Principles and Parameters of Syntactic Saturation
by Webelhuth, GertFormat: Paperback
Pub. Date: 1992-09-24
Publisher(s): Oxford University Press
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Summary
This work represents the first full-scale attempt to provide a restrictive theory of parameters--the nature and limits of syntactic variation. Focusing on syntactic saturation, Webelhuth hypothesizes that in natural language these phenomena are subject to the "Saturation Condition." He explains the principles behind this condition and demonstrates how it imposes strong constraints on what counts as a possible parameter in natural language. Webelhuth goes on to test this theory against empirical evidence from seven modern Germanic languages: German, Dutch, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic.
Author Biography
Gert Webelhuth is Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Table of Contents
| Selected List of Definitions, Diagrams, and Overview Tables | p. xvii |
| Introduction | p. 3 |
| A Restrictive Theory of the Concept "Possible Parameter of Natural Language," | p. 6 |
| The Tension between Descriptive and Explanatory Adequacy | p. 6 |
| A Model of Explanation: X-bar Theory | p. 13 |
| The Bounds of Analytic Power | p. 16 |
| Motivation for a Theory of Possible Parameters | p. 18 |
| The Lower Bound of Analytic Power (Observational and Descriptive Adequacy) | p. 20 |
| The Upper Bound of Analytic Power (Explanatory Adequacy) | p. 25 |
| Locality Constraints on Lexical Information: The Variation Theorem | p. 31 |
| A Theory of Possible Parameters: The Identical Projection Function Model | p. 40 |
| The Atomization Problem | p. 47 |
| A General Theory of Structure Building: Morphology within the IPF-Model | p. 55 |
| Summary | p. 64 |
| Basic Word Order | p. 67 |
| Introduction | p. 67 |
| Documenting Directionality in Modern Germanic | p. 67 |
| Summary | p. 81 |
| The Distribution of Finite Argument Clauses | p. 83 |
| Introduction | p. 83 |
| Clauses with and without Overt Complementizers | p. 83 |
| Empirical Consequences of the Sentence Trace Universal | p. 94 |
| Raising, Unaccusative, and Passive Verbs | p. 95 |
| Other Constructions Where DP Is Not C-Selected | p. 98 |
| Platzack on Swedish | p. 98 |
| Preposition Stranding | p. 99 |
| ECM Constructions | p. 101 |
| Resumptive Pronouns | p. 101 |
| Case Agreement | p. 102 |
| Scrambling | p. 103 |
| Conclusion | p. 111 |
| Pied Piping | p. 115 |
| The Theoretical Relevance of the Pied Piping Phenomenon | p. 115 |
| Pied Piping Possibilities in Germanic | p. 116 |
| Relative Clauses in English | p. 128 |
| The Pied Piping Generalizations | p. 132 |
| Introduction | p. 132 |
| Specifiers | p. 133 |
| Complements | p. 135 |
| Summary of the Generalizations | p. 142 |
| Deriving the Generalizations | p. 142 |
| Modifiers | p. 142 |
| [Theta]-Marked Phrases | p. 146 |
| Specifiers of C' | p. 151 |
| Summary and Discussion | p. 155 |
| The Syntax of Arguments and Sentence-Internal Chain Formation in Germanic | p. 159 |
| Introduction | p. 159 |
| Free Word Order Structures in German and Constraints on Movement | p. 164 |
| Extraction from PP and the Left Branch Condition | p. 165 |
| The Specificity Constraint on Extraction from DP | p. 170 |
| The Coordinate Structure Constraint | p. 170 |
| The Subject Condition | p. 171 |
| Anti-Crossover Effects | p. 172 |
| Parasitic Gaps | p. 174 |
| Summary of Sections 5.2.1-5.2.6 | p. 176 |
| Evidence from Language Acquisition | p. 176 |
| Consequences of the Syntactic and Acquisitional Properties of the Free Word Order Structures | p. 178 |
| The Properties of Sentence-Internal Chains | p. 179 |
| DP Can Undergo the Movement Process | p. 180 |
| PP Can Undergo the Movement Process | p. 181 |
| The Moved Element Is in a Non-Case Marked Position | p. 182 |
| The Movement Licenses Parasitic Gaps | p. 184 |
| The Mover Can Strand a Preposition | p. 185 |
| More Than One Element Can Undergo the Movement | p. 187 |
| The Moved Element Can Pied-Pipe Its Mother Constituent | p. 187 |
| Deriving the Chain Type Difference | p. 189 |
| Operator and Argument Features | p. 189 |
| Characterization of Heavy-NP Shift | p. 193 |
| Characterization of Scrambling | p. 194 |
| Other Free Word Order Languages | p. 201 |
| Dutch | p. 202 |
| Czech/Russian (Slavic) | p. 202 |
| Hungarian (Finno-Ugric) | p. 203 |
| Tagalog (Austronesian) | p. 203 |
| Warlpiri (Australian) | p. 203 |
| Japanese (Altaic) | p. 204 |
| Haya (Niger-Kordofanian) | p. 204 |
| Quechua (Andean-Equatorial) | p. 204 |
| Hindi | p. 204 |
| Scrambling and Binding Theory | p. 205 |
| Epilogue | p. 211 |
| Bibliography | p. 215 |
| Index | p. 225 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
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