This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, I go over some of the difficulties in representing semantic structures, including a discussion of the characteristics of syntactic and semantic...Show moreThis thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, I go over some of the difficulties in representing semantic structures, including a discussion of the characteristics of syntactic and semantic structures, syntax-semantics correspondence, and two types of semantic underspecification. In the second part, I offer a design for the visualization of semantic structure as derived by the Delilah parser, as well as a software tool for drawing these structures automatically.Show less
Dutch uses cardinal posture verbs (/zitten/ ‘to sit’, /staan/ ‘to stand’, and /liggen/ ‘to lie’) for all sorts of purposes, many of which have received considerable research attention — like the...Show moreDutch uses cardinal posture verbs (/zitten/ ‘to sit’, /staan/ ‘to stand’, and /liggen/ ‘to lie’) for all sorts of purposes, many of which have received considerable research attention — like the posture progressive, e.g. /zitten te lezen/ ‘lit. sit to read: to be reading’. This thesis investigates an understudied posture verb pattern in which a posture verb is combined with a complementive past participle, e.g. /zitten vastgeplakt/ 'lit. sit stuck: to be stuck' and /staan volgepriegeld/ 'lit. stand scribbled full: to be scribbled full'. Previous analyses disagree on the status of this pattern in terms of its productivity (is it fixed or are new combinations possible?), meaning (what does the pattern as a whole express?), and structure (is the complementive participle verbal or adjectival?). By examining over 6,000 attestations of the pattern in a corpus of written Dutch, this thesis evaluates these competing accounts, concluding that (i) the patterns are indeed productive; (ii) constraints on that productivity can be accounted for in terms of the meaning of the pattern as a whole, i.e. 'locativity' and 'resultativity'; and (iii) the pattern's syntax appears highly heterogeneous: some past participles behave like adjectives, others like verbs. Finally, I show that this heterogeneity is compatible with the semantic properties of past participles in general, and of the posture verb-participle pattern in particular.Show less
Kiembu, a Bantu language of central Kenya, has two morphemes nĩ and kwa which are used to mark different types of focus. In this thesis, I investigate the functions of these two focus markers,...Show moreKiembu, a Bantu language of central Kenya, has two morphemes nĩ and kwa which are used to mark different types of focus. In this thesis, I investigate the functions of these two focus markers, especially concentrating on the ways they are used to mark predicate-centered focus. I give a description of the different functions of the two morphemes based on data from my own field research, and I also propose a syntactic analysis of focus in Kiembu and briefly discuss how the focus marker kwa may have developed from an earlier focus construction.Show less
This thesis looks at positive and negative existentials in Finnish and Hungarian with the help of the framework of Denis Creissels’ 7 types of existentials for the positive constructions, as well...Show moreThis thesis looks at positive and negative existentials in Finnish and Hungarian with the help of the framework of Denis Creissels’ 7 types of existentials for the positive constructions, as well as Croft’s Cycle for the negative constructions. The findings are that neither language fits neatly within Creissels’ types, as both show several different constructions. Finnish has three distinct ways of forming existentials: ‘olla + locative’, ‘olla + agent participle of olla + locative’, or a ‘copula only’ construction. Hungarian has two different ways of forming existentials: with ‘lenni + locative’, as well as a ‘copula only’ construction. Not every construction is grammatical in every context. Often existentials cannot be clearly separated from locatives and possessives. Generally, word order and context work together with a specific construction to somewhat differentiate it from other constructions. However, multiple interpretations of a single construction are often possible, so this is not absolute. These findings go against multiple claims often made in conventional literature.Show less
