https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/17720 Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:53:12 GMT 2026-04-29T17:53:12Z https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/25091 Analogical classification in formal grammar Guzmán Naranjo, Matías The organization of the lexicon, and especially the relations between groups of lexemes is a strongly debated topic in linguistics. Some authors have insisted on the lack of any structure of the lexicon. In this vein, Di Sciullo & Williams (1987: 3) claim that “[t]he lexicon is like a prison – it contains only the lawless, and the only thing that its inmates have in commonis lawlessness”. In the alternative view, the lexicon is assumed to have a rich structure that captures all regularities and partial regularities that exist between lexical entries.Two very different schools of linguistics have insisted on the organization of the lexicon. On the one hand, for theories like HPSG (Pollard & Sag 1994), but also some versions of construction grammar (Fillmore & Kay 1995), the lexicon is assumed to have a very rich structure which captures common grammatical properties between its members. In this approach, a type hierarchy organizes the lexicon according to common properties between items. For example, Koenig (1999: 4, among others), working from an HPSG perspective, claims that the lexicon “provides a unified model for partial regularties, medium-size generalizations, and truly productive processes”. On the other hand, from the perspective of usage-based linguistics, several authors have drawn attention to the fact that lexemes which share morphological or syntactic properties, tend to be organized in clusters of surface (phonological or semantic) similarity (Bybee & Slobin 1982; Skousen 1989; Eddington 1996). This approach, often called analogical, has developed highly accurate computational and non-computational models that can predict the classes to which lexemes belong. Like the organization of lexemes in type hierarchies, analogical relations between items help speakers to make sense of intricate systems, and reduce apparent complexity (Köpcke & Zubin 1984). Despite this core commonality, and despite the fact that most linguists seem to agree that analogy plays an important role in language, there has been remarkably little work on bringing together these two approaches. Formal grammar traditions have been very successful in capturing grammatical behaviour, but, in the process, have downplayed the role analogy plays in linguistics (Anderson 2015). In this work, I aim to change this state of affairs. First, by providing an explicit formalization of how analogy interacts with grammar, and second, by showing that analogical effects and relations closely mirror the structures in the lexicon. I will show that both formal grammar approaches, and usage-based analogical models, capture mutually compatible relations in the lexicon. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/25091 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/28169 Die Entwicklung des Definitartikels im Althochdeutschen Flick, Johanna Wie in vielen anderen Sprachen der Welt hat sich auch im Deutschen der Definitartikel aus einem adnominal gebrauchten Demonstrativum herausgebildet. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird dieser funktionale Wandel, der sich vornehmlich in der althochdeutschen Sprachperiode (750–1050 n. Chr.) abspielte, erstmals computergestützt und mit korpuslinguistischen Methoden anhand der fünf größten ahd. Textdenkmäler aus dem Referenzkorpus Altdeutsch rekonstruiert. Dabei wird die Entwicklung des Definitartikels als Konstruktionalisierung der Struktur [dër + N] begriffen: Das ursprüngliche Demonstrativum dër verliert seine zeigende Bedeutung und erschließt neue Gebrauchskontexte, in denen die eindeutige Identifizierbarkeit des Referenten auch unabhängig von der Gesprächssituation gewährleistet ist. In der Arbeit wird gezeigt, dass diese Kontextexpansion maßgeblich von der kognitiv-linguistischen Kategorie Belebtheit beeinflusst wird. Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/28169 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/48050 Empirical issues in syntax and semantics Bîlbîie, Gabriela; Schaden, Gerhard Synopsis: The present volume in the series Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics collects a curated selection of papers from the 2023 Colloque de Syntax et Sémantique à Paris (CSSP 2023), held on December 7-8, 2023, at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. The result aims to be a snapshot of contemporary linguistic research in the areas of syntax and semantics. The eight contributions investigate phenomena spanning focus, meaning, modification, and discourse, offering new insights into how grammatical structures encode and convey information, and illustrating how detailed empirical work informs our understanding of grammatical phenomena. Drawing on data from multiple languages and employing diverse analytical frameworks, these studies advance current debates while maintaining the methodological rigor characteristic of contemporary formal linguistics. The collection provides a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students working in syntax, semantics, and related areas. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/48050 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/45572 French subject islands Winckel, Elodie Synopsis: This book examines extractions out of the subject, which is traditionally considered to be an island for extraction. There is a debate among linguists regarding whether the “subject island constraint” is a syntactic phenomenon or an illusion caused by cognitive or pragmatic factors. The book focusses on French, that provides an interesting case study because it allows certain extractions out of the subject despite not being a typical null-subject language. The book takes a discourse-based approach and introduces the “Focus-Background Conflict” constraint, which posits that a focused element cannot be part of a backgrounded constituent due to a pragmatic contradiction. The major novelty of this proposal is that it predicts a distinction between extractions out of the subject in focalizing and non-focalizing constructions. The central contribution of this book is to offer the detailed results of a series of empirical studies (corpus studies and experiments) on extractions out of the subject is French. These studies offer evidence for the possibility of extraction out of the subject in French. But they also reveal a clear distinction between constructions. While extractions out of the subject are common and highly acceptable in relative clauses, this is not the case for interrogatives and clefts. Finally, the book proposes a Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) analysis of subject islands. It demonstrates the interaction between information structure and syntax using a representation of information structure based on Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS). Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/45572 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z