Gerunds (was Re: Filler-gap mismatches)

[Dan Parvaz]

> Would someone kindly explain the meaning of the terms `lexical
> coherence' and `phrasal coherence'?

Phew -- I thought it was just me!

So here's another question: is there any substantial treatment of Arabic in
HPSG at all? It just seems before we start making statements about masdars
that there is a fair amount of legwork that needs to be done.

To Yehuda: Superficially, masdars are analogous to verbal nouns in Hebrew
(like "ktiva" from katav), and are used in CPs with "verbal force." So (a)
and (b) are generally equivalent, only the first one uses a masdar.

(1) a. laa 'uriid        at^tafkiir    9an     l^maSaadir
       NEG want+1SG+IND  DEF^thinking  about   DEF^masdar+PL
       "I don't want to think about masdars."

    b. laa 'uriid        'an  'ufakkir       9an    l^maSaadir
       NEG want+1SG+IND  COMP think+1SG+IND  about  DEF^masdar+PL

I think -- but I'm not sure -- that this is sort of thing that Rob is
talking about. And then there's all the other stuff that masdars get used
for, like:

(2) fashaltu      fashal^an   kabiir^an
    fail+1SG+PERF failing^ACC great^ACC
    "I failed a great failing." -> "I screwed up, big time."

But (2) sounds like an affectation nowadays. The sentences in (1) could be
shoehorned into just about any colloquial Arabic.

Cheers,

Dan.