flat structures

[Catherine Rudin/HU/AC/WSC]

Shannon -- Williamson has configurational trees for Lakhota in her article
on internal-headed relative clauses.  (Janis S. Williamson, An
Indefiniteness Restriction for Relative Clauses in Lakhota, in E. Reuland
and A.G.B. ter Meulen (eds), The Representation of Indefiniteness.  MIT
Press 1987).   Also in her dissertation (Williamson 1984 Studies in Lakhota
Grammar, UC San Diego) there are trees which look configurational to me,
though she states in the introduction that Lakhota has "flat structure" and
"nonconfigurational phrase structure rules".  Maybe I don't understand what
"flat" means!!!   Or at least what W. means by it.

 I've assumed configurational structures for both nominal phrases (DP) and
clauses in various papers on Omaha-Ponca, though it's not clear to me just
HOW configurational it is --  the type of trees David and I both presented
in Boulder lst fall, with layers of functional heads, seem very plausible,
but I'd hesitate to try to argue for e.g. a VP constituent.  Williamson
does show a VP in some of her trees.

What are your thoughts on the issue?  I'd love to know.  Or do we have to
wait for your dissertation?

Catherine
-----------------------------------------




                      "Shannon West"
                      <shanwest at uvic.ca>          To:       "Siouan \(E-mail\)" <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
                      Sent by:                    cc:
                      owner-siouan at lists.c        Subject:  flat structures
                      olorado.edu


                      07/24/02 03:42 PM
                      Please respond to
                      shanwest






I'm looking for references that refer to Siouan syntax as 'flat' or
'nonconfigurational'. Dakotan would be best, but all others are welcome
too.
I have a few, but the more I can get, the better.

Actually, any that say the structure is hierarchical would be nifty to have
too. I'm finding very little on that kind of syntax.

Any ideas?
Thanks.

Shannon