Synchrotron Radiation News

AbstractThe Turkic contact varieties of the Balkans use two main diametrically opposed subordination strategies: (i) the Turkic template, where typical subordinate clauses are prepositive, nonfinite, contain clause‐final subordinators, etc. and (ii) the Indo‐European (IE) template, where typical subordinate clauses are postpositive, finite, contain clause‐initial subordinators, etc. Additionally, Balkan Turkic also uses several kinds of subordinate clauses that allow for various mixtures of these two models (‘X‐clauses’). Spread over a spectrum between the Turkic and IE extremes, X‐clauses can, for instance, be prepositive but contain clause‐initial subordinators. Building on these observations, the present study analyzes clause combining data from two language contact situations, namely Turkish–German contact in Germany and Turkish–English contact in the US, and discusses emerging patterns in these data, typically produced by younger bilingual speakers in informal spoken communicative situations and resembling the X‐clauses in Balkan Turkic.

AbstractThe Latin ablative absolute construction is usually considered a unitary phenomenon with regard to its external syntax, being a clausal participial adjunct, mostly appearing in the left–peripheral area of their hosts. A closer analysis carried out in the framework of the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1993, 1995), with theoretical proposals put forward in Chomsky (2013, 2015b, 2020b, 2021) and related work as the specific background, allows accounting for their properties as a result of Set‐Merge and interaction of independently motivated properties of syntactic operations. The behaviour of ablative absolute with regard to accessibility to operations targeting them from outside and their labeling properties follow from specific featural specification of their constituents. It is also argued that accounting for syntactic properties of different kinds of the ablative absolute construction does not require positing any language–particular or construction–specific rules.

AbstractThis article deals with the syntax of positive and comparative adjectives in Tomo Kan (< Dogon < Niger‐Congo). I show that the system of adjectives in this language presents a possible counterexample to the generalization made by some recent theories whereby positive forms cannot be more complex morphologically than comparative forms. Contrary to that, I show that positive predicative forms (but not attributive ones) are morphologically simpler than adjectival stems used in comparative constructions. In order to account for this asymmetry, I propose that complexity associated with the non‐comparative forms is due to language‐internal syntactic factors and is not associated with the overt exponence of positive semantics (‘be A'). However, I also show that there are reasons to believe that adjectival stems are inherently comparative in Tomo Kan.

AbstractBy taking into account the methodological guidelines brought by the Cartographic approach (Cinque 1999; Rizzi 1997), this article aims to propose a Cartographic analysis of the temporal adjunct por x tempo (‘for x time’) in Brazilian Portuguese. It particularly seeks to explore how the two possible readings given by the combination of this adjunct with telic and atelic predicates—as reported in the literature (Basso 2007, Basso & Pires de Oliveira 2010, Basso & Bergamini‐Perez 2016, among others)—can be derived in Syntax. We argue that very simple (Minimalist) ingredients, namely external and internal Merge, coupled with the assumption of Cartographic hierarchies—in this particular case, Cinque's (1999) hierarchy—can account for these two readings in a straightforward way, under a view we call Alternative I (which is confronted with a radical competing analysis, Alternative II, whose sole ingredient is recursive merge). We show the advantages of the Cartographic analysis (Alternative I) in directly mapping out to the interpretive system the two readings made available by the combination of por x tempo (‘for x time’) with different predicates.

AbstractIn this paper, data from an eye‐tracking study on auxiliary selection in L2 Italian are reported. The data suggest that learners of Italian over time and with increasing experience can process the same compound past verbs in two apparently commutable ways within the same experimental session. One way is statistical (centered on the lexical part of the verb, the past participle), and the other is grammatical (centered on the auxiliary). The results also indicate that L2 learners – with increasing proficiency – can alternate statistical and grammatical representations and processing routes for the same phenomenon within the array of a single sentence, as native speakers do.

