dissertation available online

Wed Jul 14 18:38:28 UTC 1999

Hi everyone,

This is just to announce that my 1999 Univ. of Illinois dissertation on
"English Goal Infinitives" is now available online. It is in gzipped
postscript format, except for the first chapter, which is a gzipped rtf
file. If anyone would like a copy but cannot get these files to work,
please contact me directly and I will try to get it to you in a format you
can use.

I include in this message the abstract and table of contents, to give you
an idea of the content. Questions and comments are welcome.

All files are in this url:

http://www.io.com/~baxter/diss/

David Baxter

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		       ENGLISH GOAL INFINITIVES
			 By David Paul Baxter

			       ABSTRACT

Apparent restrictions on the kinds of phrases to which goal
infinitives can adjoin, as well as the identification of the referents
of unexpressed arguments, follow from what it means to be a particular
type of goal, and therefore need not be stipulated. Knowledge of goal
relations is part of the encyclopedic knowledge that language users
acquire through observation of situations. Given that the grammar
represents a speaker's knowledge of a language, an analysis in which
constraints on modified phrases and interpretations of implicit
arguments are not stipulated, but rather follow from independently
necessary information, is preferable to one that stipulates those
constraints. If the grammar can account for the distribution and
interpretation of goal infinitives without constraints specific to the
construction, then it is possible to assume that speakers'
representation of their language is that much simpler, and presumably
that much easier to acquire.

			  TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction	...............................................1
1.1 Overview	.......................................................1
1.2 What are Goal Infinitives?	.......................................2
1.2.1 Definition of Goal Infinitives	...............................3
1.2.2 Similar Constructions Distinct from Goal Infinitives	.......5
1.3 Phenomena to Account For	.......................................9
1.3.1 Restrictions on Modified Phrases	...............................9
1.3.2 Identification of Implicit Arguments	......................10
1.4 Shortcomings of Alternative Analyses	......................11
1.4.1 Accounts of Restrictions on the Modified Phrase	..............11
1.4.2 Accounts of Patterns of Identification of Implicit Arguments....14
1.5 Layout of Dissertation	......................................17

Chapter 2: Syntax of Goal Infinitives	..............................18
2.1 Introduction and Overview	......................................18
2.1.1 Syntactic Properties of Goal Infinitives	......................18
2.1.2 Basic Analysis	..............................................20
2.1.3 Overview of Chapter 2	......................................23
2.2 External Syntax	..............................................24
2.2.1 Complements or Adjuncts?	......................................24
2.2.2 What kind of constituent can be modified?	......................26
2.3 Internal Syntax	..............................................27
2.3.1 Internal Structure of infinitival CPs from Sag 1997	......28
2.3.2 Rationale Infinitives	......................................30
2.3.3 Purpose Infinitives	......................................32
2.4 Conclusion and Complete Analysis	..............................40

Chapter 3: Semantic Representations and Their Interpretation	......43
3.1 Introduction and Overview	......................................43
3.2 Adoptions from Sag 1997 and Kasper 1995	......................46
3.2.1 Constraints on Phrase Types	..............................46
3.2.2 Innovations from Kasper 1995	..............................48
3.3 Situation Tokens and Situation Types	......................50
3.3.1 Motivation of the token vs. type distinction for situations.... 51
3.3.2 Situation-type-instantiation-psoas (stips)	..............53
3.3.3 AND, OR and NOT Situation Types	..............................55
3.3.4 Why Restricted-index Semantics for Situations is Necessary......59
3.4 Indexes, Anchors, and Truth	......................................66
3.4.1 Encyclopedic Knowledge, Relations, Situation Types and psoa
      Types	   ...................................................66
3.4.2 Indexes	......................................................69
3.4.3 Truth of a Sentence Relative to a Model	......................69
3.5 Summary	......................................................72

Chapter 4: Semantics of Goal Infinitives	......................74
4.1 Introduction and Overview	......................................74
4.2 The Goal, Rationale and Purpose Relations	......................75
4.2.1 The Goal Relation	..............................................76
4.2.2 The Rationale Relation	......................................79
4.2.3 The Purpose Relation	......................................80
4.2.4 Summary	......................................................81
4.3 The Representations	..............................................82
4.3.1 Goal, Rationale, and Purpose psoas	......................82
4.3.2 Lexical Entries	..............................................84
4.3.3 Compositional Semantics	......................................89
4.4 Truth Conditions on GI Sentences	.............................105
4.4.1 Lexical Co-indexing in GI sentences	.....................106
4.4.2 The Means Situation	.....................................109
4.4.3 The Plan	.....................................................110
4.4.4 Intentions Relative to Goal	.............................111
4.4.5 The Prepared Entity	.....................................112
4.5 Summary	.....................................................114

Chapter 5: Interpretation of Goal Infinitives	.....................115
5.1 Overview	.....................................................115
5.1.1 Phenomena to Account for	.....................................115
5.1.2 Pragmatically Unacceptable Sentences	.....................118
5.2 Influences on Acceptability	.....................................119
5.2.1 Choice of Model and Anchoring Function	.....................121
5.2.2 Encyclopedic Knowledge	.....................................125
5.3 Issues of Goal Infinitive Interpretation	.....................128
5.3.1 Goal-Holder Identification	.............................128
5.3.2 Identification of Unexpressed RI Subject	.....................131
5.3.3 Identification of Unexpressed PI Subject	.....................134
5.3.4 SLASHed Argument in a Purpose Infinitive	.....................136
5.3.5 Phrases Modified by PIs	.....................................137
5.4 Summary	.....................................................140

Chapter 6: Conclusion	.............................................141
6.1 Summary of Analysis	.............................................141
6.1.1 Syntax	.....................................................141
6.1.2 Semantics and Interpretation	.............................142
6.2 Innovations and Departures from Standard HPSG	.............143
6.3 Remaining Issues	.............................................143
6.3.1 Minimal Recursion Semantics	.............................144
6.3.2 Volatility of Satisfaction Conditions	.....................144
6.3.3 Modification of S or NP?	.....................................144
6.3.4 Predicate Semantics for Purpose Infinitive	.............145

Works Cited	.....................................................147

Vita	.............................................................149

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David Baxter                          Cycorp, Inc.
baxter at cyc.com                      (512) 342-4044