Clause structure and verb syntax in Scandinavian and English [microform]
- Bib ID:
- 3283692
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Jonas, Dianne Elizabeth
- Description:
- 186 p.
- ISBN:
- 059130404X
- Summary:
-
This thesis is a study of a range of word order facts in Scandinavian and English conducted within the Minimalist framework (Chomsky 1993, 1995). The syntactic phenomena which are studied here include verb movement, clause structure and the positional licensing of arguments within the functional domain. The main thrust of the thesis is that overt verb movement plays a role in determining the nature and number of VP-external argument positions. The goal of the study is to extend the empirical coverage of the Minimalist program while suggesting ways in which it might be modified and extended to account for a range of word order facts which might otherwise appear unconnected. This study is a comparative one, it involves a study of the Scandinavian languages and English. The focus is on expletive constructions in particular but also more general word order facts in both finite and non-finite clauses.
The initial analysis is made on a comparison of data from Icelandic, English and the Mainland Scandinavian languages. The result of this analysis is then applied to the study of new data from Faroese, a Scandinavian language which has not received so much attention syntactically compared with other Scandinavian languages. The final part of this study looks at aspects of language acquisition and historical change and argues that the conclusions of the first part can be applied successfully to these areas.
- Notes:
-
- (UnM)AAI9721673
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-02, Section: A, page: 0438.
- Supervisor: Hoskuldur Thrainsson.
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard University, 1997.
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.
- Subject:
- Language, Linguistics
- Other authors/contributors:
- Harvard University
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1997
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