Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Humanities. / Bibliography: leaves 211-218. / Ph.D.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 276-281. / by Avery DeLano Andrews, III. / Ph.D.

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Humanities. / Bibliography: leaves 213-217. / by Tanya Reinhart. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 195-202. / by Yukio Otsu. / Ph.D.

<p>Motion events have been argued to be decomposable into a subeventive structure. The aim of this dissertation is to provide a formal syntactic analysis of motion predicates in Limonese Creole, an endangered Creole language spoken in Costa Rica. Motion predicates denote a motion event in which a figure traverses a given space, with or without an endpoint (TELIC/ATELIC). On the structure of these events, Ramchand (2008, p. 39) among others, suggests that even if the event is analyzed as a single one, its syntax can contain three important subeventive components: a causing subevent, a process denoting subevent and a subevent corresponding to result state (yielding the TELIC interpretation). Contrastive analyses (especially Osei-Tutu, 2019; and Taherkhani, 2019), however, have found that a division between a TELIC and a RESULTATIVE subevent is possible as well. For encoding those different subcomponents of complex motion predicates, serial verb constructions (SVCs) have been attested in different languages, including other Pidgins and Creoles e.g., Ghanaian Student Pidgin, Jamaican Creole. However, those findings contrast with the presence of certain linking elements in Limonese Creole, conceptually related to elements like the “linker” (in terms of den Dikken, 2006). It is precisely this difference what motivates this study, since the presence of the linker an in Limonese Creole does not affect the monoeventivity of the macro-eventive structure of the motion predicate as defined by Bohnemeyer et al. (2007, p. 502). This dissertation proposes that subevents are assembled within the motion event in a layered complement structure (Larson 1991; Benedicto et al., 2020), and that the linker an does not involve coordination, rather it marks the structural border between subeventive components. </p> <p><br></p> <p>CHAPTER 1 introduces the main objective of this project: to provide a formal syntactic analysis of motion predicates in Limonese Creole. Then it refers to relevant issues on motion predicates, namely, a contrast between the approaches that have been used to study motion predicates. Additionally, the gap that the study fills and its contribution to the field are discussed. The study also serves the purpose of visibilizing Limonese Creole as a language and empowering its speakers. Finally, the main sociohistorical features of Limonese Creole are analyzed. </p> <p><br></p> <p>CHAPTER 2 outlines the hypothesized structure for motion predicates in Limonese Creole with all its subcomponents. I provide supporting evidence for the hypothesis by proving the monoeventivity of the complex predicate, the complement relation among subcomponents, and the structural connection between subevents with the LINKER that serves as boundary between subcomponents of motion predicates.</p> <p><br></p> <p>CHAPTER 3 describes the methodological procedures that were implemented for this study. Participants, data collection, and data analysis are described for each of the two stages from which the findings of this dissertation stem. The first stage consisted of a controlled data collection with an instrument of 175 clips with figures in motion with the participation of four speakers. This stage elicited contrasts between parameters of motion predicates. Complementarily, a second stage of  qualitative data collection was conducted to look for clarification, evaluation, and validation of items previously elicited or designed during the first stage. </p> <p><br></p> <p>CHAPTER 4 deals with the vectorization of the trajectory, which corresponds to the PROCESS subevent. I discuss how the vectorization is represented, what elements are present within the vectorization and what elements are prioritized or discarded. Based on this information, I identified the structural conditions behind the combinations in which the subcomponents of MANNER (verbs) and PATH (verbs, particles, and prepositional phrases) are expressed within this PROCESS subcomponent, namely the operations triggered by the [_u +V] feature in v. </p> <p><br></p> <p>CHAPTER 5 discusses the structure of the TELIC and RESULTATIVE subcomponents within the motion predicate in Limonese Creole. Even though this dissertation claims that TELIC and RESULTATIVE are two separate subcomponents, this chapter comprises the two of them as they are intricately related. First, I define TELICITY as a compositionally determined subcomponent which brings an event to its endpoint, then I introduce the hypothesis for the TELIC subcomponent, a semi-grammaticalized VP which I name EndP. The chapter discusses the conditions for TELICITY, more specifically, an interpretation that is returned by the functional projection AspQ after being assigned range by EndP. Additionally, I analyze the role of the outer aspect in the TELIC interpretation of motion predicates. Lastly, I examine the structure of the RESULTATIVE subcomponent by defining it and contrasting it with the TELIC subcomponent. There, I present the hypothesized structure for the subcomponent and examine the positions of the RESULTATIVE projection. </p> <p><br></p> <p>CHAPTER 6 discusses the conclusions, contributions, and areas for future research of this project.</p> <p><br></p>

