This paper investigates the syntax of extraposition in the HPSG framework. We present English and German data (partly taken from corpora), and provide an analysis using a nonlocal dependency and lexical rules. The condition for binding the dependency is formulated relative to the antecedent of the extraposed phrase, which entails that no fixed site for extraposition exists. Our account allows t...

Prior work on wh-movement has distinguished among several types of wh-fronting languages that permit distinct patterns of overt and covert movement, instantiated for example by the Slavic languages, English, and German. This paper extends the cross-linguistic typology of multiple questions by arguing that Hebrew instantiates a new kind of wh-fronting language, unlike any that are discussed in t...

2. Fronting pattern follows from three ranked, violable constraints: Antecedent: An anaphor has an accessible antecedent, i.e. an anaphor has an antecedent and the anaphor does not precede and c-command its antecedent (Hankamer and Sag, 1976). >> TopFirst: Topic is clause initial, i.e. if a syntactic constituent is topic it is clause initial (= in Spec-CP; cf. Costa 2001:176). >> SubjFirst: Sub...

In this paper, we make three specific claims about German information structure and the interface between information structure and syntax. (1) First, the phenomenon known as ‘Subpart of Focus Fronting’ in German is in fact constrained by discourse context, contra the current literature (Fanselow & Lenertová 2011 on German and Czech). (2) Second, information structure should be present in the s...

There is a well-known rule of Russian whereby /i/ is said to be realized as [Y] after non-palatalized consonants. Somewhat less well-known is another allophonic rule of Russian whereby only [i], and not [Y], can follow velars within a morphological word. This latter rule came about due to a sound change in East Slavic called postvelar fronting here: kY > ki (and similarly for the other velars)....

With normal intonation, (4a) is ungrammatical and (4b) is unambiguous with the adverbial around midnight construed only with the matrix clause. However, Ross (1986: 180–181) states that ‘[i]f the preposed adverbials bear heavy stress, [...,] [(4a)] becomes grammatical, and [(4b)] becomes ambiguous, for the adverbial can modify the lower verb as well as the main verb’. If Ross’ observation is co...

The present study was designed to test whether phonetic sound change can take place within an individual beyond the critical age and, if so, whether it is gradual. An acoustic analysis was made of /u/-fronting and /æ/-lowering which are both sound changes that have occurred in the standard accent of England in the last fifty years. The speech data were taken from the messages that have been bro...

New Zealand has some 250,000 people whose families immigrated from the South Pacific islands, making up seven percent of the New Zealand population. The majority of these people come from four main islands or groups: Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Niue. The first generation immigrants are second language speakers of English, with their first languages being the Polynesian language of their coun...