Syntax & Semantics Circle
University of California, Santa Cruz
fall 2017
November 3
Jim McCloskey (UC Santa Cruz): “Microparameters in a tiny space -- Stranding at the edge”
In a paper published some years ago (2002), I examined a previously un-recognized species of quantifier float, one in which a universal quantifier ('all') associates at a distance with a fronted wh-pronoun in a constituent question. The pattern is characteristic of the Englishes of certain subcommunities in the northwest corner of Ireland. In this talk I return to the issues raised by those observations in a new context. The new context is defined in part by certain advances in syntactic theory, but also by careful follow-up studies of the phenomenon carried out by Lisa Hegarty (2011), Alison Henry (2012) and others. These studies have uncovered a complex pattern of micro-variation (which I was mostly unaware of at the time of my initial work) with respect to the quantifier-stranding phenomenon -- variation which seems to be centered on networks of speakers which are very small indeed and which can be well described (as far as the syntax goes) in terms of the (im)possibility of stranding at various phase-edges. The paper asks what theory of syntactic variation best allows an understanding of such patterns and contemplates the very difficult issues for the theory of acquisition that now arise.
October 27
Anissa Zaitsu (UC Santa Cruz): “The subject of tenseless clauses in Why-questions”
This work examines Why-questions in a truncated form -- that is, when the subject and tense from the clause remain silent such that we hear why with a bare VP (i.e. Why introduce him to your parents so early in your relationship?). There is evidence of structural subject, which by many accounts would imply ellipsis (deletion under identity), but these constructions often appear without an antecedent and do not align with the standard profile of ellipsis. Given that I exclude ellipsis as an analysis, the structure of these clauses present oddities with respect to the status of T and Polarity -- T is silent yet nonfinite and negation does not license NPIs. Furthermore, the subject of these clauses bears distributional patterns similar to that of PRO-arb and impersonal pronouns, contributing to the typology of empty categories.
October 13
Mansi Desai (UC Santa Cruz): “Negation in Gujarati”
In Gujarati (Indo-Aryan), there are multiple forms of sentential negation, which vary depending on the tense and aspect of the sentence. Furthermore, the position of the negation can vary (within certain limits). I will lay out an analysis that aims to account for these different forms and word orders, and that could relate to aspects of negation in other languages, such as high polarity in English.