Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 319-329).

The classification of predicates according to their aspectual properties has a long history, dating back to Aristotle. Perhaps the most influential classification can be attributed to Vendler (1967). The time schemata to distinguish his four classes relies on a combination of entailment patterns and behaviours of "verbs" in different structures. Since Vendler, many researchers have revisited this classification, differing on both the proposed number of classes as well as the ways in which they are derived. Although they use different diagnostics to motivate their systems, what these approaches seem to share in common is the claim that aspectual classes are universal. This thesis addresses this claim and proposes that based on data from Skwxwu7mesh (a.k.a. Squamish), the representations of predicates vary crosslinguistically. I argue for a classification based on the presence/absence of intrinsic initial and final points in predicate representations. Chapters Two and Three are concerned with final points and initial points, respectively. I present four diagnostics which I argue test for the presence of final points and two diagnostics that test for the presence of initial points. Based on the results of these tests, I propose a modification of Rothstein's (2004) predicate templates (that in turn are a modification of Dowty's 1979 templates) to account for the classification of Skwxwu7mesh predicate classes that emerges. Chapters Four and Five are concerned with perfectivity and imperfectivity, respectively. In these chapters, I motivate the claim that Skwxwu7mesh has both a progressive marker and an imperfective marker. I propose that adopting Dowty's (1979) analysis of the progressive and Kratzer's (1998) analysis of the imperfective, along with the predicate representations introduced in chapters two and three, can derive the readings of progressive and imperfective predicates in Skwxwu7mesh. Based on a small study involving 10 native speakers of English who are not linguists, in Chapter Six I briefly revisit English aspectual classes. Using the results of some of the diagnostics from chapters two and three, I show the contrast between English and Skwxwu7mesh predicate representations, highlighting the claim that aspectual classes do indeed vary cross-linguistically. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

Orientador: Plinio Almeida Barbosa / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T08:38:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucente_Luciana_M.pdf: 1562872 bytes, checksum: cecd73e055b7a0b7fcc5741425c84c3e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: O sistema de notação entoacional proposto para o português brasileiro (PB) inserido inicialmente no programa de investigação científica da fonologia entoacional, utilizava para a descrição da entoação do PB uma adaptação da notação que propõe este modelo, que consiste em uma notação linear, baseada em aspectos formais da curva entoacional. Este programa adota como pressuposto fundamental a representação fonológica de parâmetros acústicos contínuos, preservada pela ação de primitivos melódicos como o alvo/tom a ser atingido, o registro funcional dos tons e o alinhamento abstrato entre curva entoacional e material lingüístico. O emprego de tal sistema para a notação de um corpus de fala espontânea do PB, em substituição a um corpus de fala semi-espontânea, se mostrou pouco produtivo e apontou para a necessidade de um sistema que combinasse aspectos formais e funcionais em sua descrição. Esse fato justificou a inserção do sistema de notação entoacional do PB em um programa de investigação científica dinâmico-entoacional, que propõe uma notação dinâmica e funcional, tendo como pressuposto fundamental a ausência de representações fonológicas, apresentando como primitivos melódicos os contornos entoacionais, a gama de variação tonal e o alinhamento específico entre curva e material lingüístico. A notação entoacional definida para o PB nesse novo paradigma por meio do sistema DaTo ¿ Dynamical Tones of Brazilian Portuguese - propõe a descrição do foco na entoação segundo a noção de contornos/tons dinâmicos, ao invés de utilizar o conceito de tons isolados para tanto, assumindo que a entoação e o foco no PB são produzidos por um sistema dinâmico integrado, que alia produção e articulação / Abstract: The intonational annotation system proposed to Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth BP) was initially inserted in the intonational phonology research program. The BP annotation system used an adaptation of the phonological annotation, which consists in a linear annotation, based on formal aspects of the intonational curve. This research program adopts as fundamental basis the phonological representation of continuum acoustic parameters, preserved by the action of melodical primitives as targets, the functional register and the abstract alignment between the intonational curve and the linguistics material. The application of these parameters to the annotation of spontaneous speech in BP was not productive, and pointed out the necessity of a new annotation that combines formal and functional features on the description. This necessity justified the adoption of a new annotation in a new research program, the dynamical program. This paradigm adopts as fundamental basis the absence of phonological representations, presenting as melodic primitives the intonational contours, the speech range and the specific alignment between the intonational curve and the linguistic material. The BP dynamical intonational annotation, called DaTo ¿ Dynamic Tones of Brazilian Portuguese ¿, proposes the focus description following the concept of dynamic contours, rather than the isolated tones concept, assuming that the intonation and focus in BP are produced by a dynamical system that ally phonation and articulation / Mestrado / Mestre em Linguística

