Cover not available
Part of
Adverbs: Functional and diachronic aspects
Edited by Karin Pittner, Daniela Elsner and Fabian Barteld
[Studies in Language Companion Series 170] 2015
► pp. 207–238

Comparative adverb syntax

A cartographic approach

| University of Geneva
In this paper I investigate the neutral structure of the Mittelfeld in Germanic (mainly German) and Romance (mainly French) languages following the cartographic approach (Cinque 1999, 2005, 2010; Kayne 1994, 2005; Cinque & Rizzi 2008; Laenzlinger 2011). Given the full VP-evacuation condition (Laenzlinger & Soare 2005a/b), all arguments, whether DPs or PPs, are probed out of the vP and reach their Case- or P-related position inside the Mittelfeld (Kayne 2002; Cinque 2010). Adverbs externally-merge as ordered specifiers of semantico-functional projections given Cinque’s (1999) hierarchy. Non-pronominal arguments may float among adverbs depending on their nature (subject, DP-object, PP-object) and their informational status. As for DP/PP adjuncts (the so-called adverbials), they merge in a domain higher than that of object arguments (Schweikert 2005). Given these assumptions I will show that Cinque’s (2010) left-right asymmetry holds for the derivational structure of the Mittelfeld when comparing V-final configurations (German) with V-initial configurations (French). For instance, if we take an adjunct (a locative adverbial), an object argument, a modal adverb and a manner adverb, the most neutral order is Adverbmodal < Adjunct < Argument < Adverbmanner < V < Aux in V+Aux-final configurations (e.g. German), while it is Aux < Adverbmodal < V < Adverbmanner < Argument < Adjunct in Aux+V-initial configurations (e.g. in French). I will further show that object arguments and adjuncts, like adverbs, follow a basic hierarchical order depending on their formal and/or semantic properties (Time > Loc > Manner > Dative argument > Accusative argument > PP-argument, respectively). Some reordering is possible based on subtle properties of informational structure and involves derivational devices such as pied-piping and remnant movement.
Published online: 24 September 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.170.09lae
References (65)
References
Aboh, Enoch. 2007. Information structuring begins with the numeration. Ms, ACLC, Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Alexiadou, Artemis & Elena Anagnostopoulou. 2001. The subject in situ generalization, and the role of Case in driving computations. Linguistic Inquiry 32: 193–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Belletti, Adriana. 1990. Generalized Verb Movement: Aspects of Verb Syntax. Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier.Google Scholar
. 1999. Italian/Romance clitics: Structure and derivation. In Clitics in the Languages of Europe, Henk van Riemsdijk (ed.), 543–579. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
. 2001. Inversion as focalization. In Subject Inversion in Romance and the Theory of Universal Grammar, Aafke C.J. Hulk & Jean-Yves Pollock (eds), 60–90. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. 2004a. Aspects of the low IP Area. In The Structure of IP and CP. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol.2, Luigi Rizzi (ed.), 16–51. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. 2004b. Structures and Beyond. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol 3. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Cardinaletti, Anna. 2004. Towards a cartography of subject positions. In The Structure of IP and CP. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol. 2, Luigi Rizzi (ed.), 115–165. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Choi, Hye-Won. 1999. Optimizing Structure in Context: Scrambling and Information Structure. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
. 2000. Minimalist inquiries: The Framework. In Step by Step: Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, Roger Martin, David Michaels & Juan Uriagereka (eds), 89–155. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Ken Hale: A Life in Language, Michael J. Kenstowicz (ed.), 1–52. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1994. On the evidence for partial N movement in the Romance DP. In Paths Towards Universal Grammar, Cinque Guglielmo, Jan Koster, Jean-Yves Pollock, Liugi Rizzi,& Raffaella Zanuttini (eds.) 85–110. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
. 1999. Adverbs and Functional Heads: A Cross-linguistic Perspective. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. 2002. Complement and adverbial PPs: Implications for clause structure. Talk given at GLOW 25, Amsterdam, April 10.
. 2005. Deriving Greenberg’s Universal 20 and its exceptions. Linguistic Inquiry 36(3): 315–332. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. Word order typology. A change of perspective. In Proceedings of the TADWO Conference, Michelle Sheehan & Glenda Newton (eds). Oxford: OUP. <[URL]>Google Scholar
. 2011. The Syntax of Adjectives. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
. 2013. Cognition, universal grammar, and typological generalizations. Lingua 130: 50–65. <
CrossRef DOI logo with hyperlink to permanent DOI
> DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo & Rizzi, Luigi. 2008. The cartography of syntactic structures [CISCL Working Papers] StIL Vol.2. Also in The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis, Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds), 51–65. Oxford: OUP, 2010.Google Scholar
Collins, Christopher. 2005. A smuggling approach to the passive in English. Syntax 8: 81–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ernst, Thomas. 2002. The Syntax of Adjuncts. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Frey, Werner. 2003. Syntactic conditions on adjunct classes. In Modifying Adjuncts [Interface Explorations 4], Ewald Lang, Claudia Maienborn & Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen (eds), 163–209. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grewendorf, Gunter & Sabel, Joachim. 1999. Scrambling in German and Japanese: Adjunction versus multiple specifiers. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 17: 1–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grohmann, Kleanthes K. 2003. Prolific Domains. On the Anti-Locality of Movement Dependencies [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 64]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 2006. Argument fronting in English, Romance ClLD and left periphery. In Crosslinguistic Research in Syntax and Semantics: Negation, Tense and Clausal Architecture, Raffaela Zanuttini, Hector Campos, Elena Herburger & Paul H. Portner (eds), 27–52. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
