Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cleft construction'

This thesis examines the structure and function of the English it-cleft configuration within the framework of construction grammar. My analysis begins with the claim that it-clefts are a subtype of specificational copular sentence. After identifying problems with previous accounts, I outline my own, original analysis of specificational NP be NP sentences. I argue that specificational meaning involves an asymmetric predication relation and is dependent upon the inherent semantics of definite noun phrases (rather than syntactic movement). I treat nominal predication set theoretically, as a semantic relation between members and sets. I claim that specificational meaning is brought about by a reinterpretation of the class-membership relation involving definite NP predicates, whereby the referent is identified as the unique member of a restricted and existentially presupposed set. As a member of the family of specificational copular sentences, the it-cleft inherits properties from the more basic construction. From this, it follows that it-clefts should also involve a nominal predication relation, containing a definite NP predicate. This leads me to argue in favour of a non-derivational extraposition-from-NP analysis of it-clefts, in which the pronoun it and the cleft clause (analysed here as a restrictive relative) function together as a discontinuous definite description. My analysis improves on similar accounts of this type in two ways. First, since my analysis explains the role that definite descriptions play in the creation of specificational meaning, I am able to explain, rather than simply identify, the numerous similarities between it-clefts and definite noun phrases. Second, my analysis of specificational sentences as involving a nominal predication relation allows for a straightforward account of the relationship between specificational and predicational it-clefts. The thesis also examines the historical development of the it-cleft construction. I show that (a) much of the it-cleft's structure is reminiscent of an earlier stage of the language and (b) the construction has become increasingly schematic and productive over time, sanctioning instances which override inheritance from the more basic specificational schema. In this way, the historical evidence provides an explanation for the it-cleft's idiosyncratic properties. Together, my synchronic and diachronic analyses add up to a maximally explanatory account of the it-cleft construction.

xiii, 92 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
Towards a more complete description of cleft constructions, this thesis comprises an investigation of the prosody, syntax, and information structure of IT clefts, REVERSE WH clefts, and existential THERE clefts in Spoken English. Cleft constructions were extracted from the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English on the basis of syntactic characteristics, and empirical methods were developed for evaluating clefts with respect to prosody and information structure factors. Native speaker-hearer judgments about cleft constructions in authentic spoken language were gathered to provide a basis for operational definitions of PROSODIC PROMINENCE, GIVENNESS, NEWNESS, CONTRASTIVENESS, and levels of contextual RELEVANCE. While cleft constructions have conventionally been discussed as contrastive focusing devices, the current study provides empirical evidence for a more complex view of clefts. Added to past corpus studies, this thesis shows that English cleft constructions exhibit a broader range of subtypes and functions than captured by traditional accounts.
Committee in Charge: Dr. Doris L. Payne; Dr. Melissa A. Redford

This thesis presents an analysis of the structure and function of cleft constructions in discourse. Drawing on a corpus of naturally-occurring spoken and written data, we present a multi-layered explanation of how it-clefts, wh-clefts, and reverse wh-clefts are different from non-clefts, and from one another. After a review of previous research on clefts in discourse, we explore the aspects of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics relevant to the structure and function of all three types of cleft. The discussion falls into three main parts: An analysis of the three cleft types, within the framework of Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (cf. Gazdar et al. [1985]), in which particular attention is paid to the variety of constituents that can appear in particular positions in each type. The output of the grammar rules is compared to the examples that occur in the corpus of data. A treatment of cleft presupposition in terms of an analogy (suggested by van der Sandt [1988]) between presupposition and the treatment of pronominal anaphora in Kamp's [1981] Discourse Representation Theory An examination of the range of accentual patterns, presuppositional relations, and information structures typically appearing in clefts of all three kinds. We show that marked distinctions exist between the three cleft types in terms of all these factors, and suggest ways in which this helps to differentiate the range of discourse contexts in which clefts in general, and each cleft type in particular, are appropriate. At the end of the thesis we point to an analogy between the formal model for clefts presented and a psychological model of sentence processing We also suggest how the conclusions regarding both the structure and function of clefts as a class of construction and the distinction between the three types of cleft could be synthesised in a decision procedure for syntactic choice. Finally, we suggest some related areas for further research.

