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Linguistic Variation - Online First
Online First articles are the published Version of Record, made available as soon as they are finalized and formatted. They are in general accessible to current subscribers, until they have been included in an issue, which is accessible to subscribers to the relevant volume
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Labeling nominal phrases in Mandarin Chinese
Author(s): Xiangyu Li and Victor Junnan PanAvailable online: 05 June 2025More LessAbstractIn this paper, we examine the distribution and syntactic properties of two types of nominal modifiers in Mandarin Chinese: de-less modifiers and deP-modifiers. This paper proposes a model for labeling nominal phrases, including relative clauses treated as deP-modifiers. These nominal modifiers exhibit distinct syntactic properties. Under a framework based on labeling, deP-modifiers are analyzed as being merged into a labeled structure, whereas de-less modifiers give rise to an unlabeled structure. Adhering to Labeling Algorithm, our model systematically derives several basic nominal structures in Chinese. In terms of labeling a phrase-phrase merge, feature-sharing may occur between two matched unvalued features. Moreover, we also address ungrammatical sequences in Chinese nominals, ascribing them to either labeling failures or Antilocality. Considering the implications of Antilocality in the derivation, this model suggests a universal syntactic D-layer in Chinese nominals.
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On the nature of FormSet
Author(s): Sandiway Fong and Masayuki OishiAvailable online: 13 May 2025More LessAbstractFormSet, proposed by Chomsky (2021), is one of two primitive set formation operations on Workspace items in the theory of I-Language, the other primitive is Merge. In this paper, we investigate the particular properties of FormSet, distinct from Merge, across phenomena in the noun phrase and verb phrase domains. In particular, Workspace items input to FormSet must be a coherent collection of items that obey natural conditions on parallelism. We define what parallelism means, both in terms of pre-conditions for FormSet, and as conditions on subsequent operations such as Merge applying to a set built by FormSet. In doing so, we obtain new, yet simple analyses for classic data in accordance with the Strong Minimalist Thesis (SMT).
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A feature-based approach to nominal predicates
Author(s): Liu YangAvailable online: 02 May 2025More LessAbstractThis article proposes a feature-based model to derive nominal predicates. I take the position that nouns denote abstract properties and can enter the derivation readily being definite via bearing uniqueness presuppositions. The countability feature [+Count] on the classifier turns abstract properties into countable atoms. The quantifying force [+/−Quant] on the numeral head (for the case of English) either creates set-memberships and formalises indefinite predicates or performs a Max function that does not alter the number of its complement and formalises definite predicates. The morphemes that are traditionally associated with D, i.e., the, a, -s (Abbott 2006 i.a.) are formal results of feature checking. These features also successfully derive superlatives and weak definites in English and capture the major facts in Mandarin Chinese with variations in allocation and lexically endorsed specifications. Consequently, D is disassociated from introducing (in)definiteness and is reduced to a pure type-shifter with zero lexical exponents.
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A simpler analysis of English negation (and the Bulgarian definite marker)
Author(s): Benjamin BrueningAvailable online: 28 April 2025More LessAbstractI propose a maximally simple analysis of English negation in which both not and n’t are adjuncts. Not is a phrasal adjunct that can attach to any category, while n’t is a head adjunct that strictly selects the category AuxV. I show that this proposal captures all the facts of English negation, without needing a NegP or even multiple NegPs, as other recent work proposes (e.g., Thoms et al. 2023). There is also no need for a distinction between sentential negation and constituent negation. Do-support follows from the same mechanisms as insertion of auxiliaries generally. I also extend the analysis of n’t to the definite marker in Bulgarian, and show that it accounts for the placement of this element without the need for post-syntactic mechanisms (as in, e.g., Adamson 2022). Crucial to the proposal is the idea that the syntax is built top-down or left-to-right rather than bottom-up as in most approaches.
