Order and structure in syntax II

376 Pages·2017·1.48 MB·English

Order and
structure in
syntax II
Subjecthood and argument structure
Edited by
Michelle Sheehan
Laura R. Bailey
language
Open Generative Syntax 2 science
press
LanguageVariation
Editors:ElenaAnagnostopoulou,MarkBaker,RobertaD’Alessandro,DavidPesetsky,Susi
Wurmbrand
Inthisseries:
1. Bailey,LauraR.&MichelleSheehan(eds.).OrderandstructureinsyntaxI:Wordorderand
syntacticstructure.
2. Sheehan,Michelle&LauraR.Bailey(eds.). OrderandstructureinsyntaxII:Subjecthood
andargumentstructure.
Order and
structure in
syntax II
Subjecthood and argument structure
Edited by
Michelle Sheehan
Laura R. Bailey
language
science
press
MichelleSheehan&LauraR.Bailey(ed.).2017.OrderandstructureinsyntaxII:
Subjecthoodandargumentstructure (OpenGenerativeSyntax2).Berlin:
LanguageSciencePress.
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ISBN:978-3-96110-028-6(Digital)
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DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1115573
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the editors and the contributors to this volume.

Contents
Introduction:Orderandstructureinsyntax
LauraR.BaileyandMichelleSheehan vii
I Papers
1 Onthesoftnessofparameters:AnexperimentonFaroese
HöskuldurThráinsson 3
2 Theroleoflocativesin(partial)pro-droplanguages
ArtemisAlexiadou&JanaynaCarvalho 41
3 Expletivesandspeaker-relatedmeaning
CiroGreco,LilianeHaegeman&TrangPhan 69
4 Places
TaraldTaraldsen 95
5 Flexibilityinsymmetry:AnimplicationalrelationinBantudouble
objectconstructions
JennekevanderWal 115
6 DefectiveinterventioneffectsintwoGreekvarietiesandtheir
implicationsforφ-incorporationasAgree
ElenaAnagnostopoulou 153
7 FirstPersonReadingsofMAN:Onsemanticandpragmatic
restrictionsonanimpersonalpronoun
VernerEgerland 179
8 Whoarewe–andwhoisI?AboutPersonandSELF
HalldórÁrmannSigurðsson 197
9 NewrolesforGender:EvidencefromArabic,Semitic,Berber,and
Romance
AbdelkaderFassiFehri 221
10 PuzzlingparasyntheticcompoundsinNorwegian
JanneBondiJohannessen 257
II Squibs
11 Ona“make-believe”argumentforCaseTheory
JonathanDavidBobaljik 277
12 Semanticcharacteristicsofrecursivecompounds
MakikoMukai 285
13 ExpletivepassivesinScandinavian–withandwithoutobjects
ElisabetEngdahl 289
14 ThenullsubjectparametermeetsthePolishimpersonal-NO/-TO
construction
MałgorzataKrzek 307
15 EllipsisinArabicfragmentanswers
AliAlgryani 319
16 AnaphoricobjectdropinChinese
PatrickChi-waiLee 329
17 Icelandicasapartialnullsubjectlanguage:Evidencefromfake
indexicals
SusiWurmbrand 339
Index 347
vi
Introduction: Order and structure in
syntax
Laura R. Bailey and Michelle Sheehan
UniversityofKentandAngliaRuskinUniversity
Hierarchicalstructureandargumentstructurearetwoofthemostpervasiveand
widelystudiedpropertiesofnaturallanguage.1 Thepapersinthissetoftwovol-
umes further explore these aspects of language from a range of perspectives,
touching on a number of fundamental issues, notably the relationship between
linear order and hierarchical structure and variation in subjecthood properties
across languages. The first volume focuses on issues of word order and its re-
lationship to structure. This second volume focuses on argument structure and
subjecthood in particular. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of
thecontentofthe10papersandsevensquibsrelatingtoargumentstructureand
subjecthood,drawingoutimportantthreadsandquestionswhichtheyraise.
Manyofthecontributionsinthisvolumedealwithsubjectsotherthancanon-
ical referential DPs, such as expletives with some referential meaning, non-DP
subjects,pronounsinpro-droplanguages,orimpersonalsubjectsofonekindor
