Abstract:This paper deals with the syntax of afterthoughts in Greek under a parsing-oriented perspective. The main claim is that afterthoughts can receive a straightforward explanation once we make the assumption that afterthoughts can be seen as answers to implicit questions. A formal syntactic account based on this assumption is put forth, and its ability to deal with gender mismatches exhibited in Greek afterthoughts is shown. Afterthoughts are further discussed in a more general perspective, arguing that once we tu… Show more
“…The derivation involves double articulation of the LINK transition, both through its initial articulation taken up by shi and subsequent final co‐articulation by de of the very same transition (in reverse order of domination), the processing of de serving to confirm that relation, hence yielding the rhetorical effect of the expression immediately following shi as an isolate, to be subject to non‐canonical interpretation. Spelling out these steps, the first step is to initiate a LINK Topic strategy with its attendant metavariable WH securing the required sharing of terms in anticipation of their precise value, trading on the cross‐tree expressive potential of that metavariable (broadly following Chatzikyriakidis ): …”
Section: Constructing Chinese Cleft Construalsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This leaves the provision of interpretation to the object argument node, lexically projected as a metavariable. Two choices are possible: either its value is taken to be provided indexically from previous context despite the presence of the final‐placed object expression; or that lexically induced metavariable may be substituted by a WH metavariable, following the Chatzikyriakidis route as before (Chatzikyriakidis ), thereby licensing its identification from the structure that subsequently unfolds. On either of these options, an overall interpretation of the clausal sequence as projecting a suitably typed proposition becomes possible.…”
Section: Constructing Chinese Cleft Construalsmentioning
This paper addresses the challenge of Chinese cleft structures, involving a pairing of the particles shi and de, which in different combinations display a variety of focus-related effects and different potentials for ambiguity: clefts and pseudo-clefts in particular differ only in order of the elements. We argue that retaining conventional assumptions necessarily involves positing unrelated structures and multiple ambiguities, leaving the systematicity of variation unexplained; and we go on to argue that it is only by turning to a dynamic framework in which syntax is defined as mechanisms for incremental build-up of interpretation that an integrated characterisation of these effects is made possible. Adopting the Dynamic Syntax framework (Cann et al 2005), we argue that shi and de induce procedures for incremental build-up of construal which feed and can be fed by other such procedures; and we show how the array of effects both in clefts and pseudo-clefts can be shown to follow from the dynamics of building up interpretation reflecting online processing. What Zhangsan bought were books [pseudo-cleft] the book(s) which Zhangsan bought [relative-modified NP]All of these are understood as cleft structures, with (1e) and (1f) having in addition alternative interpretations; and previous analyses have proposed distinct structures for the distinct wordsequences, invoking multiple homonymy. We will argue to the contrary, that these constructions and their interpretation should be explained in terms of how interpretation is progressively built up from the words uttered, with shi and de determining how incrementally that process takes place. On this account (broadly following that of Kempson et al. 2011;Seraku 2013), the difference between the various types of construal emerges from the different order in which structure is built up. Shi, we will argue, is a specialised demonstrative anticipating an update effect provided by the constituent following it. De, we will argue, is also a specialised anaphoric element whose task is to confirm the completion of this update effect. Upon our analysis, this de is the same de which marks the final position of relative clauses, which canonically precede the head. These two particles together will then be seen to interact in ways reflecting their variant orders to yield the different interpretations. The presentation will be informal throughout. Nonetheless, we shall demonstrate, at least in principle, how and why an integrated account of this range of constructions is made possible by adopting a dynamic procedural perspective.
PREVIOUS STUDIES
shiShi as a lexical item first occurred in Archaic Chinese (around 1200 BC to 220 AD) as a demonstrative pronoun (Zhao 1989). During the transition from Archaic Chinese to Middle Chinese (220 AD to 1279 AD), shi is however said to have developed into an assertive or copula verb, at least partly because such a use of shi is associated with the meaning of making an assertion (Xiao 2006). According to Xiao (2006), it was in the early Song dynasty...
