Volume 59, Issue 6

This study aims to characterize prototypical copularity in contrast with semi-copulas based on probabilistic distributional traits, which indicate preferential associations rather than absolute restrictions. This evaluation of prototypical copularity will be based on a set of 15 French and Dutch copular verbs. A behavioral profile analysis, involving multiple clustering procedures, will demonstrate that (i) prototypical copulas and semi-copulas are never clustered together in one group and that (ii) the group of prototypical copulas is more homogeneous in comparison with the groups of semi-copulas. Next, the bipartition [prototypical copulas vs. semi-copulas] is examined by means of a Firth logistic regression. Overall, it is shown for both French and Dutch that the pattern [(in)animate subject + prepositional SC] is clearly associated with the semi-copulas, whereas the pattern [inanimate subject + nominal SC] is the most distinctive for the prototypical copulas.

The present article addresses the problem of syntax-semantics mapping of syntactically complex structures that are interpreted as semantically simple terms. While these morphosyntactic mechanisms have been successfully applied to roots in Marantz’s framework, more complex structures turn out to be formally and conceptually challenging. To solve these problems, I make use of Cooper’s type-theoretic framework to propose a formal account of Transfer. I apply this to verbal idioms and direct quotation, whose parts do not obtain the idiomatic/quotational reading. The main result is a formal account of light heads providing the operation of predicate formation within cyclic derivations.

A long-standing problem in linguistics is how to define word . Recent research has focused on the incompatibility of diverse definitions, and the challenge of finding a definition that is crosslinguistically applicable. In this study I take a different approach, asking whether one structure is more word-like than another based on the concepts of predictability and information. I hypothesize that word constructions tend to be more “internally predictable” than phrase constructions, where internal predictability is the degree to which the entropy of one constructional element is reduced by mutual information with another element. I illustrate the method with case studies of complex verbs in German and Murrinhpatha, comparing verbs with selectionally restricted elements against those built from free elements. I propose that this method identifies an important mathematical property of many word-like structures, though I do not expect that it will solve all the problems of wordhood.

In this article, I examine the distributional properties, emergence conditions, and development of the habitual verbal head pflegen ‘use(d) to’ in the history of German. Synchronically, I argue that Present-day German possesses subject to subject raising verbs and that they can all be brought down to a common denominator: They allow promotion of the embedded subject into the matrix subject position (= A-movement). However, at the same time I argue that German subject to subject raising verbs differ and that their heterogeneity follows from their semantics. What all this boils down to is that German subject to subject raising verbs do not form a uniform class, neither semantically nor syntactically. As for pflegen , I account for its syntactic peculiarities referring to its functional status, i.e., the status of being a habitual head. Diachronically, I show that pflegen grammaticalized into an Asp HAB -head in the transition from Old High German (750–1050) to Middle High German (1050–1350) and that this grammaticalization process restricted the way it behaves in Present-day German.

This article analyzes the occurrence of performative root phenomena in complement clauses. I show that the clauses that host this kind of phenomena have the same distribution as direct speech complements. I argue that the correspondence is based on the fact that, due to their rich syntactic left periphery, these embedded clauses convey speech acts. This assumption receives further support by the grammatical behavior of what I argue are the two major classes of verbs subordinating direct speech and ERP-hosting embedded clauses: locutionary and illocutionary embedding verbs. I analyze illocutionary verbs as bearing an abstract illocutionary predicate selecting either a propositional or a speech-act type, and locutionary verbs as ordinary relational predicates selecting a speech-act type. Taken together, these elements allow for a straightforward syntax-semantics interface and explain the differentiated behavior of root phenomena in complements to locutionary and illocutionary verbs.