Article published in:
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
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.170.09lae
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Keizer, Evelien
2018.  In Recent Developments in Functional Discourse Grammar [Studies in Language Companion Series, 205], ► pp. 48 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 04 may 2021. 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.

References

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. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Word order typology. A change of perspective. In Proceedings of the TADWO Conference, Michelle Sheehan & Glenda Newton (eds). Oxford: OUP. http://​lear​.unive​.it​/handle​/10278​/1517Google 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: CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Grewendorf, Gunter & Sabel, Joachim
1999 Scrambling in German and Japanese: Adjunction versus multiple specifiers. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 17: 1–65. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Grohmann, Kleanthes K.
2003 Prolific Domains. On the Anti-Locality of Movement Dependencies [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 64]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012 Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena, and Composition of the Left Periphery: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol 8. Oxford: OUP. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
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. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lopez, Luis
2009 A Derivational Syntax for Information Structure. Oxford: OUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mahajan, Anoop
2003 Word order and (remnant) vP movement. In Word Order and Scrambling, Simin Karimi (ed.), 217–237. Oxford: Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1997 The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery. In Elements of Grammar, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. CrossrefGoogle 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. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shlonsky, Ur
2010 The cartographic enterprise in syntax. Language and Linguistics Compass 4(6), 417–429. CrossrefGoogle 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.