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This book is a cross-linguistic study of the syntax of yes-no questions and their answers, drawing on data from a wide range of languages with particular focus on English, Finnish, Swedish, Thai, and Chinese. There are broadly two types of answer to yes-no questions: those that employ particles such as 'yes' and 'no' (as found in English) and those that echo a part of the question, usually the finite verb, with or without negation (as found in Finnish). The latter are uncontroversially derived by ellipsis, while the former have been claimed to be clause substitutes. Anders Holmberg argues instead that even answers that employ particles are complete sentences, derived by ellipsis from full sentential expressions, and that the two types share essential syntactic properties. The book also examines the related cross-linguistic and intralinguistic variation observed in answers to negative questions such as 'does he not drink coffee?', whereby 'yes' in one language appears to correspond to 'no' in another.The book illustrates how a seemingly trivial phenomenon can have the most wide-ranging consequences for theories of language, and will be of interest not only to theoretical linguists but also to students and scholars of typological and descriptive linguistics.
Grammar, Comparative and general --- Questioning --- Syntax --- Agreement
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This study presents a theory of the role which subject-verb agreement and case morphology plays in syntax, based mainly on a detailed comparison of the syntactic and inflectional properties of the Scandinavian languages.
Comparative linguistics --- Grammar --- Scandinavian languages --- Langues scandinaves --- Inflection --- Syntax --- Inflexion --- Syntaxe --- Syntax. --- Inflection. --- Nordic languages --- Norse languages --- North Germanic languages --- Germanic languages --- Scandinavian languages - Syntax. --- Scandinavian languages - Inflection.
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The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.
Finnish language --- Case --- Syntax --- Case. --- Syntax.
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Evidence from Arabic-based pidgins, such as Bongor Arabic, Juba Arabic, Pidgin Madame, and Gulf Pidgin Arabic, and from the Arabic-based creole Ki-Nubi, shows that in these varieties verbs often derive from Arabic imperatives. In some of the West European-based pidgins, verbs apparently derive from infinitives in the lexifier. The difference may be explained by the morphology of the verb in the lexifier. In the communicative context of early pidginization, commands are frequent. These are normally expressed by an imperative, but in some languages, the infinitive may function as a directive and
Pidgin languages --- Creole dialects --- Languages in contact. --- Linguistic change. --- Change, Linguistic --- Language change --- Historical linguistics --- Language and languages --- Areal linguistics --- Creole languages --- Creolized languages --- Languages, Mixed --- Contact vernaculars --- Hybrid languages --- Jargons --- Pidgeon languages --- Pigeon languages --- Lingua francas --- Grammar, Historical. --- Grammar. --- Creole dialects. --- Grammar, Comparative and General. --- Grammatik. --- Historisk grammatik. --- Kreolspråk. --- Pidgin languages. --- Pidginspråk. --- Språkförändringar. --- Språkkontakter.
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African languages --- Grammar --- Cameroon --- Kotoko dialects --- Grammar. --- Zina (Cameroon) --- Zina (Cameroon).
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Grammar, Comparative and general --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Head-driven phrase structure grammar --- Syntax --- Word order
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An examination of the evidence for and the theoretical implications of a universal word order constraint, with data from a wide range of languages. This book presents evidence for a universal word order constraint, the Final-over-Final Condition (FOFC), and discusses the theoretical implications of this phenomenon. FOFC is a syntactic condition that disallows structures where a head-initial phrase is contained in a head-final phrase in the same extended projection/domain. The authors argue that FOFC is a linguistic universal, not just a strong tendency, and not a constraint on processing. They discuss the effects of the universal in various domains, including the noun phrase, the adjective phrase, the verb phrase, and the clause. The book draws on data from a wide range of languages, including Hindi, Turkish, Basque, Finnish, Afrikaans, German, Hungarian, French, English, Italian, Romanian, Arabic, Hebrew, Mandarin, Pontic Greek, Bagirmi, Dholuo, and Thai. FOFC, the authors argue, is important because it is the only known example of a word order asymmetry pertaining to the order of heads. As such, it has significant repercussions for theories connecting the narrow syntax to linear order.
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