The goal of this thesis is to develop a grammar model of Japanese within the framework of Dynamic Syntax (Cann et al. 2005, Kempson et al. 2001), with special reference to constructions that involve the nominaliser no: clefts and certain kinds of relatives. The more general theoretical position which it aims to defend is that an account of these constructions in terms of ‘language dynamics’ is preferable to other ‘static’ approaches currently available. What is here meant by ‘language dynamics,’ in a nutshell, is the time-linear processing of a string and attendant growth of an interpretation. First, I shall motivate, and articulate, an integrated account of the two types of no- nominalisation. These two classes are uniformly modelled as an outcome of incremental semantic-tree growth. The analysis is corroborated by naturally-occurring data extracted from the Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese (CSJ). Moreover, novel data with regard to coordination are accounted for without losing uniformity. Second, the composite entry of no and the topic marker wa handles the two types of clefts uniformly. This account fits well with the CSJ findings. New data concerning case-marking of foci are explained in terms of whether an unfixed relation in a semantic tree is resolvable in incremental processing. The account also solves the island-puzzle without abandoning uniformity. As a further confirmation, the analysis is extendable to stripping/sluicing, making some novel predictions on case-marking patterns. Third, the entry of no characterises free relatives and change relatives in a unitary manner. Furthermore, the composite entry of no and a case particle predicts a vast range of properties of head-internal relatives, including new data (e.g., negation in the relative clause, locality restriction on the Relevancy Condition). In sum, the thesis presents a realistic, integrated, and empirically preferable model of Japanese. Some consequences stand out. The various new data reported are beneficial theory-neutrally. Formal aspects of Dynamic Syntax are advanced. The insights brought by a language dynamics account challenge the standard, static conception of grammar.

The aim of this paper is to outline the means for encoding information structure in Yucatec Maya. Yucatec Maya is a tone language, displaying a three-fold opposition in the tonal realization of syllables. From the morpho-syntactic point of view, the grammar of Yucatec Maya contains morphological (topic affixes, morphological marking of out-of-focus predicates) and syntactic (designated positions) means to uniquely specify syntactic constructions for their information structure. After a descriptive overview of these phenomena, we present experimental evidence which reveals the impact of the nonavailability of prosodic alternatives on the choice of syntactic constructions in language production.

Une part importante des protocoles d'échange de clefs proposés se sont révélés vulnérables lorsqu'analysés au regard des définitions de sécurité les plus récentes. Les arguments de sécurité des protocoles récents sont généralement fournis avec les modèles de sécurités dits de Canetti–Krawczyk (CK) et Canetti–Krawczyk étendus (eCK). Nous montrons que ces définitions de sécurité présentent des subtilités qui font que certaines attaques, qui peuvent être menées en pratique, ne sont pas considérées dans les analyses de sécurité. Nous proposons une forte définition de sécurité, qui englobe le modèle eCK. Nous proposons une analyse complémentaire des schémas de signature XCR (“Exponential Challenge Response”) et DCR (“Dual exponential Challenge Response”), qui sont les briques du protocole HMQV. Sur la base de cette analyse, nous montrons la vulnérabilités des protocoles (C, H)MQV(–C) aux fuites d'informations spécifiques à une session. Nous montrons notamment que lorsqu'un attaquant accède à certaines informations de session, qui ne conduisent pas à une divulgation de la clef statique du détenteur de la session, il peut réussir une attaque par usurpation d'identité. Nous proposons les schémas de signature FXCR (“Full XCR”) et FDCR (“Full DCR”) à partir desquels nous construisons les protocoles FHMQV (“Fully Hashed MQV”) et SMQV (“Strengthened MQV”) qui préservent la performance remarquable des protocole (H)MQV, en plus d'une meilleure résistance aux fuites d'informations. Les protocoles FHMQV et SMQV sont particulièrement adaptés aux environnements dans lesquels une machine non digne de confiance est combinée avec un module matériel à faible capacité de calcul et résistant aux violations de sécurité. Dans un tel environnement, les opérations effectuées sur le module matériel hors temps mort se réduisent à des opérations peu coûteuses. Les protocoles FHMQV et SMQV satisfont notre définition de sécurité sous les hypothèses de l'oracle aléatoire et du problème échelon de Diffie-Hellman.

The aim of this paper is to validate a dataset collected by means of production experiments which are part of the Questionnaire on Information Structure. The experiments generate a range of information structure contexts that have been observed in the literature to induce specific constructions. This paper compares the speech production results from a subset of these experiments with specific claims about the reflexes of information structure in four different languages. The results allow us to evaluate and in most cases validate the efficacy of our elicitation paradigms, to identify potentially fruitful avenues of future research, and to highlight issues involved in interpreting speech production data of this kind.

