Periphrastic constructions in related and well-studied languages such as English, German, and French exhibit significant diversity in their syntactic structure. In English the main verb combines with its complements first, whereas in German the main verb combines with the auxiliary first. French demonstrates that it is possible to have diversity even within one language. Two periphrastic tenses in French — the perfect and the near future — correspond to two distinct phrase structure configurations. This chapter argues that different syntactic configurations show the same level of paradigm integration in the relevant language, and thus the theory of periphrasis should not depend on the particular phrase structure. It presents a formal account for the phrase-structural diversity of periphrases using Paradigm Function Morphology as the inflectional component for an HPSG account.
The Southern Double Object Construction, a regular form in Southern vernacular varieties of American English, is well attested. Among speakers of Southern Vernacular English, its use is not stigmatized, and it appears that it can be exchanged variably with its mainstream English approximate, the “self” reflexive (e.g., Sheiwent to the store to get herisome candy vs. Sheiwent to the store to get herselfisome candy). In this article, we contextualize the Southern Double Object Construction within the scope of syntactic literature on double object constructions. We contend that although syntactic theories, such as the Principles and Parameters model, can explain Southern Double Object Constructions in general terms, they overlook idiosyncratic, language-specific properties that we argue, like Fillmore, Kay, and O'Connor (1988), constitute theoretically important information essential to evaluation of a grammar.
This article discusses the English construction variously known as Locative Inversion or Stylistic Inversion. It shows that the construction displays a unique ensemble of grammatical and usage properties that can be stated but not motivated through purely grammatical means. In search of an explanatory approach, an analysis is presented that draws on concepts of Artificial Intelligence, in particular plans viewed as complex mental attitudes. It is claimed that utterances of Locative Inversion are associated with a particular communicative plan on the speaker's part that motivates the grammatical and usage properties of the construction where grammar alone cannot. The final section of the article presents corpus examples showing that LocativeInversion is indeed used in the contexts predicted by the plan associated with the construction. This result is both theoretically and methodologically significant, insofar as it constitutes a case where the grammatical properties of a syntactic construction are better explained through its typical conditions of use than through grammatical means proper.
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