Thesis (DLitt (Ancient Studies)) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the information structure of Biblical Hebrew narrative, and develop accounts of topic and focus in Biblical Hebrew, respectively. Both topic and focus categories have been determined for Biblical Hebrew (cf. chapters 3 and 5), as well as the information structure strategies that these categories can fulfill in discourse. For topic categories, four different categories of information structure topics in Biblical Hebrew have been distinguished. These are 1. Primary topics 2. Secondary topics 3. Tail topics 4. Topic frames In addition, associated with topics are topic contrastiveness as well as deictic orientations or text-world frames. All these categories, when present, are part of the topical framework of a discourse. For focus structure categories, three different types of focus structure in Biblical Hebrew have been distinguished. These are: 1. Predicate focus 2. Sentence focus 3. Argument focus Again, like in the case of topics, contrastiveness is associated with focus structures. The strategies of information structure topics and focus structures in theme developments were distinguished. For topics, the following information structure strategies or functions stand out: 1. Topic continuity 2. Topic promotion 3. Topic shift 4. Topic deictic text-world framing 5. Topic contrasting For focus structures, the following information structure strategies or functions stand out: 1. Commenting on topics 2. Presenting unidentifiable or inactive participants 3. Reporting, that is, event-reporting and state-reporting of out-of-the-blue, unexpected, discourse new events or states. Some reporting re-directs the theme, other reporting, especially that of states, supports the theme. 4. Identifying referents, either as identifying contrastive, unexpected referents or deictic text-world frames, or by announcing theme macrowords. Contrastiveness is a pragmatic overlay in the case of many focus constituents, especially presupposed information that is focused on. In other words, the three focus structures are used in certain strategies: 1. Predicate focus structures are used for commenting in topic-comment articulations. 2. Sentence focus structures are used for presentational sentences, and for themeredirecting and theme-supporting, event-reporting and state-reporting sentences. The word-order is generally marked. 3. Argument focus is used for unexpected, contrastive identification, and for the announcement of theme macrowords. The word-order is marked, similar to sentence focus structures. All the topic and focus categories and their respective information structure strategies have a link with the theme of a discourse. Theme has been defined in this study as the developing and coherent core or thread of a discourse in the mind of the speaker-author and hearerreader, functioning as the prominent macrostructure of the discourse (chapter 7 (7.4.4)). The information structure with its topics and focus structures and its strategies, can be used as a tool to identify and analyse themes. These categories and strategies together are called theme traces when they occur in marked syntactic constructions or in other prominence configurations like relexicalisation, end-weight, and repetition of macrowords. Theme traces are defined with the following wording: A theme trace is a clue in the surface form of a discourse, viewed from the perspective of information structure, that points to the cognitive macrostructure or theme of a text. This clue is in the form of (1) a marked syntactical configuration, be it marked word-order or marked in the sense of explicit and seemingly “redundant”, all signaling some thematic sequencing strategy, or (2) some recurring concept(s) signaling some prominence and coherence (chapter 7 (7.5.4)). By investigating these theme traces, the analyst will have a tool to study themes in discourse. This theme traces tool will assist in the demarcation of the sections in the developing theme of a text by means of a variety of boundary features, and once these thematic units have been established, the study of the topic framework together with the focus content will yield a verifiable understanding of the macrostructure of a text in Biblical Hebrew. Global themes are contrasted with local themes. Global themes occur in the higher-level thematic groupings, like whole narratives and smaller episodes within the narratives. Within the episodes are sub-units like scenes and thematic paragraphs, the smallest thematic unit. In scenes and thematic paragraphs, local themes occur. Between the different thematic units, a variety of theme sequential strategies occur. Theme shifting is a wider information structure strategy that is in operation in discourse. For instance, topic promotion, topic shift, and topic text-world framing are all cases of theme shifting. To study the theme of a narrative discourse from the perspective of the information structure, four steps of a theme-tracing model have been suggested, and applied to Genesis 17.

