This dissertation examines word order variation in the Koine Greek of the New Testament Greek in a variety of domains: declarative clauses, questions and relative clauses. In particular, I examine... Show moreThis dissertation examines word order variation in the Koine Greek of the New Testament Greek in a variety of domains: declarative clauses, questions and relative clauses. In particular, I examine the way in which word order corresponds to information structure. It is argued that although New Testament Greek shows a variety of possible permutations of the sentence elements subject (S), verb (V) and object (O), in declarative clauses, questions and relative clauses, the word order is not free. Rather, it is partly governed by phrase structure and partly by information structural considerations such as Topic and Focus. This is manifested in all of the domains investigated. I argue that the basic word order is best described as VSO with an SVO alternative basic word order. Marked clauses, such as SOV, OVS, OSV and also some SVO clauses involve topicalization or focus movement of the arguments. This thesis is of interest to syntacticians who are interested in word order and the syntax-pragmatics interface as well as to historical linguistics and classics scholars. Show less
In most languages, focus (i.e. highlighting information) is marked by modifying the melody of the sentence. But how is focus marked in a Chinese dialect with eight different citation tones and a... Show moreIn most languages, focus (i.e. highlighting information) is marked by modifying the melody of the sentence. But how is focus marked in a Chinese dialect with eight different citation tones and a complex tonal phonology?This thesis investigates the connection between tonal realization and tone change (tone sandhi) in Wenzhou Chinese, and whether and how such a connection is conditioned by prosodic structure and focus marking. Experiments were conducted with young speakers of Wenzhou Chinese, whose speech was acoustically analyzed so as to investigate the application domain of tone sandhi and the influence of focus thereon, the tonal realization on the word and phrase level and its interaction with focus, the pre-planning of sentential pitch, as well as the realization of referents with different information statuses. The experimental findings suggest that the application, but not the implementation, of tone sandhi is independent of focus, and that focus and prosodic structure have similar but independent effects on the realization of lexical tones. It is also shown that pitch scaling is sensitive to syntactic structure and complexity, and that the marking of givenness, broad focus, and narrow focus leads to discrete levels along the same acoustic parameters. These findings are of interest to researchers working on lexical tone, prosodic structure, and how information structure categories such as focus affect tonal realization and prosodic phrasing. Show less
This book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia. It is a language with words flexible in function and meaning,... Show moreThis book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia. It is a language with words flexible in function and meaning, which do not bear overtly expressed features to indicate grammatical functions. Linguistic tools traditionally used to distinguish between word classes do not work satisfactorily for this language. Certain lexical items and their position in a string of words serve as indicators of relationships between the words and determine the meaning they express. The preference for particular types of constructions and other combinatory abilities serve to limit the number of plausible interpretations and facilitate the determining of meaningful word constructions. The linguistic context and the non-linguistic situation determine the most appropriate interpretation of structures and the meaning they express. Various kinds of constructions are analyzed, described, and illustrated with examples from stories, told by a young Ternate Malay speaker. The word order, different types of possessive constructions, spatial orientation, and other linguistic topics of interest are described and discussed. The grammar aims to complement linguistic descriptions of Malay varieties in general, and particularly those in eastern Indonesia. The Ternate Malay texts and examples display spontaneous and naturally spoken Malay used as the daily language of communication in Ternate. The accompanying CD-rom contains texts with sound files and a Ternate Malay-English wordlist. Show less
This dissertation provides a novel perspective on the interaction between quantifier scope and ellipsis. It presents a detailed investigation of the scopal interaction between English negative... Show moreThis dissertation provides a novel perspective on the interaction between quantifier scope and ellipsis. It presents a detailed investigation of the scopal interaction between English negative indefinites, modals, and quantified phrases in ellipsis. One of the crucial observations is that a negative indefinite in object position cannot scope out of a verbal ellipsis site, while Quantifier Raising (QR) of a quantificational object can escape a verbal ellipsis site. This dissertation presents a unified account of this state of affairs in the context of multidominance. It is argued that both English negative indefinites and quantificational determiners decompose into two independent elements. Their formation is the result of a morphological process, Fusion Under Adjacency. The locality/adjacency required for fusion is established under remerge (multidominance), in combination with cyclic Spell-Out/linearization. The main claim of this dissertation is that the PF-process of ellipsis can block this morphological process. It is proposed that the timing of Fusion Under Adjacency and (derivational) ellipsis plays a crucial role: Fusion Under Adjacency has to take place before the ellipsis licensor is merged. The lack of a blocking effect of ellipsis in QR is accounted for by the fact that QR always has a landing site below the ellipsis licensor. In addition to providing an account for the scopal behavior of quantificational elements under ellipsis, this dissertation also sheds new light on the syntax-to-PF mapping. It contributes to our understanding of how multidominant phrase markers are transferred to PF for (non-)pronunciation in a cyclic model of the grammar. This study is of relevance to scholars interested in the nature of ellipsis and quantifier scope, and the syntax-PF connection, as well as to a general syntactic readership. Show less
This thesis investigates the grammar of Gaahmg, a Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic language spoken in the Blue Nile Province of North Sudan. The comprehensive description provides an analysis of the... Show moreThis thesis investigates the grammar of Gaahmg, a Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic language spoken in the Blue Nile Province of North Sudan. The comprehensive description provides an analysis of the phonology, morphology, and syntax. Ten texts of various genre are given to help illustrated the grammar in context. Gaahmg is morphologically rich, employing many suffixes and clitics on nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Tone and [ATR] quality distinguish a significant number of lexemes and grammatical functions. Several specific processes of consonant weakening, vowel elision, [+ATR] spreading, [+round] spreading, and morphological tone rules, account for the vast majority of alternations when morphemes are combined. The syntax is equally interesting. Agentive passive, agentless passive, antipassive, and causative verb forms are syntactically and morphologically distinct and combine in nearly all possible ways. All pronouns use vowel features to represent the person referred to, the three persons coinciding with the language's three vowel harmony pairs. Body part locatives are similar in form and meaning to inherently possessed body part nouns, but are a distinct lexical category in form and function. These and other features make the description a valuable resource for Nilo-Saharan linguists as well as those interested in the typology of African languages. Show less
This book presents a description of Sandawe, a Khoisan language spoken by approximately 60 000 speakers in Dodoma Region, Tanzania. The study presents an analysis of the phonology, morphology, and... Show moreThis book presents a description of Sandawe, a Khoisan language spoken by approximately 60 000 speakers in Dodoma Region, Tanzania. The study presents an analysis of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the language, as well as a sample of four texts. The data for this dissertation were gathered by the author during fieldwork in the area where the language is spoken. The language has a rich phonology, with sets of lateral fricatives and affricates, ejectives, and fifteen clicks. The nominal domain is characterized by the absence of regular number marking. The verbal domain, on the other hand, shows various ways of number marking, which can express participant plurality and pluractionality. The study further provides a comprehensive description of the morphology and semantics of verbal derivation, such as iterative, factitive, causative and middle stems, and verbal case markers that introduce an additional pronominal object. Sandawe has various types of clitics, notably subject/modality markers and mediative clitics, which have a variable position in the clause. A grammar of Sandawe is of relevance to specialists in Khoisan studies as well as to general linguists and typologists interested in number marking, verbal derivation, and clitics. Show less
