TOPICS IN THE THEORY OF INFLECTION.
Item
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Title
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TOPICS IN THE THEORY OF INFLECTION.
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Identifier
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AAI8203267
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identifier
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8203267
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Creator
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BATTISTELLA, EDWIN L.
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Contributor
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Prof. Robert Fiengo
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Date
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1981
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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In this thesis, I instantiate a grammatical framework for the description of inflection. I assume the background of the revised extended standard theory of generative grammar.;A distinction is proposed between inflection due to feature assignment (Static Inflection) and inflection requiring movement (Dynamic Inflection). The former is cast in terms of a general theory of feature assignment; the notion of inflection is broadly interpreted to include subcategorization features (syntactic inflection) and thematic features (semantic inflection), as well as the traditional morphological features of declension, conjugation, and agreement. The treatment of Dynamic Inflection focusses on cliticization, and a partial theory of the parameters of cliticization is presented.;In the chapter entitled Static Inflection, two types of agreement, Distributional Agreement and Inflectional Agreement, are distinguished. In both types, the distribution of the traditional inflectional features is linked to the idea that abstract Case cross-cuts the grammatical categories. In connection with this, a mechanism of Case assignment is proposed, employing rules of Case Dropping and Case subcategorization. A preliminary theory of possible Case systems is offered, exploiting the Direct Case/Oblique Case opposition. Also, the application of feature assignment rules in phrasal categories is considered, with respect to the form and function of such rules.;In the chapter entitled Dynamic Inflection, it is suggested that the target of clitic movements is an abstract entity called Second Position, which may be defined differently in different languages. The underlying and surface ordering of clitics is also considered. The former is shown to follow from the interaction of the base rules and the subcategorization rules; the latter generally follows from movement constraints. In addition, the complementarity between clitic forms and full forms is discussed. This phenomenon is suggested to be connected to the process that also accounts for subject pronoun deletion.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Linguistics