Loin de constituer un phénomène marginal, les fraudes se trouvent au coeur de la définition des pratiques et des représentations électorales. Elles ont contribué, durant la période du suffrage universel, à l'élaboration des règles du jeu électoral qui prévalent aujourd'hui. Fruits d'un processus de stigmatisation, les fraudes ne peuvent être comprises comme des méthodes à priori répréhensibles, ou intrinsèquement contraires au bon déroulement des scrutins. Envisagées dans une perspective sociologique de la déviance, elles sont avant tout des constructions politiques répondant à des enjeux partisans. Mais le point de vue et les stratégies des acteurs ne suffisent pas à expliquer les fondements de ces pratiques. Le contexte social est aussi déterminant dans l'apparition des manoeuvres comme dans les formes qu'elles revêtent. Enfin, les représentations politiques, les manières de penser les élections, conditionnent le recours à ces manoeuvres et les réactions qu'elles suscitent.

Comment un film, en tant qu’oeuvre essentiellement complexe, fragmentée et liée à la pensée, est-il construit ? Une construction qui recèle de fissures, d’intervalles et de points nous renseigne t-elle, dès lors, autant sur la composition d’un film que sur sa dissolution ? Quel rôle peut bien jouer l’espace au sein de cette construction filmique ? Sous quelles formes un cinéma empreint d’une rigueur extrême parvient à tendre vers sa désagrégation et sa perte, similaire à celle éprouvée par le cinéaste-spectateur et le spectateur-cinéaste ? Dans quelle mesure un film devrait « fuir » en quelque sorte le cinéma pour atteindre son souffle, tout en nous entraînant vers le fond des images, où notre regard se perd en déambulations ? En quoi le puzzle, la mosaïque et le labyrinthe peuvent-ils nous aider à mieux en déceler les secrets ? Cette thèse offre un parcours à travers l’histoire des formes visuelles et sonores de films – sans prétendre l’épuiser –, convoquant à cette fin l’oeuvre cinématographique et la pensée de Robert Bresson, d’Alain Resnais et du couple Jean-Marie Straub-Danièle Huillet, mais aussi le dessin et la peinture, la musique et le théâtre, l’architecture et la littérature – parmi d’autres cinéastes et formes d’art. C’est proposer, enfin, une « cinématique » de cet art du partage et du don qui ne croit ni en la soumission ni en la manipulation des spectateurs. Bien au contraire, ce cinéma des « esprits libres » prend le parti de leur engagement, s’ouvrant à eux – tantôt par une mince fuite d’eau, tantôt par un large couloir – jusqu’à les « engloutir ». Il investit ainsi leur regard activé, de même que leur mémoire, leurs sensations et leur pensée tout entière
How is film, an essentially complex and fragmented object, constructed? An edifice which conceals rifts, gaps and sutures, wouldn’t film teach us as much about its composition as it does about its dissolution? What is the role of space within the heart of filmic composition? Under which circumstances can an extremely rigorous cinema move towards its disintegration and loss, akin to the one experienced by the filmmaker-spectator and by the spectator-filmmaker? To what extent should film “escape” cinema in order to catch its breath, whilst simultaneously drawing us deep into the images, towards a place where our gaze wanders freely? In what ways can the puzzle, the mosaic and the labyrinth help us unravel film’s secrets? This thesis traverses the history of film’s visual and sound articulations, summoning the cinematographic work and writings of Robert Bresson, Alain Resnais and the couple Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, amongst others, as well as incorporating elements from the fields of drawing and painting, music and theatre, architecture and literature. In short, it proposes a “kinematics” of the art of film composition, seen as a mode of sharing and giving which refuses to submit or to manipulate the spectators. Quite on the contrary, this cinema of “free-spirits” chooses to engage the latter by opening up to them – discretely or overtly – until they are swallowed. Thus, it encourages an active mode of spectatorship, which puts into motion the viewers’ memories, feelings and the whole of their thought

