Exploring Interfaces

An innovative exploration of the interface between grammar, meaning and form.

Mónica Cabrera (Edited by), José Camacho (Edited by)

9781108488273, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 August 2019

316 pages, 11 b/w illus. 22 tables
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.2 cm, 0.58 kg

Models of theoretical linguistics now emphasize the meeting points, or interfaces, between different aspects of our language capacity. Syntactic operations include structure-building, checking long-distance relationships between units, and connecting alternative word orders. This volume presents a collection of original studies that explore the mapping between these operations and other language-related areas such as word meanings, discourse contexts, the construction of meaning for larger units, and the alternative expressions of word order. It differs from previous traditional research on interfaces by bringing together studies and analyses from a range of languages, using monolingual varieties that include second language phenomena. Case studies of different types of interfaces, as well as studies based on lesser known sets of linguistic data, provide important examples that propose a new view of the connections between syntactic processes and other areas of grammar.

Introduction: the road to interfaces Mónica Cabrera and José Camacho
Part I. Syntax-Lexicon Interface: 1. The L2 acquisition of English anticausative structures by L1 Spanish speakers Mónica Cabrera
2. Dispositional evaluative adjectives: lexical alternations, behaviors and sideward movement Violeta Demonte
3. The role of P in unaccusative constructions Roberto Mayoral Hernández
4. Degree achievements of color Mythili Menon and Roumyana Pancheva
Part II. Syntax-Semantics Interface: 5. Negative idioms José Camacho
6. Scope, syntax and prosody in Russian as a second or heritage language Tania Ionin and Tatiana Luchkina
7. On the syntax of pronominal clitics: a view from Greek Patricia Schneider-Zioga
Part III. Linearization: 8. Merge, restructuring and clitic climbing in Spanish Pascual José Masullo
9. Linearization when multiple orderings are possible: adjective ordering restrictions and focus Katy McKinney-Bock
10. Dialectal variation in VOS word order in Spanish Liliana Sánchez and Pablo Zdrojewski.

Subject Areas: Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK], Semantics, discourse analysis, etc [CFG], Language acquisition [CFDC]