another. Together they provide a snapshot of cross-linguistic variability in sub-
jecthood. Thráinsson’s contribution considers evidence from Faroese that the
possibilityofquirkysubjectsisparametricallyconnectedtoothersurfaceprop-
ertiesbyadeepparameter,andultimatelyarguesthatparametersmustbe‘soft’.
Greco,Haegeman&PhanconsiderthestatusofovertexpletivesinVietnamese
andwhatthisimpliesforthenullsubjectparameter.Theirexpletivesarenotlike
thecanonicalonesastheyhavesomediscoursemeaning.‘Non-expletive’exple-
tivesalsoappearinthecontributionfromAlexiadou&Carvalho,whoarguethat
locativesubjectsinsomepartialpro-droplanguagesareexpletive-like,whilein
1AllofthepapersinthisvolumewerewrittenontheoccasionofAndersHolmberg’s65thbirth-
dayinrecognitionoftheenormouscontributionhehasmadetotheseissues.
Laura R. Bailey & Michelle Sheehan. 2017. Introduction: Order and structure in
syntax. In Michelle Sheehan & Laura R. Bailey (eds.), Order and structure in syn-
tax II: Subjecthood and argument structure, vii–ix. Berlin: Language Science Press.
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1116787
LauraR.BaileyandMichelleSheehan
others they are referential. Taraldsen’s chapter also discusses locative subjects,
arguingthatthePPsubjectsfoundinNorwegianaregenuinesubjectsandmove
tocanonicalsubjectposition.Similarly,Anagnostopoulouuseshercontribution
toargueforadifferencebetweenMovementandAgree,arguingthatsomephe-
nomenawhichhavebeenarguedtoinvolveAgreeactuallyinvolvemovementof
thesubjecttoSpec,TP.
Both Egerland and Sigurðsson and the squibs from Engdahl and Krzek focus
ontheinterpretationofcertainkindsofsubjects. Sigurðssondiscussesthosein-
stancesofwethatcannotbesaidtoincludethespeaker,andarguesforaversion
ofRoss’sperformativehypothesis,similartothatdefendedbyWiltschko(vol.1).
Egerlandfocusesonfirst-personimpersonalpronounssuchasGermanmanand
Italiansiandarguesthatapluralinterpretationislexicallyspecifiedinsomelan-
guages,andmustbetheinterpretationincertaincontexts.Krzekreturnstonull
subjectlanguageswithasquibonnullimpersonalsubjectsinPolish,whileEng-
dahldiscusses expletivepassiveconstructions and (un)expectedwordorders in
theScandinavianvarieties.Wurmbrand’ssquibfocusesonthestatusofIcelandic
in relation to the null subject parameter. Based on the behaviour of fake index-
icals, she argues that Icelandic is indeed a partial null subject language, despite
itsexceptionalbehaviourincertainrespects.
A number of the contributions focus on object arguments rather than sub-
jects.VanderWalpresentsdatafromBantulanguagesandshowsthattheydiffer
withrespecttotheirsymmetryandcase-licensingpropertiesinditransitivecon-
structions. She further proposes a novel implicational hierarchy to capture the
observedpatternsandprovidesaformalizationofthisintermsofsensitivityto
topicality.ItistheabsenceofditransitivesthatfuelsBobaljik’ssquib,ashenotes
that Icelandic does not allow ECM distransitives despite lacking the adjacency
condition supposed to ban them. This in turn means that Case Theory cannot
explain this systematic gap. Lee’s squib deals with object drop in Chinese, and
returnstothethemeofnon-specificargumentswithindefiniteantecedents. Al-
gryanicombinesthethemesofellipsisandanswerstoquestionswithaproposal
forfragmentanswersinArabic.FassiFehrifocusesontheroleofgenderfeatures
onallarguments,arguingthatacombinationofpropertiesmeansthatgenderhas
arangeofmeaningsincludingdiminutiveandevaluative,amongothers.
Lastly, two of the squibs are about the properties of compounds: recursive
onesinthecaseofMukai,whileJohannessendiscussestheclassofparasynthetic
compounds in Norwegian of the type brown-eyed, whose heads do not surface
aloneasadjectives.
viii