Romance Syntax, Semantics And L2 Acquisition: Selected Papers From The 30th Linguistic Symposium On Romance Languages Gainesville, Florida, February 2000 (current Issues In Linguistic Theory)

This volume contains a selection of refereed and revised papers, originally presented at the 30th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, representing the areas of syntax, semantics, their interfaces, and second language acquisition. The topics addressed include movement (both wh- and head-movement), control, issues of second language acquisition related to the Determiner Phrase, the effect of word order and syntactic simplification in second language acquisition, adverbials, syntactic constraints on access to lexical structure, a semantic characterization of the subjunctive in Spanish, and impersonal constructions and impersonal reflexive pronouns. The papers in this volume not only discuss issues related to most of the major Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, Rumanian and Spanish) and a Portuguese Creole, but also include comparisons with languages from other families (Marathi, Bulgarian, Polish and Slovenian). This collection of papers illustrates the richness in the field of Romance linguistics and the value of cross-linguistic research and multi-modular approaches. ROMANCE SYNTAX, SEMANTICS AND L2 ACQUISITION ......Page 2 Editorial page ......Page 3 Title page ......Page 4 Copyright page......Page 5 Acknowledgements ......Page 6 Table of contents ......Page 8 CONTRIBUTORS......Page 10 Dedication ......Page 12 1. Movement and related issues......Page 14 2. The Determiner Phrase and second language acquisition......Page 15 3. Word order and other syntactic factors in SLA......Page 17 4. Adverbials......Page 18 5. Syntax/Semantics interface......Page 19 REFERENCES......Page 21 1. A class of French adverbs......Page 22 2. Two possible approaches and their problems ......Page 25 3. The theory of liteness......Page 29 4. A Formal representation of the analysis......Page 32 5. Conclusion......Page 36 REFERENCES......Page 37 0. Introduction......Page 40 1. Adjectives at the syntax-semantics interface......Page 42 2. Grammatical change in interlanguage grammars......Page 45 3. Study methodology and results......Page 48 4. Discussion ......Page 51 REFERENCES......Page 53 1. Pesetsky & Torrego 2000: Displacement = Misplacement......Page 56 2. French Complex Inversion......Page 60 3. Tackling the problems......Page 62 4. Conclusion: Pesetsky & Torrego (2000) Revisited......Page 66 REFERENCES......Page 67 0. Introduction......Page 70 1. Interpretive differences......Page 73 2. The 'empty' D proposal......Page 76 3. Independent evidence: Lahiri (1991)......Page 80 4. Conclusion......Page 82 REFERENCES......Page 83 0. Introduction......Page 86 1. Recent studies on typological shift......Page 87 2. Korlai Creole Portuguese (KL) and its speakers......Page 88 3.1 Data collection......Page 89 3.2 Grouping of speakers......Page 90 4. Results......Page 91 5. Discussion......Page 95 REFERENCES......Page 99 0. Introduction......Page 102 1.1 Unergative verbs in the I constitute an "exception "......Page 103 1.2 The I is not unaccusative......Page 104 1.3 Variable behaviour accounts......Page 108 2.1 Constructional meaning......Page 110 2.2 Meaning contributed by elements of the construction......Page 111 REFERENCES......Page 115 1.1 French and English......Page 118 1.2 Noun raising......Page 120 2.1 The Structure Building Hypothesis (SBH)......Page 121 2.2 The Full Functional Hypothesis......Page 122 3.1 The task......Page 124 3.2 Results......Page 126 3.3 Discussion......Page 127 Appendix 1: Language Acquisition Task......Page 129 Appendix 2: Number of errors/contexts (tokens) ......Page 130 REFERENCES......Page 131 0. Introduction......Page 134 1.1 Optimality......Page 135 1.3 The OT learning theory ......Page 136 2. Null subjects in OT ......Page 137 4.1 Subjects......Page 138 5. Results......Page 139 6. Discussion......Page 141 6.1 The learning algorithm......Page 142 6.2 Conceptualizing