Information Structure

Information Structure PDF

Author: Nomi Erteschik-Shir

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007-01-11

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0199262586

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This introduction to the role of information structure in grammar discusses a wide range of phenomena on the syntax-information structure interface. It examines theories of information structure and considers their effectiveness in explaining whether and how information structure maps onto syntax in discourse. Professor Erteschik-Shir begins by discussing the basic notions and properties of information structure, such as topic and focus, and considers their properties from differenttheoretical perspectives. She covers definitions of topic and focus, architectures of grammar, information structure, word order, the interface between lexicon and information structure, and cognitive aspects of information structure.In her balanced and readable account, the author critically compares the effectiveness of different theoretical approaches and assesses the value of insights drawn from work in processing and on language acquisition, variation, and universals. This book will appeal to graduate students of syntax and semantics in departments of linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive science.

Information Structure Within Interfaces

Information Structure Within Interfaces PDF

Author: Asli Gürer

Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton

Published: 2022-01-31

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781501526718

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This book is an in-depth study of information structure within semantic, syntactic and prosodic domains. The semantic classification of focus and topic phrases provides implications for compositionality and positional restrictions. Drawing on experi

Information Structure and its Interfaces

Information Structure and its Interfaces PDF

Author: Lunella Mereu

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2009-02-26

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 3110213974

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The volume presents recent results in the field of Information Structure based on research on Italian and Italian dialects, and on further studies on several typologically different languages. The central idea is that Information Structure is not an exclusive matter of syntax but an interface issue which involves the interplay of at least the phonological, morpho-syntactic and semantic-pragmatic levels of analysis. In addition, the volume is based on the study of actual language use and it adopts a cross-linguistic point of view.

Information Structure Within Interfaces

Information Structure Within Interfaces PDF

Author: Asli Gürer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-01-20

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1501505580

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The realization of information structural units has been intriguing as information packaging has reflections in the semantic, pragmatic, syntactic and prosodic domains. This book extends the investigation by bringing data from all these domains and presenting an analysis for the model of grammar.Based on three-way classification for information packaging, semantic investigation presents insights on compositionality and positional restrictions for topic, focus and discourse anaphoric phrases. The prosodic experimental studies reveal how focus shapes prosody and how diverse languages encode such information packaging. Drawing on the findings of experimental studies reflecting the interaction of information structure with quantifier scope, negation and aspectual markers,clause internal functional projections and scope domains are proposed in the syntactic analysis. The analysis offers new perspectives for movement operations, functional categories, phases which are central themes for the Minimalist Program.Building on the investigation of information structure within semantic, prosodic, syntactic perspectives, the book will appeal to researchers working on either of these domains or their interfaces.

The Syntax-Information Structure Interface

The Syntax-Information Structure Interface PDF

Author: Eugenia Casielles-Suárez

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-01

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 113587669X

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In the last decade, the notions of topic and focus have come to play an increasingly relevant role in theoretical linguistics. Although these notions are often taken for granted, they are still poorly understood. This study offers a detailed analysis of the precise definitions of these and related terms (theme, topic, background, given information, focus, contrast, etc.) as well as of their combination into information structures such as the topic-focus and background-focus articulations. It recommends pursuing a feature-based typology of topics and argues against a dual nature of focus (i.e. presentational vs. contrastive). Central questions addressed are the analysis of subjects in Spanish and English (DP vs NP and null vs. preverbal vs. postverbal) and the nature of constructions such as topicalization, left-dislocation, and focus preposing. Further, it is proposed that in Spanish information structure can be read off the syntax: while an overt DP in the preverbal specifier subject position is interpreted as the topic in a topic-focus articulation, one or more left-or right-dislocated phrases are interpreted as part of the background in background-focus/focus-background structures.

The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces

The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces PDF

Author: Gillian Ramchand

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007-02-22

Total Pages: 686

ISBN-13: 9780199247455

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'The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces' explores how the core components of the language faculty interact. This book shows how these interactions are reflected in linguistic and cognitive theory, considers what they reveal, and looks at their reflections in expression and communication.