Comme le montre l’analyse de dix auteurs appartenant à trois domaines linguistiques différents, anglophones, hispanophones et francophones : Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, Jorge Luis Borges, Ruben Dario, Henry James, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Léopoldo Lugones, Guy de Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe, Jean Ray, Marcel Schwob, la géométrie est présente partout dans les récits fantastiques du xixe au xxe siècle. Cercles, carrés ou pyramides s’inscrivent dans l’architecture ou dans le physique du personnage. Ces formes, qui permettent de faire naître l’angoisse, imposent peu à peu la circularité (cercles, courbes, sphères) comme une figure dominante. Les espaces où évolue le protagoniste s’arrondissent autour de lui jusqu’à venir l’étouffer. Le mécanisme de la peur qu’engendre ce processus peut alors être centrifuge ou centripète : soit il découle du lieu où se trouve le héros fantastique soit il est produit par le personnage lui-même. De cette géométrie angoissante découle un procédé fondamental : celui de l’atmosphère fantastique. Celle-ci — faite, comme l’étymologie le révèle, d’une forme de vapeur (atmos) enveloppant le monde ou le sujet à la manière d’un globe (sphaira) — témoigne de l’importance non seulement des courbes, mais encore des divers états de l’eau : glace, neige, élément liquide ou gazeux. L’atmosphère montre ainsi à quel point le fantastique est lié à la femme, support essentiel de l’Unheimliche, en ce que cette dernière est à la fois — pour le personnage masculin et pour les auteurs ici analysés — une figure de l’Autre (unheimlich) et une manifestation de la Mère (heimlich)
As shown in the analysis of ten authors from three different linguistic areas, English, Spanish and French: Alarcon, Borges, Dario, James, Lovecraft, Lugones, Maupassant, Poe, Ray and Schwob. The geometry is everywhere in the fantastic stories from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Circles, squares or pyramids are part of architecture or the character's physical. These forms, which allows the birth of anxiety, gradually impose the circularity (circles, curves, spheres) as a dominant figure. The spaces where the protagonist is evolving, curving around him till he suffocates. The mechanism of the fear generated by this process could be centrifugal or centripetal: it follows either the place where the fantasy hero is located or it is produced by the character himself. From this agonizing geometry, a fundamental process is set up : the fantastic atmosphere. This one done, as the etymology reveals, from a vapor shape (atmos) enveloping the world or the character in the manner of a globe(sphaira) - testify the importance not only about the curves, but equally the various states of water : ice, snow, liquid or gaseous element. The atmosphere shows how much the fantastic is linked to the woman, Unheimliche's essential support, in that this last one is both - for the male character and the authors analyzed here - a figure of the Other (unheimlich) and a manifestation of the Mother (Heimlich)

Nesta Dissertação empreendemos a primeira descrição e análise das construções relativas na variedade caboverdiana do crioulo da ilha de São Nicolau (daqui em diante CSN) grupo de Barlavento enfocando a tipologia dessas construções, suas estruturas sintáticas e a natureza dos elementos que as introduzem. O trabalho apresenta também uma primeira descrição dos pronomes-Whs em CSN que nos auxiliou na categorização dos elementos introdutores de relativas nesta variedade do caboverdiano. A partir da descrição dos relativizadores, recorrendo a leituras semânticas e diferenças estruturais das relativas, apresentamos a tipologia e estratégias de relativização atestadas na língua. Ao descrevermos as construções relativas em CSN, deparamo-nos com um conjunto de dados que assumimos não conter relativas: construções clivadas. Corroborando trabalhos prévios de que clivadas são estruturas de foco, comparamos estas estruturas com outras semelhantes em CSN: as copulativas. Recorremos a testes prosódicos a fim de corroborarmos as leituras de foco para as clivadas e ainda para apontarmos a existência de relativas, mas somente nas construções copulativas. Nosso trabalho aponta que o morfema k pode desempenhar as funções de complementizador relativo, mas ainda a de marcador de foco na língua.
In this research we undertak the first description and analysis of relative constructions in the Cape Verdean Creole variety of the island of São Nicolau (hereinafter CSN) from the Barlavento group - focusing on the typology of such constructions, their syntactic structures and nature of the elements that introduce them. The work also presents a first description of pronouns-Wh in CSN which helped us to categorize the relative introducer elements for this variety of the Cape Verdean language. From the description of the markers, and resorting to semantic readings and structural differences, we present the typology and strategies of relativization attested in the language. In describing the relative constructions in CSN, we observed a set of data which we assume do not contain relatives: the cleft constructions. Confirming previous studies that cleft constructions are structures of focus, we compare these with other similar structures in CSN: the copulatives. We make use of prosodic tests in order to confirm readings of focus for the cleft structures and also to point out that there are relative constructions, but only in the copulative constructions. Our work points to the fact that the morpheme K\' can perform the functions of a relative complementizer, as well as those of a focus marker on this language.

