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Island Constraints and Information Structure in Constructions

This chapter explores island constraints and their impact on movement, lexical semantics, and scope assignment. It also delves into the information structure of constructions and their relation to linguistic expressions.

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Island Constraints and Information Structure in Constructions

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  1. Constructions at Work by Adele E. Goldberg Chapter 7 Island constructions and scope • a particular construction has an information structure • an analysis of lexical semantics and an information structure can give a getter explanation of constrains on movement (island constrains) and constrains on relative scope assignment than generative • backgrounded and topical

  2. •Referential givenness/newness relationship between a linguistic expression and a non-linguistic entity (pronouns, definite full NPs, and indefinite NPs) •Relational givenness/newness the assumed informational contribution; the information structure of a sentence Gundel’s terminology

  3. A topic a matter of current interest the subject is the default topic • The potential focus domain of a sentence the part of a sentence that is interpretable as being asserted ￭ test for being within the focal domain: negation. • Background elements constituents that are neither the primary topic nor part of the potential focus domain

  4. 7.1 “Island” Constraints • Islands a structure out of which constituents cannot be moved by any movement ￭ complex noun phrases, complex subjects, complements of manner-of-speaking verbs, and adjunct clauses

  5. NP constraints from Ross (1967: 70) (1) NP NP S

  6. I believed the claim that Otto was wearing this hat. • *The hat which I believed the claim that Otto was wearing is red. • S NP VP V NP I NP S believe CP NP VP the claim that Otto was wearing this hat

  7. 7.1 • Morgan (1975): direct replies to questions e.g. (4) Why was Laura so happy? answer: Laura was dating someone new. replies in (5)-(8): within an island (6) #That she’s dating someone new is likely. ￭ sentential subjects

  8. 7.2 Backgrounded constructions are islands • extraction site: a potential focus domain (assertion and not be presupposed) • (14) Backgrounded constructions are islands (BIC) ￭ candidates for unbounded dependencies: the primary topic in a clause, or elements within the potential focus domain ￭ topic and focus have a certain degree of discourse prominence ￭ a certain aspects of sentences unclassified as islands should in fact resist unbounded dependency relations (17) Whoi did I just read – stop me if I have already told [i] about this – a great new book.

  9. 7.3 the ditransitive recipient argument • ditransitive construction: the resistance to unbounded dependencies (18) ?? Who did Chris give the book? • the statistical generalization based on corpus studies: ￭ ditransitive recipient: given in the discourse, pronominal, animate → a secondary topic and not within the potential focus domain → a backgroundedelement and not a candidate for extraction ◆ BCI: islands ￭ passive recipient: be questioned and relativized → primary topics, not backgrounded, and a candidate for extraction → not island (33) Who was given the book?

  10. 7.4 subordinate clauses • Are subordinate clauses backgrounded? • Many subordinate clauses are backgrounded. negating the main → not negate the subordinate clause ► However, in some cases, not backgrounded sentential negation → imply a negation of the subordinate clause (35) She doesn’t think they sent the letter. Imply: she thinks that they did not send the letter. • complement of manner-of-speaking: ￭ generally islands ￭ complement clause is generally not negated → backgrounded (38) I didn’t grumble that they sent the letter. the main focus of the clause: on the manner of speaking the complement: backgrounded ◆ BCI: subordinate clauses whose negation are implied by the negation of their main clause and complement of manner-of-speaking are islands

  11. 7.5 reason clauses • Reason clauses: strong islands within mainstream generative grammar since they are a type of adjunct. ► However, in order to clause: not backgrounded ￭ included in the scope of negation (45) She didn’t travel to Memphis in order to see Elvis. imply: the travel was done but not in order to meet Elvis ￭ questioning elements from within in order to clauses is full acceptable (46) Who did she travel to Memphis in order to see? ◆ BCI: in order to clauses are not islands • adjuncts are not islands across the board. ￭ When adjuncts are backgrounded, they are islands.

  12. 7.6 non-restrictive clauses • often convey new information ► However, the negation test in (52) (52) I didn’t see John, who I told you about last week. ￭ non-restrictive relative clause: not negated → backgrounded like restrictive relative clauses ◆ BCI: islands

  13. 7.7 presentational relative clauses: • can convey the main assertion in Danish and to some extent in English → not backgrounded (57) That’s the article that we need to find someone who understands. • the content of relative clauses is negated by sentential negation → not backgrounded (58) There are not many children who like this kind of ice cream. imply: many children don’t like this kind of ice cram ◆ BCI: not islands

  14. 7.8 factive complements • presuppose the truth of their complements → backgrounded (60) It bothered Sue that the mayor smoked cigars. • negation test: the complements are not negated ◆BCI: islands ► However, complements are more easily available for unbounded dependencies than adjuncts are (61) ??What did it bother Sue that the mayor smoked? • *Why did it bother that the mayor smoked cigars? • Problem: the negation test is not a perfect indicator of backgrounded status • To solve this issue need to find a better gauge of backgrounded status

  15. 7.9 tricky cases ▲ Indefinite relative clause • The content of relative clauses that are headed by indefinite NPs: within the focus domain (63) She didn’t meet a boy who resembled her father… the boy resembled her mother. → BCI: should not be island ► However, full relative clauses on indefinitely headed argument: islands unlike the case of reduced relative clauses (64) Who did she see a report about? (66) *Who did see a report that was about? • distinct discourse properties: ￭ full relative clauses are more backgrounded than reduced relative clauses

  16. 7.9 tricky cases ▲ Wh-complements • part of the potential focus domain • be negated by sentential negation (68) She wasn’t wondering whether she would meet William, she was wondering whether she would meet Bob. → BCI: should not be islands ► However, not islands when wh-complements are arguments (69) ?What did Bush ask whether he could do? • islands when wh-clauses are adjuncts (71) *When did he ask whether he could eat dessert_?

