UID:
almafu_9959239551902883
Format:
1 online resource (471 pages) :
,
illustrations
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
0-262-33614-6
,
0-262-33613-8
Content:
A wide-ranging generative analysis of the typology of possession sentences, solving long-standing puzzles in their syntax and semantics.
Content:
"A major question for linguistic theory concerns how the structure of sentences relates to their meaning. There is broad agreement in the field that there is some regularity in the way that lexical semantics and syntax are related, so that thematic roles (the different participant roles in an event: agent, theme, goal, etc.) are predictably associated with particular syntactic positions. In this book, Neil Myler examines the syntax and semantics of possession sentences, which are infamous for appearing to diverge dramatically from this broadly regular pattern. On the one hand, Myler points out, possession sentences have too many meanings; in any given language, the construction used to express archetypal possessive meanings (such as personal ownership) is also often used to express other apparently unrelated notions (body parts, kinship relations, and many others). On the other hand, possession sentences have too many surface structures; languages differ markedly in the argument structures used to convey the same possessive meanings. Myler argues that recent work on the syntax-semantics interface in the generative tradition has developed the tools needed to solve these puzzles. Examining and synthesizing ideas from the literature and drawing on data from many languages (including some understudied Quechua dialects), Myler presents a novel way to understand the apparent irregularity of possession sentences while preserving explanations of general cross-linguistic regularities, offering a unified approach to the syntax and semantics of possession sentences that can also be integrated into a general theory of argument structure"--Publisher's website.
Note:
Previously issued in print: 2016.
,
Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 The Domain of Inquiry -- 1.2 The Architecture of the Grammar -- 1.3 Consequences and Major Claims -- 1.4 Building and Interpreting Possession Sentences: The Solution in a Nutshell -- 1.5 Excursus: Why John is a doctor = John has a doctor -- 1.6 Structure of this Book -- 2 Previous Approaches to Predicative Possession: A Guide for the Perplexed -- 2.1 The Scale of the Puzzles: Typological Work -- 2.2 The Too-Many-(Surface)-Structures Puzzle: The Freeze/Kayne Tradition -- 2.3 Extensions and Reactions to the Freeze/Kayne Tradition -- 2.4 Approaches to the Too-Many-Meanings Puzzle -- 2.5 Chapter Conclusion: Approaching Predicative Possession -- 3 The Micro-Comparative Syntax of Possession in Quechua -- 3.1 Outline of the Chapter -- 3.2 Background on Quechua and a Word on the Data -- 3.3 Possession Sentences, Movement, and UTAH -- 3.4 be-appl in Cochabamba vs. Santiago del Estero Quechua -- 3.5 To have and to hold Across the Quechua Family -- 3.6 Conclusions -- 4 Building and Interpreting HAVE Sentences -- 4.1 The Syntax and Semantics of Have -- 4.2 A Loose End: Modal Have -- 4.3 A Language with Two haves: Icelandic -- 4.4 Conclusions -- 5 Consequences and Comparisons -- 5.1 Comparing the Approaches -- 5.2 Problems for the Freeze/Kayne Approach -- 5.3 Crucial Predictive Differences -- 5.4 Conclusion -- 6 Extending the Typology I: Predicativization -- 6.1 Introducing -yoq -- 6.2 -yoq-Marked Phrases Are Nominal (for at Least Some Speakers) -- 6.3 Against Decompositional Approaches to -yoq -- 6.4 -yoq and the Semantics of Predicativization -- 6.5 The Comparative Syntax of Predicativization -- 6.6 Conclusion -- 7 Extending the Typology II: The with-Possessive -- 7.1 Re-introducing with-Possessives -- 7.2 Levinson's (2011) Approach -- 7.3 with-Possessives in Icelandic and Bantu.
,
7.4 Conclusion: Syntax and Semantics in with-Possessives -- 8 Conclusions and Prospects -- 8.1 Summary of the Proposal and Arguments -- 8.2 Areas for Extension -- 8.3 General Conclusion -- Appendix: Existential be-based Possession Constructionsin the System of Francez (2009) -- Bibliography -- Index.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-262-03491-3
Language:
English
URL:
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