Uchida, H.; (2008) Scope alternation and type logical grammar. Doctoral thesis , University of London.

PDF U591352.pdf Download (10MB)

Abstract

This thesis provides an analysis of QNP scope which naturally explains the characteristic tensed-clause locality constraint. Linguistically, I argue that QNP scope is not explained by A-bar movement or A-movement. A-bar movement is different from QNP scope in terms of the locality constraints and A-movement is not flexible enough to explain scope ambiguity. Instead of reducing QNP scope to A-bar or A-movement phenomena, I argue that scope ambiguity is a result of an independent operation that allows us to merge QNPs as syntactic arguments of the local functors even though they are semantically operators. To instantiate this idea, I reformulate Hendriks' argument raising as a special rule (called Argument Slot Raising or ASR) in a non-associative grammar NL. ASR only affects the local functor of the QNP in question. Thus, the QNP's scope is predicted to stay within the final output of this functor. For control/auxiliary/raising constructions, I extend NL by introducing an association rule that is restricted by a pair of merge modes in Moortgat's (1997) Multi-Modal grammar. This structural rule may postpone the saturation of NP argument slots, allowing a complex predicate to be formed. Application of ASR to such complex predicates may switch QNP scope within each finite TP. Structural rules for A-bar movement are introduced in terms of introduction and discharge of modally marked hypothetical categories, which explains the longer distance nature of A-bar extraction in comparison to QNP scope. Finally, I explain the apparent 'exceptional scope' of indefinites in terms of their domain restriction and anaphoric dependency on other operators. This maintains the uniform locality of QNP scope. The underlying claim is that the QNP scope switch mechanism itself does not involve structural ambiguity. The thesis considers the implications for natural language grammar of implementing this idea.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as JSONCSVXML

Archive Staff Only

View Item