Search results for "Generative Grammar"
showing 3 items of 33 documents
Predicative Gerunds in Spanish and Catalan
2014
In this article I discuss an instance of microvariation in Catalan, which regards the distribution of predicative gerunds. It is proposed that the differences depend on restrictions on the movement of the verb: the more it is restricted, the less contexts will allow the use of gerunds. A crucial argument for this analysis comes from the comparison with Cinque's (1999) hierarchy of functional heads: in all Catalan varieties gerunds can express the aspectual values which are lower in the hierarchy. Conversely, only the varieties where gerunds are most widespread (Central Catalan) allow them to express also the higher aspectual values. In the last part of the article, I argue that there is an …
Pseudo-relatives, gerunds and infinitives in Romance: (only) superficial resemblances and structural connections
2013
L'argomento di questa monografia è un confronto tra i costrutti predicativi di tipo frasale nelle diverse varietà romanze. Mentre le pseudorelative sono diffuse pressoché in tutta la Romània, con qualche variazione parametrica minore, i gerundi predicativi e gli infiniti preposizionali sono usati solo in alcune varietà. Negli studi linguistici sull'argomento è mancata finora l'ottica comparativa, sia tra varietà diverse, sia tra costrutti predicativi diversi. Il mio lavoro si prefissa lo scopo di colmare questa lacuna, senza ignorare però i costrutti percettivi composti da un infinito semplice, che da parte della letteratura sono stati paragonati alle strutture predicative delle pseudorelat…
Null subjects in generative grammar: A synchronic and diachronic perspective
2018
This book considers the null-subject phenomenon, whereby some languages lack an overtly realized referential subject in specific contexts. In generative syntax-the approach adopted in this volume-the phenomenon has traditionally been explained in terms of a ‘pro-drop’ parameter with associated cluster properties; more recently, however, it has become clear that pro-drop phenomena do not always correlate with all the initially predicted cluster properties. This volume returns to the centre of the debate surrounding the empirical phenomena associated with null subjects. Experts in the field explore the cluster properties associated with pro-drop; the types of null category involved in null-su…