  17. Table 7.3 : summary ◆BCI has more predictive power than syntactic subjacency generalization ￭ BCI can explain that adjuncts and wh-complement are not islands when they are not backgrounded while subjacency constrains tell that they are islands ￭ BCI can explain that active ditransitive recipients are islands since they are backgrounded ￭ BCI can show that indefinite reduced relative clauses are not island but the full relative clauses are island since the latter is more backgrounded than the former.

  18. 7.10 a critical role for processing demands • Kluender and Kutas (1993):displaced constituents across clause boundaries place a burden on working memory • the difference of acceptability between (74) and (75) (74) Isn’t he sure [what the TA explained __ to them in the lab]? 90% (75) Who isn’t he sure [that the TA explained it to __ in the lab]? 55% ► However, processing accounts do not predict the full range of facts in table 7.3 e.g. ditransitive constructions factive and manner-of-speaking verbs

  19. 7.11 cross-linguistic facts ◆ wh-in-situ languages • a critical role for processing demands is evident • much freer in their unbounded dependency relations e.g. Japanese and Korean: extraction from complex NPs (78) Nakamura-san-wa yakuza-ga dare(ka)-o koroshita Nakamura-HON-TOP gangster-NOM who-ACC killed tatemono-o kaimashita ka? building-ACC bought (*) Who did Nakamura-san buy a building [where gangster killed _]?

  20. 7.11 ► However, Thai and Lakhota show the dispreference for asking questions within backgrounded constructions e.g. (80)-(84) • Therefore, hypothesis: constructions conveying backgrounded information are dispreferred for containing question words cross-linguistically • explanation of this dispreference in point of view of processing load and information structure displacement from canonical position creates additional processing load and this combines with the pragmatic clash to result in unacceptability.

  21. 7.12 topicality and quantifier scope ▲ Syntactic theory (2003). Ivan Sag, Thomas Wasow and Emily Bender (1) A dog saved every family. (2) a. There was some particular dog who saved every family. a > every b. Every family was saved by some dog or other (not necessarily the same dog). every > a (3) a. (Exist i: dog(i) [(All j: family(j)) [save(i,j)] ] → scope of quantifier (All j: family(j)): [save(i,j)] → scope of quantifier (Exist i: dog(i)): [(All j: family(j)) [save(i,j)] ] b. (All j: family(j)) [(Exist i: dog(i)) [save(i,j)]]

  22. 7.12 ▲ Goldberg’s discussion Quantifier scope and semantic interpretation • a variable x given a wide-scope interpretation: anchor • a second variable: interpreted with respect the anchor • givenness is correlated with topicality • Ioup (1975): languages obey a hierarchy of topicality in determining scope ￭ figure 7.2 Topic > subject > IO > Obl/DO • scope is strongly correlated with topicality • information-structure properties of constructions predict their predominant assignment of scope

  23. 7.12 • a topicalized NP has wide scope (91) a. A chocolate cake, John baked for all the girls. b. For all the girls, John baked a chocolate cake. (91a) One particular chocolate cake was given to all girls by John. a > all (91b) All the girls was baked one chocolate cake by John. all > a

  24. ► However, what is important is the scale of topicality not particular grammatical relations per se ▲ Francis and Michaelis: particular semantic frames ￭Creation frame allows the material argument to be more topical than the created entity. (93) She made a canoe from every log. every > a ￭Transformation frame also requires that the material argument to be more topical. (95) *She made a log into every canoe. *a > every this interpretation is not semantically acceptable

  25. ▲ the particular lexical choice of quantifiers ￭ Figure 7.3: Ioup’s quantifier hierarchy based on givenness Each>every>all>most>several>a few>at least one>someone or other △ the lexical effects are related to topicality ▲ Kuno (1991) ￭ More discourse-linked Q > Less discourse-linked Q ￭ 1st or 2nd person (local) Q > 3rd person (non-local) Q △ givenness is correlated with topicality

  26. ▲ the ditransitive construction and Scope fact (97) Agent (subj) > recipient > Agent (obl) > Theme (98) Everyone gave a girl a book. everyone > a girl (100) A girl was given a book by everyone. a girl > everyone ￭ recipient expressed in the prepositional phrase → no (97) (102) The teacher assigned one problem to every student. ambiguous one > every every > one ￭ inverse scope assignment: recipient and theme (103) They gave at least two people each Novel prize. (97) predicts: recipient > theme ► However, recipient is brand new: theme > recipient

  27. 7.13 Conclusion • constrains on movement and relative scope assignment • relate syntactic phenomena to domain of information structure • backgrounded and topicality

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