.4 Wordorderofinternal/externalarguments 337