The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project approaches the empirical domain of North American English ... more The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project approaches the empirical domain of North American English from the perspective of generative microcomparative syntax. In addition to eliciting judgments from speakers of particular varieties, we also conduct large-scale surveys, map the results of those surveys geographically, conduct statistical tests taking geography and other social variables into account, and look for theoretically significant linguistic correlations. In all cases, we do this with the primary goal of understanding variation between speakers at the individual level. While our goals and methodologies are informed by our theoretical perspective, we expect that our work and results will be of interest to linguists working in other frameworks and even to the public more generally. This article outlines the goals and methodologies of the project and describes in broad strokes some of the results obtained so far, as well as some of the ways we have shared our findings with others, inside and outside academia.
We introduce the Southern Dative Presentative, an understudied construction that varies across sp... more We introduce the Southern Dative Presentative, an understudied construction that varies across speakers of American English. We discuss similarities and differences between this construction and the better-studied Personal Dative construction, and compare the Southern Dative Presentative to similar constructions cross-linguistically. We then present the results of a nationwide acceptability judgment survey administered on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results show that Southern Dative Presentatives are alive and well in southern dialects of American English. In the process, we also illustrate the usefulness of Amazon Mechanical Turk (and similar crowdsourcing platforms) for the study of dialect variation in the domain of syntax.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in b... more The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 30:4, 1231-1274., 2012
This paper investigates the interpretive restrictions on the subjects of imperative, promissive, ... more This paper investigates the interpretive restrictions on the subjects of imperative, promissive, and exhortative sentences-what we call the "jussive" clause types. It argues that the data cannot be explained by a theory that appeals only to semantic and pragmatic factors, and that an account crucially involving syntax is required. We propose that jussive clauses contain a functional head that bears a person feature. This head is an operator that, when in a sufficiently local configuration, binds the subject and enters an agreement relation with it. The restrictions in person features exhibited by the subjects are a consequence of this agreement relation. Moreover, we show that the syntactic structures produced by our analysis are compatible with a compositional semantics that yields the correct interpretation for imperatives and other jussives.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 26.1, pp.185-218, 2008
Imperative subjects in English are puzzling in several respects: null subjects are possible with ... more Imperative subjects in English are puzzling in several respects: null subjects are possible with a definite interpretation, unlike in other clause types; quantificational subjects are often restricted to range over a set containing the addressee and exhibit binding possibilities not readily available to them in declaratives and interrogatives; and third person referential subjects are for most speakers limited to bare noun phrases. On the empirical side, this paper provides a comprehensive discussion of these properties that makes sense of the sometimes contradictory observations found in the literature. On the theoretical side, it argues that the syntactic representation of imperatives contains a functional projection not present in other clause types. This projection plays a role both in preventing the instantiation of a predication relation between the subject and the predicate, and, when sufficiently local, in licensing the special syntactic properties of the subject. This proposal differs from those that view the properties of imperative subjects as deriving uniquely from the semantic or pragmatic component; it can be seen as building on the general intuition of the old performative hypothesis, though recasting it at a level of abstraction that captures more adequately the properties of imperatives.
In this article we investigate the syntax of Italian emphatic replies in which a polarity particl... more In this article we investigate the syntax of Italian emphatic replies in which a polarity particle is followed by an embedded clause introduced by the declarative complementizer che, which we label sì che/no che sentences. We propose that the relation between the polarity particle and the clause introduced by che is mediated by the presence of a null operator, which binds a variable inside the clause, and that this operator is what makes other movement operations impossible (along the lines of . We further suggest that sì che/no che sentences contain two copies of the triggering utterance: a null one in the Hanging Topic position and an overt one in the clause introduced by che, thus accounting for the observation that these sentences (a) cannot be embedded and (b) exhibit restrictions on their content. The effect of emphasis is thus seen as stemming from a syntactic configuration that involves reduplication.
In this descriptive report we outline the structural pattern of exclamative clauses in Paduan. Be... more In this descriptive report we outline the structural pattern of exclamative clauses in Paduan. Because of the close similarity between exclamative and interrogative clauses in this language, we begin by developing a number of tests which allow us to distinguish these two clause types. We then present the range of exclamative structures. A variety of factors interact to mark a clause as an exclamative, yielding a quite complex array of facts. We view this work as the basis for future study in the syntax and semantics of exclamatives.
