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This dissertation presents a study of three linguistic areas--morphology, syntax and semantics--of what have traditionally been called auxiliaries or auxiliary verbs in Thai, but what I call temporal verbs. My morphological analysis offers answers to long-term questions: What is the grammatical category of temporal verbs? What is the structure of sequences of these elements? And how are their syntactic discontinuities to be handled? My syntactic analysis investigates all possible positions of temporal verbs in both Subject-Verb-(Complement) and Verb-Subject-(Complement) sentences (Sookgasem 1989). Using Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Pollard & Sag 1987) for my analysis, I focus on three interesting points: First, a problem with the Head Feature Principle when describing a temporal verb in a sentence. Second, a problem with the linear order of the VP constituent in the Verb-Subject-(Complement) constructions of temporal verbs. And third, a position of some temporal verbs in relation to part of its VP complement. For the semantic analysis of temporal verbs, I focus on the temporal interpretation of the Future and Aspect verbs. I argue that Thai is a tense language. To support this, I analyse Aspect in Thai and examine tense interpretation in simple sentences and all types of complex sentences. Based on the evidence, I propose a tense system in Thai. I provide definitions of Reference Time and Tenseness. I propose a Tense Assigner Hierarchy, a relation named Overlap, a semantic model for tense interpretation, and the truth conditions for tensed sentences and clauses. To provide an accurate account of tense interpretation in Thai, I analyse eventualities which include Activities, Accomplishments, Achievements and States.

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This thesis investigates how fluent bilinguals make use of the grammar of their two languages when they construct verb- and pronoun-agreement only in one language (monolingual mode) or in both their languages (bilingual mode). We are particularly interested in the impact of the non-response language in sentence processing on the response language. Bilingual research has provided evidence for language integration in bilingual speech (e.g., Hartsuiker, Pickering, & Veltkamp, 2004) which is also consistent with the phenomenon of code-switching whereby speakers can use elements of each language in producing mixed-language utterances (e.g., Myers-Scotton, 2002). So far, studies at the lexical level have provided support for parallel language activation (e.g., Colomé, 2001), yet the issue of whether activation of either language can be strong enough to influence the workings of the other is still in dispute (e.g., Hermans, Bongaerts, de Bot, & Schreuder, 1998, but see Costa, La Heij, & Navarrete, 2006). In three separate sections of the thesis we employ a sentence-completion paradigm widely used in monolingual agreement literature (Bock & Miller, 1991) to examine language interaction effects in the monolingual and the bilingual modes of speech (Grosjean, 2000). English-Greek and Greek-English fluent bilinguals produced completions to singular or plural subjects when the number of the translation was either the same or different, and when their completion either did or did not switch languages. The first section investigates whether there is influence of the divergent number properties of the nonresponse native language (L1) on verb-agreement in the response second language (L2). The results of Greek-English bilinguals show influence of the underlying number of the L1 on completions in the L2. We interpret this in terms of a markedness account (e.g., Eberhard, 1997) whereby parallel activation and competition between an L2 singular subject noun and its L1 plural translation results in plural verbagreement because the singular form is more vulnerable to the marked plural form. English-Greek bilinguals who perform on the same monolingual mode do not show influence of their L1 when speaking in the L2 (Greek). We attribute this finding to a difference of morphological/inflectional properties between the two languages which renders a language that displays fewer overt markings (English) easier to control when utterances are produced in a language that displays more overt markings (Greek) (e.g., Vigliocco, Butterworth, & Semenza, 1995).

Much of the literature on modality focuses, at least implicitly, on the occurrence of single modal auxiliaries. However, cross-linguistically, modal auxiliaries can co-occur with one another, but under interesting restrictions. This thesis examines layered modal constructions and the semantic restrictions under which they combine. For instance, in languages such as Croatian, where double modal constructions are part of the standard, data shows that while some combinations are acceptable, others are not. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to identify these semantic restrictions and to explain the rationale that motivates them. To answer these questions, a systematic study of four possible combinations (epis- temics embedding epistemics, epistemics embedding non-epistemics, non-epistemics embedding non-epistemics, and non-epistemics embedding epistemics) was carried out. The data shows that the first three groups are, in general, acceptable to native speakers, while the last one is not. Further to that, the data shows that within the non-epistemic + non-epistemic group there seem to be further restrictions. The result was a hierarchical analysis that is based on modal force and flavour. With respect to force, it is shown in Chapter 4 that necessity embeds possibility, crucially, only when two of the same flavour combine. In terms of flavour, the data shows that epistemics can embed non-epistemics, while in the non-epistemic group priority embeds the circumstantial group in which pure possibility embeds ability and disposition, respectively. This analysis carries some important implications for the traditional categorisation of modal flavours which is discussed in Chapter 4. Finally, in Chapter 5 I also discuss the possible rationale behind the hierarchy and the compositional nature of DMCs. It is concluded that the hierarchy should not be taken as a merely descriptive generalisation, but rather as an analysis that is predictable on the basis of the conceptual and logical reality of human language.

