Sank's Glossary of Linguistics
V-Verb |
V-TO-C MOVEMENT
(Examples)
- (Syntax) Cimbrian is a German(ic) VO heritage language that does not display the linear V2 restriction: the DP subject can show up before the finite verb together with other constituents while verb-subject inversion a la German only obtains with clitic pronouns. In recent literature on Cimbrian, pronominal subject inversion has been taken as a traditional argument in favor of mandatory V-to-C movement (assuming a split-C configuration). | Ermenegildo Bidese, Andrea Padovan, and Alessandra Tomaselli, 2020
- (Syntax) There are similarities between the V2 properties found in Old French and Old High German. The two languages show V2 properties such as
V-to-C movement and XP fronting, but also properties which are not found in Modern V2 languages such as a frequent V1 and V3 word order. | Alexandra Yvonne Hänsch, 2014
- (Syntax) We will argue that inflected infinitives first emerge in
para purpose clauses and not in other grammatical cases, such as complements of declarative, epistemic and factive predicates, because only in the former do inflected infinitives derive from External Merge (see e.g. Chomsky 2008), whereas the other cases derive from V-to-C movement (Internal Merge). Adopting Jakubowicz's (2005) Derivational Complexity Hypothesis, we will argue that cases of inflected infinitives requiring V-to-C movement are more costly for children than cases that do not require movement, explaining why the latter are attested much earlier in European Portuguese child production. | Ana Lúcia Santos,Inês Duarte, Acrisio Pires and Jason Rothman, 2011
- (Syntax) Kiparsky (1995) assumes rather that the development of subordination and consequently the formation of the operational C-projection are the trigger of V-to-C movement and the establishment of V2 languages in West Germanic and Romance. | Melanie Wratil, 2010
- (Syntax) The Germanic languages, with the notable exception of English, are characterized by the distinct syntactic property of verb second (V2): no more than one constituent may precede the finite verb. V2 is primarily associated with declarative main clauses. Importantly, V2 word order involves V-to-C-movement but should not be equalled with it; Yes/no-questions and V1-conditionals display V-to-C-movement without adhering to the V2 restriction. In contrast, subordinate clauses prototypically neither display V2 nor V-to-C movement.
Within the generative framework, both V2 and V-to-C movement have generally been assumed to have no deeper syntactic implication besides word order. | Johan Brandtler, 2009
- (Syntax) Carnie, Harley and Pyatt (2000) propose that absolute morphology is linked to verb movement to C. They argue that Old Irish has a filled C condition. Following Chung and McCloskey (1987), they assume that conjunct particles are complementizers and so are merged in the C position. When a conjunct particle is merged in C, C is filled so the verb moves only as far as T and has conjunct endings. When there is no conjunct particle, the verb must move to fill C. As a result of this movement to C the verb has absolute endings.
Modern Irish has no V-to-C movement (McCloskey 1996) and no absolute/conjunct distinction. Moreover, the verbal inflections that exist in Modern Irish developed in the most part from conjunct rather than absolute endings. It seems likely, then, that the loss of V-to-C movement and the loss of absolute verbal morphology are linked. | Glenda Newton, 2008
- (Syntax) The standard view is probably that Dutch has V-to-final-I movement in nonroot environments. This view is based on the idea that since the language has overt V-to-C movement in root environments, it also has V-to-(final)-I movement in nonroot environments. This view is not empirically supported, however: overt V-to-C movement does not entail overt V-to-I movement in nonroot environments. | Hilda Koopman, 1995
V1-CONDITIONAL
- (Grammar) In addition to being introduced by overt complementizers, conditional and other adverbial clauses may exhibit V1 order with subject-aux inversion.
( (CP-ADV (IP-SUB (HVD had)
(NP-SBJ (PRO she))
(NEG not)
(VP (VBN left)
(NP-OB1 (D the)
(N marriage))))))
( (CP-ADV (IP-SUB (BED-1 were)
(NP-SBJ (PRO we))
(VP (BED *-1)
(ADJP-PRD (ADJ rich))))))
( (CP-ADV (IP-SUB (VBP come)
(NP-SBJ (D the)
(N revolution)))))
( (CP-ADV (IP-SUB (VBP come)
(NP-SBJ (CP-FRL (WNP-1 (WPRO what))
(IP-SUB (NP-SBJ *T*-1)
(VP (MD may))))))))
| Beatrice Santorini and Ariel Diertani, 2017
- (Grammar) A V1-clause in German can be interpreted as a conditional, whenever it appears in sentence initial position, embedded into a V2 clause, as in (1).