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Revisiting diachronic change in the nominal domain from Latin to modern Romance
Author(s): Andreas BlümelAvailable online: 22 April 2025More LessAbstractThe intuition behind this offering is classical and familiar (cf. Schwegler 1990): morphological richness of nominal inflection underlies the possibility of Left Branch Extraction in Latin (traditionally called hyperbaton) while the loss of morphological richness of nominal inflection yielded the Left Branch Condition that characterizes modern Romance. Specifically, analogous to the notion “strong” and “weak T” in Chomsky 2015, I here adopt the Nominal Strength Parameter (Blümel 2024), a new instantiation of the classical Borer-Chomsky conjecture which localizes syntactic variation in properties of functional heads. It states that the functional nominalizing head n (cf. Borer 2005) comes in two kinds for the purposes of identification of a category label — strong and weak. These two lexical values morphologically correlate with rich (gender, number and case) noun inflection on the one hand, and poor noun inflection on the other. Crucially, the analysis unifies the mentioned syntactic properties pertaining to the distribution of determiner categories with their optionality in Latin and their obligatoriness in modern Romance (cf. e.g. Longobardi 1994 on Italian). This paper makes the novel proposal that the relevant diachronic change in the nominal domain involved a resetting of the value of n from strong to weak.
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Revisiting the freezing principle : Minimal search-free merge and form copy
Author(s): Nobu Goto and Toru IshiiAvailable online: 21 April 2025More LessAbstractThe goal of this paper is to provide an explanation for both the freezing principle and its exceptions in the framework of Chomsky (2021). In pursuit of the goal, we first review some basic assumptions about Search and Merge in Chomsky (2021), and then introduce the Minimal Search-free Merge Hypothesis, a hypothesis that is proposed by Goto and Ishii (2024). It is shown that Minimal Search-free Merge Hypothesis not only presses forward Chomsky’s (2013, 2015, 2021) free Merge hypothesis but also provides empirical advantages over Chomsky’s approach to Search and Merge, arguing that the freezing principle follows from Binarity. We then review Chomsky’s Form Copy analysis of A-positions and elaborate it by extending it to A’-positions, arguing that the exceptions to the freezing principle follow from Form Copy. We also discuss some consequences of the Form Copy analysis, i.e., traditional criterial freezing effects and crosslinguistic variation with left branch extraction.
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The analysis of rightmost focus is alive and kicking : Evidence from Arabic
Author(s): Ali AlzayidAvailable online: 08 April 2025More LessAbstractAs far back as Cecchetto (1999), Villalba (2000) and Belletti (2001, 2004), the low IP area has gained prominence in the literature. In this article we show that right dislocation in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), qua an information-structural configuration, is counterintuitive to the argument that there is a discursive area sandwiched between IP and vP, and in favour of a clause-external analysis which locates right-dislocated phrases IP-externally. This claim is based on inspecting the properties of right dislocated elements in MSA relative to binding under Condition C, licensing negative polarity items, agreement alternation and wide focus. Crucially, the IP-external analysis of right dislocation, as a consequence, proves to present a unified account of focus in MSA, where we maintain that the apparent complexity and diversity of focus in this language is illusory, and epiphenomenal, emerging from the interaction of focus expressions and right dislocation — to wit, focalization in MSA occurs in situ, specifically in the rightmost position, with string-initial focus and string-medial focus being taken to be a reflex of an interfering right dislocation process targeting an IP-external position. The resulting outcome thus strongly lends support to Samek-Lodovici’s (2006) model of a focus-less split CP, gives evidence that the rightmost analysis of focus (Zubizarreta 1998; Büring 2001; Dehé 2005; Samek-Lodovici 2006, 2015) cover historically unrelated languages, and likewise casts a shadow of doubt on the viability of the cartographic approach to MSA à la Ouhalla (1994a, 1997) and Shlonsky (2000).
