The configurational structure of a nonconfigurational language

Julie Anne Legate | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In this article, I present evidence for hierarchy and movement in Warlpiri, the proto-typical nonconfigurational language. Within the verb phrase, I identify both a symmetric and an asymmetric applicative construction, show that these are problematic for an LFG-style account that claims Warlpiri has a flat syntactic structure, and outline an account of the symmetric/asymmetric applicative distinction based on a hierarchical syntactic structure. Above the verb phrase, I establish syntactic hierarchy through ordering restrictions of adverbs, and ordering of topics, wh-phrases, and focused phrases in the left periphery. Finally, I present evidence that placement of phrases in the left periphery is accomplished through movement, with new data that show island and Weak Crossover effects.

Keywords: focus, topic, adverbs, nonconfigurationality, applicatives, Warlpiri, left periphery

Published online: 24 July 2003
https://doi.org/10.1075/livy.1.05leg

Cited by

Cited by 9 other publications

Bliss, Heather

2017. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition, ► pp. 1 ff.

Legate, Julie Anne

2008. Morphological and Abstract Case. Linguistic Inquiry 39:1 ► pp. 55 ff.

Legate, Julie Anne

2008. Warlpiri and the theory of second position clitics. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 26:1 ► pp. 3 ff.

Legate, Julie Anne

2011. Warlpiri Wh-Scope Marking. Syntax 14:2 ► pp. 97 ff.

Meakins, Felicity

2014. In Language Description Informed by Theory [Studies in Language Companion Series, 147], ► pp. 283 ff.

Planas, Francesc González i

2014. On quotative recomplementation: Between pragmatics and morphosyntax. Lingua 146 ► pp. 39 ff.

Polinsky, Maria, Carlos Gómez Gallo, Peter Graff & Ekaterina Kravtchenko

2012. Subject preference and ergativity. Lingua 122:3 ► pp. 267 ff.

Rizzi, Luigi

2013. Introduction: Core computational principles in natural language syntax. Lingua 130 ► pp. 1 ff.

Rizzi, Luigi & Guglielmo Cinque

2016. Functional Categories and Syntactic Theory. Annual Review of Linguistics 2:1 ► pp. 139 ff.

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