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Eun-Jung Yoo: Specificational Pseudoclefts in English
Specificational pseudoclefts (SPCs) have been a great challenge for a syntactic theory,
because, despite the surface division between the pre- and post-copular elements,
the post-copular `pivot' behaves as if it occupied the gap position in the precopular
wh-clause. This paper argues that movement-based or deletion-based syntactic approaches
and purely semantic approaches have problems in dealing with syntactic properties
and connectivity problems of SPCs in English. Observing the parallelism between
SPC pivots and short answers to questions, it proposes an HPSG account based on
a non-deletion-based QDT (Question-in-disguise theory) approach and on the
equative analysis of the specificational copular sentences. The paper shows that
SPCs must be handled by an integrated account of the syntactic, semantic, and
pragmatic properties of the construction, and argues that the connectivity problems
should be approached from such an integrated view.
Maintained by Stefan Müller
Created: October 15, 2003
Last modified: November 24, 2003
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