Studies in Comparative Germanic Syntax

by H. Haider (Editor), S. Olsen (Editor), S. Vikner (Editor)

Overview

o. COMPARATIVE GERMANIC SYNTAX This volume contains 13 papers that were prepared for the Seventh Workshop on Comparative Germanie Syntax at the University of Stuttgart in November 1991. In defining the theme both of the workshop and of this volume, we have taken "comparative" in "comparative Germanic syntax" to mean that at least two languages should be analyzed and "Germanic" to mean that at least one of these languages should be Germanic. There was no requirement as such that the research presented should be situated within the framework known as Principles and Parameters Theory (previously known as Government and Binding Theory), though it probably is no accident that this nevertheless turned out to be the case. Within this theory, it is seen as highly desirable to be able to account for several differences on the surface by deriving them from fewer under­ lying differences. The reason is that, in order to explain the ease with which children acquire language, it is assumed that not all knowledge of any given language is the result of learning, but that instead children already possess part of this knowledge at birth (the innate part of linguistic knowledge will obviously be the same for all human beings, and thus this theory also provides an explanation of language universals). The fewer "real" (i.e.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792332800
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	06/30/1995
Series:	Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory , #31
Edition description:	1995
Pages:	346
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.24(d)

Table of Contents

On the Origin of Sentential Arguments in German and Bengali.- A Unified Structural Representation of (Abstract) Case and Article. Evidence from Germanic.- Preposition Stranding and Resumptivity in West Germanic.- To Have to Be Dative.- Case and Scrambling: D-structure versus S-structure.- Agreement and Verb Morphology in Three Varieties of English.- Structural Case, Specifier-Head Relations, and the Case of Predicate NPs.- Crossover Effects, Chain Formation, and Unambiguous Binding.- Complex Predicates in Dutch and English.- Pronouns, Anaphors and Case.- Object Movement and Verb Movement in Early Modern English.- Cross-Dialectal Variation in Swiss German: Doubling Verbs, Verb Projection Raising, Barrierhood, and LF Movement.- On Agreement and Nominative Objects in Icelandic.- List of Contributors.- Language Index.- Name Index.