Dynamics of Language : An Introduction

by Cann; Kempson; Marten

• ISBN13: 9780126135367
• ISBN10: 0126135363
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-17
• Publisher: Elsevier Science & Technology

Summary

For the whole of the last half-century, most theoretical syntacticians have assumed that knowledge of language is different from the tasks of speaking and understanding. There have been some dissenters, but, by and large, this view still holds sway. This book takes a different view: it continues the task set in hand by Kempson et al (2001) of arguing that the common-sense intuition is correct that knowledge of language consists in being able to use it in speaking and understanding. The Dynamics of Language argues that interpretation is built up across as sequence of words relative to some context and that this is all that is needed to explain the structural properties of language. The dynamics of how interpretation is built up is the syntax of a language system. The authors' first task is to convey to a general linguistic audience with a minimum of formal apparatus, the substance of that formal system. Secondly, as linguists, they set themselves the task of applying the formal system to as broad an array of linguistic puzzles as possible, the languages analysed ranging from English to Japanese and Swahili. "This book makes an uncommon achievement in successfully using detailed analyses of typologically diverse languages to address foundational questions about what it means to know a language and about the relation between speaking and understanding. This book will be of interest to anybody who is serious about the cognitive science of syntax and semantics." Colin Phillips, University of Maryland, USA "For anyone interested in the basic nature of natural language syntax, this book is a necessary, and enjoyable, read. The authors provide a new take on how interpretations are constructed by language users,and back up their general theoretical proposals with original analyses of an eclectic range of linguistic phenomena. The exposition is clear and engaging-and challenging. You will have some of your assumptions shaken up; whether they fall back in place, or are radically rearranged, the experience is stimulating." Caroline Heycock, University of Edinburgh, UK