“…The derivation involves double articulation of the LINK transition, both through its initial articulation taken up by shi and subsequent final co‐articulation by de of the very same transition (in reverse order of domination), the processing of de serving to confirm that relation, hence yielding the rhetorical effect of the expression immediately following shi as an isolate, to be subject to non‐canonical interpretation. Spelling out these steps, the first step is to initiate a LINK Topic strategy with its attendant metavariable WH securing the required sharing of terms in anticipation of their precise value, trading on the cross‐tree expressive potential of that metavariable (broadly following Chatzikyriakidis ): …”
Section: Constructing Chinese Cleft Construalsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This leaves the provision of interpretation to the object argument node, lexically projected as a metavariable. Two choices are possible: either its value is taken to be provided indexically from previous context despite the presence of the final‐placed object expression; or that lexically induced metavariable may be substituted by a WH metavariable, following the Chatzikyriakidis route as before (Chatzikyriakidis ), thereby licensing its identification from the structure that subsequently unfolds. On either of these options, an overall interpretation of the clausal sequence as projecting a suitably typed proposition becomes possible.…”
Section: Constructing Chinese Cleft Construalsmentioning
This paper addresses the challenge of Chinese cleft structures, involving a pairing of the particles shi and de, which in different combinations display a variety of focus-related effects and different potentials for ambiguity: clefts and pseudo-clefts in particular differ only in order of the elements. We argue that retaining conventional assumptions necessarily involves positing unrelated structures and multiple ambiguities, leaving the systematicity of variation unexplained; and we go on to argue that it is only by turning to a dynamic framework in which syntax is defined as mechanisms for incremental build-up of interpretation that an integrated characterisation of these effects is made possible. Adopting the Dynamic Syntax framework (Cann et al 2005), we argue that shi and de induce procedures for incremental build-up of construal which feed and can be fed by other such procedures; and we show how the array of effects both in clefts and pseudo-clefts can be shown to follow from the dynamics of building up interpretation reflecting online processing. What Zhangsan bought were books [pseudo-cleft] the book(s) which Zhangsan bought [relative-modified NP]All of these are understood as cleft structures, with (1e) and (1f) having in addition alternative interpretations; and previous analyses have proposed distinct structures for the distinct wordsequences, invoking multiple homonymy. We will argue to the contrary, that these constructions and their interpretation should be explained in terms of how interpretation is progressively built up from the words uttered, with shi and de determining how incrementally that process takes place. On this account (broadly following that of Kempson et al. 2011;Seraku 2013), the difference between the various types of construal emerges from the different order in which structure is built up. Shi, we will argue, is a specialised demonstrative anticipating an update effect provided by the constituent following it. De, we will argue, is also a specialised anaphoric element whose task is to confirm the completion of this update effect. Upon our analysis, this de is the same de which marks the final position of relative clauses, which canonically precede the head. These two particles together will then be seen to interact in ways reflecting their variant orders to yield the different interpretations. The presentation will be informal throughout. Nonetheless, we shall demonstrate, at least in principle, how and why an integrated account of this range of constructions is made possible by adopting a dynamic procedural perspective.
PREVIOUS STUDIES
shiShi as a lexical item first occurred in Archaic Chinese (around 1200 BC to 220 AD) as a demonstrative pronoun (Zhao 1989). During the transition from Archaic Chinese to Middle Chinese (220 AD to 1279 AD), shi is however said to have developed into an assertive or copula verb, at least partly because such a use of shi is associated with the meaning of making an assertion (Xiao 2006). According to Xiao (2006), it was in the early Song dynasty...
“…Like him, we remain open on the issue of whether such representationalism may turn out to be ultimately eliminable. 8 For example,Kempson and Kiaer (2010) for Korean multiple scrambling,Gregoromichelaki (2013b) andChatzikyriakidis (2010Chatzikyriakidis ( , 2012Chatzikyriakidis ( , 2017 for various clitic related phenomena in Greek and dialects ofGreek, Bouzouita (2008) for the diachrony of the Spanish clitic system, Cann (2011) for idiosyncracies of the English auxiliary system, Cann and Wu (2011) for idiosyncracies in Chinese passive forms,Sehraku (2013) on Japanese clefts and the restricted optionality of case marking,Gibson (2015) for idiosyncratic left-peripheral word orderings in Rangi, a typologically exceptional Bantu language.…”
First of all we would like to thank the commentators for their efforts that resulted in thoughtful and significant comments about our account. 1 We are delighted that the main thesis we presentedthe inclusion of interactive language use within the remit of grammarsseems to have received an unexpected consensus from such diverse perspectives. As each commentary deserves a more detailed consideration than space limitations would allow here, we will aim to address the most urgent issues and clarify what we see as misunderstandings.
This paper presents a novel, Dynamic Syntax-based approach to the phenomenon of differential object marking in Kazakh, which can be extended at least to other Turkic languages displaying this phenomenon. It is demonstrated that the difference in the pragmatics associated with marked and unmarked direct objects, as well as the syntactic restrictions on the positioning of unmarked direct objects, can be elegantly and succinctly explicated through the application of the notions of fixed and unfixed nodes, without the need for proposing special syntactic positions or additional pragmatics for the accusative case.
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