Switch-Reference (SR) is a phenomenon in which the coreferentiality of two (or more) subjects in a complex sentence is indicated by a morphological device. The purpose of this dissertation is to discuss recent work which deals with SR within the Government and Binding Theory, and propose an alternative analysis to it. The framework I will adopt for such an alternative analysis of SR is Categorial Grammar. A basic notion underlying Categorial Grammar is that an expression is divided into a functor and an argument, and each functor and argument are further divided into a functor and an argument until the division reaches to an undividable element. Given the assumptions that a functor and its argument must be compatible and that a functor has some subcategorization properties, I argue that "Agreement" phenomenon (subsuming agreement and disagreement) can be handled insightfully. Furthermore, I propose that such a treatment of "Agreement" can be extended to SR systems in general if we consider the "same subject" and "different subject" phenomena as cases of agreement and disagreement, respectively. I claim that a composite in which a SR morpheme appears forms a functor which takes another composite as its argument, and that the relation between the functor and its argument and the relation between some parts of the functor and its argument are characterized as "agreement" or "disagreement": The functor and the argument must be compatible as assumed above, and the nature of compatibility (whether "agreement" or "disagreement") is controlled by the subcategorization properties of the SR morpheme associated with the functor (i.e., if "same subject", the relation is agreement, and if "different subject", it is disagreement). By treating SR in this fashion, I intend to provide a unified analysis for apparently different SR systems in three diverse languages, namely, Tairora, Hopi, and Warlpiri.

O propósito deste estudo é descrever e analisar o comportamento de sentenças médias no português do Brasil (PB), tais como Dissertação de mestrado não se escreve fácil e Cachecol tricota rápido. Muito têm-se discutido a respeito das construções médias, em diversas línguas, visto que elas agregam em si uma complexa relação entre a sintaxe, a semântica e, para alguns, o léxico. Foi a extensa bibliografia e a sempre presente discordância entre autores a respeito dessas construções que despertou nosso interesse em trabalhar com esse tema. Entretanto, descrever as construções médias do português Brasileiro revelou-se uma tarefa das mais árduas. Explica-se: há dois fatores de grande importância para a descrição dessas sentenças que estão em aparente mudança nesse idioma. O primeiro desses fenômenos é a mudança no uso dos clíticos que, de modo geral, está diminuindo em nossa língua (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000). O segundo fenômeno é o fato de o português do Brasil estar passando por um processo generalizado de mudança na classe dos verbos de alternância transitiva, já apontado na literatura (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Negrão (2006)). Tendo como perspectiva teórica a Morfologia Distribuída, um dos recentes desenvolvimentos da Gramática Gerativa, acreditamos poder dar um tratamento unicamente sintático, mais enxuto e uniforme do que as propostas de análise até hoje sugeridas. Fundamentando-nos no trabalho de Marantz (1997), no qual o autor propõe que uma interpretação agentiva de um determinado sintagma pode ser devida, não somente à presença de um núcleo verbal, mas também a informações sintático-semânticas da própria raiz participante da construção. além de baseando-nos na combinação das características sintático-semânticas das raízes envolvidas na construção. Também, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou e Schäfer (2005) hipotetizam, seguindo Kratzer (2002), em favor de decompor os verbos alternantes em uma raiz, um núcleo de causa e um núcleo de voz. Os dados do PB, vistos pela perspectiva da Morfologia Distribuída, nos permitirão ir adiante nas pesquisas sobre o tema específico que desenvolveremos neste trabalho e, ao mesmo tempo, trarão novas evidências e questionamentos a respeito da teoria que apóia este projeto / The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the Middle Construction in Brazilian Portuguese, such as Dissertação de mestrado não escreve fácil and Cachecol tricota rápido. Linguists, working with data form several languages, have discussed extensively about these constructions, because they aggregate in them a complex relationship between syntax, semantics and, in some analysis, the lexicon. It was the comprehensive bibliography and the presence of great discrepancy between authors - about these constructions that awakened our interest in working with this theme. However, describing these constructions in Brazilian Portuguese proved to be one of the most arduous task, since there are two factors of great importance to the description of those sentences that are in apparent change in our language. The first of these phenomena is the change in the use of clitics, which, in general, is decreasing in Brazilian Portuguese (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000)). The second phenomenon is the fact that this language is going through a process of widespread change in the class of alternating transitive verbs, already identified in the literature (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Pollini (2006)). Having as theoretical framework a theory of the architecture of grammar known as Distributed Morphology, one of the recent developments of Generative Grammar (Chomsky, 1960, 1965), we believe we can offer a syntactic treatment, more economical and more uniform than the proposals of analysis suggested so far. Our analysis is fundamented in the proposal from Marantz (1997), who argues that an agentive interpretation for a given phrase may be due, not only to the syntactic presence of a verbal head, but also to the presence of relevant syntactic-semantic features of the root. Also, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou and Schäfer (2005) hypothesizes, along with Kratzer (2000), in favor of decomposing verbal meaning in a root, a causation head and a Voice head. The data coming from Brazilian Portuguese middle constructions, seen by the perspective of Distributed Morphology, can help the research on this specific topic to develop and, at the same time, bring new evidence and questioning about the theory that supports this project

