18.838, Diss: Ling Theories/Syntax: Leung: 'Syntactic Derivation and the Th...'

[LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List: Vol-18-838. Mon Mar 19 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.838, Diss: Ling Theories/Syntax: Leung: 'Syntactic Derivation and the Th...'

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews: Laura Welcher, Rosetta Project  
       <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, 
and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Hunter Lockwood <hunter at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.


===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 17-Mar-2007
From: Tommi Leung < tszcheul at usc.edu >
Subject: Syntactic Derivation and the Theory of Matching Contextual Features 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:43:11
From: Tommi Leung < tszcheul at usc.edu >
Subject:  Syntactic Derivation and the Theory of Matching Contextual Features 
 

Institution: University of Southern California 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2007 

Author: Tommi Leung

Dissertation Title: Syntactic Derivation and the Theory of Matching Contextual
Features 

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories
                     Syntax


Dissertation Director(s):
Roumyana Pancheva
Jean-Roger Vergnaud

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation examines the notion of syntactic derivation and proposes
a new and more principled account. It adequately extends the notion of
transformational relation to constructions standardly taken to be outside
the scope of that relation.
 	
One example is the comparison between 'free relatives' and
'correlatives'. We claim that the semantics shared by the two
superficially distinct constructions reflects the common syntactic
structure, formalized by 'chains' as the 'occurrence(s)' of a lexical item
(Chomsky 1981:45, 1982, 1995:250-252, 2000:114-116, 2001:39-40, 2004:15).
Two items standing in an occurrence relation form a constituent, which
subsumes the head-complement and Spec-head relation (Chomsky 1995:172;
Koizumi 1999:15). The occurrence(s) explicitly represent(s) the contexts
that the item bears during the derivation. In free relatives (e.g. 'Ann
ate what Mary cooked'), the wh-word has the occurrences (*ate, Comp,
cooked), with 'ate' coming from the matrix predicate, and Complementizer
and 'cooked' from the embedded clause. In correlatives (e.g. 'What Mary
cooked, Ann ate that' as in Hindi), the wh-word has the occurrences
(*Comp, cooked, that), and 'that 'has an occurrence (*ate). 'That' is
an occurrence of the wh-word given the coindexation, analyzable by the
'doubling constituent' [DEM-XP what that] (extending Kayne 2002). The
phonological realization of an item corresponds to its strong occurrence
(*) (Boeckx 2003:13).

A derivation is then an algorithm of matching lexical items with their
occurrence(s)/context(s). Each item bears a 'conceptual' and a 'contextual'
role, the latter driving a derivation (Vergnaud 2003; Prinzhorn, Vergnaud
and Zubizarreta 2004:11). Each item contains a set of 'contextual features'
that are matched by another item. Two items match their contextual features
and derive at least one interpretable relation at the interface level. No
matching of contextual features is interpretably empty.

We also claim that narrow syntax is the recursive application of a
'binary operation' of 'concatenation' (+) defined over syntactic objects.
The system is free of some problems faced by 'Merge' (Chomsky 1995:226),
and the recursive application of concatenation of lexical items entails all
major properties of constituent structures, for instance the derivation of
'labels', 'heads' and 'complements' (also Collins 2002).





-----------------------------------------------------------

This Year the LINGUIST List hopes to raise $55,000. This money will go to help keep the 
List running by supporting all of our Student Editors for the coming year.

See below for donation instructions, and don't forget to check out our Fund Drive 2007 
LINGUIST List Superhero Adventure for some Fund Drive fun!

http://linguistlist.org/donation/fund-drive2007/ 

There are many ways to donate to LINGUIST!

You can donate right now using our secure credit card form.

Alternatively you can also pledge right now and pay later.

For all information on donating and pledging, including information on how to donate by 
check, money order, or wire transfer, please visit:

http://linguistlist.org/donate.html

The LINGUIST List is under the umbrella of Eastern Michigan University and as such can 
receive donations through the EMU Foundation, which is a registered 501(c) Non Profit 
organization. Our Federal Tax number is 38-6005986. These donations can be offset against 
your federal and sometimes your state tax return (U.S. tax payers only). For more 
information visit the IRS Web-Site, or contact your financial advisor.

Many companies also offer a gift matching program, such that they will match any gift 
you make to a non-profit organization. Normally this entails your contacting your human 
resources department and sending us a form that the EMU Foundation fills in and returns 
to your employer. This is generally a simple administrative procedure that doubles the 
value of your gift to LINGUIST, without costing you an extra penny. Please take a moment 
to check if your company operates such a program.

Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST!


 

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-18-838