YPL2 - Issue 3

Issue 3 (April 2005)

Editors: Glyn Hicks and Gareth Walker

Sequence of Tense Phenomena and Non-Eventivity

1–6

Jonny Butler

Abstract

There is a well known constraint on the sequence of tense phenomena found with embedded tensed clauses (including the so-called simultaneous reading of Past embedded under Past, and double access reading of Present under Past), which is usually stated as being that hese readings are available only when the embedded verb/predicate is stative (e.g. Enç 1987). I argue in this squib that in fact the constraint is that the predicate must not receive a punctual eventive interpretation: eventive verbs are just as good as stative verbs, so long as the predicate they head is interpreted as somehow generic (habitual). This is captured through a combination of Stowell's (1996) and Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria's (2001) theories of tense construal. 

The Syntax of Double Modal in Hawick Scots

7–25

Joanne Close

Abstract

This paper investigates Double Modals such as will can in Hawick Scots using data which was collected and described by Brown (1991). I argue that the data from Hawick Scots are consistent with an analysis in which both modal elements in a Double Modal are true modal verbs and suggest that both modals are inserted into the clause as heads of individual Modal Projections (ModPs). I claim that speakers of Hawick Scots have a non-finite modal can listed in their lexicon alongside the regular finite modal can. Thus, as is the case in other varieties of English, only the first modal auxiliary is finite and so is able to invert in interrogatives and occur with clitic negation. 

Offers of Assistance: Constraints on Syntactic Design

27–53

Traci S. Curl

Abstract

This study focuses on offers in which one speaker proposes to satisfy another's want or need, or proposes to assist in resolving a difficulty experienced by another. Within a corpus of recorded telephone calls, offers are found to be produced both as reasons for calling, and as interactionally generated in the course of the talk itself. Interactionally-generated offers either propose to solve latent problems, or are responsive to overt problems. Reason-for-calling offers are made by using the conditional if. However, offers of remedy for problems educed from previous talk are always produced with the syntactic format do you want me to X; and offers responsive to overt problems are never produced with do you want. The analysis shows how participants display an orientation, through their use of self-repair and other mechanisms, to the normative force of the distribution of the syntactic forms of offers. 

Gesture, Intonation, and the Pragmatic Structure of Narratives in British English Conversation

55–90

Gaëlle Ferré

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of narratives in British English conversation. It shows that prosody and gestures made by the speaker align to the pragmatic structure of narratives and are especially used to distinguish the climax, e.g. the point of the narrative. Indeed I will show that the climax is most of the time uttered with a slower speech rate and higher voice intensity than the rest of the narrative. It is also accompanied by more gestures than the other parts of the narrative, and for the narrative to be successful these gestures must show speaker concern for the partner in the interaction. 

Deriving Condition A

91–131

Glyn Hicks

Abstract

This paper advances a reinterpretation of Condition A of the classical binding theory. This approach, based on the application of operations in the computational component of the grammar, is consistent with the methodological constraints imposed by the Minimalist Programme (Chomsky 1993, 1995b), and crucially makes use of the theory of computational operations outlined in arguably its most successful implementation to date (Chomsky 2000, 2001). It is suggested that, provided certain assumptions can be made concerning the feature specification of anaphors, Condition A is entirely reducible to an operation of feature-agreement, a conclusion which has intriguing implications for the theory of syntactically active feature types in the current framework. Furthermore, the previously stipulated local binding domain ('governing category') is correctly predicted to correspond to the 'phase', the core syntactic domain employed in recent versions of Minimalism. The analysis is extended to capture some problematic empirical phenomena in English, including the behaviour of anaphors embedded within complex DPs ('picture-DPs'). 

'Mind the Gap': Further Resources in the Production of Multi-unit, Multi-action Turns

133–143

John Local and Gareth Walker

Abstract

Techniques of sequential and phonetic analyses are brought to bear on two sequences of everyday conversation which extend understanding of a previously described practice (the 'abrupt-join'). The findings also provide directions for future analysis. 

The Phonetics of Repetition in Other-initiated Repair in Dutch: A Comparative Exercise

145-171

Leendert Plug

Abstract

This paper presents observations on the phonetics of repetition in other-initiated repair sequences in Dutch. In particular, it explores to what extent earlier findings on American English are generalisable to Dutch. 

Antecedent-Contained Deletion Without Quantifier Raising

173–185

Hidekazu Tanaka

Abstract

Since May (1985), the standard assumption has been that infinite regression in antecedent-contained deletion (ACD) constructions should be resolved by quantifier raising. This paper shows that ACD can be licensed even in the absence of QR. It is clear, however, that some scope shifting operation is at work in ACD. As an alternative to QR, I will suggest that rightward movement licenses ACD.