No final da década de 1960, começaram a circular no cenário acadêmico brasileiro as primeiras notícias a respeito da Gramática Gerativa de Noam Chomsky. A conseqüência desse momento inicial de recepção das idéias lingüísticas norte-americanas foi a formação de um grupo de especialidade que reuniu pesquisadores que se reconheceram como gerativistas e passaram a aplicar teorias e métodos da Gramática Gerativa a dados do português. Esta tese propõe uma reconstrução desse período da história da lingüística brasileira, seguindo métodos e propostas interpretativas da Historiografia Lingüística, a partir de categorias analíticas como programas de investigação, grupos de especialidade, reconstruções externa e interna, formas de argumentação, retóricas de ruptura, continuidades e descontinuidades. / At the end of the 60s, the first news about Noam Chomsky\'s Generative Grammar spread among Brazilian Scholars. The first consequences of these North-American linguistic ideas was the creation of a study group that joined researchers who started applying Generative Grammar theories and its methods to Portuguese language data. This thesis aims at reconstructing this period of Brazilian Linguistics. In order to do so, it proposes the use of Linguistics Historiography, applying analytic categories such as investigation programs, research groups, internal and external reconstructions, argumentation patterns, revolutionary rhetoric, continuity and discontinuity.

No final da década de 1960, começaram a circular no cenário acadêmico brasileiro as primeiras notícias a respeito da Gramática Gerativa de Noam Chomsky. A conseqüência desse momento inicial de recepção das idéias lingüísticas norte-americanas foi a formação de um grupo de especialidade que reuniu pesquisadores que se reconheceram como gerativistas e passaram a aplicar teorias e métodos da Gramática Gerativa a dados do português. Esta tese propõe uma reconstrução desse período da história da lingüística brasileira, seguindo métodos e propostas interpretativas da Historiografia Lingüística, a partir de categorias analíticas como programas de investigação, grupos de especialidade, reconstruções externa e interna, formas de argumentação, retóricas de ruptura, continuidades e descontinuidades. / At the end of the 60s, the first news about Noam Chomsky\'s Generative Grammar spread among Brazilian Scholars. The first consequences of these North-American linguistic ideas was the creation of a study group that joined researchers who started applying Generative Grammar theories and its methods to Portuguese language data. This thesis aims at reconstructing this period of Brazilian Linguistics. In order to do so, it proposes the use of Linguistics Historiography, applying analytic categories such as investigation programs, research groups, internal and external reconstructions, argumentation patterns, revolutionary rhetoric, continuity and discontinuity.

