|
DRUM >
Theses and Dissertations from UM >
UM Theses and Dissertations >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2500
|
| Title: | Alternative Directions for Minimalist Inquiry: Expanding and Contracting Phases of Derivation |
| Authors: | Drury, John Edward |
| Advisors: | Uriagereka, Juan |
| Department/Program: | Linguistics |
| Type: | Dissertation |
| Sponsors: | Digital Repository at the University of Maryland
University of Maryland (College Park, Md.) |
| Keywords: | Language, Linguistics (0290)
Psychology, General (0621)
Syntax;Minimalism;Derivations;Directionality;Phases;Cyclicity |
| Issue Date: | 28-Apr-2005 |
| Abstract: | This dissertation develops novel derivational mechanics for characterizing the syntactic component of human language -- Tree Contraction Grammar (TCG). TCG falls within a general class of derivationally-oriented minimalist approaches, constituting a version of a Multiple Spell Out (MSO-)system (Chomsky 1999, Uriagereka 1999, 2002). TCG posits a derivational WORKSPACE restricting the size of structures that can be active at a given stage of derivation. As structures are expanded, workspace limitations periodically force contractions of the span of structure visible to operations. These expansion-contraction dynamics are shown to have implications for our understanding of locality of dependencies, specifically regarding successive cyclic movement. The mechanics of TCG rely on non-standard assumptions about the direction of derivation -- structure assembly is required to work top-down. TCG draws a key idea from TAG; that is, recursive structure ought to play a direct role in delimiting th... |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2500 |
| Appears in Collections: | Linguistics Theses and Dissertations
UM Theses and Dissertations
|
Files in This Item:
| File |
Description |
Size | Format | No. of Downloads |
|---|
| umi-umd-2377.pdf | | 2251Kb | Adobe PDF | 159 | View/Open |
|
Show full item record
All items in DRUM are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved.
|
