Lexical-Functional Syntax

Joan Bresnan is Sadie Dernham Patek Professor in Humanities Emerita at Stanford University and a Senior Researcher at Stanford's Center for the Study of Language and Information. One of the principal architects of lexical-functional grammar, Bresnan is a former President of the Linguistic Society of America, an inaugural Fellow of the LSA, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society, a Fellow of the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences, and a Guggenheim Fellow.Ash Asudeh is University Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Oxford, Hugh Price Fellow at Jesus College, and Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at Carleton University. He is a recipient of an Early Researcher Award from the Province of Ontario and the E.W. Beth Prize. He is the author of The Logic of Pronominal Resumption (2012).Ida Toivonen is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Carleton University. She has published on phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics; and is the author of Non-Projecting Words (2001), and co-editor of Saami Linguistics (2007).Stephen Wechsler is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas. He is the author of The Semantic Basis of Argument Structure (1995), and co-author of The Many Faces of Agreement (2003).

• Preface to the First Edition xi Preface to the Second Edition xvAcknowledgments xviiI Motivation for the LFG Architecture 11 Nonconfigurationality 3Further reading 102 Movement Paradoxes 112.1 Theoretical assumptions 15Further reading and discussion 193 Lexicality and Argument Structure 213.1 Two approaches to passive relation changes 213.2 The lexicality of relation changes 233.2.1 English passive verb forms 243.2.2 Adjectives versus verbs 243.2.3 Participle–adjective conversion 253.2.4 Passive participles convert to adjectives 253.2.5 Differences between adjectival and verbal passives explained 273.2.6 Differences between adjectival and verbal passives unexplained 283.2.7 Conclusion: passivization is lexical 323.3 Passivization with and without movement 32Further reading and discussion 36II Formally Modeling the Architecture 394 A Formal Model of Syntactic Structure 414.1 Design principles 414.1.1 Principle I: variability 414.1.2 Principle II: universality 424.1.3 Principle III: monotonicity 434.2 The definition of f-structures 444.3 The description of f-structures 464.4 The correspondence between c- and f-structures 484.5 The solution algorithm 54Problems 584.6 Defining versus constraining equations 594.7 Completeness and coherence 62Problems 634.8 Functional uncertainty 634.9 Sets of f-structures 704.10 Conclusion 71Further reading 725 Monotonicity and Some of Its Consequences 735.1 Monotonicity 735.2 Relation changes and monotonicity 765.3 Information and form 795.3.1 The fragmentability of language 795.3.2 The nonconfigurationality of language 825.3.3 Apparent information flow through external structure 835.3.4 Noncompositionality 845.4 Conclusion 85III Inflectional Morphology and Phrase Structure Variation 876 A Theory of Structure–Function Mappings 896.1 Grammatical functions 946.1.1 Basics of grammatical functions 946.1.2 Classification of grammatical functions 1006.2 The organization of c-structure categories 1016.2.1 Endocentricity and X′ structures 1016.2.2 Endocentric mapping to f-structure 104Problems 1116.3 Exocentric categories 1126.3.1 Lexocentricity and S 1126.3.2 S and endocentricity 1156.3.3 Nonprojecting words 1166.3.4 Summary of the structure–function principles 1176.4 Toward a typology 1186.5 Effects of economy of expression 119Further reading and discussion 124Appendix: X′ theory 1257 Endocentricity and Heads 1297.1 Head mobility 1297.1.1 Verb order in Welsh 1307.2 Endocentricity and extended heads 1357.3 Distributed exponence 1387.3.1 Wambaya c-structure 1397.3.2 The Wambaya tense system 1447.4 Conclusion 146Problems 147Exercise 1478 Pronoun Incorporation and Agreement 1518.1 Chichewˆ a 1578.1.1 Word order 1618.1.2 Independent pronouns 1628.1.3 Contrastive focus 1648.1.4 Interrogatives and relatives 1658.1.5 Other syntactic and phonological differences 1668.1.6 Functional ambiguity of subject and topic 1678.2 Navajo 171Exercise 1 180Exercise 2 1808.3 Plains Cree and inverse agreement 182Exercise 3 185Problems 1868.4 Two types of agreement: index and concord 186Exercise 4 1928.5 Conclusion 192Further reading and discussion 1939 Topicalization and Scrambling 1969.1 English topicalization 1969.2 Russian topicalization 1999.3 Economy of expression 205Problems 2079.4 Topicalization versus scrambling 2079.5 Detecting empty categories 210Exercise 223Further reading and discussion 223The crossover effect 223Two types of null pronominals 224Generalization to operator complexes 225Other factors 226IV On Functional Structures: Binding, Predication, and Control 22710 Basic Binding Theory 22910.1 Basic concepts 22910.2 A toy binding theory 23110.3 Principle C 239Further reading and discussion 24610.4 Formalization of the binding constraints 24711 Types of Bound Anaphors 25411.1 Dimensions of anaphoric binding 25411.2 Icelandic: subjective and anti-subjective pronouns 25611.3 Norwegian: subjective/nuclear pronouns 25911.4 Logophoricity versus subjectivity 261Further reading and discussion 27311.5 The typology of reflexives and the origins of nuclearity 275Further reading and discussion 28311.6 Formalization 28412 Predication Relations 28612.1 Predicate complements versus adjuncts 28612.2 F-structures of xcomps 289Exercise 1 295Exercise 2 29512.3 F-structure of PP complements 29512.4 C-structure of predicate complements 30112.5 Raising 304Further reading and discussion 30713 Anaphoric Control 30913.1 Gerundive versus participial VPs in English 30913.2 Structure of gerundive VPs 31113.3 Anaphoric control versus functional control 31913.4 Conclusion 323Problems 323Further reading and discussion 32314 From Argument Structure to Functional Structure 32414.1 What is argument structure? 32614.2 The theory of a-structures 32914.3 Mapping a-structures to syntactic functions 33314.4 Examples and consequences 33414.4.1 Unaccusatives 33414.4.2 Resultatives 33614.4.3 “Fake” reflexives and “nonsubcategorized objects” 33614.4.4 Word order of internal/external arguments 33714.4.5 Ditransitives 33714.4.6 Interactions of passive and raising 34014.4.7 Morphology that adds or suppresses a-structure roles 341Problems 344Further reading and discussion 344Problem Sets and Solutions 349Problem Set 1 351Problem Set 2 354Problem Set 3 370Problem Set 4 375Problem Set 5 391Problem Set 6 417Solutions to Selected Problems 436References for the Problems 461References 464Language Index 501Subject Index 503