Mirrors and Microparameters

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-521-51756-0
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 122, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 457 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Linguistics

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Adger, David

Harbour, Daniel

Watkins, Laurel J.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Grammatik, Syntax, Morphologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction; 2. Nonconfigurationality and polysynthesis; 3. The clausal spin; 4. Making mirrors; 5. Interface properties of clausal domains; 6. Anti-quantification and the syntax-semantics interface; 7. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Watkins, Laurel J.
Laurel J. Watkins is Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics in the Department of Anthropology at Colorado College.

Adger, David
David Adger is Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Queen Mary, University of London.

Harbour, Daniel
Daniel Harbour is a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Queen Mary, University of London.