Disentangling own: evidence from association with focus  

Oleh:

Spathas, Giorgos

Jenis: Article from Proceeding
Dalam koleksi: Proceedings of the 24th Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference, held at New York University, May 30th - June 1st, 2014, page 271-289.
Topik: possession; reflexivization; derived predicates; alternatives; focus theory
Fulltext: 16. 2374-2615-1-PB.pdf (269.96KB)

Isi artikel

The possessive marker own exhibits a complicated behavior that gives rise to a wide range of subtle meaning differences. Accordingly, the theoretical literature has proposed a number of different characterizations of this element. This paper uses (primarily) data from association with focus to disentangle the various effects that own gives rise to and argue that there are at least two distinct homophonous items: ownR, a reflexivizer that operates on a syntactically derived predicate, and ownPoss, a marker of strong/inalienable possession. We provide a compositional analysis of examples with ownR that derives its distribution without the need to invoke any item-specific principle of Binding Theory; obligatory reflexivization follows from the lexical semantics of own R, and locality restrictions follow from independent restrictions on the formation of derived predicates in the syntax. We thus provide evidence for (i) the dissociation of reflexivization and locality, and (ii) the formation of complex predicates in the syntax.

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