1) a. Them gals is purty, but they're crazy as Junebugs. (M&H:46) b. The Freewills believes in fe... more 1) a. Them gals is purty, but they're crazy as Junebugs. (M&H:46) b. The Freewills believes in feet washing. (DOH) Previous work on this phenomenon, such as Henry (1995) on Belfast English, Tortora and den Dikken (to appear) on Appalachian English, and Adger and Smith (to appear) on Buckie English, takes verbal -s in these contexts to be an instance of non-agreement in number. We depart from this view and explore the possibility that Appalachian English verbal -s in these contexts constitutes an instance of agreement, but of a different kind: agreement in person. We distinguish this from standard English verbal agreement, which we take to express number .
The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project approaches the empirical domain of North American English ... more The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project approaches the empirical domain of North American English from the perspective of generative microcomparative syntax. In addition to eliciting judgments from speakers of particular varieties, we also conduct large-scale surveys, map the results of those surveys geographically, conduct statistical tests taking geography and other social variables into account, and look for theoretically significant linguistic correlations. In all cases, we do this with the primary goal of understanding variation between speakers at the individual level. While our goals and methodologies are informed by our theoretical perspective, we expect that our work and results will be of interest to linguists working in other frameworks and even to the public more generally. This article outlines the goals and methodologies of the project and describes in broad strokes some of the results obtained so far, as well as some of the ways we have shared our findings with others, inside and outside academia.
We introduce the Southern Dative Presentative, an understudied construction that varies across sp... more We introduce the Southern Dative Presentative, an understudied construction that varies across speakers of American English. We discuss similarities and differences between this construction and the better-studied Personal Dative construction, and compare the Southern Dative Presentative to similar constructions cross-linguistically. We then present the results of a nationwide acceptability judgment survey administered on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results show that Southern Dative Presentatives are alive and well in southern dialects of American English. In the process, we also illustrate the usefulness of Amazon Mechanical Turk (and similar crowdsourcing platforms) for the study of dialect variation in the domain of syntax.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in b... more The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 30:4, 1231-1274., 2012
This paper investigates the interpretive restrictions on the subjects of imperative, promissive, ... more This paper investigates the interpretive restrictions on the subjects of imperative, promissive, and exhortative sentences-what we call the "jussive" clause types. It argues that the data cannot be explained by a theory that appeals only to semantic and pragmatic factors, and that an account crucially involving syntax is required. We propose that jussive clauses contain a functional head that bears a person feature. This head is an operator that, when in a sufficiently local configuration, binds the subject and enters an agreement relation with it. The restrictions in person features exhibited by the subjects are a consequence of this agreement relation. Moreover, we show that the syntactic structures produced by our analysis are compatible with a compositional semantics that yields the correct interpretation for imperatives and other jussives.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 26.1, pp.185-218, 2008
Imperative subjects in English are puzzling in several respects: null subjects are possible with ... more Imperative subjects in English are puzzling in several respects: null subjects are possible with a definite interpretation, unlike in other clause types; quantificational subjects are often restricted to range over a set containing the addressee and exhibit binding possibilities not readily available to them in declaratives and interrogatives; and third person referential subjects are for most speakers limited to bare noun phrases. On the empirical side, this paper provides a comprehensive discussion of these properties that makes sense of the sometimes contradictory observations found in the literature. On the theoretical side, it argues that the syntactic representation of imperatives contains a functional projection not present in other clause types. This projection plays a role both in preventing the instantiation of a predication relation between the subject and the predicate, and, when sufficiently local, in licensing the special syntactic properties of the subject. This proposal differs from those that view the properties of imperative subjects as deriving uniquely from the semantic or pragmatic component; it can be seen as building on the general intuition of the old performative hypothesis, though recasting it at a level of abstraction that captures more adequately the properties of imperatives.