O objetivo final deste estudo é contribuir para a discussão sobre qual a medida em que conceitos semânticos e discursivos estão sintaticamente codificados. Mais especificamente, investiga-se se existe alguma correlação consistente entre alguns aspetos interpretativos e sintáticos de quatro construções clivadas do Português Europeu, e como se deve dar conta teoricamente destas potenciais correlações. As clivadas consideradas são as clivadas canónicas, as pseudoclivadas, as clivadas de é que e as clivadas de SER. Sintaticamente podemos distinguir dois tipos: clivadas bioracionais (canónicas e pseudoclivadas) e clivadas mono-oracionais (clivadas de é que e de SER). Todas as estruturas têm um constituinte clivado focalizado que pode constituir tanto um foco informacional como um foco contrastivo, e uma oração clivada que introduz uma pressuposição existencial. Adicionalmente, o constituinte clivado identifica exaustivamente uma posição vazia na oração clivada. Adota-se a semântica alternativa para o foco (Rooth 1985), segundo a qual o foco entoacional contribui uniformemente um conjunto de alternativas na Forma Lógica. Regras pragmáticas operando neste conjunto dão origem a duas implicaturas que podem ser suspensas: pressuposição existencial e exaustividade. Dado que as clivadas de é que e as de SER têm a mesma interpretação que orações não-clivadas, conclui-se que a sua estrutura sintática particular não contribui para estas propriedades interpretativas. Em contrapartida, as clivadas bioracionais, que são orações copulativas especificacionais, têm uma presuposição existencial e uma interpretação exaustiva que não pode ser suspensa, tal como as orações especificacionais não-clivadas. Argumenta-se que isto se deve ao facto de o constituinte clivado identificar uma variável introduzida por uma descrição definida. Demonstra-se que a oração clivada, uma relativa em posição de complemento de um determinador definido nas clivadas canónicas e uma relativa livre nas pseudoclivadas, tem a mesma denotação que um DP definido, e portanto tem uma pressuposição existencial inerente. A interpretação exaustiva deve-se à relação identificacional entre o constituinte clivado e a descrição definida. Além disso, defende-se que em Português Europeu um traço de foco não desencadeia movimento-A’ para um FocP especializado. Os constituintes focalizados movem-se antes por razões independentes do foco. Isto é confirmado pelo facto de apenas o constituinte clivado das clivadas de é que ter propriedades de movimento A’, os outros parecem estar in situ. Propõe-se que o constituinte clivado das clivadas de é que é um tópico com um traço de foco que se move para um TopP. Esta análise dá conta da existência de restrições discursivas semelhantes para tópicos não focalizados e para o constituinte clivado das clivadas de é que. O traço quantificacional de foco arrastado pela topicalização dá origem a efeitos de intervenção, causando a não-recursividade do foco na periferia esquerda e a sua incompatibilidade com movimento de outros constituintes com traços quantificacionais. A análise prediz as restrições de encaixe observadas para as clivadas de é que. Finalmente, desenvolve-se uma análise sintática das clivadas de SER que aproxima estas estruturas das estruturas com partículas de foco. Propõe-se que a cópula é um operador sensível ao foco que é merged juntamente com o constituinte clivado. As restrições distribucionais da cópula devem-se a requisitos selecionais de núcleos.
Het hoofddoel van deze thesis is bij te dragen tot de discussie in welke mate semantische en discourse gerelateerde concepten relevant zijn voor de syntaxis. Meer bepaald wordt er onderzocht of er consistente correlaties zijn tussen de interpretatieve en syntactische eigenschappen van vier Europees Portugese gekloofde (cleft) structuren, en hoe deze potentiële correlaties theoretisch dienen te worden verklaard. De gekloofde structuren die bestudeerd worden zijn it-clefts, pseudoclefts, é que-clefts en SER-clefts. Op syntactisch vlak kan er een onderscheid worden gemaakt tussen gekloofde structuren die samengestelde zinnen zijn (it-clefts en pseudoclefts), en gekloofde structuren die enkelvoudige zinnen zijn (é queclefts en SER-clefts). Alle gekloofde structuren hebben enerzijds een gefocaliseerd gekloofd zinsdeel dat zowel een informatiefocus als een contrastieve focus kan uitdrukken, en anderzijds een existentiële presuppositie. Bovendien identificeert het gekloofde zinsdeel een open positie in de presuppositie op exhaustieve wijze. Als verklaringsmodel voor focus wordt de alternatievensemantiek van Rooth (1985) aangenomen. Volgens deze semantiek zorgt intonationele focus altijd voor een set van alternatieven op het niveau van de interpretatie, ook Logische Vorm (LF) genoemd. Pragmatische regels die op deze set inwerken zorgen ervoor dat er twee implicaturen ontstaan die geannuleerd kunnen worden: een existentiële presuppositie en exhaustiviteit. Aangezien zowel é que-clefts als SER-clefts dezelfde interpretatie hebben als niet-gekloofde zinnen met intonationele focus wat betreft existentiële presuppositie en exhaustiviteit, kom ik tot het besluit dat hun specifieke syntactische structuur niet bijdraagt tot deze aspecten van de interpretatie. De complexe gekloofde structuren aan de andere kant, waarvoor geargumenteerd wordt dat ze specificationele zinnen zijn, hebben een niet-annuleerbare existentiële presuppositie en exhaustieve interpretatie, net zoals niet-gekloofde specificationele zinnen. Dit komt doordat het gekloofde zinsdeel in deze structuren een variabele identificeert die geïntroduceerd wordt door een definite description. In it-clefts is de bijzin die de presuppositie introduceert een relatiefzin die het complement is van een bepaalde determinator; in pseudoclefts is de bijzin een vrije relatiefzin. Ik toon aan dat de ondergeschikte zin in beide gekloofde structuren dezelfde semantische denotatie hebben als bepaalde nominale constituenten, die inherent presuppositioneel zijn. De sterk exhaustieve interpretatie ontstaat door de identificationele relatie tussen de gekloofde constituent en de definite description. Verder wordt er geargumenteerd dat focus geen A’-verplaatsing naar een gespecialiseerde FocP veroorzaakt in het Europees Portugees: wanneer een gefocaliseerd zinsdeel verplaatst, gebeurt dit omwille van factoren die onafhankelijk zijn van focus. Dit wordt bevestigd door het feit dat enkel het gekloofde zinsdeel van é que-clefts eigenschappen heeft van A’-verplaatsing, de gekloofde constituenten van de andere gekloofde structuren zijn in situ. Daarom stel ik voor dat het gekloofde zinsdeel van é que-clefts een topic is met een focus feature dat verplaatst wordt naar een TopP. Dit voorstel houdt rekening met de gelijkaardige discourse gerelateerde beperkingen die bestaan voor niet-gefocaliseerde topics en voor het gekloofde zinsdeel van é que-clefts. Het quantificationele focus feature dat meegesleurd wordt door de topic-verplaatsing veroorzaakt interventie-effecten, waardoor focus in de linker periferie van de zin niet recursief is en niet compatibel is met verplaatsingen van constituenten met een quantificationeel feature. Dit voorstel doet recht aan het feit dat é que-clefts beperkingen vertonen op het vlak van de onderschikking. Tenslotte stel ik een analyse voor die de syntaxis van SER-clefts dichter brengt bij structuren met focuspartikels. Ik argumenteer dat het koppelwerkwoord in SER-clefts een focusgevoelige operator is die samen met het gekloofde zinsdeel gemerged wordt. Distributionele beperkingen van het koppelwerkwoord worden veroorzaakt door selectiecriteria van hogere hoofden.
The main goal of this thesis is to contribute to the discussion about the degree to which semantic and discourse related concepts are syntactically encoded. More particularly, I investigate whether there are consistent correlations between the interpretative and syntactic properties of four European Portuguese cleft constructions, and how these potential correlations should be accounted for theoretically. The cleft constructions taken into consideration are it-clefts, pseudoclefts, é que-clefts and SER-clefts. Syntactically we can distinguish between biclausal clefts (it-clefts and pseudoclefts) and monoclausal clefts (é queclefts and SER-clefts). All cleft constructions have a focalized cleft constituent that can both constitute information focus and contrastive focus, and an existentially presupposed cleft clause. Additionally, the cleft constituent exhaustively identifies an open position in the cleft clause. The alternative semantics for focus (Rooth 1985) is adopted, according to which intonational focus uniformly contributes a set of alternatives in LF. Pragmatic rules operating on this set give rise to two suspendable implicatures: existential presupposition and exhaustivity. Given that both é que-clefts and SER-clefts have the same interpretation as noncleft sentences with intonational focus when it comes to existential presupposition and exhaustivity, I conclude that their particular syntactic structure does not contribute anything to these interpretive aspects. The biclausal clefts on the other hand, argued to be specificational sentences, have a non-suspendable existential presupposition and exhaustive interpretation, on a par with non-cleft specificational sentences. I argue that this is because in these structures, the cleft constituent identifies a variable introduced by a definite description. The cleft clause, a headed relative clause in complement position of a definite determiner in it-clefts and a free relative in pseudoclefts, are shown to have the same semantic denotation as definite DPs, which are inherently presupposed. The strongly exhaustive interpretation arises because of the identification relation between the cleft constituent and the definite description. Furthermore, I argue that focus features do not trigger A’-movement to a dedicated FocP in European Portuguese: when focalized constituents move, they do so for focusindependent reasons. This is confirmed by the fact that only the cleft constituent of é queclefts has properties of A’-movement, the other ones seem to be in situ. I propose that the cleft constituent of é que-clefts is a topic with a focus feature that moves to a TopP. This account straightforwardly captures the similar discourse restrictions that exist for non-focalized topics and for the cleft constituent of é que-clefts. The quantificational focus feature pied-piped by topicalization gives rise to intervention effects, causing left-peripheral focus not to be recursive and to be incompatible with movement of constituents with quantificational features. The account predicts the observed embedding restrictions of é que-clefts. Finally, I develop an account for the syntax of SER-clefts that approximates it to structures with focus particles. I argue that the copula is a focus-sensitive operator that is merged together with the cleft constituent. Distributional restrictions of the copula are due to selectional requirements of higher heads.
FWO11/ASP/258 e FWO13/ASP_H/258

