16.3122, Review: Syntax/Semantics: Yuasa (2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-3122. Fri Oct 28 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.3122, Review: Syntax/Semantics: Yuasa (2005)

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What follows is a review or discussion note contributed to our 
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1)
Date: 25-Oct-2005
From: Verena Haser < verena.haser at anglistik.uni-freiburg.de >
Subject: Modularity in Language 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 19:50:02
From: Verena Haser < verena.haser at anglistik.uni-freiburg.de >
Subject: Modularity in Language 
 

AUTHOR: Yuasa, Etsuyo
TITLE: Modularity in Language
SUBTITLE: Constructional and Categorial Mismatch in Syntax and 
Semantics
SERIES: Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 159
PUBLISHER: Mouton de Gruyter
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2013.html 

Verena Haser, Department of English Linguistics, University of 
Freiburg, Germany

As the present book's title indicates, it offers an analysis 
of "constructional and categorial mismatches in syntax and 
semantics." The author espouses a multi-modular approach to 
grammar along the lines of Sadock (1991), integrating insights from 
construction grammar and "functional" linguistics. Yuasa's main focus 
is on idiosyncratic or non-prototypical constructions and categories, 
such as putative coordinate structures that exhibit features of 
subordinate structures (or vice versa). Such non-prototypical 
categories and constructions are regarded as instances 
of "constructional and categorial mismatches", in the sense that their 
semantic and syntactic representations are argued to be in conflict. 
Specifically, Yuasa proposes new accounts of complex clauses in 
English and Japanese; she also puts forward a novel account of 
certain Japanese subordinating conjunctions.

The book is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is a succinct 
introduction to the work, explaining the author's overall goals and 
outlining key issues dealt with in later chapters. This chapter also 
contains a lucid outline of multi-modular approaches to grammar, 
which are in crucial respects opposed to "classical" generative 
theories such as Chomsky (1981). The pivotal difference between the 
two frameworks can be characterized as follows: Whereas multi-
modular approaches assume different syntactic levels, "mainstream" 
generativists assume merely one syntactic level. Although this level 
may contain several strata (e.g., D-structure and S-structure), only a 
single set of primitives and operations is postulated, which applies to 
all the different strata (e.g., the Projection Principle or constituent 
structures; cf. p. 6). Multimodular approaches, on the other hand, 
posit autonomous grammatical levels characterized by distinct 
primitives and distinct processes operating on the respective levels; 
grammatical representations on different levels are thus different in 
kind. Other theories which in this respect are somewhat similar to 
autolexical syntax include lexical functional grammar (Bresnan 2001) 
and Role and Reference Grammar (van Valin/La Polla 1997). 

Yuasa's account is based on Sadock's (1991) distinction between 
syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels. The primitives relevant to 
the syntactic level are syntactic and phrasal categories (noun verb, 
adposition; noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase). The 
syntactic level also encodes subcategorization information (cf. p. 9). 
The semantic level is characterized by different kinds of primitives 
such as proposition, predicate, common noun, etc. In addition to the 
syntactic and semantic level, Yuasa also assumes a separate 
pragmatic level - with the proviso that this level might ultimately "be 
conflated into the semantic level" (p. 11). 

To motivate the postulation of different levels, the author offers a crisp 
summary of arguments in favour of multi-modular approaches. Yuasa 
adduces examples of "mismatches" in grammar as a major piece of 
evidence in favour of her framework. For example, the word 'bitch' in 'A 
bitch of a problem' is a noun from the point of view of syntax, but 
functions as a modifier from a semantic perspective, with modifiers 
being prototypically realized as adjectives (cf. p. 8). If one goes along 
with Sadock's and Yuasa's arguments in favour of the autonomy of 
different grammatical levels, such mismatches of semantic and 
syntactic representations are hardly surprising; indeed they are to be 
expected. 

The first chapter also outlines criteria for deciding whether two levels 
should be considered autonomous. Yuasa's discussion here draws on 
Croft (1995) as well as on her own work (Yuasa 1998), singling out 
three criteria for determining whether two grammatical levels are 
autonomous. In a nutshell, the author's basic claim is that instances of 
mismatch count as evidence for autonomy only if 'the representations 
at these different levels are arbitrarily associated in an incongruent 
manner'. Furthermore, "each representation at a level must participate 
in a system" (p. 2).

Of particular interest to many syntacticians will be the important role 
played by constructions and construction grammar in Yuasa's study. 
Constructions (e.g., Goldberg 1995) can be defined as quasi-idiomatic 
combinations of form and meaning. Yuasa refers to congruent 
or "isomorphic" form-meaning pairs as constructional prototypes. 
Constructional prototypes are cases where the syntactic 
representation prototypically associated with a given construction is 
combined with the semantic representation usually associated with 
that construction. The major difference between Yuasa's framework 
and Construction Grammar lies in the author's insistence that syntactic 
and semantic representations are in principle independent of each 
other (e.g., the syntactic vs. the semantic representation of 
subordinate constructions). Specifically, mismatches constitute non-
prototypical alignments of syntactic and semantic representations. 
Apart from constructional prototypes, there are also "categorical 
prototypes", i.e., unmarked categories. Form and meaning in 
categorial prototypes are associated by universal correspondence 
rules.

The following chapters delve into more specific topics. The second 
chapter deals in greater detail with prototypes and mismatches. 
Yuasa's discussion of prototypes builds on McCawley (1988), whose 
idea that categories like noun phrase can be construed in terms of 
prototypes is supplemented with the assumption that constructions 
can similarly be understood in terms of prototypes. Yuasa's account of 
categorical prototypes also incorporates insights from typological work 
by Croft (2001). 