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On (partially) quirky subjects, numeral subjects, and subject-oriented anaphor binding : Nominal and non-nominal subjects and their structural positions
Author(s): Željko BoškovićAvailable online: 20 March 2025More LessAbstractI examine certain quirky subjects that pass some but not all subjecthood tests, arguing they are PPs, located in a higher subject position than fully quirky subjects and agreeing subjects, in line with Bošković (2024), where non-nominal subjects satisfy the EPP in a higher position than nominal subjects. Regarding subject-oriented anaphors, in principle the element in any of the three positions where the EPP is satisfied in Bošković (2024a) and the element in SpecvP can bind them, the closest subject being the binder when more than one is present. However, the binder must be nominal, which is not the case with non-subject-oriented anaphors. I also examine Slavic numeral subjects (where the noun bears genitive), which show complex behavior regarding agreement, case, and binding, the main claim being that with some numeral phrases (agreeing numeral subjects in Russian and non-agreeing ones in Serbo-Croatian), a null noun is present and assigns genitive.
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The form and force of Kirundi exclamatives
Author(s): Willie MyersAvailable online: 24 February 2025More LessAbstractThis paper examines the syntax and semantics of two types of exclamatives in Kirundi: property exclamatives, which express surprise at the extreme degree of some property of an entity, and proposition exclamatives, which express surprise at a proposition’s truth. Though most languages have canonical clause types for declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives, only some further distinguish exclamatives (Sadock & Zwicky 1985). Drawing on fieldwork, I argue that the form and force of Kirundi exclamatives motivates their recognition as a true clause type. Notably, Kirundi exclamatives satisfy semantic criteria for exclamativity but take a unique form, lacking overt wh- and/or degree morphology. I propose a constructional account, in the spirit of Zanuttini & Portner 2003, in which exclamativity arises as the result of interaction between syntactic elements linked to factivity, general interrogative force, and focus. This paper has implications for exclamative typology and the analysis of illocutionary force at the syntax-semantics interface.
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Predicate nominals in Tshila
Author(s): John David StormentAvailable online: 24 February 2025More LessAbstractTshila /tshílà/ is a Kalahari Khoe language spoken in central-southeastern Botswana by approximately 300 people (Schwab & Collins 2024). It is an SOV language. Tshila has a copular predicate nominal construction with the word order [Noun Noun COP]. The nouns in this language can vary in size according to factors such as the projection of phi-feature morphology and the presence of constituent negation and focus. Also possible in Tshila is predicate inversion. The interaction of the size of the DPs along with the presence of inversion shows interesting constraints on nominative Case assignment and phi-agreement. The analysis of this construction supports a universal hierarchy of phi-features (Harley & Ritter 2002; Béjar 2003), not only within nominals but also on phi-probes. This analysis unifies Case assignment and phi-agreement as a single operation (Chomsky 2000; 2001; Platzack 2006; Legate 2008; Georgi 2017), which supports the view that Case assignment is not postsyntactic.
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The emergence of clausal nominalizations in Laz
Author(s): Ömer Demirok and Balkız ÖztürkAvailable online: 19 September 2024More LessAbstractThis paper presents a survey of complementation strategies that are employed in Pazar and Ardesheni dialects of Laz, an endangered South Caucasian language that has been in contact with Turkish for decades. Our survey reveals strong signatures of contact in that nominalization patterns not present in cognate systems but present in Turkish seem to have been transferred into Laz. An intriguing asymmetry concerning the two dialects is that the Turkish noninalization pattern seems to have been directly copied into Pazar Laz whereas Ardesheni Laz seems to have developed a novel complementation pattern that mixes finite complementation with nominalization. Furthermore, in both dialects, complement clauses that denote propositions remain untouched by the dominant nominalization strategy in Turkish, raising questions on grammatical asymmetries in susceptibility to contact effects.
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The emergence of vowel harmony in Armenian dialects : Turkic influence, endogeny, or both?
