Asymmetry in Grammar, Vol 1: Syntax and Semantics (Linguistik Aktuell Linguistics Today)

412 Pages·1999·2.03 MB·English

by  Anna-Maria Di Sciullo

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AsymmetryinGrammar
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original
monograph studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA
confrontempiricalandtheoreticalproblemsasthesearecurrentlydiscussedin
syntax,semantics,morphology,phonology,andsystematicpragmaticswiththe
aim to establish robust empirical generalizations within a universalistic
perspective.
SeriesEditor
WernerAbraham
UniversityofVienna
AdvisoryEditorialBoard
GuglielmoCinque(UniversityofVenice)
GüntherGrewendorf(J.W.Goethe-University,Frankfurt)
LilianeHaegeman(UniversityofLille,France)
HubertHaider(UniversityofSalzburg)
ChristerPlatzack(UniversityofLund)
IanRoberts(CambridgeUniversity)
KenSafir(RutgersUniversity,NewBrunswickNJ)
LisadeMenaTravis(McGillUniversity)
StenVikner(UniversityofAarhus)
C.Jan-WouterZwart(UniversityofGroningen)
Volume57
AsymmetryinGrammar:Volume1:Syntaxandsemantics
EditedbyAnnaMariaDiSciullo
Asymmetry in Grammar
Volume 1: Syntax and semantics
Edited by
Anna Maria Di Sciullo
UniversityofQuebecatMontreal
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Asymmetry in Grammar : Volume 1: Syntax and semantics / edited by Anna Maria Di
Sciullo.
p. cm.(LinguistikAktuell/LinguisticsToday,issn0166–0829;v.57)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Contents:v.1.Syntaxandsemantics--v.2.Morphology,phonology,acquisition.
1.Asymmetry(Linguistics)I.DiSciullo,Anne-Maria,1951-II.Linguistikaktuell;Bd.
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Table of contents
Introduction:Asymmetryingrammar 1
AnnaMariaDiSciullo
Frenchdefinitedeterminersinindefinitecontexts
andasymmetricagreement 11
AntoniaAndroutsopoulouandManuelEspañolEchevarría
Restrictiverelativeclausesvs.restrictiveAdjectives:Anasymmetry
withintheclassofmodifiers 27
DanielaIsac
Asymmetryincase:FinnishandOldRussiannominativeobjects 51
EditJakab
Resumptionandasymmetricderivation 85
CedricBoeckx
Reconstructingnonconfigurationality 99
JulieAnneLegate
Structuralasymmetriesbutsamewordorder:Thedativealternation
inSpanish 117
MaríaCristinaCuervo
Ontheasymmetryofthespecificationalcopulasentence 145
JacquelineGuéron
TheasymmetrybetweendepictivesandresultativesinChinese 165
NiinaZhang
Adjunctsandwordorderasymmetries 187
ThomasErnst
Wh-asymmetries 209
ManuelaAmbar
ThreeargumentsforremnantIPmovementinRomance 251
Jean-YvesPollock
 Tableofcontents
Theclausestructureofextractionasymmetries 279
AnnaMariaDiSciullo,IleanaPaul,andStancaSomesfalean
Interpretiveasymmetriesinmajorphrases 301
GregCarlson
Configurationalpropertiesofpointofviewroles 315
PeggySpeasandCarolTenny
ContrastiveTopicandpropositionstructure 345
ChungminLee
Categories,types,andqualiaselection 373
JamesPustejovsky
Index 395
Asymmetry in grammar
Syntax and semantics
AnnaMariaDiSciullo
Introduction
The restrictions observed in a great variety of languages on the composition of
linguisticelements,theirdependencyandtheirlinearorderindicatethatUniver-
sal Grammar includesasymmetric relations. This collectionofpapers targetsthe
properties of these relations in the different objects generated by the grammar.
While asymmetry has mainly been discussed in syntax, the papers in this collec-
tionbringtoforethefactthatasymmetryiscentralinsemanticsaswell.Butwhat
isasymmetry?
