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On the form-function dichotomy in linguistic theory

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Willim E.
Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis
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2010
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vol. 127
PL
This paper focuses on an important divide in theoretical linguistics between two broad perspectives on the structural properties of human languages, generative and functionalist. In the former, linguistic structure is explained in terms of discrete categories and highly abstract principles, which may be language-independent or language-specific and purely formal or functional in nature. In the latter, explanation for why languages have the structure that they do is found ‘outside’ language, in the general principles of human cognition and the communicative functions of language. The aim of this paper is to highlight the need for abstractness, explicitness, simplicity and theoretical economy in linguistic description and explanation. The question is not whether principles of grammar are formal or functional. The question is whether the principles that are postulated to explain linguistic structure express true generalizations.
2
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Case distribution and φ-agreement with Polish genitive of quantification in the feature sharing theory of Agree

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Willim E.
Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics
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2015
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vol. 51
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issue 2
315-357
EN
This paper offers a minimalist account of the distribution of the features of case, number and gender in Polish phrases with cardinal numerals and vague quantifiers (Q-NPs) in the presence and absence of genitive of quantification (GQ) based on the assumption that GQ-cardinal numerals and vague quantifiers are phrasal and are merged as adjuncts to the projection of a null functional head (F), a phase head that values its complement with GQ in contexts in which GQ is not overridden by inherent theta-related or lexical case. Whether the null head F inserted in the derivation has unvalued features of number and gender has consequences for the syntactic computation of agreement relations, in which features may be shared. Heterogeneous case distribution in Q-NPs in nominative-accusative case contexts provides evidence that F is a phase head and triggers transfer of its complement. Variable agreement patterns of both attributive adjectival modifiers and adjectival predicates in the presence of GQ are argued here to reflect attempted-but-failed syntactic agreement, which does not lead to ungrammaticality, as some features unvalued in narrow syntax can still be interpreted by morphological realization rules in PF. GQ is shown here to provide evidence that predicative adjectives cannot have their φ-features valued in situ and must be remerged in a position where their φ-probes can initiate Search for matching features. Agreement in the presence of GQ in Polish thus demonstrates that the need of features to be valued drives syntactic movement.
3
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On the category of number in language and cognition

100%
Willim E.
Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis
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2007
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vol. 124
PL
Number is the foundation of quantitative evaluation and an important parameter underpinning mental representations of the external reality formed in both the human and the non-human animal brain. It is generally accepted in cognitive sciences that at least some cognitive functions are mediated through language. Like the language faculty, the number faculty is characterized by the properties of recursion and generativity, which raises questions about the nature of the relationship between numerical cognition and language. Simply put, the main question is whether language is the key to number and whether mathematical reasoning can develop without the lexical and syntactic resources of language. This article overviews the results of various studies investigating the nature of the relationship between language and number. Taken together, the studies on the numerical capacities of speakers of indigenous languages lacking names of discrete quantities, pre-linguistic children, speakers with brain damage to the left perisylvian language area, as well as certain non-human animals demonstrate that language and numerical cognition are functionally independent of each other. This finding suggests that the links between language and thought are not as tight and direct as is often argued in linguistics, cognitive and developmental psychology as well as in the philosophy of language.
4
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On Scalarity in the Verbal Domain. The Case of Polish Psych Verbs. Part 1: Polish Perfective Psych Verbs and Their Prefixes

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Willim E.
Studies in Polish Linguistics
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2020
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vol. 15
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issue 4
221-247
PL
Dokonane czasowniki stanów emocjonalnych analizowane są zwykle jako czasowniki wyróżniające fazę początkową danego stanu. Te same predykaty mogą w pewnych kontekstach składniowych wyrażać znaczenia ewolutywne. W artykule przedstawiona jest hipoteza, że w kontekstach inicjalnych, czasownik wyraża moment zaistnienia stanu w nosicielu. W kontekstach ewolutywnych, predykat wyraża stopniową zmianę na skali intensywności stanu lub stopniowe nabycie stanu przez wszystkie części podzielnego argumentu czasownika. Zależność interpretacji wewnętrznej struktury temporalnej zdarzeń opisywanych przez dokonane czasowniki stanów psychologicznych od kontekstu składniowego pokazuje, wbrew tezie w pracy Rothstein (2020), że interpretacja rodzaju zdarzenia ustalana jest w języku polskim na poziomie struktury zdaniowej (VoiceP/vP).
EN
Polish perfective psych verbs are generally analyzed as inceptive predicates focusing the beginning of an emotional state holding of an experiencer. However, a perfective psych verb can also denote an event of gradual scalar change. In this paper, I argue that on the inceptive reading a perfective psych predicate denotes a transition from a state in which p does not hold to a state in which p holds of an experiencer. In events of gradual change, there is an increase in the degree on the scale of intensity of a given psych state or on the (abstract) extent scale contributed by a verb’s argument. As the internal temporal structure of the events denoted by perfective psych predicates can depend on elements of syntactic context outside the verb, the domain of aspectual composition in Polish is not the verb, pace Rothstein (2020), but VoiceP/vP.
5
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On Scalarity in the Verbal Domain. The Case of Polish Psych Verbs. Part 2: The Aspectual Classes of Polish Psych Verbs, Perfectivity, and Scales

100%
Willim E.
Studies in Polish Linguistics
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2021
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vol. 16
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issue 1
41-71
PL
Dokonane czasowniki stanów emocjonalnych są zwykle analizowane jako czasowniki wyróżniające fazę początkową danego stanu. Te same predykaty mogą w pewnych kontekstach składniowych wyrażać znaczenia ewolutywne. W artykule przedstawiona jest hipoteza, że w kontekstach inicjalnych, czasownik wyraża moment zaistnienia stanu w nosicielu. W kontekstach ewolutywnych predykat wyraża stopniową zmianę na skali intensywności stanu lub stopniowe nabycie stanu przez wszystkie części podzielnego argumentu czasownika. Zależność interpretacji wewnętrznej struktury temporalnej zdarzeń od kontekstu składniowego pokazuje, wbrew tezie zawartej w pracy Rothstein (2020), że interpretacja rodzaju zdarzenia nie jest określona na poziomie czasownika dokonanego, ale ustalana jest na poziomie struktury zdaniowej (VoiceP/vP).
EN
Polish perfective psych verbs are generally analyzed as inceptive predicates denoting the beginning of an emotional state holding of an experiencer. However, a perfective psych verb can also denote an event of gradual scalar change. In this paper, I argue that on the inceptive reading a perfective psych predicate denotes a transition from a state in which p does not hold to a state in which p holds of an experiencer. In events of gradual change, there is an increase in the degree on the scale of intensity of a given psych state or on the (abstract) extent scale contributed by a verb’s argument. As the internal temporal structure of the events denoted by perfective psych predicates can depend on elements of syntactic context outside the verb, the domain of aspectual composition in Polish is not the verb, pace Rothstein (2020), but VoiceP/vP.
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