engleski

Focus Structure or Abstract Syntax? A Role and Reference Grammar Account of some Abstract Syntactic Phenomena

In GB theory and its descendent, the Minimalist Program, many syntactic phenomena have been dealt with at the level of Logical Form [LF], either in terms of covert movement or constraints applying to abstract LF representations, e.g. issues of quantifier scope and WH-movement in languages in which WH-words appear overtly in situ. In this paper a number of such phenomena will be analyzed in Role and Reference Grammar, a theory which posits only a single level of syntactic representation and therefore no abstract or covert levels of syntactic representation. It will be shown that in every case the interaction of syntax and focus structure is crucially involved, and therefore that it is possible to give an account of these phenomena which does not involve positing abstract representations or covert movement. This has important implications with respect to claims regarding language acquisition.

syntax; focus structure; language acquisition; RRG

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