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A Cross-linguistic Perspective on the DP-Cycle

A Cross-linguistic Perspective on the DP-Cycle. Elly van Gelderen ESSE, Aarhus, 23 August 2008 ellyvangelderen@asu.edu. Earlier work on the DP-Cycle. Greenberg 1978 Harris 1977 Vincent 1997 Diessel 1999 Lyons 1999 van Gelderen 2007. Framework. Well-known DP-structure, e.g. Julien 2005

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A Cross-linguistic Perspective on the DP-Cycle

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  1. A Cross-linguistic Perspective on the DP-Cycle Elly van Gelderen ESSE, Aarhus, 23 August 2008 ellyvangelderen@asu.edu

  2. Earlier work on the DP-Cycle • Greenberg 1978 • Harris 1977 • Vincent 1997 • Diessel 1999 • Lyons 1999 • van Gelderen 2007

  3. Framework Well-known DP-structure, e.g. Julien 2005 Chomsky’s 3 factors in Language Design: 1. Genetic endowment = UG 2. Experience 3. Principles not specific to language (Chomsky 2005: 6).

  4. The third factor The third factor includes principles of efficient computation, which are "of particular significance in determining the nature of attainable languages" (Chomsky 2005: 6)

  5. Some third factors Strong Minimalist Thesis Language is a perfect solution to interface conditions (Chomsky 2007: 5) Head Preference Principle (HPP): Be a head, rather than a phrase. `analyze something as small as possible' Late Merge Principle (LMP): Merge as late as possible (van Gelderen 2004)

  6. DP Cycle (old way) a. DP b. DP dem D'  D' (=HPP) D NP D NP art N  c. DP D' D NP -n>0 N renewal through LMP

  7. or through Feature Economy: a. DP > b. DP that D' D' [i-ps] D NP D NP [i-loc][u-#] N … the N [i-phi] [u-phi] [i-phi] Hence (1) *I saw the (2) I saw that/those.

  8. Runic Old Norse (1) wate hali hino Old Norse wet stone this `Wet this stone' (Strøm stone; Antonsen 1975: 54-55) (2) warait runaz þaiaz Old Norse wrote runes these, `wrote these runes' (Istaby stone; Antonsen 1975: 84)

  9. Status of D (4) Sá er sæll Old Norse `He is happy' (Edda, Hávamál 9) (5) inn vari-W gestr Old Norse `the wise/knowing guest' (Edda, Hávamál 7) (6) þat it helga sæti Old Norse that the holy seat `The holy seat' (Gordon 1956: 312)

  10. Doubles in Later Old Norse (1) þau in storu skip those the big ships `Those big ships‘. (2) þitt hitt milda andlit your the mild face `your mild face' (3) fé þat allt money that all `all that money'

  11. More change (Swedish etc) (1)bok-enbook-the (2) han den gamle vaktmäster-en he the old janitor-DEF (2) den där bok-en the here bok-DEF `that book'. (3) denna bok-(en) that book-DEF

  12. Changes DP Poss D' NP D nP Dem þau n’ `that’ n skip in [3NeuP] `the' DEM is spec or head in is in n head/ hinn in Spec

  13. Add the adjective: (1) nP n NP hinn nP N n A vetr -a siðasta

  14. in words At some point, let's say Proto-Old Norse, a locative adverb hinn/hitt `here' is incorporated as part of the nP, as in hali hino above. Then, it is reanalyzed as a head/nominal marker. The latter is the origin of the Modern Norwegian and Swedish -en/-et (Faarlund (2007ab). Old Norse then renews its locative marker through a demonstrative, such as sa, þat, or þann, possibly appositive initially. Since these are deictic elements, a DP is triggered and they are incorporated as specifiers of the DP.

  15. Features The uninterpretable phi-features on D probe the noun's interpretable features. Hence, there has to be a noun. If a demonstrative with interpretable locative/deictic features is used, the D can be empty, or the n head may move there. As to the features of the n probe, they probe for phi-features (in fact before D does) to ensure the root is a noun.

  16. The History of English Dem in Spec/ with Interpretable features: (1) se wæs Wine haten & se wæs in Gallia rice gehalgod. he was wine called and was in Gaul consecrated (2) hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon how those-NOM.P nobles-NOM.P courage did 'how the nobles performed heroic acts' (Beowulf 3)

  17. loss of iF (1) gife to … þa munecas of þe mynstre give to … the monks of the abbey (Peterborough Chron 1150) (2) *the (Wood 2003: 69) (3) Morret's brother came out of Scoteland for th'acceptacion of the peax (The Diary of Edward VI, 1550s)

  18. Renewal (1) It was just I I was just looking at there them down there (BNC FME 662). (2) Oh they used to be ever so funny houses you know and in them days … They used to have big windows, but they used to a all be them there little tiny ones like that. (BNC - FYD 72)

  19. The difference/similarity between Old Norse and Old English ON incorporated a locative (h)inn/(h)itt as n; both used a demonstrative in the Spec of the DP. In both, the demonstrative was reanalyzed as a D head whose locative character is being renewed.

  20. Dutch-Afrikaans (1) die man daar that man there (2) Daardie teenstrydighede was egter nie those contradictions were however not

  21. Romance: Latin demonstrative ille = French head le/la (1) *Je pratique le French `I play the' (2) Je pratique le tennis, le badminton, le squash, la natation. French `I play tennis, badminton, squash, and swimming'. (Kate Beeching's corpus)

  22. ecce ille `see that' = cel/cet Harris 1977: #/gender def article proximity marker Cl Latin - - hic, iste, ille Vulgar Latin - ille ecce iste, ecce ille Old French - le cest, cel Mod French le ce ce ... ci, ce ... là = renewal

  23. Comparison Modern French MS le 2556 ce 231 FS la 2804 cette 195 MFS l' 1234 cet 31 P les 2790 ces 139 Total 9384 596 = 9980

  24. C 17 no real difference: Discours L'Avare MS le 272 ce 31 le 330 ce 46 FS la 407 cette 31 la 316 cette 48 MFS l' 234 cet 8 l' 274 cet 12 P les 597 ces 57 les 215 ces 28 Total 1510 127 1135 134

  25. Percentages C17 (Academic) 8% Dem/dem+articles (Theatre) 11% C20 (Spoken) 6%

  26. Change in deictic marker: Only 1 DP has -là in Descartes and 5 have -là in Molière, whereas of the 596 instances of ce(t), cette, and ces in the Modern French spoken corpus, 45 are accompanied by là, as in () above. The respective percentages are 0.8%, 3.7%, and 7.6%. This may indicate that ce(t), cette, and ces were not reanalyzed as demonstratives but that -là and -ci are.

  27. St'át'imcets: all stages (1) ca ti=sxwápməx-a this ART-Shuswap-REF `This Shushap' (van Eijk 1997: 169) (2) DP ca D' D nP ti n' n NP -a sxwápməx (3) l-ča visible, proximal `here'.

  28. Feature Economy Locative Specifier Head affix semantic > [iF] > [uF] > -- Head > (higher) Head > 0 [iF] / [uF] [uF] uF is a Probe

  29. Conclusions • Change is from the `inside’: the child analyzes something according to UG/third factor Principles • The mechanisms behind the cycle can be seen in terms of Economy = third factor • Further work: Dependent Marking Cycle

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