碩士
國立臺灣大學
語言學研究所
87
CLEFT CONSTRUCTIONS IN AMIS (ABSTRACT) This thesis aims at investigating the cleft constructions in Amis, one of the Formosan Austronesian languages, under the framework of the “Government and Binding Theory” and the “Principles and Parameters Theory.” This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces both linguistic and non-linguistic points about Amis. Chapter 2 provides the sketch of the Amis grammar. Because all the Amis cleft clauses are obligatorily nominalized, Chapter 3 examines both the nominalization and the noun phrase structures in Amis. Chapter 4 explores the Amis cleft constructions. Cleft construction indicates a syntactic structure where a certain constituent in this construction is separated to receive semantic focus and to express communicative dynamism. The cleft constructions cover the clefts and pseudo-clefts. The previous studies on the Formosan cleft constructions are not as ample as expect. Only three theses advert to the cleft constructions of the three Formosan languages, Seediq, Kavalan and Tsou. They are Chung-lian Chang (1996), Yung-li Chang (1997) and Ya-yin Chang (1998). And their findings of the cleft constructions are all pseudo-clefts, not clefts. In this thesis, not only pseudo-clefts but also clefts and cleft variants are attested in Amis. There are several characteristics in the Amis cleft constructions. In the first place, the cleft NPs of the clefts, cleft variants, pseudo-clefts cannot be “unspecific” in reading. Moreover, the pseudo-clefts can be attested in each voice, while the clefts and cleft variants can only be attested in AV and PV. We also examine the wh-movement in the Amis cleft constructions and three related wh-constructions, wh-questions, relative clauses and topic construction. Mainly based on the wh-diagnostic properties of subjacency condition, we find that all the wh-constructions undergo wh-movement in LF except for the topic construction. On the contrary, the wh-movement of the Amis topic construction applies at S-structure. Chapter 5 reports the findings of this thesis and notes some remarkable points to leave them for further study.