AbstractWe propose an analysis of copular structures of the type “DP is DP” based on the existence of a silent predicate of asymmetric identity. Our proposal is based on a cognitively grounded notion of identity as identification of one object on the basis of the properties of another. We argue that our proposal is preferable over Russell's view that the copula is ambiguous between a predicative interpretation (as in “Socrates is wise”) and an equative one (as in “Socrates is a man”) but also improves upon Longobardi's and Moro's influential analyses, which entail that DP's are ambiguous between a referring type (<e > or < et>t>) and a predicational type (<et>). In the new analysis proposed here, copular structures receive a uniform predicational interpretations and DPs are uniformly interpreted as referential.

In this paper, I study the nature of adnumerative or numerative forms; i.e. morphologically dedicated inflectional forms that can only be used with numerals or quantifiers (e.g. Russian dva časá ‘two o'clock’ vs. [gen sg] čása). Adnumeratives are cross‐linguistically very rare; yet they raise some interesting theoretical discussions. This work is based on the framework of Canonical Typology, which assumes the existence of a handful of discrete and cross‐linguistically recurrent morphosyntactic features. Nevertheless, adnumerative forms present a challenge to that distribution, because, as I argue, adnumeratives lie between case and number values. This might well represent a theoretically undesirable scenario, and thus, be diachronically unstable. However, the data I have gathered prove that there are adnumerative forms that have survived in this penumbra for centuries and one can also adduce more evidence of diachronically stable cross‐linguistic phenomena between two feature values (e.g. the anterior). Therefore, I propose that this theoretical space may not be as dark previously depicted and I ask questions for further exploration.

AbstractThis research aims to clarify the concept of sequentiality in language: the case in which a number of things occur one after the other, as seen in phrases like a queue of customers, a strand of programs and a fleet of cars. Utilizing Langacker's theory of Cognitive Semantics, the study seeks to substantiate two claims. The first is that the meaning of a linguistic expression is understood in terms of the domain in which it is embedded. The second is that the meaning of a linguistic expression is the outcome of the specific construal imposed on its content. The paper proposes that the choice of a sequential phrase is influenced by how the speaker perceives and describe a situation. The study intends to demonstrate that each sequential phrase carries a unique meaning that sets it apart from others. When two or more sequential phrases modify a noun, they indicate semantic contrast, with each phrase offering a different perspective. The findings show that sequential phrases have distinct functions and are distinguishable in their usage through examples provided.

AbstractThis paper investigates two puzzles concerning gapped topicalization in Chinese: (i) DPs are restricted from undergoing multiple gapped topicalization via Agree and movement, while prepositional phrases do not face this limitation; (ii) DP gapped topicalization, typically viewed as an instance of Ā‐movement, is able to feed anaphoric binding, a property conventionally associated with A‐movement. I propose that these two puzzles can be elucidated by adopting three hypotheses: (i) Van Urk's (2015) featural approach to A/Ā‐distinction, (ii) Coon & Bale's (2014) composite probing mechanism, and (iii) Deal's (2015, 2024) interaction/satisfaction model of Agree. I will also demonstrate how this proposal readily provides a systematically consistent derivational mechanism to generate successive‐cyclic topicalization in Chinese.

AbstractThis paper explores patterns of cross‐linguistic, intra‐linguistic and individual variation in the acceptability of sentences with extraction from islands, a classic object of attention of generative grammar. It asks which “competence” concept better fits the presented data. We contrast two alternative views: one that ascribes a multilingual competence to individual speakers, in the “rich competence” tradition of acquisition theory, and another one based on a “competence‐free” kind of model, which is framed as an instantiation of the minimalist approach to the language faculty. We conclude that the latter eliminativist approach is better suited to account for variation in the acceptability of island sentences.

