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The Pear-Chaplin Basque Corpus
© Jon Aske
Table of Contents -- iv
List of Symbols -- xxi
Introduction -- xxiv
Acknowledgments -- xxix
Chapter 1: Theoretical and methodological preliminaries -- 1
1.1 The functional-typological approach to linguistic analysis -- 1
1.1.1 The functionalist perspective -- 1
1.1.2 The functional-typological approach -- 4
1.1.3 Functional motivations -- 6
1.2 Some basic underlying assumptions -- 7
1.2.1 Introduction -- 7
1.2.2 Rules and representations: The list-rule fallacy -- 8
1.2.3 Form and function -- 11
1.2.4 The nature of explanation in linguistics -- 13
1.2.5 Description vs. explanation in linguistic analysis -- 16
1.2.6 Explanation vs. motivation -- 18
1.2.7 Conclusions -- 20
1.3 Pragmatic principles and the grammar -- 21
1.3.1 Introduction -- 21
1.3.2 An example: The Setting-Assertion communicative strategy -- 22
1.3.3 Discourse pragmatic principles and grammar -- 25
1.4 Form and function revisited -- 30
1.4.1 The separation of form and function -- 30
1.4.2 The relationship between form and function -- 31
1.4.3 Functional structure vs. formal structure (constituency) -- 39
1.4.4 Constructions -- 43
1.4.5 Structures (constructions) vs. processes -- 48
1.4.6 Grammaticalization -- 50
1.5 Variation: genres, style, media -- 57
1.5.1 Spoken language and contextualization -- 57
1.5.2 Genres, styles, and media -- 59
1.5.3 Genre and word order in Basque -- 60
1.5.4 More on the differences between speech and writing -- 62
1.5.5 Concepts for speech analysis -- 65
1.6 Word order typology -- 69
1.6.1 Introduction -- 69
1.6.2 Basic word order -- 70
1.6.3 Frequency and basicness -- 72
1.6.4 Markedness and basicness -- 74
1.6.5 Clause type and basic word order -- 77
1.6.6 Syntactic or intonational complexity -- 80
1.6.7 Grammatical vs. pragmatic word order -- 82
1.6.8 Subject-prominent vs. topic-prominent languages -- 86
1.6.9 Word order freedom and verbal inflections -- 88
1.6.10 Subject-object asymmetries in flexibility -- 89
1.6.11 Verb-initial languages -- 91
1.6.12 Word order flexibility and pragmatic-role changing constructions -- 93
1.6.12.1 Introduction -- 93
1.6.12.2 Non-default topic assignment -- 95
1.6.12.3 Non-default focus assignment -- 98
1.6.12.4 Other pragmatic constructions -- 99
1.6.13 Verb-second and the verbal brace -- 100
1.6.14 Other types of variation -- 103
1.6.15 Basic word order correlations -- 106
1.6.16 Conclusions -- 108
1.7 Typology and explanation -- 109
1.7.1 Introduction -- 109
1.7.2 Pragmatic principles and the order of clausal constituents -- 110
1.7.2.1 Explaining the subject-first preference -- 110
1.7.2.2 Explaining the OV ~ VO alternation -- 111
1.7.3 Iconicity related explanations -- 113
1.7.3.1 Iconicity, order, and constituency -- 113
1.7.3.2 Degree of closeness, relevance, and scope -- 114
1.7.3.3 Negative morpheme positioning -- 117
1.7.3.4 Ordering of complement pairs -- 120
1.7.4 Connector in the middle: the Relator Principle -- 121
1.7.4.1 Introduction -- 121
1.7.4.2 The Relator Principle and Basque dependent clauses and phrases -- 124
1.7.4.3 The cause-and-effect issue and the instantiation issue -- 126
1.7.5 Diachronic typology and drift -- 128
1.7.6 Analogy: Systemic explanations for the correlations -- 133
1.7.7 Processing constraints and word order -- 137
1.8 Language contact and language change -- 143
1.8.1 Grammatical change -- 143
1.8.2 Word order change -- 146
1.8.3 The Basque sociolinguistic situation -- 148
1.8.4 Language contact and convergence -- 151
1.8.5 Language contact and simplification -- 154
1.8.6 Language contact and language decay, attrition, obsolescence, and shift -- 158
1.8.7 Imperfect speakers or 'semi-speakers' -- 159