Kommt
comes
er,
he
gehe
go
ich.
I
'If he comes, I go.'
| Edgar Onea and Markus Steinbach, 2012
- (Grammar) To turn (1) into a V1-conditional, Icelandic has to resort to the (present) perfect (2), given that conditional mood shift cannot be suspended.
Ef
if
María
Mary
var
be.PST.IND
í
in
Danmörku
Denmark
í gær,
yesterday
er
is
hún
she
í dag
today
á
on
Íslandi.
Iceland
'If Mary was in Denmark yesterday, she is in Iceland today.'
Hafi
have.PRS.SUBJ
María
Mary
verið
been
í
in
Danmörku
Denmark
í gær,
yesterday
er
is
hún
she
í dag
today
á
on
Íslandi.
Iceland
'If Mary was in Denmark yesterday, she is in Iceland today.'
| Hans-Martin Gärtner and Thórhallur Eythórsson, 2023
V2
(Syntax) Verb-second (V2) word order (cf. Borsley 1996, Ouhalla 1994, Fromkin (ed.) 2000, Adger 2003, Carnie 2007) is a sentence structure in which the finite verb of a sentence or a clause is placed in the clause's second position, so that the verb is preceded by a single word or group of words (a single constituent).
Examples of V2 in English include (brackets indicating a single constituent):
- Neither do I.
- [Never in my life] have I seen such things.
If English used V2 in all situations, the following would be correct:
- * [In school] learned I about animals.
- * [When she comes home from work] takes she a nap.
V2 word order is common in the Germanic languages and is also found in Ingush (Northeast Caucasian), O'odham (Uto-Aztecan), and fragmentarily in Sursilvan (Romance, a Rhaeto-Romansh variety) and Estonian (Finno-Ugric; Ehalka 2006). Of the Germanic family, English is exceptional in having predominantly SVO order instead of V2, although there are vestiges of the V2 phenomenon. | Wikipedia, 2022
VACUOUS MOVEMENT HYPOTHESIS
(Syntax) The hypothesis that movement is blocked unless it affects the (linear) order of the string it applies to.
This hypothesis entails that the wh-subject in who killed her? is not moved to the specifier position of the CP (as is the standard assumption for wh-questions), but remains in situ. (Chomsky 1986, George 1980) | Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics, 2001
VARIATION TYPES
- (Sociolinguistics) Regional variation is only one of many possible types of differences among speakers of the same language. For example, there are occupational dialects (the word bugs means something quite different to a computer programmer and an exterminator), sexual dialects (women are far more likely than men to call a new house adorable), and educational dialects (the more education people have, the less likely they are to use double negatives). There are dialects of age (teenagers have their own slang, and even the phonology of older speakers is likely to differ from that of young speakers in the same geographical region) and dialects of social context (we do not talk the same way to our intimate friends as we do to new acquaintances, to the paperboy, or to our employer). | C. M. Millward and Mary Hayes, 2012
- (Sociolinguistics) There are two types of language variation: linguistic and sociolinguistic. With linguistic variation, the alternation between elements is categorically constrained by the linguistic context in which they occur. With sociolinguistic variation, speakers can choose between elements in the same linguistic context and hence, the alternation is probabilistic. Furthermore, the probability of one form being chosen over another is also affected in a probabilistic way by a range of extra-linguistic factors, e.g., the degree of (in)formality of the topic under discussion, the social status of the speaker and of the interlocutor, the setting in which communication takes place, etc. | Raymond Mougeon, Terry Nadasdi, and Katherine Rehner, 2010
VARIATIONAL LEARNING MODEL
(Sociolinguistics) Variable language use within individuals and communities can be captured by the use of variable rules (Labov 1969, 1972; Cedergren and Sankoff 1974), and shifts in frequencies over time can be captured by the competing grammars approach to intraspeaker variation (Kroch 1989, Santorini 1992). Both of these classes of models can be characterized by probability distributions over non-stochastic competence grammars, with the aim of capturing the cacophonous reality of language usage without throwing away the notion of categorical grammars. Boersma (1997) and Yang (2002) define simple models which expanded this approach to the domain of language acquisition, and have spurred significant further development. I refer to these acquisition models, in which the state of the learner can be characterized by a probability distribution over a (typically finite) set of competing non-stochastic grammars, as variational learning models. | Ryan Daniel Budnick, 2023
VEHICLE CHANGE
- (Syntax) The phenomenon whereby a pronoun appears in an ellipsis site, in the position corresponding to an R-expression in the antecedent. The acceptability of (1) can be seen as an instance of this phenomenon by supposing that instead of the offending element John, the ellipsis site contains a pronoun in the corresponding position.
