Paul Postal - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Paul Postal

Glossa, Apr 13, 2017

In this paper, we show that the syntactic analysis of one major type of NEG raising in Collins & ... more In this paper, we show that the syntactic analysis of one major type of NEG raising in Collins & Postal (2014) is inconsistent with the facts of negation scope revealed by Klima (1964) type tests for sentential negation. Two of the four original Klima tests plus three additional ones are discussed. We propose a novel alternative syntactic analysis, one also involving NEG raising, that is consistent with the relevant tests, as well as with all the principles of NEG raising and NEG deletion proposed in Collins & Postal (2014). We suggest, further, that the newer analysis permits a more uniform overall conception of the various cases of NEG Raising.

Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1963

BRILL eBooks, Dec 20, 1976

Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 1977

Semantics and Pragmatics, May 22, 2018

In this paper we consider two analyses of NEG raising phenomena: a syntactic approach based on ra... more In this paper we consider two analyses of NEG raising phenomena: a syntactic approach based on raising NEG, as recently advocated in Collins & Postal 2014, and a semantic/pragmatic approach based on the Excluded Middle Assumption; see Bartsch 1973. We show that neither approach alone is sufficient to account for all the relevant phenomena. Although the syntactic approach is needed to explain the distribution of strict NPIs and Horn clauses, the semantic/pragmatic approach is needed to explain certain inferences where syntactic NEG raising is blocked.

Normally, a speaker uses a first person singular pronoun (in English, I, me, mine, myself) to ref... more Normally, a speaker uses a first person singular pronoun (in English, I, me, mine, myself) to refer to himself or herself. To refer to a single addressee, a speaker uses second person pronouns (you, yours, yourself). But sometimes third person nonpronominal DPs are used to refer to the speaker--for example, this reporter, yours truly--or to the addressee--my lord, the baroness, Madam (Is Madam not feeling well?). Chris Collins and Paul Postal refer to these DPs as imposters because their third person exterior hides a first or second person core. ...

Postal's book sets a record for the greatest number of words written in one work about a single g... more Postal's book sets a record for the greatest number of words written in one work about a single grammatical rule in one language. The book is essentially a series of 'arguments', mostly independent of each other, each claiming to provide a reason for believing in the evidence of a transformation 'raising' underlying subjects of clauses embedded in object position to object position in the matrix clause, thus relating such pairs of sentences as / believe that John is the author and / believe John to be the author. The book's most remarkable feature is undoubtedly the relation of its length to its scope. The book uses familiar modes of argumentation in an already well-worked field to try to establish a conclusion which has enjoyed about as much acceptance as any proposition of its kind can hope for since it was first proposed seven years earlier (in Rosenbaum, 1967). The proposition (that there is a rule of Raising in English) is defended at such great length because Chomsky (1973) claims to be able to dispense with it. Thus, the book states the case for one of the sides in an ongoing dispute, although Postal spends relatively little space addressing the rival account. The general technique is to present positive arguments for the debated proposition. This is unsatisfactory as it leaves the content of the book in a relative theoretical vacuum. Any intelligent reader will want, on reading it, to know how many arguments can be amassed for the alternative to Raising and what arguments against Raising and its alternatives exist. The situation could be like the quite enigmatic one in physics, where there are good reasons for regarding light as particles and other good reasons for regarding it as a wave, these two views being mutually incompatible. It would be irresponsible for a knowledgeable physicist to write a book listing and describing all the reasons for regarding light as particles without giving ample coverage of the alternative view. Progress in linguistics is made by comparing the rival merits of alternative proposals. Postal's book is too monolithic, mainly concerned with piling up the arguments on one side of the case. If there simply are no arguments against Postal's position, then why this enormous effort in support of it? I shall return to Postal's own 0022-2267/79/0015-0009I00.35

sibilities for iconic and/or indexic motivation are resources that can jumpstart the creation of ... more sibilities for iconic and/or indexic motivation are resources that can jumpstart the creation of new sign languages. Small deaf communities and even isolated deaf individuals have the means to invent signs that can be understood by cooperative interlocutors. The chapters in this volume suggest that those resources may yield crosslinguistic similarities in question and negative particles, pronouns, verb agreement, and the 'productive vocabulary' discussed by Napoli and Sutton-Spence. For linguists, iconicity poses problems: shared iconicity can make it difficult to trace historical relationships among signs. As this volume makes clear, the demography of deaf communities and the resources of the visual-gestural modality open up important research questions. As we linguists explore those questions, we must be sensitive to the human rights issues that confront the Deaf around the world. REFERENCES GOLDIN-MEADOW, SUSAN, and CAROLYN MYLANDER. 1990. Beyond the input given: The child's role in the acquisition of language. Language 66.323-55. GUERRA CURRIE, ANNE-MARIE P.; RICHARD P. MEIER; and KEITH WALTERS. 2002. A crosslinguistic examination of the lexicons of four signed languages. Modality and structure in signed and spoken languages, ed.

Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Jan 26, 2017

Collins and Postal (2014) postulate that English NPIs represent two distinct structures: a unary ... more Collins and Postal (2014) postulate that English NPIs represent two distinct structures: a unary NEG structure and a binary NEG structure. Some NPIs, such as any and ever expressions, can instantiate either of these two structures in different contexts. Others (such as one use of jackshit) have only unary NEG structures. The present article seeks to provide cross-linguistic support for this hypothesis by showing that the two series of NPIs in Serbian/Croatian (Progovac 1994) should be analyzed in terms of the two structure types postulated for English NPIs.

Monograph series on language and linguistics, 1966

Edge-Based Clausal Syntax

Administration • Read clarified grading policies • Lab 6 due tomorrow-Submit .java files in a fol... more Administration • Read clarified grading policies • Lab 6 due tomorrow-Submit .java files in a folder named Lab6 • Lab 7-Posted today-Upson Lab closed (today?, tomorrow, Wednesday?)-class cancelled on Tuesday-Michael will hold office hours during lab time

Language, 2012

American Anthropologist, 1961

Page 1. Avunculocality and Incest: The Developnent of Unilateral CrossCousin Marriage and Crow~Om... more Page 1. Avunculocality and Incest: The Developnent of Unilateral CrossCousin Marriage and Crow~Omaha Kinship Systems ... On the basis of their general hypothesis the Lanes suggest that Crow-Omaha kinship systems may be associated with MCCM. ...

Communications of the ACM, 1969

A class of coordination phenomena in natural languages is considered within the framework of tran... more A class of coordination phenomena in natural languages is considered within the framework of transformational theory. To account for these phenomena it is proposed that certain machinery be added to the syntactic component of a transformational grammar. This machinery includes certain rule schemata, the conditions under which they are to be applied, and conditions determining the sequence of subtrees on which they are to be performed. A solution to the syntactic analysis problem for this class of grammars is outlined. Precise specification of both the generative procedure of this paper and its inverse is given in the form of LISP function definitions.

... licensing" gap and P-gap are linked in that both corre-spond to so-called Slash categori... more ... licensing" gap and P-gap are linked in that both corre-spond to so-called Slash categories with the same binder.6 Although it is possible, as Gerald Gazdar (personal communication, 8/10/92) stresses, to formulate Slash descrip-tions under which a P-gap (any gap) represents ...

Language, 2003

... in the broader context of widespread attempts by groups and governments to limit freedom and ... more ... in the broader context of widespread attempts by groups and governments to limit freedom and restrain other people from talking and writing in ways ... accepted 3 October 2002 ... 6 Criticism of the institution of a code by a society like the LSA should not be confused with reactions to ...

Language, 1993

ABSTRACT This collection of nine original syntactic studies carried out within the framework for ... more ABSTRACT This collection of nine original syntactic studies carried out within the framework for syntactic theory and description known as Relational Grammar provides a state-of-the-art survey of this and allied fields. In relational theory, grammatical relations such as subject, direct object, and predicate are taken to be theoretical primitives which permit the definition of formal objects called Arcs, the fundamental building blocks of syntactic structures. Edited by Paul M. Postal and Brian D. Joseph, this volume is the third in a series highlighting work in Relational Grammar. It extends the foundational studies of the first two volumes to refine and modify the insights, analyses, and theoretical devices developed in earlier connections, while at the same time providing support for some of the earlier constructs and claims. Of the nine papers, four treat various aspects of advancements to and demotions from indirect object; three deal with raising and clause union constructions, in which initial immediate constituents of one structure are nonimmediate constituents of another; and two are concerned with problems in the description and formalization of verbal agreement systems. The nine articles cover languages ranging from Chamorro to English, French, Georgian, Greek, Japanese, Kek'chi, Korean, Southern Tiwa, Spanish, and Tzotzil.