The Syntax-Information Structure Interface: Clausal Word Order and the Left Periphery in Galician

✍ Scribed by Timothy Gupton

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 308
• Series: Interface Explorations [IE]; 29
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

It is quite remarkable that, after over a half-century of research in generative grammar, there is still uncertainty and debate surrounding the analysis of preverbal subjects in a number of null-subject languages. The implications of this debate are far-reaching for generative theory: if preverbal subjects are analyzed as non-arguments, it calls into question the proposed universality of the EPP (as in e.g. Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 1998), as well as its associated features and feature-strengths.

Galician, spoken in the northwest of Spain, is an under-documented Romance language within the generative paradigm. In this book,the authordetails an experimental program for establishing clausal word order appropriateness and preferences in a variety of information structure contexts, while informing theoretical debate on preverbal subjects. The experimental methodology and information structure assumptions employed create several testable predictions. The statistical data suggest that Galician is a predominantly SVO language and that preverbal subjects behave like canonical subjects, and not CLLD constituents. The empirical data discussed inform the modified model of the preverbal field thatthe authorproposes for Galician, which takes into account a number of recent analyses of Western Iberian Romance clausal phenomena such as the enclisis-proclisis divide, topicalization, focalization, and recomplementation.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Preface
1 Introduction
1.1 A brief socio-linguistic history of Galician
1.2 The sociolinguistic situation in Galicia
1.2.1 Heritage-speaker bilingualism in Galicia
1.2.2 Self-reported language competence ratings
1.3 Interface instability in bilinguals
1.4 Syntactic framework – assumptions
2 The interaction between syntax and information structure
2.1 Argument vs. Non-argument positions in syntax
2.2 Syntactic tests for arguments and non-arguments
2.3 The analysis of subjects as non-arguments in Spanish
2.4 Analyses of Spanish preverbal subjects as canonical arguments
2.5 The debate on subjects in European Portuguese
2.5.1 Analysis of EP subjects as non-arguments
2.5.2 Analyses of EP preverbal subjects as canonical arguments
2.6 Taking stock of preverbal subject analyses
2.7 Preverbal subjects in Galician
2.8 Syntactic structures in context
2.8.1 When syntax meets discourse
2.8.2 Defining Information Structure
2.8.3 Definitions of Topic/Theme
2.8.4 Definitions of Focus/Rheme
2.9 Syntactic accounts of the syntax-information structure interface
2.9.1 Casielles (2004)
2.9.2 The Interface and Phases
2.9.3 López’s (2009) interface model
2.10 Establishing clausal structure in Galician
2.11 Summary
3 Methodology
3.1 Preliminary concerns
3.2 Participants: Tasks 1 and 2
3.2.1 Participant variables
3.2.2 Procedures: Tasks 1 and 2
3.3 Task 1: Appropriateness Judgment Task
3.3.1 Condition A
3.3.2 Condition B
3.3.3 Condition C
3.3.4 Condition D
3.3.5 Condition E
3.3.6 Condition F
3.3.7 Condition G
3.4 Task 2: Word Order Preference Task
3.4.1 Condition A
3.4.2 Condition B
3.4.3 Condition C
3.4.4 Condition D
3.4.5 Condition E
3.4.6 Condition F
3.4.7 Summary of quantitative experimental tasks
3.5 Task 3: Recorded field interview
3.6 Conclusion
4 Statistical analysis of quantitative and qualitative measures
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Task 1
4.2.1 Condition A
4.2.2 Condition B
4.2.3 Condition C
4.2.4 Condition D
4.2.5 Condition E
4.2.6 Condition F
4.2.7 Condition G
4.2.8 Summary of Task 1 discourse conditions
4.3 Task 2
4.3.1 Condition A
4.3.2 Condition B
4.3.3 Condition C
4.3.4 Condition D
4.3.5 Condition E
4.3.6 Condition G
4.3.7 Task 2 by language dominance
4.3.8 Task 2 statistical results by gender
4.3.9 Task Two Summary
4.4 Follow-up task for Task 2
4.5 Task 3 results
4.6 Summary and discussion: quantitative measures
4.6.1 Discussion
4.6.2 Subject CLLD within the SDRT notions of Subordination and Continuation
4.6.3 A note on CLLD response ratings
4.7 Final methodological considerations
5 Toward a Left-peripheral Syntactic Analysis of Galician
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Main-clause cliticization in Galician
5.2.1 A brief excursus on F
5.2.2 Fernández-Rubiera’s (2009) syntactic account of clitic directionality in WIR
5.3 Main clause preverbal elements in Galician
5.4 Extending the left periphery: subordinate clause phenomena in Galician
5.5 Extending the left-periphery: recomplementation
5.5.1 Recomplementation in Galician
5.5.2 Jussive/optative QUE (che2)
5.6 Subject positions in Galician
5.7 Affective phrases and preverbal subjects in Galician
5.8 Subject positions and information structure in López (2009)
5.9 The A vs. A debate revisited
5.10 Summary
5.11 Concluding remarks
6 Appendix A. Linguistic questionnaire for initial tasks
7 Appendix B. Task 1: Appropriateness Judgment Task
7.1 Condition A: Thetic contexts
7.2 Condition B: Discourse-old subject (subordination)
7.3 Condition C: Discourse-old object (subordination)
7.4 Condition D: Discourse-old subject (coordination)
7.5 Condition E: Discourse-old object (coordination)
7.6 Condition F: Subject narrow-focus (rheme)
7.7 Condition G: Object narrow-focus (rheme)
8 Appendix C. Task 2: Word order preference task
8.1 Instructions and Practice Items
8.2 Contexto 1: Universidade
8.3 Contexto 2: A entrevista sobre o restaurante
8.4 Contexto 3: Unha mudanza de pesadelo
8.5 Contexto 4: Unha noite de festa
8.6 Contexto 5: O escándalo
8.7 Contexto 6: A tenda de animais
9 APPENDIX D. Task 3: Recorded field interview
9.1 Interview A: Questions for young participants
9.2 Interview B: Questions for older participants
10 Appendix E. Follow-up WPT: for narrow-focus in Task 2
10.1 Cuestionario lingüístico
10.2 Condition 1: Subject narrow focus (SV vs. VS)
10.3 Condition 2: Object narrow focus (SVO vs. VSO)
10.4 Condition 3: Object narrow focus (SVO vs. VOS)
10.5 Condition 4: Object narrow focus (VSO vs. VOS)
References