In this article we investigate the syntax of Italian emphatic replies in which a polarity particl... more In this article we investigate the syntax of Italian emphatic replies in which a polarity particle is followed by an embedded clause introduced by the declarative complementizer che, which we label sì che/no che sentences. We propose that the relation between the polarity particle and the clause introduced by che is mediated by the presence of a null operator, which binds a variable inside the clause, and that this operator is what makes other movement operations impossible (along the lines of . We further suggest that sì che/no che sentences contain two copies of the triggering utterance: a null one in the Hanging Topic position and an overt one in the clause introduced by che, thus accounting for the observation that these sentences (a) cannot be embedded and (b) exhibit restrictions on their content. The effect of emphasis is thus seen as stemming from a syntactic configuration that involves reduplication.
In this descriptive report we outline the structural pattern of exclamative clauses in Paduan. Be... more In this descriptive report we outline the structural pattern of exclamative clauses in Paduan. Because of the close similarity between exclamative and interrogative clauses in this language, we begin by developing a number of tests which allow us to distinguish these two clause types. We then present the range of exclamative structures. A variety of factors interact to mark a clause as an exclamative, yielding a quite complex array of facts. We view this work as the basis for future study in the syntax and semantics of exclamatives.
1) a. Them gals is purty, but they're crazy as Junebugs. (M&H:46) b. The Freewills believes in fe... more 1) a. Them gals is purty, but they're crazy as Junebugs. (M&H:46) b. The Freewills believes in feet washing. (DOH) Previous work on this phenomenon, such as Henry (1995) on Belfast English, Tortora and den Dikken (to appear) on Appalachian English, and Adger and Smith (to appear) on Buckie English, takes verbal -s in these contexts to be an instance of non-agreement in number. We depart from this view and explore the possibility that Appalachian English verbal -s in these contexts constitutes an instance of agreement, but of a different kind: agreement in person. We distinguish this from standard English verbal agreement, which we take to express number .
Each paper in this volume is, for reasons of space, presented in excerpted form, and is preceded ... more Each paper in this volume is, for reasons of space, presented in excerpted form, and is preceded by an introduction that provides some background and a small set of relevant references. Each paper is also followed by a set of questions intended to encourage the student to explore new lines of thought.
Oxford University Press is thrilled to announce the publication of Micro-Syntactic Variation in N... more Oxford University Press is thrilled to announce the publication of Micro-Syntactic Variation in North American English, edited by Raffaella Zanuttini and Laurence R. Horn. Providing a systematic look at minimal differences in the syntax of varieties of English spoken in North America, the book makes available for the first time a range of data on unfamiliar constructions drawn from several regional and social dialects, data whose distribution and grammatical properties shed light on the varieties under examination and on the properties of English syntax more generally.
The nine contributions collected in this volume fall under a number of overlapping topics: variation in the expression of negation and modality (the "so don't I" construction in eastern New England, negative auxiliary inversion in declaratives in African-American and southern white English, multiple modals in southern speech, the "needs washed" construction in the Pittsburgh area); pronouns and reflexives (transitive expletives in Appalachia, personal dative constructions in the Southern/Mountain states, long-distance reflexives in the Minnesota Iron Range); and the relation between linguistic variation and language change (the rise of "drama SO" among younger speakers, the difficulty in establishing which phenomena cluster together and should be explained by a single point of parametric variation). These chapters delve into the syntactic analysis of individual phenomena, and the editors' introduction and afterword contextualize the issues and explore their semantic, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic implications.
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Papers by Raffaella Zanuttini
The nine contributions collected in this volume fall under a number of overlapping topics: variation in the expression of negation and modality (the "so don't I" construction in eastern New England, negative auxiliary inversion in declaratives in African-American and southern white English, multiple modals in southern speech, the "needs washed" construction in the Pittsburgh area); pronouns and reflexives (transitive expletives in Appalachia, personal dative constructions in the Southern/Mountain states, long-distance reflexives in the Minnesota Iron Range); and the relation between linguistic variation and language change (the rise of "drama SO" among younger speakers, the difficulty in establishing which phenomena cluster together and should be explained by a single point of parametric variation). These chapters delve into the syntactic analysis of individual phenomena, and the editors' introduction and afterword contextualize the issues and explore their semantic, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic implications.