The thesis aims to describe and compare the use of two English syntactic structures: sentences with a rhematic subject in the preverbal position and it-clefts with focused subject. It does so from the viewpoint of functional sentence perspective as conceived and elaborated by the members of the Prague Linguistic School and their Brno School followers. The main goal of the thesis is to determine whether the constructions are mutually exclusive or whether they can be under certain circumstances interchangeable. For the purposes of the analysis, 200 example sentences were collected from contemporary fiction, i.e. 100 for each construction. Subsequently, their relevant features were examined, especially those concerning dynamic semantic scales and realization form of the subjects; these aspects were expected to differ. The analysis has shown that each of the constructions has rather specific uses and they overlap only rarely, in sentences in which the two basic dynamic semantic scales, the Presentation Scale and the Quality Scale, intersect.

碩士
國立中正大學
語言所
96
This thesis studies the cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions in Taiwan Southern Min. In the literature, Akmajian (1970), Gundel (1977) and Collins (1991) argue that cleft constructions are derived from pseudo-cleft constructions. Based on Tang(1981), Lee (2005), and Shyu’s (2007) study of cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions in Mandarin Chinese, I discuss the cleft, pseudo- cleft and equational pseudo-cleft sentences in TSM. There are three important elements in focus constructions: si, ti and e. Si is a focus marker in cleft constructions, but a topic marker in pseudo-cleft and equational pseudo-cleft constructions; ti is a viewpoint aspect marker to mark the midpoint of the bound event; e is an imperfect marker in cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions, but when si is a topic marker in equational pseudo-cleft constructions, e is a relative clause marker. I argue that from the same base structure, a cleft construction is derived first and then a pseudo-cleft is derived. If the derivation direction is opposite, it is impossible to derive the cleft sentences. Such an analysis is different from Akmajian (1970), Gundel (1977) and Collins (1991), but accords with Bachrach (2004).