- A: Someone said that John1 left.
B: Yeah, but not he1 / him1.
| Tim Hunter and Masaya Yoshida, 2016
- (Syntax) The equivalence between (potentially complex) R-expressions and pronouns under ellipsis as in (1). (Fiengo and May 1994, Dalrymple 1992)
- a. They arrested Alexi , though hei thought they wouldn't.
b. They arrested [the guy who lives over the garage]i , though hei thought they wouldn't.
| Jason Merchant, 2001
VENITIVE
(Pragmatics) Andative and
venitive (abbreviated AND and VEN) are a type of verbal deixis: verb forms which indicate 'going' or 'coming' motion, respectively, in reference to a particular location or person. Other terms sometimes seen are itive and ventive, or translocative and cislocative. They generally derive historically from the verbs go and come being reduced to auxiliary verbs or verbal affixes (Heine and Kuteva 2002), and may in turn be grammaticalized to aspectual morphemes. Many languages of Siberia (such as Itelmen, Forest Nenets, Chukchi, Alyutor), California, West Africa (such as Akan), the Caucasus-Mideast-North Africa (Akkadian, Sumerian), and Oceania have such verb forms.
A language with andative and venitive forms may also use them with a verb to carry, for example, to create the meanings of 'bring' (venitive) and 'take (away)' (andative). | Wikipedia, 2022
VENTIVE
See VENITIVE.
VERB DOUBLING
(Syntax) A situation in what are commonly called predicate clefts (usually predicate focus/topicalization: Aboh 2006) where the main verb occurs twice in two different positions in the sentence. One verb token appears in the topic/focus position (often in the sentence periphery) while a second verb token is found in the base position. This phenomenon occurs in quite a few languages. | Johannes Hein, 2015
VERB ECHO ANSWER
(Syntax) A VEA can be used as a response to a polar question. In Japanese, (2) is interpreted as an affirmative answer to (1).
Q:
Ken-wa
Ken-TOP
sara-o
dish-ACC
arai-masi-ta-ka?
wash-POL-PST-Q
'Did Ken wash dishes?'
A:
Arai-masi-ta-yo.
wash-POL-PST-PRT
lit. 'Washed.' ('Yes, Ken did.')
| Yosuke Sato and Masako Maeda, 2021
VERB-FRAMING
- (Typology) Or, satellite-framing. A typological description of a way that verb phrases in a language can describe the path of motion or the manner of motion, respectively. Some languages make this distinction and others do not.
The manner of motion refers to a type of distinct motion described by a particular verb, such as running, tumbling, sliding, walking, crawling, etc. The path of motion refers to the direction of the movement, such as movement into, out of, across, etc. The two concepts can be encoded in the verb as part of its root meaning, or encoded in a separate particle associated with the verb (a satellite). Manner or path may also not be expressed at all.
Languages are considered verb-framed or satellite-framed based on how the motion path is typically encoded. English verbs use particles to show the path of motion (run into, go out, fall down), and its verbs usually show manner of motion; thus, English is a satellite-framed language. English verbs that are exceptions are mostly derived from Latin, such as exit, ascend, or enter.
All Germanic languages are satellite-framed languages.
On the other hand, all Romance languages are verb-framed. Spanish, for example, makes heavy use of verbs of motion like entrar, salir, subir, bajar ('go in', 'go out', 'go up', 'go down'), which directly encode motion path. | Wikipedia, 2022
- (Typology) Research has identified three types of languages based on the characteristic expression of manner and path information. In satellite-framed languages, the main verb expresses information about manner of movement, and a subordinate satellite element (e.g., a verb particle) to the verb conveys the path of movement. In verb-framed languages, the main verb expresses the core information of the path of movement, and the manner information is expressed in a subordinate structure (e.g., a gerundive). Both manner and path, however, are expressed by equivalent grammatical forms in equipollently-framed languages. | Liang Chen and Jiansheng Guo, 2009
VERB OF REALIZATION
(Grammar) 'Collocational verbs which have the syntactic behavior of Vsupp, but which, unlike these, are semantically full: they are selected by the speaker for their meaning and make a semantic contribution.' I.e., "des verbes collocationnels qui ont le comportement syntaxique des Vsupp, mais qui, à la différence de ceux-ci, sont sémantiquement pleins: ils sont sélectionnés par le locuteur pour leur signifié et apportent une contribution sémantique" (Mel'čuk 2004).
