Clitics and agreement
Name
47017249-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
9.59 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
22bbac88c5bd653da6e24d18af2eb5ab
Author(s)
Roberts, Taylor, 1967-
Advisor(s)
Shigeru Miyagawa.
Date Issued
2000
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
A phrase structure is developed for Pashto, the most important Indo-Iranian language for which this task remains to be undertaken. New data show that the placement, ordering, and interpretation of second-position clitics may be derived in the syntax by treating the clitics as agreement heads that identify null arguments in their specifiers. In contrast to previous accounts, the need for phonological operations is drastically reduced, being restricted to sentences containing only a verb (in which prosodic inversion applies as a last resort). In the course of investigating the role of clitics with respect to argument structure and syntactic derivation, several novel phenomena are uncovered that do not exist in better studied languages. Some of the features scrutinized include compound verbs, agreement, aspect, ergativity, word order (scrambling), possessor raising and dislocation, ambiguity, relative clauses, and overt vs. covert movement.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-220).
Subjects
Linguistics and Philosophy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Terms of Use
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