Edited by María J. Arche, Jan-Wouter Zwart, Hamida Demirdache and Hagit Borer
This volume presents a collection of state-of-the-art studies that illustrate recent advances in the understanding of human language, grammar design and linguistic categories. The title of the volume aims at highlighting the mark that the work of Tim Stowell has had on the field of Linguistics… read more
This paper extends the well-known predicational/specificational distinction — firmly established for basic copular constructions and, to a lesser extent, pseudoclefts — to wh-clefted questions in Syrian Arabic, drawing a parallel between a subtype of wh-clefts and ‘predicational interrogatives’… read more
This paper tackles the question of the granularity of distributivity — that is, the nature and size of the entities over which distribution takes place, a parameter of variation in the meaning of distributive operators. We focus on two classes of distributive markers: Distributive-Key markers… read more
This paper explores the temporal construals of perfective vs. imperfective aspect in Sequence of Tense contexts in Spanish and French, in particular, under ellipsis. The distribution of past-shifted vs. simultaneous, as well as sloppy vs. strict, temporal construals is taken to support extending… read more
This paper brings to bear primary fieldwork data from Gallo on negation and polarity related issues. We defend two correlated proposals. (i) The negative markers pas/pouint in Gallo are not inherently negative, but rather merely signal the presence of abstract semantic negation in their clause.… read more
This paper investigates a correlation between the availability of non-culminating construals for accomplishments and the control of the agent over the described event (the Agent Control Hypothesis, ach). We consider two versions of the ach, on the basis of a new typology of non-culminating… read more
This chapter discusses novel data from two experimental studies testing the acquisition of futurity and providing evidence in favor of Demirdache and Lungu’s (2009, 2011) zero-tense hypothesis, according to which child grammars display both zero-present and zero-past tenses, alongside indexical… read more
It is a minority position that resumptive structures are always created by movement. This is the null hypothesis, though, on the assumption that binders always arise via movement. We show that this position accounts naturally for a variety of data from Jordanian Arabic involving resumptive pronouns… read more
We provide a principled account of the morphosyntax-semantics interface of non-root modals in two Romance languages (Spanish/French) vs. English. While English modals are morphologically impoverished, Romance modals are fully inflected for tense and aspect and the possible combinations of tense and… read more
We argue that zero-tenses in L1 French surface as either past (parameter value in SOT languages) or present (parameter value in non-SOT languages). Co-existing parameter settings in child language are expected on a Multiple Grammar approach where acquisition involves grammar competition. Our… read more
We discuss the results of an L1 French comprehension study of the construal of present and imperfective past in (non) subordinate contexts. Our findings reveal that children accept (sometimes enforce) non-indexical simultaneous construals of both present and past under a matrix past — though… read more
We argue for alternative wh-scope marking strategies in the acquisition of LD-questions. Direct Dependency involves a matrix non-referential wh-scope marker licensing a medial referential wh-phrase. L1 Partial wh-movement is well-documented cross-linguistically.We take the claim that children go… read more