1.8.8 Language changes in an (individual or community) attrition situation -- 161
1.8.9 Further thoughts on the shift from SOV to SVO -- 166
1.8.10 A seeming contradiction: Pragmatic word order and rigid SVO order -- 168
1.8.11 The mechanism of change -- 171
Notes to Chapter 1 -- 174
Chapter 2: Typological overview and overview of the corpus -- 210
2.1 Introduction -- 210
2.2 A typological overview of Basque -- 211
2.2.1 Dryer's correlation pairs -- 211
2.2.2 Declension and postpositions -- 211
2.2.3 Nominal modifiers: The genitive suffixes -- 213
2.2.4 Modifiers in apposition -- 214
2.2.5 Demonstratives -- 215
2.2.6 Numerals -- 215
2.2.7 Relative clauses -- 216
2.2.8 Adjectives -- 217
2.2.9 Comparisons -- 218
2.2.10 Other noun related characteristics -- 218
2.2.11 Verb-related characteristics -- 219
2.2.11.1 The Basque conjugation -- 219
2.2.11.2 The position of the verb -- 221
2.2.11.3 Clausal constituency -- 222
2.2.11.4 Evidential and aspectual particles -- 224
2.2.11.5 Other 'auxiliary' verbs -- 224
2.2.12 Subordinating relators and dependent clauses -- 229
2.2.13 Constituent order in dependent clauses -- 231
2.2.13.1 Finite dependent clauses -- 232
2.2.13.2 Non-finite dependent clauses -- 234
2.2.14 Ergativity -- 235
2.2.14.1 Introduction -- 235
2.2.14.2 A semantic motivation for ergative coding -- 236
2.2.14.3 Ergative-absolutive syncretism -- 239
2.2.15 Conclusions -- 240
2.3 Previous studies of Basque constituent order and focus -- 241
2.3.1 Introduction -- 241
2.3.2 Azkue 1891, 1923-5 -- 242
2.3.3 Altube 1920, 1929 -- 243
2.3.4 Narrow focus and Romance influence -- 245
2.3.5 Negative and emphatic clauses -- 247
2.3.6 Verb and polarity focus -- 249
2.3.7 The focus rule and subordinate clauses -- 252
2.3.8 Basic word order and Basque -- 254
2.3.9 The preferred order of elements -- 257
2.3.10 Basque as a left-branching language -- 259
2.3.11 Some unanswered questions -- 260
2.4 Characteristics of the corpus -- 261
2.4.1 Introduction -- 261
2.4.2 The units of the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 263
2.4.3 The units of the Written Basque Corpus -- 265
2.4.4 Constituent orders in main clauses in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 266
2.4.5 Differences among the subjects of the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 272
2.4.6 Further notes on word order in the Written Basque Corpus -- 274
2.4.7 Additional comparisons between the spoken and written corpora -- 276
Notes to Chapter 2 -- 280
Chapter 3: Discourse pragmatics and linguistic form -- 289
3.1 Discourse pragmatics and the domain of word order -- 289
3.1.1 Introduction -- 289
3.1.2 The structure of simple assertions -- 292
3.2 The intonational and informational structure of the sentence -- 294
3.2.1 Intonation structure and information structure of the sentence -- 294
3.2.2 The intonation units of the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 296
3.2.3 The ordering of constituents in the sentence -- 298
3.2.4 Sentence-head intonation units -- 300
3.2.5 Sentence-body (main) intonation units -- 302
3.2.6 Sentence-tail intonation units -- 303
3.2.7 Conclusion: The domains of word order -- 306
3.3 Discourse pragmatics and word order -- 307
3.3.1 Introduction -- 307
3.3.2 The Prague School approach -- 308
3.3.3 Givenness: Activation, accessibility, identifiability -- 312
3.3.4 Some complicating factors for the notion of givenness -- 316
3.3.5 The domain of givenness -- 320
3.3.6 Thematic importance and inherent topicality -- 321
3.3.7 Thematic salience and the content of linguistic expressions -- 323
3.3.8 Thematic salience and the order of linguistic expressions -- 325
3.3.9 The coding of nominals -- 331