Chapter 3 deals with "the coordination-subordination mismatch". At 
the heart of this chapter are constructions that display features of both 
coordination and subordination, notably the so-called English "pseudo-
coordinate conditional" and Japanese te-coordination. Following a 
brief overview of crucial features of coordination and subordination, 
respectively, Yuasa offers a compelling criticism of past approaches to 
constructions which combine features of coordination and 
subordination. Drawing on Culicover and Jackendoff (1997), Yuasa 
analyses pseudo-coordinate conditionals and te-coordination in terms 
of constructional mismatches. Syntactically, pseudo-coordinate 
conditionals are typical coordinate constructions, but from a semantic 
perspective they represent subordinate structures (more precisely, 
conditionals; cf. p. 62). In other words, the semantic and syntactic 
representations are incongruous: The syntactic representation of a 
prototypical coordinate structure is aligned with the semantic 
representation of a typical subordinate structure. Matters are different 
in the case of te-coordination: Here, the syntactic representation of a 
typical subordinate construction is combined with the semantic 
representation of a typical coordinate construction (cf. p. 63f). This 
analysis paves the way for a persuasive account of various 
characteristics of these conditionals that have previously eluded 
satisfactory analysis.

Chapter 4 is concerned with English and Japanese non-defining 
relative clauses, which display properties of both independent and 
subordinate clauses. Yuasa offers a concise summary of principal 
characteristics of these clauses, followed by a criticism of past 
analyses. Her own proposal once again builds on the idea that the 
relevant constructions are constructional mismatches, combining the 
semantic representation of typical independent clauses with the 
syntactic representations of typical subordinate clauses (here: relative 
clauses). As in the case of conditionals, this approach permits a 
conclusive account of apparently idiosyncratic features of such 
constructions.  

Chapter 5 investigates further intriguing examples of constructional 
mismatch, viz. performative adverbial clauses in English and 
Japanese. The general drift of Yuasa's reasoning here parallels ideas 
developed in earlier chapters. 

So does the argument proposed in chapter 6, which deals with an 
instance of categorial rather than constructional mismatch. Yuasa 
examines a number of Japanese subordinating conjunctions which 
display properties both of prototypical conjunctions and of nouns. The 
author argues that the relevant subordinating conjunctions are 
syntactically nouns; semantically, however, they are to be analysed 
like other subordinating conjunctions, i.e. as two-place predicates (cf. 
p. 159). A separate section examines likely reasons for the 
emergence of such categorial mismatches. Yuasa pinpoints 
grammaticalization processes as the major factor triggering the 
developments under consideration.

The final chapter presents a brief conclusion, summarizing the main 
points of Yuasa's investigation and indicating some promising avenues 
for further research. Much as in earlier chapters, the relevance of her 
study to functionalist approaches emerges clearly. As Yuasa points 
out, her study demonstrates that backward pronominalization and the 
so-called Coordinate Structure Constraint should be explained in 
semantic rather than syntactic terms, a finding that is in line with 
cognitive grammar accounts of this phenomenon. While these results 
might be taken to suggest that there is no need for an autonomous 
syntactic level, Yuasa's work also offers ample evidence that not all 
syntactic phenomena lend themselves to re-interpretation in semantic 
terms.

EVALUATION

The book under review is an important contribution to syntactic theory. 
Well-written and presumably accessible even to readers who are not 
familiar with autolexical syntax, it offers perceptive and thought-
provoking analyses of a number of syntactic phenomena in English 
and Japanese. From a theoretical perspective, Yuasa's work is highly 
relevant in particular to multi-modular and construction grammar 
approaches. More generally, syntacticians of all persuasions -- 
whether "formalist" or "functionalist" in orientation -- will benefit from 
Yuasa's insights. In incorporating the notion of constructions into her 
multi-modular account and in taking into consideration findings from 
more functionally oriented schools, Yuasa's study also goes some way 
toward bridging the gap between formalist and functionalist schools. 
Many intriguing issues are raised by her analyses. For example, can 
syntactic categories or constructions also combine features of several 
syntactic categories/constructions (or of several semantic 
categories/constructions)? How to analyse such cases from a 
multimodular perspective? (For example, one might contend that 
certain items combine syntactic properties of adverbs and syntactic 
properties of nouns.) Furthermore, what kinds of structures, if any, 
could constitute counterevidence against multimodular analyses? 
These questions, as well as those outlined in Yuasa's final chapter, 
await further investigation. What seems clear on the evidence of 
Yuasa's work is that autolexical syntax offers a highly stimulating 
account of many hitherto unexplained phenomena.

REFERENCES

Bresnan, Joan. 2001. Lexical-Functional Syntax. Malden, Mass.: 
Blackwell.

Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. 
Dordrecht: Foris. 

Croft, William. 1995. "Autonomy and functionalist linguistics." 
Language 71: 490-532.

Croft, William. 2001. Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic Theory 
in Typological Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Culicover, Peter/Ray Jackendoff. 1997. "Syntactic coordination 
despite semantic subordination." Linguistic Inquiry 26: 195-217.

Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar 
Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago 
Press.

McCawley, James. 1988. The Syntactic Phenomena of English. 
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Sadock, Jerrold M. 1991. Autolexical Syntax: A Theory of Parallel 
Grammatical Representations. Chicago: The University of Chicago 
Press.

Van Valin, Robert D./Randy J. LaPolla. 1997. Syntax: Structure, 
Meaning and Function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Yuasa, Etsuyo. 1998. Subordinate Clauses in Japanese. Ph.D. 
dissertation, The University of Chicago. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Verena Haser teaches English Linguistics at the University of 
Freiburg, Germany. Her research interests include semantics, 
especially Cognitive Semantics, syntax, and dialectology.





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