2014. On the CP analysis of Persian finite control constructions. Linguistic Inquiry (original) (raw)
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2001
This paper provides an analysis of PRO in Persian. I will show that apparently infinitival clauses are actually nominal in nature, and not clausal. Then, considering the mixed behavior of the infinitival "1 intend to write a letter.' There are various analyses of sentences similar to (1) (c.f. Hashemipour 1990, Ne'matzadch 1995). However, 1 am not concerned with finite control constructions in Persian in this study. There are also sentences corresponding to (1) in which the embedded clause is apparently non-finite as illustrated in (2). In (2a), nevesta'n 'writing' follows its complement 'letter', whereas in (2b), it preceds its complement with the morpheme e 'of , known as Ezafe 'addition' intervening between the two. Ezafe, according to Samiian (1983), usually links a non-verbal head (N, P, A) to its postmodificrs. Given the Uniformity of Theta Assignment brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk
Conference on Iranian Linguistics. Nominalised CPs in Persian: a Parametric Account
2014
Persian argument clauses may be determined by the definite determiner in preceding the complementiser, and exactly like nominal objects, object sentences may be marked by the case marker rā occurring with specific direct objects. The Persian data strongly suggest that preverbal clauses are in fact DPs. We propose that the distribution of subordinate clauses is universally correlated with the ability to bear case. CPs in case position are universally selected by D ° for the sake of the realisation of abstract case. Complementisers like Persian ke are in fact nominal heads selecting full clauses. Only languages with nominal complementisers can have full clauses in case positions.
Do psyological constructions in Persian involve complex predicates?
2014
Constructions introduced in this work have been introduced as Impersonal/Subject-less in the Persian literature involving compound verbs. I explore them from the point of view of Psy-ological constructions and show that they do not involve compound verbs. I capture properties of Persian psyological constructions by proposing that they contain a Tense requirement and involve Applied Arguments. I depart from previous works (Pylkkänen 2000, 2002) whi argue that applicative heads can take only a vP or a DP as complement. I propose a new category of Applicative head, Super High Applicative head, whi takes a TP (a full proposition) as comple-ment. Constructions studied in this work provide further evidence for the divorce of nominative licensing and verbal agreement proposed by Haeberli (2002), Pesetsky and Torrego (2001, 2004, 2007) and Svenonius (2001), among others.
Cleft Constructions in Persian: A Role and Reference Grammar Analysis
This thesis is concerned with the study of Persian cleft constructions within the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) framework. RRG, a structural-functional theory of language, intends to investigate the interaction of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics through the constituent, logical, and focus structure as independent, but interrelated domains of the paradigm. In this thesis, both the literary corpus-based and intuition-based data of Persian will be analyzed in order to display the specificational nature of the construction throughout the syntactic, semantic and informational domains. In Persian clefts, despite the fact that the clefted constituent is the semantic argument of the predicator of the relative clause, it bears the role of pragmatic predicate assigned by the matrix predicator and also the optional presence of the cleft pronoun (in case of clefted constituent being an NP). This fact originates from the non-isomorphic property of the cleft construction which expresses a single proposition via biclausal syntax. The agreement feature of copula with the clefted constituent and the focalizing function of matrix grammatical elements give rise to the consideration of the so-called demonstrative as emphatic pronoun which is projected in the PERIPHERY N . The distinction between the syntactic in 'this' in the extraposed sentences and the discoursally-interpreted in 'it' in the cleft sentences proves inevitable in this thesis. iv 6 CONTENTS PAGE Acknowledgement iii Abstract iv
Nominalised CPs in Persian: a Parametric Account
2000
Persian argument clauses may be determined by the definite determiner in preceding the complementiser, and exactly like nominal objects, object sentences may be marked by the case marker rā occurring with specific direct objects. The Persian data strongly suggest that preverbal clauses are in fact DPs. We propose that the distribution of subordinate clauses is universally correlated with the ability
Do psychological constructions in Persian involve complex predicates
2009
Constructions introduced in this work have been introduced as Impersonal/Subject-less in the Persian literature involving compound verbs. I explore them from the point of view of Psyological constructions and show that they do not involve compound verbs. I capture properties of Persian psyological constructions by proposing that they contain a Tense requirement and involve Applied Arguments. I depart from previous works (Pylkkänen 2000, 2002) whi argue that applicative heads can take only a vP or a DP as complement. I propose a new category of Applicative head, Super High Applicative head, whi takes a TP (a full proposition) as complement. Constructions studied in this work provide further evidence for the divorce of nominative licensing and verbal agreement proposed by Haeberli (2002), Pesetsky and Torrego (2001, 2004, 2007) and Svenonius (2001), among others.
The minimal distance principle and obligatory control in Persian
Language Sciences, 2010
The goal of this paper is to investigate the syntax and semantics of obligatory control predicates in Persian. After reviewing present syntactic approaches to control, the facts of Persian are shown to lead to the conclusion that it is not possible to identify the controller in Persian on purely syntactic grounds. Rather, the properties of obligatory control constructions in this language provide evidence for the necessity of considering semantic factors in the proper analysis of this construction. These properties are shown to follow a semantic treatment along the lines of Jackendoff and Culicover (2003) and Culicover and Jackendoff (2005). We propose that in Persian obligatory control constructions, the control predicate licenses an event complement with the controller being the argument to which the control predicate assigns the role of actor for the action stated in the complement clause. Classes of exceptions, not to be discussed in this paper, may be treated as coercion in the sense of Sag and Pollard (1991), Pollard and Sag (1994); followed by Jackendoff and Culicover (2003) and Culicover and Jackendoff (2005), in which internal conventionalized semantic materials, not present in syntax, are added.