The syntactic domain of content
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Hagit Borer
Abstract
A main motivation for relegating Word Formation to the lexicon is the fact that its output is often non-compositional. The present article, however, presents a serious challenge to the presumed contradiction between non-compositionality and syntactic combinatorial processes. The investigation of N–N Constructs in Hebrew shows that equally syntactically complex expressions nonetheless interact differently with non-compositionality. Crucially, it is the syntactic differences between these expressions that give rise to distinct Content properties, with non-compositionality correlating not with syntactic structure as such, but with the absence of functional structure. The emerging syntactic domain of ‘word’ Content in turn allows the language learner to make informed decisions on where to look for non-compositionality and to draw the appropriate structural conclusions from its presence. Keywords: compounds; construct state nominals; genitive constructions; word formation; word compositionality
Abstract
A main motivation for relegating Word Formation to the lexicon is the fact that its output is often non-compositional. The present article, however, presents a serious challenge to the presumed contradiction between non-compositionality and syntactic combinatorial processes. The investigation of N–N Constructs in Hebrew shows that equally syntactically complex expressions nonetheless interact differently with non-compositionality. Crucially, it is the syntactic differences between these expressions that give rise to distinct Content properties, with non-compositionality correlating not with syntactic structure as such, but with the absence of functional structure. The emerging syntactic domain of ‘word’ Content in turn allows the language learner to make informed decisions on where to look for non-compositionality and to draw the appropriate structural conclusions from its presence. Keywords: compounds; construct state nominals; genitive constructions; word formation; word compositionality
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Argument structure and clause-internal syntax in children
- Animacy, argument structure and unaccusatives in child English 13
- Remarks on theoretical accounts of Japanese children’s passive acquisition 35
- Early or late acquisition of inflected infinitives in European Portuguese? 65
- The relationship between determiner omission and root infinitives in child English 89
- The semantics of the tense deficit in child Spanish SLI 107
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Part II. The DP domain
- The acquisition of reflexives and pronouns by Faroese children 131
- Pronouns vs. definite descriptions 157
- An L2 study on the production of stress patterns in English compounds 185
- The syntactic domain of content 205
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Part III. Learning theory
- There-insertion 251
- Metalinguistic skills of children 271
- Children’s Grammatical Conservatism 291
- Contributing to linguistic theory, language description and the characterization of language development through experimental studies 309
- A new theory of null-subjects of finite verbs in young children 325
- Index 357
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Argument structure and clause-internal syntax in children
- Animacy, argument structure and unaccusatives in child English 13
- Remarks on theoretical accounts of Japanese children’s passive acquisition 35
- Early or late acquisition of inflected infinitives in European Portuguese? 65
- The relationship between determiner omission and root infinitives in child English 89
- The semantics of the tense deficit in child Spanish SLI 107
-
Part II. The DP domain
- The acquisition of reflexives and pronouns by Faroese children 131
- Pronouns vs. definite descriptions 157
- An L2 study on the production of stress patterns in English compounds 185
- The syntactic domain of content 205
-
Part III. Learning theory
- There-insertion 251
- Metalinguistic skills of children 271
- Children’s Grammatical Conservatism 291
- Contributing to linguistic theory, language description and the characterization of language development through experimental studies 309
- A new theory of null-subjects of finite verbs in young children 325
- Index 357
