Syntax meets discourse: Locative and deictic (directional) inversion in English

This paper offers a formal analysis of three constructions in English: , and . These constructions constitute thetic statements with a locative intentional base which sets a scene that (re)introduces an entity in the discourse; syntactically, they display a non-canonical word order and have a number...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 251 - 276
Main Author: Ojea, Ana
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin De Gruyter 01.06.2020
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Subjects:
central deictic inversion
core intentional feature
Deixis
Derivation
Derivation (Syntax)
directional inversion
Discourse
English language
Grammatical case
Grammatical subject
Locative inversion
Property
Syntactic structures
Syntax
Syntax discourse relationship
syntax–discourse interface
thetic statement
Word order
ISSN:0137-2459, 1732-0747, 1897-7499
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This paper offers a formal analysis of three constructions in English: , and . These constructions constitute thetic statements with a locative intentional base which sets a scene that (re)introduces an entity in the discourse; syntactically, they display a non-canonical word order and have a number of unusual grammatical properties which make them particularly interesting to show how syntax connects, and adapts, to discourse. I propose that they all obtain from a language particular mechanism which involves a functional category LocP that adjusts the computational requirement to have a preverbal subject to the intentional need to have the subject post-verbally. As for the differences among them, they are approached in terms of the features that head LocP and the lexical properties of the verbs that head each of the structures. Ultimately, the paper also serves to discuss the role of certain informational features (the so-called ) in the syntactic derivation.
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ISSN:0137-2459
1732-0747
1897-7499
DOI:10.1515/psicl-2020-0007