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
1. The Point of Departure	1	(30)
1.1. Compositionality and Recursion in Natural Language	3	(17)
1.1.1. The "Imperfection" of Natural Languages	6	(2)
1.1.2. Meaning and Context	8	(3)
1.1.3. Putting the Two Problems Together	11	(9)
1.2. Interpreting the World Around Us: The Construction of Representations	20	(4)
1.2.1. How Are Interpretations Chosen?	21	(3)
1.3. Competence and Performance: Towards a New View	24	(5)
1.3.1. Comparing the Simplicity of Grammar Formalisms — A First Attempt	26	(3)
1.4. Coda: Parsing as the Basic Activity	29	(2)
2. The Dynamics of Interpretation	31	(54)
2.1. A Sketch of the Process	31	(3)
2.2. The Tools of Dynamic Syntax	34	(7)
2.2.1. Treenode Decorations	35	(1)
2.2.2. Requirements and Tree Growth	36	(2)
2.2.3. The Logic of Trees	38	(3)
2.3. Constructing Trees	41	(18)
2.3.1. Starting Off	42	(3)
2.3.2. Lexical Information	45	(4)
2.3.3. Completing the Tree	49	(6)
2.3.4. A More Complex Example: Embedding	55	(4)
2.4. Left Dislocation Structures	59	(8)
2.5. Anaphora	67	(13)
2.5.1. Pro Drop and Word Order Variation	73	(7)
2.6. Well-Formedness and Ungrammaticality	80	(5)
3. Relative Clause Construal	85	(56)
3.1. Linked Structures	85	(17)
3.1.1. Analysing Non-restrictive Relative Clauses	86	(2)
3.1.2. Defining LINK	88	(5)
3.1.3. Interactions of Anaphora and Long-Distance Dependency	93	(1)
3.1.4. Crossover	94	(8)
3.2. Quantifier Phrases and Restrictive Relatives	102	(15)
3.2.1. The Process of Name Construction	106	(4)
3.2.2. Restrictive Relative Clauses	110	(4)
3.2.3. Constraints on the Ordering of Relative Clauses	114	(3)
3.3. Quantifier Scope and its Effects	117	(22)
3.3.1. Scope Effects of Indefinites	118	(5)
3.3.2. Formulating Context-Dependent Constraints on Scope Construal	123	(6)
3.3.3. Term-Operator Evaluation Rules	129	(5)
3.3.4. Quantification and Non-Restrictive Construal	134	(3)
3.3.5. Anaphora, Co-Ordination, and Relatives	137	(2)
3.4. Summary	139	(2)
4. Tree Growth and Language Typologies	141	(46)
4.1. Towards a Relative Clause Typology	142	(24)
4.1.1. Resumptive Pronouns in Arabic	143	(6)
4.1.2. The Interaction of Syntax and Pragmatics	149	(7)
4.1.3. Mixed Systems	156	(6)
4.1.4. Romance Languages, Resumptive Pronouns and Locality	162	(2)
4.1.5. Relative Clauses: an Intermediate Summary	164	(2)
4.2. Towards a Left Periphery Typology	166	(18)
4.2.1. Building Linked Structures at the Left Periphery	169	(4)
4.2.2. Overlapping Analyses	173	(10)
4.2.3. Towards an Explanation of Topic and Focus Effects	183	(1)
4.3. Summary	184	(3)
5. On the Right Periphery	187	(40)
5.1. Right Dislocation	187	(1)
5.2. LINKed Structures and Recapitulation Effects	188	(5)
5.3. Late Adjunction	193	(12)
5.3.1. Extraposition	194	(4)
5.3.2. Subject Inversion	198	(4)
5.3.3. Clitics in Portefio Spanish	202	(3)
5.4. Right Node Raising	205	(16)
5.4.1. Characterising Co-Ordination	207	(3)
5.4.2. An Example	210	(2)
5.4.3. A Lexical "Free Ride"	212	(3)
5.4.4. Some Consequences	215	(6)
5.5. Summary	221	(2)
5.6. Dynamic Syntax: Some Comparisons	223	(4)
6. The Challenge of Japanese	227	(64)
6.1. Preliminaries	227	(7)
6.1.1. Basic Lexical Templates	230	(1)
6.1.2. Scrambling	231	(3)
6.2. Local Adjunction	234	(8)
6.2.1. Case and Locality Effects	236	(4)
6.2.2. Suffixes and Constituency Boundary Marking	240	(1)
6.2.3. Local Scrambling and Quantifier Construal	241	(1)
6.3. Generalised Adjunction	242	(10)
6.3.1. Complement Clause Construal	243	(5)
6.3.2. Locality Constraints on Noun Phrase Construal	248	(4)
6.4. Long-Distance Scrambling	252	(15)
6.4.1. Case Marking Reviewed	257	(3)
6.4.2. Long-Distance Scrambling and Binding Effects	260	(7)
6.5. Topic-Marking and LINK	267	(3)
6.6. Relative Clause Construal	270	(18)
6.6.1. Head-Final Relatives	271	(11)
6.6.2. Head-Internal Relatives	282	(6)
6.7. Summary	288	(3)
7. Swahili Agreement and Conjunction	291	(42)
7.1. Strategies for Resolving Agreement	292	(7)
7.1.1. Plural Marking	293	(1)
7.1.2. Default Class Agreement Marking	294	(1)
7.1.3. One Conjunct Agreement	295	(4)
7.2. Agreement Marking	299	(9)
7.3. Agreement and Co-Ordination: Animates	308	(16)
7.3.1. Agreement with Preposed Subjects	310	(6)
7.3.2. Agreement with Postposed Subjects	316	(2)
7.3.3. Postposed Subjects with Agreement Mismatch	318	(3)
7.3.4. Object Agreement	321	(3)
7.4. Agreement Across Linked Structures	324	(8)
7.4.1. Subject Agreement: Non-animates	325	(2)
7.4.2. Object Agreement: Non-animates	327	(2)
7.4.3. Non-animate Concord: Cross-Linguistic Variation	329	(3)
7.5. Summary	332	(1)
8. Copula Constructions in English	333	(40)
8.1. Analysing Be	333	(8)
8.1.1. There be	336	(3)
8.1.2. Intransitive Be	339	(2)
8.2. Representing the Content of the Copula	341	(8)
8.2.1. The Predicative Construction	345	(2)
8.2.2. Do	347	(2)
8.3. Towards an Account of There be	349	(12)
8.3.1. The Existential Construction	352	(5)
8.3.2. Definite Associates	357	(4)
8.4. The Equative and Specificational Constructions	361	(8)
8.4.1. Equative Clauses	362	(4)
8.4.2. Specificational Clauses	366	(3)
8.5. Nominal Predicates	369	(2)
8.6. Summary	371	(2)
9. General Perspectives	373	(42)
9.1. The Syntax-Semantics Correspondence	374	(3)
9.2. Context and Parsing	377	(11)
9.2.1. Defining Context	378	(2)
9.2.2. Ellipsis and Context-Dependence	380	(8)
9.3. Dialogue as a Window on Production	388	(9)
9.3.1. Data from Dialogue	388	(2)
9.3.2. Production: The Dynamic Syntax Account	390	(1)
9.3.3. The Context-Sensitivity of Production	391	(5)
9.3.4. Parsing as Basic	396	(1)
9.4. Context and Well-Formedness	397	(9)
9.4.1. Utterance Well-Formedness	398	(4)
9.4.2. Grammaticality, Acceptability and Felicity	402	(2)
9.4.3. On Judgements of Well-Formedness	404	(2)
9.5. Grammar and Parsing	406	(2)
9.6. Coda: Acquisition, Change and Evolution	408	(7)
Bibliography	415	(16)
Subject Index	431

Excerpts

"For the whole of the last half-century, most theoretical syntacticians have assumed that knowledge of language is different from the tasks of speaking and understanding. There have been some dissenters, but, by and large, this view still holds sway." "This book takes a different view: it continues the task set in hand by Kempson et al (2001) of arguing that the common-sense intuition is correct that knowledge of language consists in being able to use it in speaking and understanding. The Dynamics of Language argues that interpretation is built up across as sequence of words relative to some context and that this is all that is needed to explain the structural properties of language. The dynamics of how interpretation is built up is the syntax of a language system. The authors' first task is to convey to a general linguistic audience with a minimum of formal apparatus, the substance of that formal system. Secondly, as linguists, they set themselves the task of applying the formal system to as broad an array of linguistic puzzles as possible, the languages analysed ranging from English to Japanese and Swahili." "The Dynamics of Language is clearly written and illustrated to be accessible to advanced undergraduates, first or subsequent year postgraduates and professionals in linguistics or cognitive science."--BOOK JACKET.