Informational and referential hierarchy: Clause-linking strategies in Austronesian-Oceanic languages (original) (raw)
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Clause Linkage and Nexus in Papuan Languages
Interclausal relations in Papuan languages and in particular their prototyical clause chaining structures have long presented serious descriptive problems. These have been analyzed variously as instances of subordination, coordination, and even a third unique type of relationship, cosubordination. This paper argues that clause chaining structures are actually a type of coordination, but distinguished from familiar types of coordination by the type of constituent coordinated, S versus IP. The parametric variation found in clause chaining constructions across Papuan languages is in turn accounted for in terms of the types of functional heads of verbal inflections, negation, mood, tense, illocutionary force, which head the individual IPs conjoined in clause chains. This paper presents a revision of the theory of clause linkage, in particular the theory of nexus, first developed in Foley and Van Valin (1984) and restated in Van Valin and La Polla (1997) and Van Valin (2005). The original theory proposed three categories of nexus, the traditional ones of subordination and coordination and a new type, cosubordination. Subordination and coordination were distinguished along the traditional lines of embedded versus non-embedded. For our purposes here, we will define an embedded clause as one which functions as a constituent, either core or oblique (Andrews 2007; Foley 2007), of another clause, the main or matrix clause. Conventionally, grammarians have called embedded subordinate clauses which function as core arguments complements, and those which function as oblique constituents, adverbial clauses, but in our view this is not the most perspicacious terminology because it obscures their overall similarity, a similarity clearly brought out in the structure of many Papuan languages. For that reason, in this paper we will refer to both types simply as subordinate clauses and note the level of embedding, core versus oblique. Clauses linked in a coordinate nexus are not in an asymmetrical relationship of embedded versus matrix clause, but rather are joined at the same level, strung along rather like beads on a string. Designating a clause by the exocentric category S (Bresnan 2001), we can represent the contrast between subordinate and coordinate nexus as Figure 1:
This paper uses the realisation of locative-related roles in Balinese to show that there is no clear-cut distinction between arguments and adjuncts, supporting the gradient nature of grammatical functions (cf. Croft 2001;. It argues that argumenthood is not wholly a property of a lexical head predicate and that a purely lexically based projectionist approach to syntactic argument structures cannot be maintained. It also explores the effect that the interplay between relevant properties of locatives has on their recruitability as arguments, and a novel argument-index analysis is proposed as a means to distinguish adjuncts from arguments. The analysis makes use of both general and languagespecific morphosyntactic and morphosemantic tests.
2014
Cross-linguistically, implicit purposive subjects are controlled to an overwhelmingly degree by the matrix subjects (Schmidtke-Bode 2009:56). In fact, little evidence has been found of constructions in which main and dependent events are not performed by the same entity, and no evidence about constructions in which the performer of the main event does not control the realization of the dependent one (Cristofaro 2003:157). Kokama (Amazon) provides a challenge to these generalizations and so constitutes a typological novelty. The language has three positive purpose constructions formed by attaching tara, mira, or tsen to the subordinated verb. In mira constructions, the matrix absolutive controls coreference with the omitted accusative in the purpose clause. In tara constructions, the matrix absolutive controls coreference with the omitted nominative in the purpose clause. In tsen constructions, coreference is free. Overall, tara/mira constructions are syntactically more integrated than tsen constructions. Discourse data shows that syntactic integration correlates with semanticpragmatic parameters: (i) temporal integration between events, (ii) successful outcome of the purposive event, and (iii) whether the omitted argument belongs to the discourse context. [KEYWORDS: Kokama, Amazonian languages, purpose clauses, information structure, subordination]
Despite the wealth of subordinators in Hiw and Lo Toga (Oceanic, north Vanuatu), two of their Tense Aspect Mood categories – the Subjunctive and the Background Perfect – can do without them, and encode clause dependency by themselves. A pragmatic hypothesis is proposed to account for this clause linking faculty. The Subjunctive differs from other irrealis categories insofar as it lacks any specific illocutionary force; the Background Perfect labels its predicate as informationally backgrounded. In both cases, the clause lacks certain key properties (illocutionary force; informational weight) which are normally required in pragmatically well formed utterances. This pragmatic demotion makes the clause dependent on external predications, which naturally results in syntactic subordination. This case study illustrates how syntax can be reshaped by the pragmatic parameters of discourse.
Heidinger, Steffen. 2015. The information status and discourse anchorage of non-nominal constituents: A case study on Spanish secondary predicates. Journal of Pragmatics 81. 52–73., 2015
The information status of nominal constituents has been a recurring topic of research over recent decades. Little is known, however, about the information status of nonnominal constituents such as secondary predicates. In the present paper, we present a corpus based analysis of the information status (and also the discourse anchorage) of Spanish secondary predicates. We will show that secondary predicates are anchored both in the preceding and the following context, but to a much lesser extent than their subjects (i.e., the nominal basis of comparison in our study). The most frequent information status of secondary predicates is neither given nor new, but one where the state denoted by the secondary predicate is evoked by some element of the preceding context (e.g., to cry evokes the state sad). Evoked is an intermediate information status between given and new. While the lack of given secondary predicates is not surprising, the existing literature would suggest that secondary predicates express predominately new information. In this respect, our study shows not only that information status is a relevant category for non-nominal constituents, but also that its analysis requires a more elaborate inventory than a binary given-new distinction.
Several particles in the Arabic variety spoken in the area of Yafi‘ (Yemen) show tight recurring links between deixis, informational hierarchy, and syntactic hierarchy, both diachronically and synchronically. In the light of Robert’s (1993, 2000) findings on focusing strategies, these links are discussed in detail for two polyfunctional particles, ra', and ta, which can be used, among other things, as deictics, topic markers, focusing particles and clause-linking devices (Vanhove 1996 & 2004). The present paper shows how, in a language where subordinating constructions and markers are also available, topicalisation and focusing strategies may become the preferred strategies for clause-linking, especially in causal, relative and complement clauses.
(Keynote talk at the Manchester Forum in Linguistics, 6-7 November 2015) While we know that information structure (topic, focus) influences the morphosyntax, we do not know how integrated the two really are. The two extreme approaches to this issue are not attractive; these are models that assume either that the two are completely independent (e.g. Chomsky 2008), or that all of information structure is represented in the syntax (e.g. Rizzi’s 1997 cartographic approach). In this talk I argue that before we can build an appropriate model of grammar, we need to look beyond the surface effects to establish which aspects of information structure are of direct influence in the grammar. I provide two case studies from Bantu languages of how this can be achieved. The first is Luganda, where I show that with a more elaborate toolbox we can specify a focus marker’s meaning as ‘exclusivity’ rather than an underspecified ‘focus’. The second is a typology of Bantu languages that on the surface have the same verbal focus alternation (conjoint/disjoint) but on closer examination turn out to be two classes: one directly determined by focus and the other only indirectly. These cases highlight the necessity to look beyond ‘what you see’ and the essential role of appropriate methodology in comparative research.