Interfaces and Interface Conditions

Interfaces and Interface Conditions PDF

Author: Andreas Späth

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-02-14

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 3110926008

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The volume contains articles that focus on the interface between linguistic and conceptual knowledge. The issues addressed in the volume include the preconditions of every level of the language system that are required for the transformation of linguistic information into conceptual representations. In accordance with Chomsky’s Minimalist language model, the language system is embedded into the performative systems where language is a part of the cognitive competence of human beings, i.e. system of articulation and perception (A/P) and the conceptual-intentional system (C/I). During the formation of linguistic structures, every performative system obtains well-formed representations as its input information. The articles of the volume show how interface conditions determine the linguistic representations on each level of the linguistic system. Interface conditions result in requirements for the ordering of linguistic elements. The syntactic transformation achieves a point, where the linguistic structure formation branches to two distinct representational levels. Both levels deliver instructions for the systems of performance A/P and C/I. Linearization takes place on the syntactic surface of a sentence. The linearization of linguistic elements is manifest at the derivational point of Spell-out and also on the level of the phonological form (PF). This means that on the one hand, linearization is relevant to the phonetic aspect of linguistic expressions, and on the other hand, the interpretation of linguistic utterances is based on hierarchical structures. On the level of Logical Form (LF) all operations apply which don’t have any influence on the linear order in overt syntax. In addition they affect the generation of hierarchical structures. The structure obtained on LF is the representational format of the semantic form of a sentence.

Information Structure Within Interfaces

Information Structure Within Interfaces PDF

Author: Asli Gürer

Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton

Published: 2020-01-20

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9781501515002

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This book is an in-depth study of information structure within semantic, syntactic and prosodic domains. The semantic classification of focus and topic phrases provides implications for compositionality and positional restrictions. Drawing on experimental studies with novel data, prosodic and syntactic analyses offer new perspectives for the Minimalist Program specifically for movement operations, functional categories and phase theory.

Language Change at the Interfaces

Language Change at the Interfaces PDF

Author: Nicholas Catasso

Publisher:

Published: 2022-06-15

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9789027210975

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This volume offers an up-to-date survey of linguistic phenomena at the interfaces between syntax and prosody, information structure and discourse - with a special focus on Germanic and Romance - and their role in language change. The contributions, set within the generative framework, discuss original data and provide new insights into the diachronic development of long-burning issues such as negation, word order, quantifiers, null subjects, aspectuality, the structure of the left periphery, and extraposition. The first part of the volume explores interface phenomena at the intrasentential level, in which only clause-internal factors seem to play a significant role in determining diachronic change. The second part examines developments at the intersentential level involving a rearrangement of categories between at least two clausal domains. The book will be of interest for scholars and students interested in generative accounts of language change phenomena at the interfaces, as well as for theoretical linguists in general.

The Syntax-Information Structure Interface

The Syntax-Information Structure Interface PDF

Author: Timothy Gupton

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-10-24

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1614512051

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It is quite remarkable that, after over a half-century of generative grammar, there is still uncertainty with respect to the analysis of preverbal subjects in a number of languages. According to canonical analyses, preverbal subjects are arguments (A-elements). However, following non-canonical analyses, preverbal subjects are not arguments, but rather A’-elements that behave like topical preverbal direct and indirect objects, which have received a CLLD analysis in the literature (e.g. Cinque 1990). The implications of this debate are far-reaching for generative theory: if preverbal subjects are non-arguments, one must question the universality of the EPP (as in e.g. Alexiadou & Agnostopoulou 1998), as well as its associated features and feature-strengths. Galician is an underdocumented Romance language within the generative paradigm. In this book, I develop an experimental program for establishing clausal word order preferences for a number of information structure contexts. The preference data suggest that preverbal subjects behave like canonical elements, and not CLLD elements. These results inform the model of the preverbal field that I propose for Galician, which also takes into account the enclisis-proclisis divide and reco.