Ingenerativegrammar, the term‘asymmetry’ is used in more than oneway.
In some cases, it simply refers to differences between two features, categories or
configurations.Inothercases,itreferstodifferencesbetweensortsofconstituents,
suchassubjectandobject,complementandnon-complement(subjectoradjunct),
with respect to the operations of the grammar. This is the case for the so-called
‘asymmetriesofextractionwithrespecttoislands’theoriginofwhichgoesbackto
Ross’s(1965)dissertationConstraintsonVariablesinSyntax.Thus,ithasbeenob-
servedthatwhiletheextractionofacomplementcontainedinanembeddedclause
ispossible,theextractionofasubjectoranadjunctisrarelyacceptable.Thefacts
havebeentreatedbydifferentprinciples,includingtheEmptyCategoryPrinciple
(ECP) (Chomsky 1981), the Constraint on Extraction Domains (CED) (Huang
1982),Barriers’Minimality(Chomsky1986),RelativizedMinimality(Rizzi1990).
The Minimal Link Condition(Chomsky1995)captures therestrictions in terms
ofaneconomycondition.TheDerivationbyPhasemodel(Chomsky2001)allows
foraderivationalaccountoftheobservedasymmetries.
Asymmetry is also used to define certain relations between nodes in con-
stituent structure trees. The structural relation of (asymmetric) c-command has
beenconsideredtobecentralinsyntax.Thus,xc-commandsy,ifxdoesnotdom-
 AnnaMariaDiSciullo
inatey,andthefirstprojectionwhichdominatesxalsodominatesy;xasymmetri-
callyc-commandsy,ifxc-commandsy,butydoesnotc-commandx.Theserela-
tionsareconsideredtobedeterminantinthedefinitionofmovement,anaphoric
relations, operator-binding and scope relations (Reinhart 1984; Chomsky 1981;
Kayne1984;Higginbotham1985;Aoun&Lee1993;Hornstein1999).
More recently, the set theoretical notion of asymmetry is used to define the
propertiesoftherelationsandtheoperationsofthegrammar.InSetTheory,asym-
metryisapropertyofrelationsinasetsuchthatiftheorderedpair<x,y>ispartof
thatset,thepair<y,x>isnot.Symmetryandantisymmetryarealsopropertiesof
relationsinaset.Thus,symmetryholdsiftheorderedpairs<x,y>and<y,x>are
inthatset.Therelationsinasetqualifyasantisymmetric if,inadditiontoasym-
metricrelations,thesetmayincludereflexiverelations,suchas<x,x>and<y,y>.
AsymmetricandAntisymmetricrelationsarenotsymmetric.
The set theoretical notions of asymmetry, symmetry and antisymmetry are
used in syntax toderive the properties of observable linguistic phenomena. This
isthecaseforKayne’s(1994)LinearCorrespondenceAxiom(LCA),accordingto
which the linear orderof terminals of alinguistic expression is a function of the
asymmetric c-command relation between all the pairs of non-terminals. Moro’s
(2000) Dynamic Antisymmetry hypothesis is a weaker version of the LCA, as it
allowsforthederivationofsymmetric relations, orwhat he calls‘pointsofsym-
metry’inthederivations.Themotivationformovementistheeliminationofthe
pointsofsymmetry.
Ithasbeenproposedthatc-commandisnotanelementaryrelation,butcanbe
derivedfrom theproperties ofderivations (Epstein1995;Frank &Vijayashankar
1995;Reuland1998).Asymmetricc-commandfallsoutinanaturalwayfromthe
operationsofthegrammarintheMinimalistFramework(Chomsky1998),where
asymmetric c-command doesnotplayaroleincoresyntax.This relationissub-
sumed under the more elementary ‘sister’ and ‘contain’ relations, derived by the
operationMerge.
