Existential constructions: discourse, semantics and syntax

在这个项目中，我们从对现有文献中两个令人遗憾的缺陷的认识出发，研究存在句。首先，它没有考虑到处所存在句(例如，在垫子上有一只猫)和在语义和句法上没有处所成分的存在句之间的区别(例如，存在一个问题，与非重读的There有关)。其次，它没有捕捉到所谓的确定性效应(DE)的两种表现之间的相关性：在一些语言中，确定的轴心(参见：There the Student)只有在严格的条件下才被接受，在另一些语言中，确定的轴心得到更自由的许可，但通常与其不确定的对应物(例如Logudore语撒丁语bi Sun SAS piseddas，LIT)的标记不同。这就是女孩们，VS B‘at Piseddas，List。有女孩)。我们选择罗曼史作为我们研究的主要经验域，因为上述两种类型的DE都在这个家族中得到了证明。此外，人们注意到，这个家庭的一名成员Logudrese将表示一个地点((N)che“here”)的存在标记与另一个不一定这样做的存在标记进行了对比。根据Stanford-Berkeley Existentials(Beaver/Francez/Levin Son 2006，Mikkelsen 2002)的假设，我们分析了处所存在标记和非处所存在标记之间的对比，并对这两种存在标记进行了统一的描述。为了收集必要的证据，我们收集并分析了当代撒丁语文本语料库；我们在12个撒丁语村庄进行了田野调查，采访了30名以甘比丹语、洛古德雷亚语和努雷斯语为母语的人；我们采访了另外15种语言的母语信息者，包括芬诺-乌古尔语、斯堪的纳维亚语、普通话和撒丁语以外的罗曼语；最后，我们研究了三种在句法上具有不同程度作格能力的语言(卡尔卡通古、萨马·邦吉、耶利·代伊)。该项目的主要成果如下。有一些存在结构没有表现出存在标记(例如，罗马尼亚语‘Sunt Studenti’，LIT)。是学生)，具有语义中性标记的存在词(甘比丹话|ddu)，以及最后，具有有意义的标记的存在词。后者是典型的方位语(甘比亚语ddoi/ddui，“Logudore语和北新莱语Nche)”。然而，我们发现，方位存在标记可以发展为表明传闻或记忆的证据策略(甘比亚语ddoi-Villacidro)，或缺乏视觉经验(Campidans ddoi/ddui-Sardara，Sanluri)。关于DE，我们发现它的表现根据受试者特定语言的耐受程度而不同，这些受试者在话题性、可识别性、特异性和生动性方面是非规范的。证据进一步表明，DE的表现形式应分为三类，而不是两类；类型(I)：将轴心编码为非主语(法语LYYA LES/DES FILES，LIT)。有/一些女孩)，类型(Ii)：根据属性的区别对待支点，这些属性通常由确定性(见上面的Logudrese数据)，类型(Iii)：作为非规范主语的后置论元的不变编码(西西里岛ci sunnu(一)picciriddri‘有孩子’)。我们的发现还表明，DE只存在于那些始终按照宾格或作格对齐选择主语的语言中，这一趋势迄今在相关文献中被忽视了。该项目的主要成果是在语篇/语义/句法界面建立了第一个统一的德语的参数描述，并对撒丁语的形态句法分类做出了重大贡献。

In this project we investigated existential constructions starting from the awareness of two regrettable shortcomings in the existing literature. First, it did not account for the difference between locative existentials (e.g., there is a cat on the mat) and existentials without a locative component in semantics and syntax (e.g., there is a problem, with unstressed 'there'). Secondly, it did not property capture the relatedness between two manifestations of the so-called definiteness effect (DE): in some languages a definite pivot (see 'the student' in: there is the student) is only admitted under strict conditions, in others definite pivots are more freely licensed but are normally marked differently from their indefinite counterparts (e.g., Logudorese Sardinian bi sun sas piseddas, lit. there are the girls, vs. b'at piseddas, lit. there has girls). We chose Romance as the principal empirical domain of our investigation because the mentioned types of DE are both attested in this family. In addition, it had been noted that a member of this family, Logudorese, contrasts an existential marker that indicates a location ((n)che "here") with another one that does not necessarily do so. We aimed to offer an analysis of the contrast between locative and non-locative existential markers, and a unified account of the two types of DE, drawing upon the hypothesis of the Stanford-Berkeley Existentials group (Beaver/Francez/Levin son 2006, Mikkelsen 2002) that the DE is epiphenomenal to semantic and pragmatic constraints on the subject of the clause. To gather the necessary evidence we collected and analysed a corpus of contemporary Sardinian texts; we conducted fieldwork in 12 Sardinian villages, interviewing 30 native speakers of Gampidanese, Logudorese and Nuorese; we interviewed native informants of another 15 languages, including Finno-Ugric, Scandinavian, Mandarin Chinese, and Romance languages other than Sardinian; and, finally, we considered three languages with various degrees of ergativity in their syntax (Kalkatungu, Sama Bangingi', Yeli Dnye). The principal results of the project are the following. There are existenttal structures which do not exhibit an existential marker (e.g., Romanian 'Sunt studenti', lit. are students), existentiats with a semantically neutral marker (Gampidanese | ddu), and, finally, existentials with a meaningful marker. The latter is typically locative (Gampidanese ddoi/ddui, " Logudorese and Northern Nuorese nche). We found, however, that locative existential markers may develop into evidential strategies indicating hearsay or memory (Gampidanese ddoi - Villacidro), or the lack of visual experience (Campidanese ddoi/ddui - Sardara, Sanluri). With respect to the DE, we found that its manifestations vary crosslinguistically in accordance with the language-specific degree of tolerance of subjects that are non-canonical in terms of topicality, identifiability, specificity, and animacy. The evidence further indicates that the manifestations of the DE should be classified into three - rather than two - types; type (i): the encoding of the pivot as a non-subject (French llya (?)les / des filles, lit. there has the / some girls), type (ii): the differential treatment of pivots depending on properties which are usually spelled out by definiteness (see the above Logudorese data), type (iii): the invariant encoding of the postcopular argument as a non-canonical subject (Sicilian ci sunnu (i) picciriddri 'there are children'). Our findings also suggest that the DE is only found in the languages which consistently choose the subject in accordance with accusative or ergative alignment, a tendency that has so far been overlooked in the relevant literature. The principal achievements of the project are the formulation of the first unified parametric account of the DE at the discourse /semantics /syntax interface, and a significant contribution to the morphosyntactic classification of the Sardinian dialects.