3.4 Topics: Thematic grounds and predication base -- 333
3.4.1 Topics and topicality -- 333
3.4.2 Topic-comment and all-comment information structure -- 335
3.4.3 Other explanations for thetic structure -- 337
3.4.4 What are topics? -- 339
3.4.5 Topics and subjects -- 343
3.4.6 Covert vs. overt topics -- 344
3.4.7 The position of overt topics -- 345
3.4.8 Split in the topic's sub-roles -- 347
3.4.9 Other types of assertion grounding (non-thematic grounding) -- 348
3.4.10 Thematically grounded and ungrounded sentences -- 349
3.4.11 Obligatory vs. optional thematic grounding -- 353
3.4.12 Conclusions -- 356
3.5 Focality and focus -- 358
3.5.1 Introduction -- 358
3.5.2 Assertion focus -- 358
3.5.3 New (regular) assertions and new focus -- 364
3.5.4 Contrastive assertions and contrastive focus -- 366
3.5.5 Emphatic assertion and focus -- 370
3.5.6 Default focus -- 377
3.5.7 A typology of focus positions -- 381
3.5.8 Assertion final focus (focus extraposition) -- 388
3.5.9 Focus typology in two VO languages: English vs. Spanish -- 392
3.6 Focus structure in Basque -- 397
3.6.1 Main focus position in Basque -- 397
3.6.2 Unmarked focus in all-new assertions -- 399
3.6.3 Verb focus -- 400
3.6.4 Rheme/polarity focus -- 401
3.6.5 Delayed or extraposed focus in Basque -- 404
3.6.6 Summary of focus positions in Basque -- 405
3.6.7 Further examples of focus structure types in Basque -- 407
3.6.7.1 Copula constructions with two overt complements -- 407
3.6.7.2 One-argument copula constructions -- 412
3.6.7.3 Impersonal assertions -- 414
3.6.8 Conclusion -- 415
3.7 Focus structure and word order in Basque -- 416
3.7.1 Introduction -- 416
3.7.2 Osa 1990: Basic order and markedness revisited -- 419
3.7.3 Marked and unmarked orders: A classical example -- 423
3.7.4 Some speculations on markedness and word order change -- 427
Notes to Chapter 3 -- 429
Chapter 4: Settings, topics, and antitopics -- 439
4.1 The nature and variation of the topic notion -- 439
4.1.1 Introduction -- 439
4.1.2 Topic vs. subject prominence -- 441
4.1.3 Inherent topicality and topics -- 443
4.1.4 Thematic ground or topic as a special case of ground -- 446
4.1.5 The basicness of the topic-comment configuration -- 446
4.1.6 Multiple topics -- 450
4.1.7 Non-topic topical elements -- 452
4.1.8 Topic-comment structure with non-verbal comments -- 454
4.1.9 The formal expression and position of grounds -- 455
4.1.10 Clause-internal vs. clause-external topics -- 457
4.1.11 Pragmatic characteristics of topics and settings -- 460
4.1.12 Pragmatic characteristics of topicalized elements -- 462
4.1.13 Information structure vs. syntactic structure: topic-comment vs. NP-VP -- 466
4.2 Covert and initial overt topics in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 469
4.2.1 Introduction -- 469
4.2.2 Non-'subject' topics -- 472
4.2.3 Covert topics in the Basque corpus -- 475
4.2.4 Overt topics in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 480
4.2.5 Dislocated topics in the Basque corpus -- 484
4.2.6 Split external and internal topics -- 490
4.2.7 Verb topics -- 493
4.3 Inverted topics, antitopics, right-dislocation and afterthoughts -- 496
4.3.1 Inverted topics or 'antitopics' -- 496
4.3.2 Antitopics and right-dislocation -- 500
4.3.3 Antitopics and afterthoughts -- 501
4.3.4 Uses of the antitopic construction -- 504
4.3.5 The antitopic construction in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 508
4.3.6 Antitopics in narrative written style: the Written Basque Corpus -- 513
4.3.7 Antitopics in journalistic written style -- 521
4.4 Topicalization in Basque -- 525
4.4.1 Introduction -- 525
4.4.2 Discourse connectors and topicalizers -- 526
