Talk by Luisa Martí (Queen Mary, University of London) – Thursday 4-6 pm

By Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Luisa Martí  (Queen Mary, University of London) next Thursday at the Semantics Colloquium. Please find an abstract below. Title: The numeral+noun construction: typology and semantics Room: IG 4.301 Date: February 13th Time: 4pm - 6pm   Abstract: On the theoretical side, I show, building on previous work of mine, that putting together two theories, that of the typology of nominal number in Harbour (2014), and that of the syntax and semantics of numerals in Scontras (2014), leads to a number of predictions regarding how nouns will be marked for number when in the company of numerals (as in, e.g., English three apples, where apples is marked for plural) across languages. I consider two arguments for this proposal. The first argument is one of theoretical economy: in my proposal, one and the same set of tools accounts for both the number marking on the noun and the semantics of the construction. This is more economical than accounting for the semantics of...
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Talk by Silvia Schäfer, Monday 10th 4-6 pm

By Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are very happy to announce the last talk of this semester’s Syntax Colloquium, which will take place on Monday, February 10, 4 – 6 pm in IG 4.301. Silvia Schäfer will talk about „The variation of participle agreement in four Veneto dialects“. Abstract: In my research project, I deal with the (apparently) optional participle agreement in VS structures of four Veneto varieties (Italy). I conducted fieldwork in which I tested whether the nature of the postverbal DP affects the preferably produced and accepted participle agreement. In this talk, I will present my fieldwork, including research questions, methodology and the first quantitative results. I will outline the deducible generalisations and raise the controverse question of variation in generative syntax.   You are cordially invited!...
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Talk by Frank Sode – Thursday 6th 4-6 pm

By Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Frank Sode (Goethe Universität). Please find an abstract below. Title: The syntax and semantics of suppletive „wenn“-clauses: Evidence from V2 Room: IG 4.301 Date: February 6th Time: 4pm – 6pm Abstract: As Williams (1974) observed, the sentence in (1-a) can have a reading that can be paraphrased as in (1-b). (1) a. I would be happy if Bill were here.      b. I would be happy that Bill was here, if he were. Pesetsky (1991) argues that Williams‘ paraphrase is „more than a mere paraphrase“. According to Pesetsky (1991), something like (1-b) is an actual syntactic representation of (1-a) at some level of the derivation. It is well-known that V2-clauses in German can alternate with suppletive „wenn“-clauses in construction with preference predicates, see for example Frank (1998), Meinunger (2004), Meinunger (2007). (2) a. Es ist besser, wenn du kommst.           It is better if you come       b. Es ist besser, du kommst.           It is better you come       Both: ‚It is...
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