O propósito deste estudo é descrever e analisar o comportamento de sentenças médias no português do Brasil (PB), tais como Dissertação de mestrado não se escreve fácil e Cachecol tricota rápido. Muito têm-se discutido a respeito das construções médias, em diversas línguas, visto que elas agregam em si uma complexa relação entre a sintaxe, a semântica e, para alguns, o léxico. Foi a extensa bibliografia e a sempre presente discordância entre autores a respeito dessas construções que despertou nosso interesse em trabalhar com esse tema. Entretanto, descrever as construções médias do português Brasileiro revelou-se uma tarefa das mais árduas. Explica-se: há dois fatores de grande importância para a descrição dessas sentenças que estão em aparente mudança nesse idioma. O primeiro desses fenômenos é a mudança no uso dos clíticos que, de modo geral, está diminuindo em nossa língua (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000). O segundo fenômeno é o fato de o português do Brasil estar passando por um processo generalizado de mudança na classe dos verbos de alternância transitiva, já apontado na literatura (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Negrão (2006)). Tendo como perspectiva teórica a Morfologia Distribuída, um dos recentes desenvolvimentos da Gramática Gerativa, acreditamos poder dar um tratamento unicamente sintático, mais enxuto e uniforme do que as propostas de análise até hoje sugeridas. Fundamentando-nos no trabalho de Marantz (1997), no qual o autor propõe que uma interpretação agentiva de um determinado sintagma pode ser devida, não somente à presença de um núcleo verbal, mas também a informações sintático-semânticas da própria raiz participante da construção. além de baseando-nos na combinação das características sintático-semânticas das raízes envolvidas na construção. Também, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou e Schäfer (2005) hipotetizam, seguindo Kratzer (2002), em favor de decompor os verbos alternantes em uma raiz, um núcleo de causa e um núcleo de voz. Os dados do PB, vistos pela perspectiva da Morfologia Distribuída, nos permitirão ir adiante nas pesquisas sobre o tema específico que desenvolveremos neste trabalho e, ao mesmo tempo, trarão novas evidências e questionamentos a respeito da teoria que apóia este projeto / The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the Middle Construction in Brazilian Portuguese, such as Dissertação de mestrado não escreve fácil and Cachecol tricota rápido. Linguists, working with data form several languages, have discussed extensively about these constructions, because they aggregate in them a complex relationship between syntax, semantics and, in some analysis, the lexicon. It was the comprehensive bibliography and the presence of great discrepancy between authors - about these constructions that awakened our interest in working with this theme. However, describing these constructions in Brazilian Portuguese proved to be one of the most arduous task, since there are two factors of great importance to the description of those sentences that are in apparent change in our language. The first of these phenomena is the change in the use of clitics, which, in general, is decreasing in Brazilian Portuguese (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000)). The second phenomenon is the fact that this language is going through a process of widespread change in the class of alternating transitive verbs, already identified in the literature (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Pollini (2006)). Having as theoretical framework a theory of the architecture of grammar known as Distributed Morphology, one of the recent developments of Generative Grammar (Chomsky, 1960, 1965), we believe we can offer a syntactic treatment, more economical and more uniform than the proposals of analysis suggested so far. Our analysis is fundamented in the proposal from Marantz (1997), who argues that an agentive interpretation for a given phrase may be due, not only to the syntactic presence of a verbal head, but also to the presence of relevant syntactic-semantic features of the root. Also, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou and Schäfer (2005) hypothesizes, along with Kratzer (2000), in favor of decomposing verbal meaning in a root, a causation head and a Voice head. The data coming from Brazilian Portuguese middle constructions, seen by the perspective of Distributed Morphology, can help the research on this specific topic to develop and, at the same time, bring new evidence and questioning about the theory that supports this project