Orientador: Sonia Maria Lazzarini Cyrino / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T04:51:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeixeiradeSousa_Lilian_D.pdf: 3506329 bytes, checksum: e5635d7c31b15e173507503856816bd4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: A negação sentencial no Português Brasileiro (PB) pode ser realizada através de três tipos diferentes de estruturas considerando o número e a posição de partículas negativas: [Neg V], [Neg V Não] e [V Não]. Essa distribuição é bastante rara nas línguas naturais, já que, geralmente, as línguas apresentam apenas uma estrutura para expressar negação sentencial e, algumas vezes, uma estrutura adicional com função discursiva. Alguns pesquisadores associam essa alternância de formas a um processo de mudança linguística conhecido como Ciclo de Jespersen (Schwegler 1991, Furtado da Cunha 1996), enquanto outros explicam a alternância em termos de estrutura informacional (Schwenter 2005; Cavalcante 2007, 2012). Neste estudo, buscamos descrever a ocorrência das estruturas na língua, através de testes de aceitabilidade e preferência, com o objetivo de formular uma análise dentro do quadro teórico da sintaxe gerativa que considerasse tanto as características distributivas quanto as possibilidades de interpretação dessas estruturas. Na literatura linguística é bastante recorrente a afirmação de que apenas a estrutura [Neg V] é livre de restrições sintáticas, o que tem servido de argumento para caracterizá-la como a negação padrão do PB. As outras duas formas, porém, apresentam fortes restrições sintáticas, não sendo ambas possíveis em perguntas-Qu ou em encaixadas temporais. Em nossa análise, verificamos que, além das diferenças entre forma padrão e formas marcadas, as estruturas [Neg V Não] e [V Não] apresentam distinções quando comparadas, por isso, as consideramos, assim como Biberauer & Cyrino (2009), como fenômenos diversos. [V Não], como observamos, não é possível em nenhum tipo de oração encaixada ou com o preenchimento de sujeitos não definidos ou ainda para veicular informação nova, estando restrita a contextos responsivos. [Neg V Não], por outro lado, não é compatível apenas com infinitivas ou encaixadas temporais e não apresenta restrições quanto ao tipo de sujeito e nem quanto ao tipo de informação, se nova ou dada. Também entoacionalmente as estruturas apresentam distinções, enquanto o não de [V Não] não é prosodicamente proeminente, o não final de [Neg V Não] pode ou não ser prosodicamente proeminente. Uma vez que tanto [Neg V] quanto [Neg V Não] podem veicular informação nova e dada, tratamo-las como negações semânticas. Considerando, entretanto, as restrições de [Neg V Não] em sentenças não temporalmente marcadas ou coocorrendo com conjunções subordinativas temporais, passamos a relacioná-la à categoria T. Tendo em vista, ainda, a incompatibilidade dessa estrutura em contextos narrativos, em que não há proposições, mas o sequenciamento de eventos, definimos essa estrutura enquanto um tipo de negação semântica com escopo sobre proposições em oposição à [Neg V], que teria escopo sobre situações. [V Não], por ocorrer unicamente em contextos responsivos e não ser capaz de licenciar itens de polaridade, é interpretada não como uma negação semântica, mas como uma estrutura com a função pragmática de foco. Do ponto de vista teórico, considerando a proposta de Fases, relacionamos a estrutura [Neg V] à fase V, [Neg V Não] à fase T e [V Não] ao CP, periferia à esquerda da fase T / Abstract: Sentential negation in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) may be accomplished through three different kinds of structures, considering the number and position of the negative particles: [Neg V], [Neg V Não] and [V Não]. This distribution is quite rare in natural languages, which usually feature only one structure to express sentential negation, with an optional structure to convey a discourse function. While some researchers have identified this alternation between forms with a process of linguistic change known as Jespersen's Cycle (Schwegler 1991, Furtado da Cunha 1996), some others explain this variation in terms of information structure (Schwenter 2005; Cavalcante 2007, 2012). In this study, we seek to describe the occurrence of these structures in BP by means of acceptability and preference tests, with the objective of formulating an analysis within the theoretical framework of generative syntax that would consider both distributive characteristics and possible interpretations of these structures. In the linguistic literature, it is frequently claimed that the [Neg V] structure is the only one devoid of syntactic restrictions. Such an idea has been presented as an argument for its character as the standard negation form in BP. On the other hand, the other two forms do have strong syntactic restrictions, once they are not both possible in wh-questions or in embedded time clauses. In our analysis we have noticed that, in addition to the differences between the standard form and the other ones, there is a distinction between the [Neg V Não] and [V Não] structures. Therefore we consider them to be separate phenomena, likewise Biberauer & Cyrino (2009a, 2009b): [V Não], as we have observed, is impossible in all kinds of embedded clause, with undefined subjects or even when conveying new information, as it is restricted to response contexts; [Neg V Não], on the other hand, is only incompatible with infinitive or embedded time clauses, and is unrestricted as to the type of subject or type of information conveyed, that is, whether new or given. These structures also contain intonational distinctions: while the 'não' in [V Não] is not prosodically prominent, the final 'não' in [Neg V Não] may or may not be prosodically prominent. Given that both [Neg V] and [Neg V Não] can convey both new and given information, they are treated as semantic negations. By taking into account that [Neg V Não] is not acceptable either in infinitival sentences or in sentences introduced by temporal conjunctions, we put forth that the second 'não' is merged in the T domain. Besides, given the incompatibility of this structure with narrative contexts in which there are no propositions but rather a sequence of events, we have defined this structure as a kind of semantic negation taking scope over propositions as opposed to [Neg V], which takes scope over situations. And because [V Não] occurs solely in the context of response and does not allow for polarity items, we have defined it not as a semantic negation, but as a structure marking pragmatic focus. From a theoretical standpoint, considering Phase Theory, we have related the [Neg V] structure to the V phase, [Neg V Não] to the T phase and [V Não] to the CP, the left periphery of the T phase / Doutorado / Linguistica / Doutora em Linguística