Exclamative constructions form a variegated class, both within and across languages. This article presents a typological survey of the coding of exclamations. This survey will proceed in the following fashion. First, we will explore the conceptual basis of the category exclamation, and in particular the category of degree exclamations (section 2). Second, we will examine the formal, semantic an...

This paper deals with a well-known problem in the discussion of argument linking, the flexibility that we find with particular verbs, and the constraints governing the integration of verbs with so-called argument structure constructions. We will show that traditional approaches as well as construction grammar need additional machinery to deal with variable argument linking. I will present an op...

An antipassive construction is a derived detransitivized construction with a two-place predicate, related to a corresponding transitive construction whose predicate is the same lexical item. In the basic transitive construction, the patient-like argument is realized as a direct object; in the antipassive construction, that argument is either suppressed (left implicit) or realized as an oblique ...

An analysis of French and Romance clitic constructions in simple clauses is proposed reconciling the two dominant approaches on this topic. This analysis treats them as involving both movement and base generation and, as part of a larger research program, assimilates the syntax of clitics to that of other functional heads. Accordingly, a clitic is analyzed as heading its own projection and as l...

This paper describes three-participant 'give' constructions in ten Papuan languages of the Timor-Alor-Pantar (TAP) family. Generally lacking a class of simple ditransitive root verbs, TAP languages express 'give' events by means of biclausal constructions ('take X then give Y'), serial verb constructions ('take X give Y'), or particle-verb constructions originating in serial verb constructions....

By Robert J. Lang Copyright ©1996–2015. All rights reserved. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3 Preliminaries and Definitions ...................................................................................................... 3 Binary Divisions ........................................

Optimality theoretic (OT) syntax (Dekkers et al. 2000, Legendre et al. 2000, Sells 2001) is an important development in the world of constraint based grammar, because it introduces a new way of looking at constraint interactions. The leading idea is that not all constraints are “surface true” – constraints may be violated when they have to be in order to satisfy some more important, higher rank...

The utterance of any expression x ostends or makes manifest the customary referent of x, x itself, and related matter. If x appears in quotation marks then the presumed intention behind the utterance is to pick out something other than the customary referent (either instead of it or in addition to it). The consequences of these ideas, taken from my 1998 work, are here drawn out in application t...

This article suggests evidence for and reasons why prior acquisition may either facilitate or inhibit acquisition of a new construction. It investigates acquisition of the German passive and future constructions which contain a lexical verb with either the auxiliary sein "to be" or werden "to become", and are related through these to potential supporting constructions. We predicted that a suppo...

in this paper dynamic analysis (modal-method) of sandwich contructions have been studied. for this purpose a computer program was developed that could analyse the sandwich construction's dynamics. by using the program, one can find the natural frequencies, the normal modes and dynamic response of the free and forced vibrations.by solving few problems in this article, we have illustrated th...