The syntax of nominal copular clauses: theoretical and empirical perspectives

名词系动词从句的语法：理论和实证视角

• 批准号: AH/Y007492/1
• 负责人: Caroline Heycock
• 金额: $ 45.49万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FY007492%2F1
• 关键词: syntax; nominal; copular; clauses; theoretical

One fundamental aspect of language is that sentences are composed of a subject and a predicate. In the best understood cases, the predicate is built around a verb, like "teach", as in (1a) 'My cousin teaches.' But predicates can also be built around nouns, like "teacher", as in (1b) `My cousin is a teacher.' The copula "be" that English requires here is absent in some other languages: semantically the predicate in the "nominal copular clause" (1b) is `a teacher'. The properties of nominal copular clauses are a long-standing issue for linguistics and philosophy: this project aims to address the challenging and potentially revealing questions posed by such clauses through systematic and detailed cross-linguistic investigation into their syntax and semantics, broadening the empirical landscape beyond well-studied languages to less studied ones. Issues that will be investigated include those in (I)-(III): (I) How many structurally different kinds of nominal copular clauses do languages use? If we start from the traditional distinction between predicative examples like (1b) above and `identity statements' like (2) 'Stephen King is Richard Bachman.' (has the same meaning as 'Richard Bachman is Stephen King')how do we analyse examples like (3) 'In the dark, I thought your aunt was you!' (does not have the same meaning as `In the dark, I thought you were your aunt')which also involve two individuals - like the `identity statement' in (2) - but change their meaning if reversed? Is it just a coincidence that some languages use the same copula in all these cases - and others - or are some of them in fact structurally identical despite differences in meaning? Given that identity is a quintessentially symmetric relation in logic, why is its expression in language typically asymmetric? (II) Is the structure of noun phrase predicates different from the structure of noun phrases in their other uses? What does the answer tell us about how the meaning of complex expressions is built up from their parts? (III) Nominal copular sentences are unusual in that the second noun phrase can have some unexpected subject properties. For example, in some languages the typical subject position is taken by the first noun phrase, but the verb agrees with the second, which also has the case for a subject. So, while in Present Day English we say `The problem is me' and not `The problem am I', in German the situation is the reverse (only the equivalent of the second version is acceptable). These "edge cases" allow us to refine and test competing hypotheses about the nature of fundamental processes like agreement and case-assignment. Where documentation is lacking for relevant languages, online questionnaires will be used to elicit data in carefully constructed experiments that will extend the range of detailed information available about predication in a broader range of languages than is typically available. In addition to the empirical and analytical work done within the project, it will also contribute to future crosslinguistic work by producing and disseminating a detailed framework for eliciting data on copular constructions designed for use by researchers working with less well documented languages.

语言的一个基本方面是句子由主体和谓词组成。在最好的理解情况下，谓词是围绕一个动词建立的，例如“教”，如（1a）'我的堂兄所教的。但是谓词也可以围绕名词建造，例如“老师”，例如（1b）``我的堂兄是老师'。其他一些语言中不存在英语要求的“ BE”：从语义上讲，“名义copular子句”（1b）中的谓词是'老师'。名义Coplul Carauses的特性是语言学和哲学的一个长期问题：该项目旨在解决此类条款通过系统的和详细的跨语言研究提出的具有挑战性的，潜在地揭示的问题，以对其语法和语义进行研究，从而扩大了对较少研究的语言的经验景观。将进行研究的问题包括（i） - （iii）中的问题：（i）语言使用了多少种结构上不同类型的名义copular从句？如果我们从上面（1B）和“身份陈述”之类的谓词示例之间的传统区别开始，例如（2）“史蒂芬·金是理查德·巴赫曼”。 （具有与“理查德·巴赫曼（Richard Bachman）是斯蒂芬·金（Stephen King）”相同的含义。 （没有与“在黑暗中”相同的含义，我以为你是你的姑姑”），这也涉及两个人 - 例如（2）中的“身份陈述”，但如果反转，则更改其含义？在所有这些情况下，有些语言都使用相同的副物，还是其他一些语言实际上在结构上相同，尽管含义差异，但这只是巧合吗？鉴于身份是逻辑中典型的对称关系，为什么其在语言中的表达通常不对称？ （ii）名词短语的结构是否与其他用途中名词短语的结构不同？答案告诉我们什么是如何从它们的各个部分构建的复杂表达式的含义？ （iii）名义相关句子是不寻常的，因为第二个名词短语可以具有一些意外的主题属性。例如，在某些语言中，典型的主题位置由第一个名词短语采取，但动词与第二个名词相一致，这也是一个主题的情况。因此，虽然在当今的英语中，我们说“问题是我”而不是“我的问题是我”，但在德语中，情况是相反的（仅第二版的同等用品是可以接受的）。这些“边缘案例”使我们能够完善和检验有关基本过程（例如协议和案例分配）的性质的竞争假设。如果缺乏有关相关语言的文档，则将在线问卷调查在经过精心构造的实验中获取数据，这些数据将扩展与通常可用的更广泛语言范围的详细信息范围。除了项目中完成的经验和分析工作外，它还通过生产和传播一个详细的框架来促进未来的跨语言工作，以启发有关旨在使用较不文化渊博语言的研究人员使用的copular构造数据。