AbstractThis paper tackles the issue of whether syntactic head movement exists in Japanese. Sato & Hayashi (2018) and Sato & Maeda (2021) propose that Verb‐Echo Answers (VEAs), an instance of fragment answers, in Japanese are derived via the so‐called Verb‐stranding TP‐Ellipsis (VTPE; i.e., TP‐ellipsis accompanied by verb‐raising to C), thereby claiming that head movement exists in Japanese as a syntactic operation. In response, this paper argues that pro and Argument Ellipsis (AE) in Japanese sufficiently account for the key observations presented in their works. Specifically, a careful examination of the discourse in each question‐answer pair reveals that the seemingly problematic scope patterns in VEAs do not call for the VTPE analysis. We also show that the unacceptability of voice mismatches in VEAs can be explained by a discourse‐based analysis within the Question Under Discussion framework. Further, we provide an extensive discussion on the alleged evidence against the pro/AE analysis concerning adjunct‐inclusive readings. We show that negative scope reversal effects, which Sato & Maeda (2021) argue occur in VTPE, do not occur between adjuncts and negation in the novel data. Given this, we discuss possible ways to account for the availability of adjunct‐inclusive readings in VEAs with no recourse to VTPE, and suggest avenues for future research. The proposed analyses of VEAs shed new light on intriguing aspects of ellipsis phenomena, which involve complex interactions between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

AbstractOn the basis of Abe's (2016) proposal that in the case of an A‐chain, any member can be the target for pronunciation, I argue that Japanese passives may have the bottom copies of the produced A‐chains pronounced. When the passivized subjects appear to occupy their original θ‐positions, it is standardly claimed that the relevant word order is derived by scrambling other material sentence‐initially. Contrary to this claim, I demonstrate that there are cases, including those of what Miyagawa (1989) calls the causative‐passive construction, where the passivized subjects actually occupy their original θ‐positions. I then provide evidence that those passivized subjects undergo “covert” A‐movement, hence giving support to my bottom copy pronunciation analysis.

AbstractThis paper explores the syntactic variations of concord in sentences involving referential metonymy in English. Apart from the standard type in which syntactic agreement is shown between the metonymic NP and the verbs or pronouns that follow, this article also discusses and summarizes other types where there are various degrees of disagreement. Moreover, this paper formalizes the principles of Ruiz de Mendoza and Díez (2004) by introducing the metonymic function, and proposes simplification of these principles based on the notion of metonymy as a contingency. Finally, this paper discusses other possible factors – both contextual and non‐contextual – that may lead to these syntactic variations.

AbstractThis paper investigates three puzzles concerning scalar nu‐V constructions in Taiwan Mandarin: (a) a scalar nu‐V construction is incompatible with state/achievement verbs, irrespective of the presence of a quantity phrase; (b) when combined with activity verbs, the inclusion of a quantity phrase appears obligatory for scalar nu‐V constructions in an out‐of‐the‐blue context; (c) under appropriate contextual support, bare nouns and demonstrative phrases can replace the typically obligatory quantity phrases to form a grammatical scalar nu‐V construction with an activity verb. We argue that the solutions to these puzzles lie in three core meaning components of scalar nu‐V constructions: (a) scalar presupposition; (b) association with focus; (c) volitional requirement. Specifically, we propose that (a) scalar nu is a scalar verbal modifier that forms a verbal compound with its following verb; (b) scalar nu introduces a scalar presupposition (based on the scalar associate) and the volitional requirement in scalar nu‐V constructions. If our analysis is correct, it suggests that the scalarity of a construction may come from a verbal modifier (e.g., scalar nu) in the formation of a compound verb, thereby enhancing our understanding of the compositionality of compound verbs in natural language.

AbstractThis article provides a syntactic analysis of the inclusory plural pronominal construction in Fenno‐Swedish and Finnish. In this construction, a plural pronoun has a singular reading: vi …med Anna (literally “we …with Anna”) means ‘Anna and I’. In addition to the plural pronoun, the construction includes a comitative PP. Similar constructions can be found in several other languages, especially in the eastern parts of Europe which suggests it is an areal feature. The structural diversity of the construction in Fenno‐Swedish and Finnish seems to require an analysis that differs from previous analyses of other languages. Instead of a derivation involving movements, the study suggests that the analysis must employ an unvalued feature. In some well‐formed examples, the necessary movements would be far too complex for an appealing explanation. Additionally, the Fenno‐Swedish construction seems to allow an insight into a degree of development where the construction has not necessarily been fully grammaticalised.