Author(s): Elizabeth Hopkins and Bert VauxAvailable online: 27 August 2024More LessAbstractWe find vowel harmony systems in many non-standard varieties of modern Armenian. It has been speculated that these may have acquired vowel harmony due to contact with Turkic varieties (Scala 2018). On the basis of an exploration of the synchrony and typology of Armenian vowel harmony, consideration of historical changes that could have caused harmony to develop, and evaluation of new data bearing on the origins of backness and rounding harmony in Oghuz, we propose that the vowel harmony systems of the modern Armenian dialects show evidence of having been influenced by Turkish, but the numerous differences between Armenian and Turkish vowel harmony point against a straightforward copying of the Turkish phonological system. We theorize that vowel harmony in Armenian arose due to a combination of language-internal and ‑external factors: vowel shifts in some Armenian dialects, alongside universal analytic and channel biases, provided the necessary preconditions for the development of vowel harmony by the 11th century AD, prior to the arrival of Turkic speakers in the Armenian homeland. Extensive contact with Turkic vowel systems may then have encouraged the phonologization of this assimilation process, but in strikingly different ways than are found in Turkic languages.
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Cross-linguistic dataset of force-flavor combinations in modal elements
Author(s): Wataru Uegaki, Anne Mucha, Ella Hannon, James Engels and Fred WhibleyAvailable online: 08 August 2024More LessAbstractWe present a cross-linguistic dataset of force-flavor combinations in modal elements, which currently contains information on modal semantics in 24 languages and is accessible at https://github.com/EdinburghMeaningSciences/modals_database. We discuss theoretical motivations for constructing the dataset, the data collection methodology, as well as the design and the format of the dataset. We also present four case studies using the data: (i) assessment of cross-linguistic generalizations on force/flavor variability; (ii) exploration of generalizations in the lexicalization of negative modality; (iii) investigation of the typology of the morphological encoding of modal strength; and (iv) examination of how future contributes to modality. These case studies illustrate that the dataset supports in-depth assessment of potential cross-linguistic generalizations as well as theory-informed investigations of cross-linguistic variations in modal semantics.
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Emergence of differential object marking in Asia Minor Greek : A computational approach to language change
Author(s): Ümit Atlamaz and Metin BagriacikAvailable online: 17 May 2024More LessAbstractThis paper investigates the emergence of differential object marking (DOM) in the Asia Minor Greek dialect of Pharasa (PhG) under contact with Turkish. We show that DOM in Turkish and PhG are both instances of structural accusative case and DOM can be formally modeled as context sensitive dependent case. We propose that two factors caused the emergence of DOM in PhG, namely (i) case neutralization in indefinite contexts, and (ii) an increase in the number of V-NP idioms borrowed from Turkish where the NP is in bare form. These perturbations led to a significant change in the overall data created by the community resulting in mixed input for the younger generations. Once the amount of bare NPs passed a certain threshold, a divergent grammar became inevitable. We test our proposal using an abductive generalization learning algorithm based on the Tolerance Principle and running a number of simulations. Our simulation results confirm our hypothesis.
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Deriving Ewe (Tongugbe) nyá-constructions
Author(s): Selikem GotahAvailable online: 17 May 2024More LessAbstractEwe (Kwa, Niger-Congo) has a construction known in the literature as the nyá-construction (Ameka 1991, 2005a; Collins 1993; Duthie 1996; Adjei 2014). The logical internal argument of the construction occurs in subject position and the logical external argument is either absent on the surface or represented in the construction as a for-PP. In this paper, I consider the syntax of the Ewe nyá-construction, exploring data from the Tongugbe dialect. I show that the nyá-construction shares properties with English middles. I demonstrate that the agent or experiencer for-PP that may occur in the nyá -construction is its external argument, projected in Spec vP. Further, I argue that even if the for-PP is not overtly realized, it is syntactically projected in Spec vP, contrary to theories like Bruening 2013. The analysis I put forward provides support for the Theta-Criterion, which forces all arguments to be syntactically projected.
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A typology of Bantu subject inversion
Author(s): Lutz Marten and Jenneke van der Wal
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Unspeakable sentences
Author(s): Liliane Haegeman
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