The syntax of nominal copular clauses: theoretical and empirical perspectives

名词系动词从句的语法：理论和实证视角

• 批准号: AH/Y007492/1
• 负责人: Caroline Heycock
• 金额: $ 45.49万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FY007492%2F1
• 关键词: syntax; nominal; copular; clauses; theoretical

One fundamental aspect of language is that sentences are composed of a subject and a predicate. In the best understood cases, the predicate is built around a verb, like "teach", as in (1a) 'My cousin teaches.' But predicates can also be built around nouns, like "teacher", as in (1b) `My cousin is a teacher.' The copula "be" that English requires here is absent in some other languages: semantically the predicate in the "nominal copular clause" (1b) is `a teacher'. The properties of nominal copular clauses are a long-standing issue for linguistics and philosophy: this project aims to address the challenging and potentially revealing questions posed by such clauses through systematic and detailed cross-linguistic investigation into their syntax and semantics, broadening the empirical landscape beyond well-studied languages to less studied ones. Issues that will be investigated include those in (I)-(III): (I) How many structurally different kinds of nominal copular clauses do languages use? If we start from the traditional distinction between predicative examples like (1b) above and `identity statements' like (2) 'Stephen King is Richard Bachman.' (has the same meaning as 'Richard Bachman is Stephen King')how do we analyse examples like (3) 'In the dark, I thought your aunt was you!' (does not have the same meaning as `In the dark, I thought you were your aunt')which also involve two individuals - like the `identity statement' in (2) - but change their meaning if reversed? Is it just a coincidence that some languages use the same copula in all these cases - and others - or are some of them in fact structurally identical despite differences in meaning? Given that identity is a quintessentially symmetric relation in logic, why is its expression in language typically asymmetric? (II) Is the structure of noun phrase predicates different from the structure of noun phrases in their other uses? What does the answer tell us about how the meaning of complex expressions is built up from their parts? (III) Nominal copular sentences are unusual in that the second noun phrase can have some unexpected subject properties. For example, in some languages the typical subject position is taken by the first noun phrase, but the verb agrees with the second, which also has the case for a subject. So, while in Present Day English we say `The problem is me' and not `The problem am I', in German the situation is the reverse (only the equivalent of the second version is acceptable). These "edge cases" allow us to refine and test competing hypotheses about the nature of fundamental processes like agreement and case-assignment. Where documentation is lacking for relevant languages, online questionnaires will be used to elicit data in carefully constructed experiments that will extend the range of detailed information available about predication in a broader range of languages than is typically available. In addition to the empirical and analytical work done within the project, it will also contribute to future crosslinguistic work by producing and disseminating a detailed framework for eliciting data on copular constructions designed for use by researchers working with less well documented languages.

语言的一个基本方面是句子由主语和谓语组成。在最好理解的情况下，谓语是围绕一个动词建立的，比如“教”，如（1a）“我的表弟教。但是谓语也可以围绕名词构建，比如“teacher”，如（1b）中的“My cousin is a teacher.”英语在这里要求的系动词“be”在其他一些语言中是不存在的：从语义上讲，“名词性系动词从句”（1b）中的谓语是“a teacher”。名词性系动词从句的性质是语言学和哲学的一个长期问题：本项目旨在通过系统和详细的跨语言研究来解决此类从句所提出的具有挑战性和潜在揭示性的问题，对它们的句法和语义进行系统和详细的跨语言研究，将经验景观从研究充分的语言扩展到研究较少的语言。将被调查的问题包括那些在（I）-（III）：（I）有多少结构不同种类的名词性系动词子句的语言使用？如果我们从上面（1b）这样的表语例子和（2）这样的“同一性陈述”之间的传统区别开始，“斯蒂芬·金是理查德·巴赫曼。（与“理查德·巴赫曼是斯蒂芬·金”的意思相同）我们如何分析这样的例子（3）“在黑暗中，我以为你的阿姨是你！“（与”在黑暗中，我以为你是你的阿姨“的含义不同），这也涉及两个人-如（2）中的”身份陈述“-但如果颠倒过来，其含义就会改变？某些语言在所有这些情况下使用相同的系动词，或者在其他情况下使用相同的系动词，这仅仅是一种巧合吗？或者，尽管意义不同，但其中一些语言实际上在结构上是相同的？既然同一性在逻辑中是一种典型的对称关系，为什么它在语言中的表达是典型的非对称？(II)名词短语谓语的结构与名词短语的其他用法的结构有什么不同吗？这个答案告诉我们，复杂表达式的意义是如何从它们的各个部分建立起来的？(III)名词性系动词句子是不寻常的，因为第二个名词短语可以有一些意想不到的主题属性。例如，在某些语言中，典型的主语位置由第一个名词短语占据，但动词与第二个名词短语一致，后者也有主语的情况。因此，在现代英语中，我们说“The problem is me”，而不是“The problem am I”，而在德语中，情况正好相反（只有第二个版本的对应词才是可以接受的）。这些“边缘案例”使我们能够完善和测试关于基本过程（如同意和案例分配）性质的竞争性假设。在缺乏相关语言的文献资料的情况下，将使用在线问卷在精心构建的实验中获取数据，这些实验将扩大关于在比通常可用的更广泛的语言中的谓词的详细信息的范围。除了在该项目中所做的实证和分析工作外，它还将通过制作和传播一个详细的框架来促进未来的跨语言工作，该框架旨在为研究较少记录的语言的研究人员提供有关系动词结构的数据。