22.2360, Qs: Languages with Obligatory Auxiliary Verbs

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LINGUIST List: Vol-22-2360. Sat Jun 04 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.2360, Qs: Languages with Obligatory Auxiliary Verbs

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1)
Date: 02-Jun-2011
From: William Sakas [sakas at hunter.cuny.edu]
Subject: Languages with Obligatory Auxiliary Verbs
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:54:27
From: William Sakas [sakas at hunter.cuny.edu]
Subject: Languages with Obligatory Auxiliary Verbs

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Are there any natural languages whose (declarative) sentences 
obligatorily contain an auxiliary verb? I.e., there are no sentences 
with finite main verbs. 

We are building a large domain of parameterized languages for 
computational study of language acquisition. We need to know whether 
it is plausible to permit the combination of no V-to-I movement with 
obligatory I-to-C movement, which would entail that every sentence 
must contain an auxiliary that raises from I to C. 

If you know of any such languages, could you supply a couple of 
examples? 

Thanks!
William Sakas 

Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics
                     Language Acquisition
                     Syntax







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