22.1090, Confs: Semantics, Syntax/Belgium

Sat Mar 5 17:00:25 UTC 2011

LINGUIST List: Vol-22-1090. Sat Mar 05 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.1090, Confs: Semantics, Syntax/Belgium

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1)
Date: 03-Mar-2011
From: Rachel Nye [rachel.nye at gmail.com]
Subject: Short Course: Questions of/and identity

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 11:58:30
From: Rachel Nye [rachel.nye at gmail.com]
Subject: Short Course: Questions of/and identity

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Short Course: Questions of/and identity 

Date: 23-Mar-2011 - 25-Mar-2011 
Location: Ghent, Belgium 
Contact: Rachel Nye 
Contact Email: rachel.nye at ugent.be 
Meeting URL: http://www.gist.ugent.be 

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics; Syntax 

Meeting Description: 

The research group GIST (Generative Initiatives in Syntactic Theory) is 
pleased to announce that Professor Caroline Heycock (University of 
Edinburgh) will teach a short course entitled 'Questions of/and Identity' at 
the University of Ghent (Blandijnberg 2), from March 23rd-25th 2011. The 
course will deal with the following 3 topics: (1) The strangeness of 
specificational sentences (2)Predication and movement (3) Questions and 
answers. A more detailed description of the course can be found below.

The classes will take place from 2pm-5pm on Wednesday 23rd March and 
Thursday 24th March, and from 9.30am-12.30pm on Friday 25th March.

Participation if free, but if you are planning to attend the course, please 
register by sending an email to rachel.nyeATugent.be.

Questions of/and identity
(Professor Caroline Heycock, University of Edinburgh)

The strangeness of specificational sentences

Ever since Higgins' work from the early 70s, the syntax and semantics of the 
type of copular sentence in (1) have proved a challenge for linguists, 
despite its apparent simplicity:
1. The real loser is democracy.
These simple specificational sentences have much in common with the 
specificational pseudoclefts, illustrated in (2):
2. What they are demanding is a change of government.
In this class I will set out the peculiar properties of these types of copular 
clause, focusing on their characteristics in terms of information structure, 
connectivity, and agreement, and attempt to demonstrate how they continue 
to pose problems for our understanding of the syntax/semantics interface.

Predication and movement

In this class I will explore the claims that some of the puzzles that we have 
considered (and perhaps even more) can be solved by invoking the 
possibility of leftward movement of a predicative noun phrase, reviewing in 
particular proposals by Birner, Moro, den Dikken, and Mikkelsen. We will 
tease apart what turn out to be significant syntactic (and semantic) 
differences within triples such as the following:
3a. The chameleon is an amazing animal. The lizard in this next video is 
also an amazing animal. /Also an amazing animal is the lizard in this next 
video.
b. The chameleon is an amazing animal. But the lizard in this next video is 
the most amazing animal I know. / But the most amazing animal I know is the 
lizard in this next video.
c. The chameleon is an amazing colour. But the lizard in this next video is 
the oddest colour I have ever seen. / *But the oddest colour I have ever 
seen is the lizard in this next video.

Questions and answers

Early attempts to treat cases like (2) as question/answer pairs faced 
problems in providing a coherent semantics. However, more recent work by 
Romero has shown that it is possible to provide a plausible semantics, and it 
has been argued by Romero, Shlenker, den Dikken that such an account 
provides a ready explanation for the connectivity effects that such examples 
display. It has further been suggested that the same approach can extend 
to simple specificational sentences such as those in (1), given the existence 
of concealed questions:
4. They announced the loser before they announced the winner.
In this class we will explore the connection between questions and 
specificational subjects, and examine whether a phonological deletion 
approach will finally allow us to solve the mysteries of the connectivity 
effects that have been identified in these cases. 

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