Autonomy and Functionalist Linguistics
William Croft
University of Manchester
Functional analyses of grammatical phenomena, and the functionalist approaches that promote them, are appealing to those who believe that an integrated view of language structure and language function is desirable. But functional analyses have been held to founder on basic grammatical facts that are taken to support the autonomy of grammar. The concept of autonomy is a complex one, and at least two different notions are found in current linguistic theory: arbitrariness and self-containedness. These notions of autonomy apply either to the grammar itself, with respect to change, use and, acquisition. The arbitrariness of syntax must be accepted; and many functional analyses are compatible with self-containedness. However, mixed formal/functional analyses provide an argument against the self-containedness of syntax, and in fact even many formal theories of syntax accept non-self-containedness. The arbitrariness of grammatical knowledge must also be accepted; and many functional analyses of the dynamic process affecting grammar are compatible with self-containedness. An argument against the self-containedness of grammar comes not from these functional analyses but from sociolinguistics.
Back to Index
Incorporation in Chukchi
Andrew Spencer
University of Essex
Noun Incorporation in Chukchi is shown to exhibit many of the characteristics that would be expected on a syntactic analysis of incorporation (e.g. Baker 1988): it is productive, the incorporated element may be referential, subjects can only be incorporated from unaccusative verbs, and noun incorporation feeds a process of Dative Shift, just as predicted on Baker's syntactic account.
However, several properties are incompatible with this. In particular, Chukchi freely allows incorporation of adjuncts (which would violate the ECP on Baker's account). In addition, nouns incorporate their modifiers/specifiers, in a way not predicted by a syntactic (head movement) theory. Moreover, Chukchi permits incorporation of aspectual/temporal elements, which contradicts even the much weaker version of Baker's thesis proposed by Rivero 1992 to handle adverb incorporation in Greek. The data are, however, broadly compatible with a lexical analysis along the lines of Rosen 1989.
Back to Index
Predicting the Progressive Passive: Parametric
Change within a Lexicalist Framework
Anthony R. Warner
University of York, England
The English progressive passive (e.g. is being carried) is first attested in the second half of the eighteenth century. The paper offers a new interpretation of this development as integrated into a series of changes which affected BE and HAVE at this period. It arose not as a combination of progressive and passive constructions but (with the other changes) was a consequence of the reduction of inflection in auxiliaries which followed the loss of THOU in informal speech. This is interpreted as a parametric change, for which there is an overt triggering difference in the primary linguistic data, and the account is formalized within HPSG.
 |
 |
|
 |
| Previous Issue | TOC Main page | Language Main page | Next Issue |