Linguistic Variation - Online First

This 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.

The 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.

As 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).

This 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.

This 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.

We 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/EdinburghMeaning​Sciences/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.

Ewe (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.