Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics
About the Book Series
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The Fine Structure of Polarity Sensitivity
1st Edition
By Lucia M. Tovena
July 22, 2016
First Published in 1998. Part of the Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics series, this study investigates the phenomenon of polarity sensitivity. It proposes a new perspective which focuses on the behaviour and properties of sensitive items and the phrases they form. It originated in the ...
Input-based Phonological Acquisition
1st Edition
By Tania Zamuner
July 21, 2016
This book provides an analysis of two theories of language acquisition: the theory that acquisition is primarily mediated by innate properties of language provided by universal grammar, and the opposing theory that language is acquired based on the patterns in the ambient language. A problem not ...
Nasalization, Neutral Segments and Opacity Effects
1st Edition
By Rachel Walker
July 21, 2016
This book explores cross linguistic variation in nasalization....
Turn-taking in English and Japanese: Projectability in Grammar, Intonation and Semantics
1st Edition
By Hiroko Furo
July 21, 2016
This book examines turn-taking in English and Japanese conversations and political news interviews to investigate the relationship between language and interaction....
Noun Phrase Licensing
1st Edition
By Jeffrey T. Runner
July 20, 2016
This book examines the syntax of direct object noun phrases in English within the Principles and Parameters, specifically Chomsky's Minimalist Program, approach to generative grammar. The main focus is on the phrase structural positions of object noun phrases at the various levels of representation...
Parallelism and Prosody in the Processing of Ellipsis Sentences
1st Edition
Edited
By Laurence Horn, Katy Carlson
July 18, 2016
First Published in 2002. This volume is part of the 'Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics' series. This book investigates the processing of ellipsis sentences, focusing on the following questions: (i) are ellipsis sentences processed using special routines employed only for ellipsis or are they...
Origins of Predicates: Evidence from Plains Cree
1st Edition
By Tomio Hirose
July 15, 2016
This book offers a new perspective on natural language predicates by analyzing data from the Plains Cree language. Contrary to traditional understanding, Cree verbal complexes are syntactic constructs composed of morphemes as syntactic objects that are subject to structurally defined constraints, ...
The Morphosyntax of the Algonquian Conjunct Verb: A Minimalist Approach
1st Edition
By Julie Brittain
July 15, 2016
The book investigates the synatctic distribution of the Algonquian Conjuct verb from the theoretical perspective of the Minimalist Program....
Event Semantics of Verb Frame Alternations: A Case Study of Dutch and Its Acquisition
1st Edition
By Angeliek Van Hout
July 08, 2016
Using both theoretical and language acquisition arguments, this study proposes a new model of the lexicon-syntax interface defined in terms of checking event-semantic features. The research is based on Dutch verbs and their possible verb frames (intransitive, transitive, etc.) and two studies of ...
Syntactic Form and Discourse Function in Natural Language Generation
1st Edition
By Cassandre Creswell
June 22, 2016
Users of natural languages have many word orders with which to encode the same truth-conditional meaning. They choose contextually appropriate strings from these many ways with little conscious effort and with effective communicative results. Previous computational models of when English speakers ...
Category Neutrality: A Type-Logical Investigation
1st Edition
By Neil Whitman
May 13, 2016
"Feature neutrality" is an issue that has received much attention among linguists. For example, consider the sentence, "I have never, and will never, put my name on this document." Here, the verb 'put' acts simultaneously as a past participle (as in "have never put") and a base form (as in "will ...
Constraints on Reflexivization in Mandarin Chinese
1st Edition
By Haihua Pan
May 13, 2016
First Published in 1997. Mandarin ziji has challenged many syntacticians to probe for its properties and specifically its relationship to Binding Condition A (BCA), which dictates that an anaphor must be bound by a syntactically prominent (or c-commanding) noun phrase in a very local domain (...