31.1366, Diss: Greek, Modern; General Linguistics: Author: Nicolaos Neocleous: '' Word order and information structure in Romeyka: A syntax and semantics interface account of order in a minimalist system''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-31-1366. Wed Apr 15 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.1366, Diss:  Greek, Modern; General Linguistics: Author: Nicolaos Neocleous: '' Word order and information structure in Romeyka: A syntax and semantics interface account of order in a minimalist system''

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Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2020 20:01:50
From: Nicolaos Neocleous [nicneocleous at hotmail.com]
Subject: Word order and information structure in Romeyka: A syntax and semantics interface account of order in a minimalist system

 
Institution: University of Cambridge 
Program: PhD in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2020 

Author: Nicolaos Neocleous

Dissertation Title: Word order and information structure in Romeyka: A syntax
and semantics interface account of order in a minimalist
system 

Dissertation URL:  https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.50619

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Greek, Modern (ell)


Dissertation Director(s):
Ioanna Sitaridou
Ianthi Maria Tsimpli
Stavros Skopeteas

Dissertation Abstract:

In this dissertation, I investigate word order and information structure in
the light of recent developments within the minimalist program. I specifically
pursue a principled explanation of word order within the biolinguistic
perspective. In that sense, I entertain the thesis that all properties of the
faculty of language contribute to a computationally efficient satisfaction of
interface conditions. The language examined is Romeyka, the only Asia Minor
Greek variety still spoken in the area historically known as Asia Minor
(present-day Anatolia, Turkey). The objective of this study is therefore
twofold: (a) descriptively, to examine word order variation in Romeyka and (b)
theoretically, to investigate whether such word order variation could be a
language specific property or, rather, could be accommodated in a minimalist
system. Descriptively, I aim (a) to determine the pragmatically unmarked and
marked word orders in Romeyka, (b) to examine their typological classification
and (c) to investigate their evolution. Theoretically, this dissertation is
fundamentally about the role that order plays in the efficient computation of
interface conditions, mainly in regard to the syntax and semantics interface.
Generative Grammar is the study of linguistic capacity as a component of human
cognition. As such, Generative Grammar has made significant progress in
identifying some of the computational mechanisms that distinguish man from
animals; the basic tenet is that only humans appear to possess a mental
(universal) grammar that permits the composition of infinitely many meaningful
expressions from a finite stock of discrete units. The basic compositional
operation of grammar is said to be Merge. Merge can create a set K of two
linguistic objects x and y. Set K can be merged with another object z, or with
another set of objects L and so on. Merge imposes a hierarchical structure,
i.e. x and y are elements of K, but not vice versa. Merge is assumed not to
impose order, i.e. {x, y} = {y, x}. As such, order is structure-dependent,
i.e. no syntactic operation can make reference to it. It has also been claimed
that hypothetical languages, in which syntactic operations are defined in
linear terms, such that Merge creates an ordered pair <x, y>, are outside of
the spectrum of variation defined by universal grammar. The question I am
asking is whether the order of the constituents of a clause plays a role (a)
in the computation from narrow syntax to the semantics interface and (b) in
the semantic component. I pursue an approach where the constituents of a
clause do play such a role and ask what the implications are for the syntax
and semantics interface. The findings of the dissertation show that order
plays a role in the semantic component and in the computation from narrow
syntax to semantic interface in Romeyka.




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