Listen to the sound of salience: Multichannel syntax of Q particles
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Mélanie Jouitteau
Abstract
I claim that the linguistic message that realizes syntax is multichannel. The syntax-PF interface is the interface of syntax with all the sensorimotor systems available to humans, including, for oral languages, minimal vocalic productions, intonation, hand movement and body gestures. I show that the realization of syntactic structure consists of (i) segmental oral morphemes, (ii) non-segmental oral morphemes (intonation), and (iii) nonoral morphemes (segmental or not; hand movements, upper body gestures and face movements). In particular, the latter predicts the use of non-oral morphemes in oral languages, since the speakers of oral languages have it available in their sensorimotor system. I focus on the CP domain of oral languages, and show that its functional projections can be realized by either (i), (ii) and (iii). The empirical body of this article concentrates on the multichannel Q particles in French, Atlantic French and British English.
Abstract
I claim that the linguistic message that realizes syntax is multichannel. The syntax-PF interface is the interface of syntax with all the sensorimotor systems available to humans, including, for oral languages, minimal vocalic productions, intonation, hand movement and body gestures. I show that the realization of syntactic structure consists of (i) segmental oral morphemes, (ii) non-segmental oral morphemes (intonation), and (iii) nonoral morphemes (segmental or not; hand movements, upper body gestures and face movements). In particular, the latter predicts the use of non-oral morphemes in oral languages, since the speakers of oral languages have it available in their sensorimotor system. I focus on the CP domain of oral languages, and show that its functional projections can be realized by either (i), (ii) and (iii). The empirical body of this article concentrates on the multichannel Q particles in French, Atlantic French and British English.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Foreword v
- Table of contents vii
- The quirky case of participial clauses 1
- Answering strategies: A view from acquisition 19
- Transfer in periphrastic causatives in L2 English and L2 Spanish 39
- Clitic omission, null objects or both in the acquisition of European Portuguese? 59
- Metrical structure, tonal association and focus in French 73
- On affixal scope and affix-root ordering in Italian 99
- Scope economy in positive polarity: Extreme degree quantification 115
- The acquisition of aspect in L2 Portuguese and Spanish. Exploring native / non-native performance differences 131
- Mechanisms of scope resolution in child Italian 149
- When scope meets modality: The scope of indefinites in subjunctive environments 165
- Listen to the sound of salience: Multichannel syntax of Q particles 185
- Instability and age effects at the lexicon-syntax interface 201
- On the ambiguity of N-words in French 213
- Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children: The case of dislocation 229
- Cartography of postverbal subjects in Spanish and Catalan 259
- Mismatches between phonology and syntax in French DP acquisition 281
- Pragmatic solutions for syntactic problems: Understanding some L2 syntactic errors in terms of discourse-pragmatic deficits 299
- A poverty-of-the-stimulus argument for the innateness of the identification conditions on VP ellipsis 321
- Index 335
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Foreword v
- Table of contents vii
- The quirky case of participial clauses 1
- Answering strategies: A view from acquisition 19
- Transfer in periphrastic causatives in L2 English and L2 Spanish 39
- Clitic omission, null objects or both in the acquisition of European Portuguese? 59
- Metrical structure, tonal association and focus in French 73
- On affixal scope and affix-root ordering in Italian 99
- Scope economy in positive polarity: Extreme degree quantification 115
- The acquisition of aspect in L2 Portuguese and Spanish. Exploring native / non-native performance differences 131
- Mechanisms of scope resolution in child Italian 149
- When scope meets modality: The scope of indefinites in subjunctive environments 165
- Listen to the sound of salience: Multichannel syntax of Q particles 185
- Instability and age effects at the lexicon-syntax interface 201
- On the ambiguity of N-words in French 213
- Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children: The case of dislocation 229
- Cartography of postverbal subjects in Spanish and Catalan 259
- Mismatches between phonology and syntax in French DP acquisition 281
- Pragmatic solutions for syntactic problems: Understanding some L2 syntactic errors in terms of discourse-pragmatic deficits 299
- A poverty-of-the-stimulus argument for the innateness of the identification conditions on VP ellipsis 321
- Index 335