For example, amende 'fine / penalty' combines with the support verb donner 'to give' in French, but also with the verbs of realization filer 'to slap' (in a colloquial context) and imposer 'to impose' (in an official context).
Other verbs of realization: conserver 'to maintain', garder 'to keep', and perdre 'to lose'.
Verbs of realization differ from support verbs. Gavriilidou (2004) captures this in the following way: "Le rôle de ces verbes est double: d'un côté, ils doivent apporter aux prédicats nominaux étudiés, des informations de temps, de personne et de nombre (rôle syntaxique); de l'autre, ils dotent la phrase dans laquelle ils se trouvent d'une information aspectuelle et d'une marque d'intensité (rôle sémantique), ils véhiculent donc une information supérieure à celle des verbes supports standards." I.e., 'The role of these verbs is twofold: on the one hand, they must provide the nominal predicates studied with information about time, person and number (syntactic role); on the other, they provide the sentence in which they are found with aspectual information and a mark of intensity (semantic role); they therefore convey information superior to that of standard support verbs."
She provides, amongst others, the following Modern Greek examples:
- πλημμυρίζω από χαρά 'to overflow with joy'
- εκτοξεύω κατηγορία 'to throw blame'
- βομβαρδίζω με κατηγορίες 'to bombard with blame'
Gross (1998) sub-divides verbs of realization into categories. One category is that of intensity in the sense of multiplication (e.g. basic Luc fait un effort / des efforts vis-à-vis Luc accroît / intensifie / réduit son effort; Luc augmente / diminue / raréfie des efforts). Negative verbs of realization belong to the same category but fall at the extreme end of the size/degree scale (e.g. Luc manque d'énergie).
More examples:
- Negative verbs of realization
a. Classical Greek
κινδυνεύσουσι γὰρ ἐκ τῶν νῦν ἡμῖν ὡμολογημένων τοιοῦτ_ν τι ποιεῖν καὶ οἱ τὴν δίκην φεύγοντες, ὦ Πῶλε
'based on those things that have been agreed between us by now, those who avoid punishment seem to do something like this, Polos' (Pl. Grg. 479b)
b. English
I am lacking an idea.
| Victoria Beatrix Fendel, 2023
VERB-PARTICLE CONSTRUCTION
(Grammar) Or, verb-adverb combination, or, particle verb, or, verb-particle combination, or, discontinuous verb, or, merged verb, or, separable verb, or, two-word verb, or, separable compound, or, poly-word verb. Phrasal verbs have long been regarded as being among the most characteristic features of the English language. As early as 1712, Michael Mattaire in his English Grammar described the basic syntactic peculiarities of the English "verb-particle construction". A few decades later Samuel Johnson and Robert Lowth—one the most influential lexicographer and the other the most influential grammarian of the 18th century—directed their attention to the phrasal verb. Johnson writes in the Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language (1755):
There is another kind of composition more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arises to foreigners the greatest difficulty. We modify the signification of many verbs by a particle subjoined; as to come off, to escape by a fetch; to fall on, to attack; to fall off, to apostatize; to break off, to stop abruptly; to bear out, to justify; to fall in, to comply; to give over, to cease; to set off, to embellish; to set in, to begin a continual tenour; to set out, to begin a course or journey; to take off, to copy; with innumerable expressions of the same kind, of which some appear wildly irregular, being so far distant from the sense of the simple words, that no sagacity will be able to trace the steps by which they arrived at the present use.
There are comparable verbal constructions in other languages, as already noted by Smith (1925). The most obvious parallels can be found in other Germanic languages. Cf. e.g. present-day German aufgeben 'give up', which, like its English translation, consists of a particle (auf, cognate to up) and a verb (geben, cognate to give).
- German
Alexander
Alexander
gab
gave
das
the
Cellospielen
cello.playing
auf
up
'Alexander gave up playing the cello.'
But neither syntactically nor semantically are there always one-to-one correspondences. | Stefan Thim, 2012
See Also PHRASAL VERB CONSTRUCTION.
VERB PHRASE DELETION
(Syntax) Sentences (1) and (2) have traditionally been related by a process that is called "Verb Phrase Deletion" (VPD).
