Syntactic universals and semantic constraints : statistical and other comparative evidence from the study of verbs and adjectives
This study is concerned with the examination of word-order universals and the attempt to explain the diverse statistical patterns by means of a variety of semantic structures. Central to my study is a critique (a) of Hawkins's approach, the Universal Consistency Hypothesis, and its concentration upon apparently exceptionless universals, and (b) the Bartsch-Vennemann approach which breaks down structures generally into OPerator-Operand pairs. In Part I, I introduce a geographically and genetically representative sample of 75 languages, and show that not only are violations to be found to Hawkins's principles of consistency, but that they are statistically predictable. The statistical results are also useful in relating word-order patterns with fusional, agglutinative and isolating morphology: in particular fusion is associated with violations of statistical universals. In Part II, I concentrate on adjectives and verbs and here the patterns of non-exceptionless universals become important: instead of distinguishing intensional and extensional adjectives after Montague, I identify a semantic principle of Adjunction, which includes some intensional adjectives, over and above those adjectives for which an analysis
Prior, Martin Hugh
Syntactic universals and semantic constraints : statistical and other comparative evidence from the study of verbs and adjectives. This study is concerned with the examination of word-order universals and the attempt to explain the diverse statistical patterns by means of a variety of semantic structures. Central to my study is a critique (a) of Hawkins's approach, the Universal Consistency Hypothesis, and its concentration upon apparently exceptionless universals, and (b) the Bartsch-Vennemann approach which breaks down structures generally into OPerator-Operand pairs. In Part I, I introduce a geographically and genetically representative sample of 75 languages, and show that not only are violations to be found to Hawkins's principles of consistency, but that they are statistically predictable. The statistical results are also useful in relating word-order patterns with fusional, agglutinative and isolating morphology: in particular fusion is associated with violations of statistical universals. In Part II, I concentrate on adjectives and verbs and here the patterns of non-exceptionless universals become important: instead of distinguishing intensional and extensional adjectives after Montague, I identify a semantic principle of Adjunction, which includes some intensional adjectives, over and above those adjectives for which an analysis
syntactic universal semantic constraint statistical comparative evidence study verbs adjective study concerned examination word_order universal attempt_explain diverse statistical pattern mean variety semantic_structure central study critique universal consistency hypothesis concentration upon apparently universal break structure generally operator pair part introduce geographically genetically representative_sample language show violation find principle consistency statistically predictable statistical also useful relate word_order pattern isolate morphology particular fusion associate violation statistical universal part concentrate adjective verbs pattern non universal become_important instead distinguish intensional extensional adjective identify semantic principle adjunction include intensional adjective adjective analysis