The Grammar of Emphasis

Autors:

Andreas Trotzke

Títol:

The Grammar of Emphasis: From Information Structure to the Expressive Dimension

Editorial: Mouton De Gruyter
Data de publicació: Maig 2017
Pàgines: 192
ISBN13: 978-1-5015-0588-1

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This book reconsiders the linguistic notion of emphasis. For many, the concept of emphasis is confined to information structure. However, our understanding of the grammatical reflexes of emphasis is only partial as long as the expressive side of utterances is not taken into account. The book explores similarities, differences, and interactions between information structure and the expressive dimension of language in the domain of natural language grammar.

Specifically, this monograph demonstrates that specific word order options, sometimes in combination with discourse particles, yield meaning effects that are typical for the expressive side of utterances and endow them with an exclamative flavor. Approaching this issue from a syntactic point of view, the book shows that there are syntactic categories (e.g., a certain class of particle verbs) and word orders (e.g., certain fronting patterns involving discourse particles) that directly connect to expressive meaning components. The work presented in this monograph combines theoretical analysis with experimental evidence from both perception and production studies.

Trotzke (2019). Adjective order through a Germanic lens

Autors:

Andreas Trotzke (editor)

Títol:

Special Issue of Linguistics: Adjective order through a Germanic lens

Editorial: Linguistics, Mouton de Gruyter
Data de publicació: Març del 2019
Pàgines: 427

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In this paper, we introduce the issue of adjective order and show that different approaches vary in their answers to the question of how fine-grained the semantic categories determining adjective order are. We report on a corpus study that we conducted and that illustrates that a clear answer to the question of what general factors exactly determine adjective order is elusive, given the multifactorial nature of the problem. We then present the individual contributions to this special issue, and how they attempt to add new observations from Germanic languages to the general issues revolving around the topic of adjective order.

Sprachevolution. Eine Einführung

Autors:

Andreas Trotzke

Títol:

Spachevolution. Eine Einführung

Editorial: De Gruyter
Data de publicació: Abril 2017
Pàgines: 208
ISBN13: 978-3-11-051562-6

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Understanding the evolutionary origins of language has always been a fundamental epistemological goal of linguistics. This textbook offers a concise introduction to this resurgent field of research. It organizes, compares, and critically evaluates different theories. The author places particular emphasis on the growing collaboration between linguistics, behavioral biology, and neurobiology.

Syntactic Complexity across Interfaces

Autors:

Andreas Trotzke

Títol:

Syntactic Complexity across Interfaces

Editorial: De Gruyter
Data de publicació: Març del 2015
ISBN13: 978-1-61451-790-0

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Syntactic complexity has always been a matter of intense investigation in formal linguistics. Since complex syntax is clearly evidenced by sentential embedding and since embedding of one clause/phrase in another is taken to signal recursivity of the grammar, the capacity of computing syntactic complexity is of central interest to the recent hypothesis that syntactic recursion is the defining property of natural language. In the light of more recent claims according to which complex syntax is not a universal property of all living languages, the issue of how to detect and define syntactic complexity has been revived with a combination of classical and new arguments. This volume contains contributions about the formal complexity of natural language, about specific issues of clausal embedding, and about syntactic complexity in terms of grammar-external interfaces in the domain of language acquisition.

Discourse-oriented Syntax

Autors:

Andreas Trotzke

Títol:

Discourse-oriented Syntax

Editorial: John Benjamins
Data de publicació: 2015
ISBN13: 9789027257093

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Until recently, little attention has been paid within syntax to components of discourse meaning that go beyond information structure and fall into the domain of non-at-issue meaning operating at the level of illocutionary force. To approach this domain, many of the contributions of this volume deal with the syntax of discourse particles. However, the issue of how to account for discourse particles within a more explicit map of the illocutionary domain is a good starting point for considering further phenomena related to the syntax of speech acts. By focusing on speech-act related particles and/or meaning domains, this volume makes a new contribution to the field, as existing collections either do not offer a comparatively narrow focus on particles or are not limited to syntax-oriented approaches. The primary audience of this volume are researchers and graduate students interested in state-of-the-art approaches to the syntax-discourse interface within the cartographic approach to syntax.