4.4.3 The topicalizing, additive particle ERE 'also' -- 529
4.4.3.1 Introduction -- 529
4.4.3.2 ERE and unusual topics -- 532
4.4.4 Low topicality topics in existentials -- 537
Notes to Chapter 4 -- 544
Chapter 5: Topicless clauses, object topics, and antitopics -- 551
5.1 Thematically grounded and ungrounded sentences -- 551
5.1.1 Introduction -- 551
5.1.2 Theticity: coding strategies and explanations -- 552
5.1.3 Constraints on thetic subject inversion -- 557
5.1.4 Thetic functions: Typologies of thetic sentences -- 561
5.2 Announcements -- 563
5.2.1 Sasse's definition and examples -- 563
5.2.2 All-news statements in newspaper headlines -- 568
5.2.3 All-news sentences in Spanish newspaper headlines -- 569
5.2.4 All-news sentences in Basque newspaper headlines -- 573
5.2.5 Interruptions and sudden events -- 578
5.3 Explanations -- 580
5.3.1 Explanations vs. announcements -- 580
5.3.2 Ungrounded explanations -- 581
5.3.3 Object topics in happenstance sentences -- 582
5.3.4 Some further examples of thetic explanations -- 585
5.3.5 A special type explanation construction -- 587
5.4 Introductions -- 591
5.4.1 Existentials -- 591
5.4.2 Presentationals and focus -- 592
5.4.3 Circumstantially grounded presentatives -- 595
5.4.4 The form of Basque existentials and other thetic sentences -- 598
5.4.5 The delayed focus strategy in presentations -- 603
5.4.6 Subject inversion in elicited sentences -- 605
5.4.7 Post-presentational predicates -- 612
5.4.8 Basque -NA finite predicate clauses -- 615
5.4.9 Basque -LA finite predicate clauses -- 616
5.4.10 Finite predicate clauses without subordinators -- 618
5.4.11 More on the position of a presentational focus phrase -- 620
5.4.12 Post-presentative predications and 'extraposition' -- 622
5.4.13 Presentations in a picture descriptions -- 624
5.5 Descriptions -- 627
5.5.1 Background descriptions -- 627
5.5.2 Thetic sentences and the setting function -- 631
5.5.3 Inversion in background Basque clauses -- 634
5.6 Episode openings -- 638
5.6.1 Episode opening sentences -- 638
5.6.2 Spanish examples and conventionalized formulae -- 640
5.6.3 Surprising episode openings in Basque -- 642
5.7 Conclusions -- 647
Notes to Chapter 5 -- 652
Chapter 6: Focality, focus, and word order -- 657
6.1 Focality and focus -- 657
6.1.1 Introduction -- 657
6.1.2 Focality differences and default focus -- 661
6.1.3 Default focus and basic word order -- 663
6.2 Types of focality and focus -- 664
6.2.1 Contrastiveness and focus -- 664
6.2.2 Intrinsic vs. extrinsic focality -- 667
6.2.3 Assertion types and focus types -- 668
6.2.4 Optional elements and focalizing particles -- 670
6.2.5 Summary of focality and focus types -- 672
6.3 The formal expression of focus and focality -- 675
6.3.1 Introduction -- 675
6.3.2 Languages with preverbal focus as the main focus strategy -- 677
6.3.3 Preverbal focus position in Basque -- 680
6.3.4 Emphatic assertions and emphatic focus -- 683
6.4 Focus extraposition and Basque word order -- 687
6.4.1 Focus extraposition or delay -- 687
6.4.2 Focus-extraposition in previous studies of Basque syntax -- 690
6.4.3 The complexity of focus phrases and the markedness of extraposition -- 693
6.4.4 Extraposed focus with focus placeholders -- 697
6.5 Verb focus and word order -- 698
6.5.1 Deviations from default focus -- 698
6.5.2 Basque 'basic word order' revisited -- 703
6.5.3 Unmarked VO order: Polarity focus and emphatic assertions -- 705
6.6 The position of absolutive complements in the Basque corpus -- 714
6.6.1 Rhemes with no complements or one complement -- 714
6.6.2 (A)OV vs. (A)VO order in the Written Basque Corpus -- 715
6.6.3 (A)OV vs. (A)VO order in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 719