博士
國立清華大學
語言學研究所
93
ABSTRACT ON CHINESE FOCUS AND CLEFT CONSTRUCTIONS Hui-chi Lee, Ph. D. Graduate Institute of Linguistics National Tsing Hua University, 2005 Professor Wei-tien Dylan Tsai, Advisor There is plenty of previous research focusing on Chinese cleft construction. The previous researchers pay attention to different issues for analyzing Chinese cleft construction. Teng (1979), Li (1980), Tang (1983), Ross (1983), Huang (1988), Chiu (1993), Tsao (1994) make great effort to explore Chinese cleft sentences. However, among the previous research, the internal structure of the cleft construction is little explored. In this dissertation, depending on different types of focused elements, cleft sentences are divided into three focus patterns: subject focus, adjunct focus and predicate focus. One of the contributions of this dissertation is to distinguish the subject/adjunct-focus from the predicate-focus structures. The discrepancies between the subject/adjunct-focus sentences and the predicate-focus sentences are fairly obvious, but which has been inadequately discussed in the past, and has therefore led to great confusion. The main discussions of this dissertation focus on four topics: (i) the nature of Chinese cleft construction, (ii) discussion of sentence final de, (iii) discussion of the focus marker shi, and (iv) the syntax of the cleft construction. Firstly, the distribution of shi and de’s co-occurrence is displayed and two subgroups are divided according to the possibility of the omission of de. Pattern A is assumed to be sentences with headless relative clauses with the configuration ‘shi…*(de)’; Pattern B is assumed to be cleft sentences with the configuration ‘shi…(de)’. Moreover, the alternation of the cleft form [V de O] is discussed and four tendencies of the postverbal de are demonstrated. The properties of postverbal de are summed up as the following four tendencies: (1) highly frequent past time association; (2) VP compound tendency; (3) indefiniteness tendency of the object; and (4) simplicity tendency of the object. The subject-focus and adjunct-focus structures are argued to be distinct from a predicate-focus structure by eight pieces of syntactic and semantic evidence. The eight pieces of evidence include the co-occurrence with de, various focus scope, the alternative of postverbal de, and support by cross-linguistic evidence, etc. Furthermore, the predicate-focus structure in the shi…de configuration is distinguished into sentences with headless relative clauses and sentences with focus are distinguished. In addition, it is assumed that predicate types (stative vs. dynamic) influence the grammaticality and the interpretations of predicate-focus sentences. Moreover, it is found that the word order of shi and modals varies depending on different types of modals. Lastly, shi is divided into two groups according to the focus scope. When shi occurs in the subject/adjunct-focus structures, the focus scope of shi is limited to the immediate constituent following shi. According to the constrained focus scope, the two focus structures are parallel to English cleft construction. When shi occurs in the predicate-focus structure, the focus scope of shi varies. Shi can focus on the verb, or the object, or the truth value of the proposition. The variety of focused constituents can be analogous to another focus marker, zhi ‘only’. Finally, the syntactic structures of the cleft constructions are discussed cross-linguistically. The analysis of the specific maximal projection (FP) is employed.

The aim of the thesis "Syntactic Means of Rhematisation in Contemporary French in Comparison to Czech" is to describe syntactic means of rhematisation in French and denote its parallel in Czech language. First part of the thesis deals with the theoretical resources concerning Functional sentence perspective mainly in Czech-written literature by the most important authors (F. Daneš, J. Firbas, P. Sgall and others) and it also describes French conceptions by B. Combettes and M. Rothenberg concerning thematisation and rhematisation in French. The second part, which is practical, shows the concrete use of means described. The phrases are quoted from the literary texts contained in language corpus InterCorp.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
華語文教學研究所
100
With respect to the description of grammar in Mandarin Chinese, the field of Chinese linguistics defines them in terms of semantics, syntax, discourse, pragmatics and cognitive views, and the conception of “construction” is no different. However, without considering the gap between theoretical linguistics and second language teaching, it makes some problems. This thesis starts with discussions about “construction”, and tries to find a framework suitable for L2 Chinese learners under the principles of pedagogical grammar. We claim that “one grammar point should be one grammar construction”, and it must includes function, syntax and pragmatics. Each construction should have different sub-constructions. The sub-constructions for function should include “grammatical function” ”semantic function” and “communicative function”, for syntax should include “basic structure” “transformation structure” and “derived structure”. All formal structures must be based on the functional ones and use the rules which can show the functional conceptions. After establishing the framework of sub-construction analysis, we try to use it to find sub-constructions of “Shi-de” construction. We defined “Shi-de” construction as “focus construction” and it has two function sub-constructions: “focusing on details of known events” and “focusing on comments about one sentence’s proposition meaning”. We also established seven basic sub-structures and their transformation, derived structures. In accordance with the principles of pedagogical grammar, we propose the teaching sequence of “Shi-de” construction based on the result of sub-construction analysis for it, and thus hope to contribute to the future of TCSL.