. 2010. The movement derivation of conditional clauses. Linguistic Inquiry 41(4): 595–621. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena, and Composition of the Left Periphery: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol 8. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kayne, Richard S. 1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
. 2002. On some prepositions that look DP-internal: English of and French de . Catalan Journal of Linguistics 1: 71–116.Google Scholar
. 2005. Movement and Silence. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2008. Antisymmetry and the lexicon. Ms, New York University. <[URL]>
Koopman, Hilda & Szabolcsi, Anna. 2000. Verbal Complexes [Current Studies in Linguistics 34]. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Laenzlinger, Christopher. 1998. Comparative Studies in Word Order Variations. Adverbs, Pronouns And German Clause Structure. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2000. More on adverb syntax. In Adverbs and Adjunction [ZAS Linguistics in Potsdam 6], Artemis Alexiadou & Peter Svenonius (eds), 103–132. Potsdam: University of Potsdam.Google Scholar
. 2004. The feature-based theory of adverb syntax. In Adverbials. The Interplay between Meaning, Context and Syntactic Structure [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 70], Jennifer R. Austin, Stefan Engelberg & Gisa Rauh (eds), 205–252. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2006. Le rôle de l’interface syntaxe-structure informationnelle dans la variation de l’ordre des constituants dans la phrase. Nouveaux Cahiers de Linguistique Française 27: 53–81. Université de Genève.Google Scholar
. 2011. Elements of Comparative Generative Syntax: A Cartographic Approach. Padova: Unipress.Google Scholar
Laenzlinger, Christopher & Soare, Gabriela. 2005a. On merging positions for arguments and adverbs in the Romance Mittelfeld. In Contributions to the Thirtieth Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, Laura Brugè, Giuliana Giusti, Walter Schweikert & Nicola Munaro (eds), 105–128. Venice: Cafoscarina.Google Scholar
Laenzlinger, Christopher & Soare Gabriela. 2005b. Deriving Positions for Arguments and Adverbs in Romance. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa 30: 17–69.Google Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information Structure and Sentence Form. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lopez, Luis. 2009. A Derivational Syntax for Information Structure. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mahajan, Anoop. 2003. Word order and (remnant) vP movement. In Word Order and Scrambling, Simin Karimi (ed.), 217–237. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miyagawa, Shigeru 2005. EPP and semantically vacuous scrambling. In The Free Word Order Phenomenon: Its Syntactic Sources and Diversity, Joachim Sabel & Mamoru Saito (eds), 181–220. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David & Torrego, Esther. 2004. The syntax of valuation and the interpretability of features. In Phrasal and Clausal Architecture [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 101], Simin Karimi, Vida Samiian & Wendy K. Wilkins (eds), 262–294. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pittner, Karin. 2004. Adverbial positions in the German middle field. In Adverbials. The Interplay between Meaning, Context and Syntactic Structure [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 70], Jennifer R. Austin, Stefan Engelberg & Gisa Rauh (eds), 253–287. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Platzack, Chris. 2001. Multiple interfaces. In Cognitive Interfaces, Urpo Nikanne & Emile van der Zee (eds.). 21–53. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Poletto, Cecilia. 2000. The Higher Functional Field: Evidence from Northern Italian Dialects. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Pollock, Jean-Yves. 1989 Verb movement, UG and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 365–425.Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 1982. Issues in Italian Syntax. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1997. The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery. In Elements of Grammar, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2004a. The Structure of CP and IP: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol. 2. Oxford/: OUP.Google Scholar
. 2004b. Locality and the left periphery. In Structures and Beyond. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Adriana Belletti (ed.), Vol. 3, 104–131, Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. 2006. On the form of chains: Criterial positions and ECP effects. In Wh-movement: Moving on, Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng & Nobert Corver (eds), 97–134. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi & Shlonsky, Ur. 2006. Satisfying the subject criterion by a non-subject: English locative inversion and heavy NP shift. Ms, University of Siena and University of Geneva.
. 2007. Strategies of subject extraction. In Interfaces + Recursion = Language? Chomsky's Minimalism and the View from Syntax-Semantics, Hans-Martin Gärtner & Uli Sauerland (eds), 115–160. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Sabel, Joachim & Saito, Mamoru. 2005. The Free Word Order Phenomenon: Its Syntactic Sources and Diversity. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Saito, Mamoru. 1989. Scrambling as semantically vacuous A’-movement. In Alternative Conceptions of Phrase Structure, Mark R. Baltin & Anthony S. Kroch (eds), 192–200. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Schweikert, W. 2005. The Order of Prepositional Phrases in the Structure of the Clause [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics 83] Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shlonsky, Ur. 2010. The cartographic enterprise in syntax. Language and Linguistics Compass 4(6), 417–429. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tescari Neto, Aquiles. 2013. On Verb Movement in Brazilian Portuguese: A Cartography study. PhD dissertation, Ca’Foscari University, Venice.
Uriagereka, Juan. 1995. Aspects of the syntax of clitic placement in Western Romance. Linguistic Inquiry 26, 79–123.Google Scholar
. 1999. Multiple Spell Out. In Working Minimalism, Samuel D. Epstein & Norbert Hornstein (eds), 251–282. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Vallduví, Enrich. 1992. The Informational Component. New York NY: Garland.Google Scholar
van Gelderen, Véronique. 2003. Scrambling Unscrambled, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Leiden.
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Keizer, Evelien, Thomas Schwaiger & Elnora ten Wolde
2022. Modification in Functional Discourse Grammar: State of the art and issues addressed. Open Linguistics 8:1 ► pp. 512 ff. DOI logo
Keizer, Evelien
2018. Interpersonal adverbs in FDG. In Recent Developments in Functional Discourse Grammar [Studies in Language Companion Series, 205], ► pp. 48 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.