The syntax of Person, Tense, and speech features
Author
Summary, in English
This paper argues that Person interprets event participants in relation to speech participants
in a parallel fashion as grammatical Tense interprets event time in relation to speech time.
This understanding of Person is embedded in a general theory of speech-grammar-event
matching, that is to say, an approach where speech (event) features, SF, are matched by
grammatical features, GF, which in turn are matched by (propositional) event features, EF.
This is informally sketched below, where ‘A « B’ reads as ‘A matches B’ or, more
accurately, ‘A is computed/interpreted in relation to B’:
EF « GF « SF
In accordance with this general scheme, event participants, EP, match Person and other
grammatical participant features, GP, which in turn match speech participants, SP:
EP « GP « SP
In the same fashion, event time, ET, matches grammatical tense, GT, which in turn matches
speech time, ST:
ET « GT « ST
A basic claim that I shall be making is that the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, 2000,
and subsequent) can be profitably developed such that features and feature built structures
are the only syntactic elements. I refer to this approach as MINIMAL FEATURE SYNTAX. My
aim is to show that it enables a (more) coherent understanding of the fundamental function
of speech features as well as of Person and Tense in language.
in a parallel fashion as grammatical Tense interprets event time in relation to speech time.
This understanding of Person is embedded in a general theory of speech-grammar-event
matching, that is to say, an approach where speech (event) features, SF, are matched by
grammatical features, GF, which in turn are matched by (propositional) event features, EF.
This is informally sketched below, where ‘A « B’ reads as ‘A matches B’ or, more
accurately, ‘A is computed/interpreted in relation to B’:
EF « GF « SF
In accordance with this general scheme, event participants, EP, match Person and other
grammatical participant features, GP, which in turn match speech participants, SP:
EP « GP « SP
In the same fashion, event time, ET, matches grammatical tense, GT, which in turn matches
speech time, ST:
ET « GT « ST
A basic claim that I shall be making is that the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995, 2000,
and subsequent) can be profitably developed such that features and feature built structures
are the only syntactic elements. I refer to this approach as MINIMAL FEATURE SYNTAX. My
aim is to show that it enables a (more) coherent understanding of the fundamental function
of speech features as well as of Person and Tense in language.
Department/s
Publishing year
2004
Language
English
Pages
219-251
Publication/Series
Rivista di Linguistica - Italian Journal of Linguistics
Volume
16
Issue
1
Full text
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Rosenberg & Sellier
Topic
- Languages and Literature
Status
Published
Research group
- GRIMM
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1120-2726