Bibliography: pages 208-219. / The Auxiliary is a sadly neglected field of study in Southern African languages. The study investigates the syntactic and semantic behaviour of Auxiliaries in Sesotho. Having established that there is a category AUX in Sesotho, we then developed a descriptive framework in which auxiliaries in Sesotho participate. In this framework we posit as basic the three grammatical-semantic categories of verb phrases, namely, Tense, Aspect and Modality. The next major step was to develop formal tests which we used as defining characteristics for auxiliaries. We had to do this because the formal tests developed for English, for instance, do not work for Sesotho. The data used in this study represents samples of Sesotho as spoken by the native speakers. This work makes contributions in two areas. First, to language studies in Southern Africa and then to general linguistic theory. Since Tswana, Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho form one language group predict that the formal 'tests' we have suggested can be applied in the two Sotho languages as well. As far as Aspect, Tense and Modality are concerned, it is where this study makes a major contribution. Nowhere in Sesotho grammatical studies has either a tense or aspectual system of Sesotho been suggested or discussed. Modality has not even been referred to. In this regard the study is breaking new ground. We hope that a fresh debate will be initiated leading to vibrant discussions on comparative work. A number of studies on syntactic typology have been made. This study affords Sesotho its rightful place in the AUX debate.

Notre thèse se donne pour objectif d’analyser les facteurs de l’expression du déplacement, de la causativité et de la polarité locative dans une sous-classe de verbes du français, les verbes causatifs de déplacement à polarité initiale. Le corpus de nos verbes puisés dans les exemples des LADL est de 250 verbes environ. Nous partons du constat que les verbes de cette sous-classe ne peuvent être identifiés en dehors de constructions particulières et nous tentons de vérifier que la notion de déplacement qu’ils sont susceptibles de dénoter est, selon le cas, ou bien centrale par rapport au sémantisme du verbe, ou bien périphérique ou bien encore favorisée par le contexte immédiat. Nous tentons également de montrer que, ces verbes ne sont pas nécessairement causatifs ou de polarité initiale dans tous leurs emplois.Nous commençons par identifier les verbes causatifs de notre corpus en portant à jour leurs propriétés définitoires et nous émettons une première hypothèse sur leur statut de verbes de verbes de déplacement (centraux, périphériques, occasionnels, étant entendu que dans le type de construction retenu initialement ils sont toujours causatifs et de polarité initiale. Nous vérifions ensuite cette hypothèse fondée sur un seul emploi de nos verbes en analysant leurs autres emplois au regard des notions de déplacement, de causativité et de polarité initiale. Cette analyse s’appuie sur le principe qu’en général les verbes de déplacement centraux sont de vrais de déplacement en ce sens que leurs valeurs sémantiques / Our thesis aims to analyze the factors of the expression of displacement, causativity and locative polarity in a subclass of French verbs, the causative verbs of displacement at initial polarity. The corpus of our verbs, drawn from the LADL examples, is about 250 verbs. We start from the observation that the verbs of this subclass can not be identified outside of particular constructions and we try to verify that the notion of displacement that they are likely to denote is, as the case may be, or central with respect to semantism of the verb, either peripheral or even favored by the immediate context. We also try to show that, these verbs are not necessarily causative or of initial polarity in all their jobs.We begin by identifying the causative verbs of our corpus by updating their defining properties and we emit a first hypothesis on their status as verbs of displacement verbs (central, peripheral, occasional, it being understood that in the type of construction initially chosen they are always causative and of initial polarity, and then we test this hypothesis based on a single use of our verbs by analyzing their other jobs with respect to the notions of displacement, causativity and initial polarity. This analysis is based on the principle that in general the central displacement verbs are real displacement in the sense that their semantic values.