- If I wanted to collect bottles, I would collect bottles.
- If I wanted to collect bottles, I would.
The earliest analyses of this phenomenon suggested that (2) was derived from (1) by a syntactic deletion rule (hence the "deletion" in the name of the process – cf. Ross 1969). Later (Jackendoff 1972, Wasow 1972, Fiengo 1974, and Williams 1977, a.o.), it was suggested that a null anaphor was generated in the base following would in (2), and that the semantic component read this anaphor as meaning collect bottles, hence accounting for the synonymy of (1) and (2). A third possibility is that (2) is generated in the base with nothing following would, would itself serving as a proform for would collect bottles. And fourth, (2) could be derived from (1), leaving would as a proform, in a process resembling pronominalization more than deletion (perhaps "proverbalization"). | D.J. Napoli, 1985
See Also VP ELLIPSIS.
VERB-STRANDING ELLIPSIS
- (Syntax) Or, V-stranding ellipsis. An ellipsis phenomenon that elides a VP or TP category but moves the verb out of that category prior to deletion. The phenomenon has been identified in various languages, among which are Hebrew (Doron 1990, Goldberg 2005), Irish (McCloskey 1991, 2011), Swahili (Ngonyani 1996), Finnish (Holmberg 2001), Portuguese (Martins 1994, Cyrino and Matos 2002, a.o.), Russian (Gribanova [2013]). Consider for illustration the Brazilian Portuguese (1) (from Santos 2009) and the Finnish (2) (Holmberg 2001).
O
the
João
João
viu
saw
o
the
desastre
accident
na
on.the
televisão
TV
ontem
yesterday
e
and
a
the
Maria
Maria
também
also
viu.
saw
'João saw the accident on TV yesterday and Maria did too.'
A:
Onko
is-Q
Liisa
Liisa
kotona?
at.home
'Is Liisa at home?'
It is important to note that V-stranding ellipsis is a process distinct from (multiple)
argument drop or dropping of adjunct material (Doron 1990, Golderberg 2005, a.o.). The most striking evidence for this is that V-stranding ellipsis also shows up in languages that do not allow for adjunct or object drop, like Irish.
The theoretically most intriguing trait of V-stranding ellipsis is the so-called verbal identity condition, which requires that the lexical stem of the stranded V needs to be identical to that of its antecedent (Cyrino and Matos 2002, Goldberg 2005, McCloskey 2011, a.o.). Due to this condition, the stranded verb cannot be lexically distinct from its antecedent, even if that is identical or near-identical to it in meaning. Consider for illustration the case of Irish, which has two cognates for the verb miss, an Irish
word and an English one. If the antecedent clause contains one of the two, the elliptical response needs to contain the same item (McCloskey 2005).
A:
Ar
COMP.INTER
mhiss-eáil
missed
tú
you
é?
him
'Did you miss him?'
B:
* Chrothnaigh.
miss.PAST
'I did.'
| Anikó Lipták, 2012
- (Syntax) Or, responsive ellipsis, or, verb-stranding verb-phrase ellipsis. The landing site of the head movement may vary according to the language, as may the size of the ellipsis site. The result of such a combination of operations is typically realized as an overt verb whose internal—and sometimes external—arguments, along with any modifying material internal to the elided constituent, are elided.
- Russian VSE (Gribanova 2017)
a.
Evgenija
Evgenija
otpravila
send.PST.SG.F
posylku
package.ACC
v
to
Moskvu?
Moscow.ACC
'Did Eugenia send the package to Moscow?'
b.
Ne
NEG
otpravila.
send.PST.SG.F
/
/
Otpravila.
send.PST.SG.F
'She didn't. / She did.'
- Irish VSE (McCloskey 2017)
a.
A-r
Q.PAST
sciob
cut.PAST
an
the
cat
cat
an
the
t-eireaball
tail
den
off-the
luch?
mouse
'Did the cat cut the tail off the mouse?'
b.
Ciob.
cut.PAST
/
/
Ní-or
NEG-PAST
sciob.
cut.PAST
'It did. / It didn't.'
As with constituent ellipsis more generally, the elided component will be subject to some kind of requirement—the formulation of which remains controversial—that it be identical to a linguistic antecedent. In many prominent accounts, the identity relation that is necessary to license ellipsis applies to the output of a syntactic derivation. | Vera Gribanova, 2020
Page Last Modified June 2, 2024