Mirrors and Microparameters: Phrase Structure beyond Free Word Order

by David Adger , Daniel Harbour , Laurel J. Watkins

• ISBN13: 9780521517560
• ISBN10: 0521517567
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What is the nature of syntactic structure? Why do some languages have radically free word order ('nonconfigurationality')? Do parameters vary independently (the micro-view) or can they co-vary en masse (the macro-view)? Mirrors and Microparameters examines these questions by looking beyond the definitional criterion of nonconfigurationality - that arguments may be freely ordered, omitted, and split. Drawing on newly discovered data from Kiowa, a member of the largely undescribed Kiowa-Tanoan language family, the book reveals that classically nonconfigurational languages can nonetheless exhibit robustly configurational effects. Reconciling the cooccurrence of such freedom with such rigidity has major implications for the Principles and Parameters program. This novel approach to nonconfigurational languages challenges widespread assumptions of linguistic theory and throws light on the syntactic structures, ordering principles, and nature of parametrization that comprise Universal Grammar.

Table of Contents

List of tables	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. x
Abbreviations and notation	p. xi
Kiowa phonemes and orthography	p. xiv
Introduction	p. 1
What this book is about	p. 1
The Kiowa language	p. 3
Historical sketch	p. 3
Grammatical sketch	p. 5
Sources and methodology	p. 22
Nonconfigurationality and polysynthesis	p. 25
Introduction	p. 25
Grammatical functions and fixity of order	p. 25
Definitions and history	p. 26
Baker's macroparametric approach	p. 29
Derivation of nonconfigurational properties	p. 33
Problems	p. 46
Conclusion	p. 59
The clausal spine	p. 61
Introduction	p. 61
The clausal mirror	p. 63
Suffixal morphology	p. 63
Particle syntax	p. 68
Statement and illustration	p. 74
The Cinque Hierarchy	p. 76
Against a simplistic explanation	p. 77
Digression: the imperative	p. 79
The inverse base effect	p. 82
Argument structure and adjuncts	p. 82
Argument-argument combinations	p. 85
Argument-adjunct combinations	p. 86
Statement	p. 88
Making mirrors	p. 89
Introduction	p. 89
Preliminary: against functional iteration	p. 89
A head-final approach	p. 93
Head initiality and roll-up phrasal movement	p. 96
A Minor-Theoretic approach	p. 111
Mirror Theory	p. 112
Deriving the generalizations	p. 119
The agreement prefix	p. 124
Conclusion	p. 130
Interface properties of clausal domains	p. 131
Introduction	p. 131
Higher clause structure	p. 132
Information structure, discourse structure	p. 135
Semantic restrictions on clausal position	p. 141
Focus marking	p. 141
Adnotninal elements	p. 145
Statement	p. 150
Anti-quantification and the syntax-semantics interface	p. 153
Introduction	p. 153
Wh-elements and focus	p. 154
Bare quantifiers	p. 159
Quantificational and cardinal determiners	p. 160
A syntax-semantics mapping conjecture	p. 162
Kiowa quantifiers	p. 166
Clitic Left Dislocation	p. 169
Pre-wft elements	p. 173
Conclusion	p. 176
Appendix	p. 179
References	p. 183
Index	p. 188
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.