Abstract: Abstract This article examines constructions involving DP-final demonstratives, possessive adjectives, indefinite quantifiers, and demonstrative reinforcers in several Romance languages. Across these languages the DP-final position of these elements yields a focus interpretation, whereas the prenominal position yields a neutral interpretation. Other approaches to these sorts of facts have (tacitly) treated the two available word orders as equivalent constructions. They have not considered, and so cannot easily account for, the distinct interpretation that each of the word orders yields. Under the assumption that the prenominal position of these elements is basic, the current approach develops the idea that the DP-final element is “stranded” DP finally as a result of the leftward movement of a syntactic phrase consisting of an extended NP. The facts examined here recall those characterizing the expression of focus in the Romance clause, recently analyzed as a case of scrambling (Ordóñez 1997, Zubizarreta 1998). If on the right track, the current analysis therefore provides further evidence for the parallelism between noun phrases and clauses. In certain Romance languages, an intermediate (postnominal) position is also available for these DP elements , although the interpretation associated with this position does not exactly match that of either the prenominal or DP-final position. It is proposed that the intermediate position is derived by crossing the noun over the demonstrative (reinforcer), possessive, or indefinite quantifier, whose base positions within DP are relatively high. The prediction then is that only those languages with robust noun movement (that is, movement to a relatively high functional head) will exhibit this word order.

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, a semantic analysis of several contrasting properties between the Spanish plural existential determiners unos ‘a-pl.’ and algunos ‘some-pl.’ is presented within the framework of Discourse Representation Theory (DRT). Some of these properties can be directly related to the distinction between the thetic and the categorical judgment, as understood by Kuroda and Ladusaw. Others, related to plurality and the interaction of quantifiers, provide evidence for an extension of the scope of the distinction and its implementation as a procedural semantic difference. It will be argued that the determiner unos contributes a group discourse referent to a Discourse Representation Structure (DRS). This discourse referent is subject to a no linking constraint, and does not trigger box-splitting of the DRS. This forms the basis for the claim that this plural determiner participates only in thetic judgments. On the other hand, the determiner algunos is not subject to a no linking constraint and may contribute a duplex condition to the DRS. Thus, it can participate in categorical judgments. This type of judgment corresponds to a set of construction rules which yields an updated DRS in which a new discourse referent has been introduced and, in contrast to the thetic judgment, a linking condition and a duplex condition are introduced. The analysis is extended to account for the effects of contrastive focus and scopal interactions with other operators in the semantics of Spanish existential determiners.

Abstract: Abstract This article focuses on child speech sequences which diverge from their corresponding adult counterparts in terms of the order of their constituents. Adult Catalan does not allow neutral preverbal objects whereas early Catalan seems to allow objects preceding verbs in the very early stages. We analyse the OV sequences found in our data and show how these only show up co-occuring with a certain type of verbs, namely, ‘telic’ verbs. In line with this observation we propose that aspect is a crucial feature of these sequences projecting whenever one of these verbs is selected and providing a landing site for object movement. Another part of the analysis of the OV constructions implies noticing that the morphological make-up of the verbal elements is not always non-finite. The alternation that we observe between VO-OV constructions seems to be determined by the verb type but it is only fully accounted for if we allow for a framework in which the AGR parameter is not yet set. This possibility follows from the bilingualism proposal in Roeper (1999) where child language permits different grammars to co-exist in a particular stage. In the case under consideration the AGR feature would be allowed to have two values and thus the verb would not raise obligatorily.

Abstract: It is traditionally assumed that prepositional complementizers originate in their surface position and neither move nor cause other constituents to move. In a recent paper, Kayne (1999) argues that they have both these properties. He proposes that a prepositional complementizer originates above VP and attracts an infinitival constituent to its specifier position. The prepositional complementizer then moves to a higher functional head, and VP moves to the specifier position of this head. I argue that Kayne has provided very little motivation for this analysis and that it faces a variety of problems. In the circumstances it seems reasonable to prefer the much simpler traditional analysis. Copyright © 2001 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG.

Abstract: Although European and Brazilian Portuguese have long been considered to belong to different rhythmic types, no clear support for this distinction has been given. In agreement with recent proposals for other languages, this paper presents an account of Portuguese rhythm based on acoustic measures of consonantal and vocalic intervals, and explores the relation between these measures and the phonological properties specific to the European and Brazilian varieties (EP and BP). The approach followed is both successful in providing evidence for the rhythmic distinction between the two varieties and in relating it to the traditional rhythm typology. Overall, the results show that EP and BP have clearly distinct mixed rhythms: stressand syllable-timing characterise EP, whereas syllable and mora-timing characterise BP. The data further suggest that mixed rhythm is not equivalent to intermediate rhythm, thus supporting the notion of rhythmic classes against the scattering of languages along a rhythmic continuum.

Abstract: Abstract In this paper we discuss the properties of the fictional context created by the verb dream, focusing on Italian data. The relevance of these contexts is twofold: on the one hand, they exhibit very consistent behaviour across Romance languages with respect to mood selection, in that they always select the indicative in their complement clause, rejecting the subjunctive. On the other hand, their interpretive properties change according to the tense used: when containing a subordinate imperfect indicative tense, dream reports have the property that the dreamed eventuality need not be temporally anchored; at the same time, they do not seem to ascribe any specific attitude to the subject (the dreamer). When containing a non-imperfect indicative tense, temporal anchoring is available, and a particular evidential meaning can be detected, revealing the presence of a speaker-oriented attitude towards the content of the dream. The connection between temporal anchoring and the presence/absence of a propositional attitude will be investigated: semantically, within an extensional, truth-theoretical framework by arguing in favour of a reflexive/tensed-thoughts approach to propositional attitudes; and in its morphosyntactic aspects, by motivating a conception according to which the interaction between the temporal features of T and the features of C provide the interface conditions for the interpretive facts to arise.