Light heads and predicate formation: On two scopes of discontinuity
Jan Wiślicki
September 2020
 

The present paper addresses the problem of syntax-semantics mapping of syntactically complex structures that are interpreted as semantically simple terms. While that kind of morphosyntactic mechanisms have been successfully applied to roots in Marantz’s framework, more complex structures turn out to be formally and conceptually challenging. To solve these problems, I make use of Cooper’s type-theoretic framework to propose a formal account of Transfer. I apply this to verbal idioms and quotational expressions whose parts do not obtain the idiomatic/quotational reading. The main result is a formal account of light heads providing the operation of predicate formation within cyclic derivations.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/004079
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: Linguistics 59 (6): 1389-1425
keywords: quotation, verbal idioms, predicate formation, transfer, phases, labeling, light heads, syntax-semantics mapping, discontinuity, cyclicity, semantics, syntax
previous versions: v4 [September 2020]
v3 [February 2020]
v2 [September 2018]
v1 [June 2018]
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