Argument Realization (Studies in Constraint-Based Lexicalism) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1575862662 ISBN 13: 9781575862668

Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf, 2001

Synopsis

In this book, Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King present seven essays that survey fundamental argument realization issues within a typologically broad range of languages. In these papers, Butt, King, and other prominent linguists examine within the architecture of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) the variety of ways in which arguments of a predicate may be realized in the syntax. Well-suited for this kind of examination, LFG allows for the complex interaction of arguments, syntactic positions, and grammatical functions.

Case marking alternations and the overt realization of case marking within single clauses, including case stacking, have continued to engage the attention of linguists working with different syntactic theories. The phenomenon of clause union or complex predication has led linguists to look at case marking and argument realization that goes beyond the domain of the single clause. Regardless of the complexity or simplicity of the predicational structure of a clause, the papers included in this volume show how the relationship between arguments and their overt realization can be dealt with.

These papers also treat multiple case marking in Australian languages, possessor alternation in Welsh, directional complex predicates in American Indian languages, and causatives in Japanese. Furthermore, they discuss representational issues that encompass underspecification and the encoding of semantic information needed to determine the correspondence of thematic arguments to their overt syntactic realization.

About this title

About the Author

Miriam Butt is professor for general and computational linguistics at the University of Konstanz.

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1575862662
• ISBN 13: 9781575862668
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246
• Editor: Butt Miriam, King Tracy Holloway