Learning......Page 145 6.3 Residual issues......Page 146 7. Conclusions......Page 147 REFERENCES......Page 148 0. Introduction......Page 150 1. Simple vs. full-scanning inclusive location of events......Page 151 2. On the distribution of the Romance counterparts of since-adverbials......Page 154 3. Conclusions......Page 163 REFERENCES......Page 164 0. Introduction......Page 166 1.1 Need for a local c-commanding antecedent......Page 167 1.2 Sloppy reading under ellipsis......Page 168 1.3 Impossibility of split antecedents......Page 169 2. Null subjects of uninflected infinitives as the result of DP-movement......Page 170 2.2 Object control......Page 171 2.3 Adjunct control......Page 172 3. Non-overt subjects of inflected infinitives......Page 173 4. Evidence from binding......Page 174 5. BP dialects with loss of inflected infinitives......Page 176 6. Arbitrary PRO......Page 177 7. Conclusion......Page 178 REFERENCES......Page 179 0. Introduction......Page 182 1. Syntactic diagnostics in the Impersonal......Page 186 2.1 The impersonal as Simplex Expression Anaphor ......Page 195 2.2 The impersonal as indefinite pronoun (Chierchia 1995)......Page 198 3. The impersonal and semantic variation......Page 201 4. Conclusions......Page 206 REFERENCES......Page 207 0. Introduction......Page 210 1.1 Redundancy......Page 211 1.4 Syntactic modifications......Page 212 3.1 Overview of research......Page 216 3.3 Materials......Page 217 3.4 Procedure and scoring......Page 218 4. Results......Page 219 5. Discussion......Page 220 REFERENCES......Page 221 0. Introduction......Page 224 1. Basic assumptions......Page 228 2. The proposal......Page 229 3.1 Time-span adverbials......Page 230 3.2 Modification by almost......Page 231 3.3 Ficar+adjectives and the Progressive......Page 232 4.1 Why transitions cannot enter co-composition with locatives......Page 235 REFERENCES......Page 238 0. Introduction......Page 240 1. Recent approaches to the Subjunctive Mood in Spanish Embedded Clauses......Page 241 2. What do emotive factive predicates share with desire predicates?......Page 244 3.1 Comparing more than two alternatives......Page 247 3.2. Comparative predicates......Page 248 4. Empirical eviden ce for the proposal......Page 250 4.2 Correct Attitudes......Page 251 5. Subjunctive mood in other contexts......Page 252 REFERENCES......Page 253 INDEX OF TERMS & CONCEPTS......Page 256 Romance Syntax, Semantics, And L2 Acquisition / Joaquim Camps And Caroline Wiltshire -- A Class Of Lite Adverbs In French / Anne Abeille And Daniele Godard -- Adjective Position And Interpretation In L2 French / Bruce Anderson -- French Complex Inversion In The Light Of A Minimalist Program / Cedric Boeckx -- Optionality, Presupposition, And Wh-in Situ In French / Cedric Boeckx, Penka Stateva And Arthur Stepanov -- Word Order Shift And Natural L2 Acquisition In A Portuguesse Creole / J. Clancy Clements -- Unaccusativity And The Impersonal Construction Of French / Sarah Cummins -- Shifting The Dp Parameter: A Study Of Anglophone French L2ers / Randall Gess And Julia Herschensohn -- Constraint Demotion And Null-subjects In Spanish L2 Acquisition / Larry Lafond, Rachel Hayes And Rakesh Bhatt -- Temporal Location Of Events And The Distribution Of The Romance Counterparts Of Since-adverbials / Telmo Moia -- Pro, Movement And Binding In Portugese / Acrisio Pires -- On Impersonal Reflexives In Romance And Slavic And Semantic Variation / Maria Luisa Rivero -- The Role Of Syntactic Modifications On L2 Oral Comprehension / Nuria Sagarra -- Syntactic Constaints On Access To Lexical Structure: The Case Of Ficar / Cristina Schmitt -- A Comparative Semantics For The Subjunctive Mood In Spanish / Elisabeth Villalta. Edited By Joaquim Camps, Caroline R. Wiltshire. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This title explores romance syntax, semantics and second language acquisition. It is part of the "Current Issues in Linguistic Theory" series which aims to provide advancement in our understanding of language, its structure, functioning and development.