Thenotionsofasymmetryandsymmetryarealsousedinthedefinitionsofthe
operationsofthegrammar.ThusinChomsky(1995)set-Mergediffersfrompair-
Merge.Thefirst,whichbasicallyderiveshead-complementstructures,issaidtobe
asymmetric operation,aseitheroneortheothersyntacticobjectthatundergoes
theoperationprojectsits features, whereas the second,which derivesadjunction
structures, is asymmetric. The difference between categories and segments is ex-
pressedintermsofsettheoreticaltermsinthisframework.Theoperationsofthe
grammar are also defined in terms of asymmetry. Thus, Move is asymmetric in
thatonlythecategorytargetedbyMoveprojectsitsfeaturesintheconfigurationof
whichitispart.
Furthermore,thenotionofasymmetryispartofthederivationsofarguments
andadjuncts.ThisisthecaseforthepropertiesofargumentsinHaleandKeyser’s
Asymmetryingrammar 
(1993–1998) theory, where the restrictions on argument structure as well as ar-
gument structure alternations follow from the limitations due to the [Specifier
[head Complement]] asymmetries. The properties of adjuncts also bring about
important issues with respect to the asymmetry of these projections. In fact, the
nature of the asymmetry of adjuncts is subject to debate. It is not clear, if they
are external to the VP or if some adjuncts are part of the VP, whether they are
Chomsky-adjoinedtoaprojectionorgeneratedinthespecifieroffunctionalpro-
jections(Cinque1999),whethertherecanbeonlyoneadjunct/specifierperprojec-
tion(Kayne1994;Moro2000)orifmultipleadjunctsarepossible(Chomsky1995;
Ura1996),andalsowhetheradjunctsaredistinctprojectionsfromspecifiers.
Arelatedsetofquestionsarisewithrespecttotheasymmetryofthefullpro-
jectionofahead,orphraseddifferently,therecursionofprojectionsofthesame
sort, giving rise to further articulation of the verbal structure, as in Chomsky’s
(1998) small vP, as well as to other projections, including functional projections
suchasDP,CPandhigherfunctionalprojectionsattheleftperipheryofsentences.
(Ambar2000;Rizzi1997;Pollock,Munaro,&Poletto1999).Theseworksarguein
favorofafine-grainedarticulationofconstituentstructure,whichcanbeviewed
asaparticularcaseofthebasicasymmetryofsyntax.
Whileresearchhasbeenmainlyfocussedonthepropertiesofsyntacticasym-
metries, there have also been results in the works on asymmetry in semantics.
Inthisarea,thenotionofasymmetric c-command hasbeenproposedtobecru-
cialinthedeterminationofanaphoric(Reinhart1983;Reinhart&Reuland1993;
Reuland2001)and binding relations (Chomsky1981, 1986;Grodzinsky &Rein-
hart1993).Thenotionofco-indexation,whichwaspartofthebindingrelations,
hasbeenshowntobeasymmetric inHigginbotham(1985),whoproposedtore-
place it by the unidirectional Linking relation. The interpretation of indefinites
andquantificationalNPshasbeenproposedtomatchthegeometryofphrasalpro-
jection in Diesing (1992).Asymmetric relations have also been proposedfor the
articulationofothersemanticrelations,includingthepredicate-argumentrelation
(Hale&Keyser1993),themodificationrelation(Cinque1999),aswellastemporal
relations(Stowell1995).
Ifphonologicalasymmetriesandmorphologicalasymmetriesexist,asargued
inDiSciullo(1995,2003);KeyserandRoeper(1995);DresherandvanderHulst
(1998);Dresherand Rice(1993);Hulst(1984,1999,2000);Piggott(1999,2000);
Rice(1992);RiceandAvery(1993);Raimy(2000),aswellassyntacticandseman-
ticasymmetries, thequestionthatcomestomindiswhetherasymmetry isgiven
byUniversal Grammar. It might be the case that asymmetry is part of the initial
state of the language faculty, enabling human beings to developthe grammar of
the language towhich theyare exposed, to interpret and toquicklygenerate the
expressionsofthislanguageinarelativelyshortperiodoftime.