Keir Moulton | Simon Fraser University (original) (raw)
Papers by Keir Moulton
Journal of memory and …, Jan 1, 2006
A truth conditional semantics for inherently/lexically reflexive verbs that distinguishes them fr... more A truth conditional semantics for inherently/lexically reflexive verbs that distinguishes them from their "derived" reflexive counterparts An account for the way a language's morphology is sensitive to the distinction between the semantics of inherent reflexives vs. "derived" reflexives (Germanic SE-vs. SELF anaphors) [still in progress!]
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 2014
Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 2003
... f. blod + sian bletsian 'to bless' ... PDE), whereas voiced obstruent clus... more ... f. blod + sian bletsian 'to bless' ... PDE), whereas voiced obstruent clusters arise in OE only through other processes (as shown in section 2). For instance, the familiar modern English third person present tense allophonic rule emerges in late Middle English (Millward 1996), so ...
Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 2004
... absorbed. As demonstrated in 1.2, given the standard solution that NGs lack v we might expect... more ... absorbed. As demonstrated in 1.2, given the standard solution that NGs lack v we might expect the internal argument of these gerunds to raise, just as arguments of passive and unaccusatives do in the clausal domain. Grimshaw ...
A comprehensive analysis of constituent Pseudo-Relatives (PRs)(Radford1977,Kayne 1975, Graffi 198... more A comprehensive analysis of constituent Pseudo-Relatives (PRs)(Radford1977,Kayne 1975, Graffi 1981, Kayne 1981, Burzio 1986, Guasti 1988, Rizzi 1992, Cinque 1992, a.o.) is given. We establish that all constituent PRs are DPs, in which a null determiner combines with a clausal constituent. We show that the subject within these PRs enters an indirect Agree relation with external probes (as reflected by Case and agreement). This relation is crucially mediated by the clausal determiner, in a fashion similar to the proposal in Preminger 2009 and others. Our results add to a growing body of literature arguing for determiners on clauses (Davies and Dubinsky 2002, 2010, Takahashi 2011, Hartman 2012, Kastner 2015) and the beginnings of a literature on the semantics of determiners that combine with event- and propositional-sized constituents (see Ferreira 2005, Iatridou 2014). Our results also cast doubt on the often-suggested DP-CP parallelism, since we show that Ds and Cs can co-occur in the same construction, both bearing distinct morpho-syntactic and semantic signatures.
Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society. Thuy Bui and Deniz Ozyildiz, eds., 2015
Journal of Memory and Language, 2006
Traditional syntactic accounts of verb phrase ellipsis (e.g., ''Jason laughed. Sam did [ ] too.''... more Traditional syntactic accounts of verb phrase ellipsis (e.g., ''Jason laughed. Sam did [ ] too.'') categorize as ungrammatical many sentences that language users find acceptable (they ''undergenerate''); semantic accounts overgenerate. We propose that a processing theory, together with a syntactic account, does a better job of describing and explaining the data on verb phrase-ellipsis. Five acceptability judgment experiments supported a ''VP recycling hypothesis,'' which claims that when a syntactically matching antecedent is not available, the listener/reader creates one using the materials at hand. Experiments 1 and 2 used verb phrase ellipsis sentences with antecedents ranging from perfect (a verb phrase in matrix verb phrase position) to impossible (a verb phrase containing only a deverbal word). Experiments 3 and 4 contrasted antecedents in verbal vs nominal gerund subjects. Experiment 5 explored the possibility that speakers are particularly likely to go beyond the grammar and produce elided constituents without perfect matching antecedents when the antecedent needed is less marked than the antecedent actually produced. This experiment contrasted active (unmarked) and passive antecedents to show that readers seem to honor such a tendency.
Journal of memory and …, Jan 1, 2006
A truth conditional semantics for inherently/lexically reflexive verbs that distinguishes them fr... more A truth conditional semantics for inherently/lexically reflexive verbs that distinguishes them from their "derived" reflexive counterparts An account for the way a language's morphology is sensitive to the distinction between the semantics of inherent reflexives vs. "derived" reflexives (Germanic SE-vs. SELF anaphors) [still in progress!]
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 2014
Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 2003
... f. blod + sian bletsian 'to bless' ... PDE), whereas voiced obstruent clus... more ... f. blod + sian bletsian 'to bless' ... PDE), whereas voiced obstruent clusters arise in OE only through other processes (as shown in section 2). For instance, the familiar modern English third person present tense allophonic rule emerges in late Middle English (Millward 1996), so ...
Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 2004
... absorbed. As demonstrated in 1.2, given the standard solution that NGs lack v we might expect... more ... absorbed. As demonstrated in 1.2, given the standard solution that NGs lack v we might expect the internal argument of these gerunds to raise, just as arguments of passive and unaccusatives do in the clausal domain. Grimshaw ...
A comprehensive analysis of constituent Pseudo-Relatives (PRs)(Radford1977,Kayne 1975, Graffi 198... more A comprehensive analysis of constituent Pseudo-Relatives (PRs)(Radford1977,Kayne 1975, Graffi 1981, Kayne 1981, Burzio 1986, Guasti 1988, Rizzi 1992, Cinque 1992, a.o.) is given. We establish that all constituent PRs are DPs, in which a null determiner combines with a clausal constituent. We show that the subject within these PRs enters an indirect Agree relation with external probes (as reflected by Case and agreement). This relation is crucially mediated by the clausal determiner, in a fashion similar to the proposal in Preminger 2009 and others. Our results add to a growing body of literature arguing for determiners on clauses (Davies and Dubinsky 2002, 2010, Takahashi 2011, Hartman 2012, Kastner 2015) and the beginnings of a literature on the semantics of determiners that combine with event- and propositional-sized constituents (see Ferreira 2005, Iatridou 2014). Our results also cast doubt on the often-suggested DP-CP parallelism, since we show that Ds and Cs can co-occur in the same construction, both bearing distinct morpho-syntactic and semantic signatures.
Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society. Thuy Bui and Deniz Ozyildiz, eds., 2015
Journal of Memory and Language, 2006
Traditional syntactic accounts of verb phrase ellipsis (e.g., ''Jason laughed. Sam did [ ] too.''... more Traditional syntactic accounts of verb phrase ellipsis (e.g., ''Jason laughed. Sam did [ ] too.'') categorize as ungrammatical many sentences that language users find acceptable (they ''undergenerate''); semantic accounts overgenerate. We propose that a processing theory, together with a syntactic account, does a better job of describing and explaining the data on verb phrase-ellipsis. Five acceptability judgment experiments supported a ''VP recycling hypothesis,'' which claims that when a syntactically matching antecedent is not available, the listener/reader creates one using the materials at hand. Experiments 1 and 2 used verb phrase ellipsis sentences with antecedents ranging from perfect (a verb phrase in matrix verb phrase position) to impossible (a verb phrase containing only a deverbal word). Experiments 3 and 4 contrasted antecedents in verbal vs nominal gerund subjects. Experiment 5 explored the possibility that speakers are particularly likely to go beyond the grammar and produce elided constituents without perfect matching antecedents when the antecedent needed is less marked than the antecedent actually produced. This experiment contrasted active (unmarked) and passive antecedents to show that readers seem to honor such a tendency.