6.6.4 OV vs. VO in the Lur subcorpus -- 721
6.6.5 Some generalizations about the position of the object -- 725
6.7 The position of non-absolutive complements in the corpus -- 730
6.7.1 SXV vs. SVX clauses -- 730
6.7.2 SXV vs. SVX sentences in the written corpus -- 732
6.7.3 SXV and SVX sentences in the spoken corpus -- 735
6.7.4 The subcorpora compared -- 740
6.8 Conclusions -- 743
Notes to Chapter 6 -- 746
Chapter 7: Polarity, emphasis, and word order -- 751
7.1 Polarity, focality, and focus -- 751
7.2 Negation in Basque -- 756
7.2.1 Introduction -- 756
7.2.2 The placement of operators in Basque -- 759
7.2.3 Negative assertions in which the assertion is not the focus -- 763
7.2.4 Can an assertion have multiple foci? -- 771
7.2.5 Focus position in negative assertions -- 774
7.2.6 Postverbal elements in negative clauses in the spoken corpus -- 777
7.2.7 Some conclusions -- 781
7.3 Topicalization in negative clauses -- 785
7.3.1 Fronting in Basque negative clauses -- 785
7.3.2 The expression of restrictive only operator in Basque -- 789
7.4 Emphatic affirmation ('assertion focus') -- 795
7.4.1 Introduction -- 795
7.4.2 Polarity focus with Basque synthetic verbs -- 798
7.4.3 Polarity focus with analytic (periphrastic) verbs in Basque -- 802
7.4.4 Polarity focus in all-new assertions -- 805
7.4.5 Polarity focus and word order change -- 806
7.4.6 BA in subordinate clauses -- 807
7.5 Intensity adverbials -- 809
7.6 Polarity questions -- 812
7.7 Imperative and desiderative sentences -- 814
7.8 Emphasis, exclamations, and subject inversion -- 820
7.8.1 The sources of language inversion crosslinguistically -- 820
7.8.2 Spanish exclamations -- 823
7.8.3 Inverted order in Basque exclamations -- 825
7.9 Conclusions -- 829
Notes to Chapter 7 -- 831
Bibliography -- 836
Appendices -- 897
2.1 -- Finite dependent clauses in the Written Basque Corpus -- 897
2.2 -- Finite dependent clauses in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 898
2.3 -- Dependent non-finite clauses in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 899
2.4 -- Dependent non-finite clauses in the Written Basque Corpus -- 900
2.5 -- Background of speakers in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 901
4.1 -- Clauses with inverted topic in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 904
4.2 -- Clauses with a postverbal overt subject in the Written Basque Corpus -- 907
4.3 -- Non-copula antitopic construction clauses in the Written Basque Corpus -- 909
4.4 -- Article published in Diario Vasco, 9/27/96 -- 910
5.1 -- Headlines from La Vanguardia, May 3, 1996 -- 911
5.2 -- Headlines from El Periódico, May 3, 1996 -- 913
5.3 -- Headlines from La Jornada, May 3, 1996 -- 914
5.4 -- Headlines from Euskaldunon Egunkaria, May 3, 1996 -- 915
5.5 -- Sentences used for eliciting subject inversion -- 916
5.6 -- Affirmative statements with etorri "come" -- 923
6.1 -- AVO clauses in the Written Basque Corpus -- 926
6.2 -- AOV clauses in the Written Basque Corpus -- 927
6.3 -- VO clauses in the Written Basque Corpus -- 928
6.4 -- AOV clauses in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 929
6.5 -- AVO clauses in the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 930
6.6 -- VO clauses in the Lur subcorpus of the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 932
6.7 -- OV clauses in the Lur subcorpus of the Spoken Basque Corpus -- 934
6.8 -- Examples of the delayed focus construction in Spoken Basque Corpus -- 936
6.9 -- Written Basque Corpus, SXV sentences -- 937
6.10 -- Written Basque Corpus, SVX sentences -- 610
6.11 -- Spoken Basque Corpus, SXV sentences -- 940
6.12 -- Spoken Basque Corpus, SVX sentences -- 943
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