Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Research Topics
Research Topics
The syntax of propositional arguments from a cross-linguistic perspective
Propositional arguments have been a major interest in generative literature. This topic subsumes the analysis of finite, gerundival and infinitival structures.
In her research Jutta Hartmann is looking at two major topics in this realm:
(i) the interaction of syntax and semantics of control with different verb types (attitude vs non-attitude, in collaboration with Anne Mucha) and syntactic aspects of exhaustive vs. partial control (in collaboration with Michelle Sheehan);
(ii) the status of propositional arguments in structures with proforms such as the German es and the prepositional forms darauf, darunter etc (in collaboration with Lutz Gunkel).
Up or Down? Resolving agreement in copular sentence
(British Academy Leverhulme Small Grant, 2016-2017, Jutta Hartmann and Caroline Heycock, University of Edinburgh)
Grammatical agreement is a pervasive feature of human language. One common example is where verbs have to agree with their subject, as in English "He[3-sing] is[3-sing] tall”.
This project investigates cases such as “The problem is you”, where two nominals (“the problem” and “you”) may compete for agreement on the verb. Germanic languages resolve agreement in these cases in different ways, a variation which so far has not been documented fully. For example, English requires “upwards” agreement with the initial noun phrase ("The problem[3-sing] is [3-sing] you"), while German opts for “downwards” agreement ("Das Problem bist [2-sing] du[2-sing]"); in Dutch agreement seems to vary partly depending on word order and individual speaker preference. This project will establish the facts about this kind of agreement conflict for Germanic languages of various types, and use them to test alternative possible theories of exactly how much agreement is determined by structural configuration, and which other factors (for example semantic subjecthood, case, word order etc.) play a role.
The Syntax and Focus Structure of Specificational Copular Clauses and Clefts
(Jutta Hartmann, Habilitationsprojekt abgeschlossen 2016, laufende Arbeiten)
In her habilitation project Jutta Hartmann has considered the tight relationship of focus with copular clauses concentrating on the analysis of specificational copular clauses and clefts. The work develops a new model that allows for the interaction of information structure and syntax such that a separate module is responsible for assigning context features to phasal consitutents which can in turn be linked to syntactic, semantic and information-structural works.
Case and object agreement in ditransitive constructions
(Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Cofund grant, 2019–2020, András Bárány, and ongoing work)
András Bárány is studying the interaction of case and agreement in ditransitive constructions across languages. Languages also vary in how they express the two objects in ditransitives: in English, the sentence from before can also be put as Mary gives an apple to the horse, changing the order of the objects and turning the recipient into a prepositional phrase.
Combining agreement possibilities (one of the objects) and construction types, we expect four possible types of agreement patterns in ditransitive constructions, but only three of these are attested. I'll study whether there are really no languages of this missing type, what the reason for their absence could be, and how this gap can be explained using current ideas about grammar.
More technically, ditransitive case and agreement alignment can be indirective, secundative or neutral. In indirect alignment, the theme is expressed in the same way as the single object of a monotransitive clause (generally accusative or absolutive), while the recipient is expressed differently (often dative or as a PP). In secundative and neutral alignment, in contrast, the recipient of a ditransitive is expressed in the same way as the single object of a monotransitive (again, generally accusative or absolutive). While the verb can agree with either the theme (e.g. in Hungarian) or the recipient (e.g. in Amharic) in languages with indirective alignment, no language seems to allow agreement only with the theme in secundative or neutral case alignment.