WHO:	Jean-Pierre Koenig , Professor, Dept. of Linguistics, SUNY Buffalo
TOPIC:	The limits of dissociation between linear order and scope
ABSTRACT:	The scope of (non-quantificational) operators often matches their linear order in fixed word order languages. In SVO languages, if they are syntactic heads, their scope matches their left-to-right order, and if they are syntactic adjuncts, their scope might be right-to-left or left-to-right. This paper will present data from Thai that shows that the order of (aspectual/temporal) operators in this SVO language can be much more dissociated from linear order. Thai has at least 17 aspect markers. To simplify, these operators can occur in three kinds of surface pattern with respect to the main VP: (a) Some occur before the main VP (OP_1 OP_2 VP) and their scope is left-to-right; (b) Some occur after the main VP (VP OP_4 OP_3), and their scope is right-to-left; (c) Those that occur before the main VP can also occur after it in some cases (VP OP_1 OP_2 OP_4 OP_3), but their scope remains left-to-right. The relative scope of operators and the main VP in this latter case is thus: OP_1 > OP_2 > OP_3 > OP_4 > VP (Œ>‚ represents the outscoping relation). Such mismatches between linear order and scope clearly challenge hypotheses of a Universal linear order to scope correspondence (Kayne (1994), Cinque (1999)). After an introduction to Minimal Recursion Semantics (Copestake et al. 1999) and the relevant portion of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Pollard and Sag 1994), I will present an analysis of this data set that relies on two crucial HPSG hypotheses: (a) Syntactic modifiers syntactically and semantically select the expression they modify; (b) „selection‰ composition (composition of arguments or modified expressions) is lexically driven. I will then show that the striking dissociation between linear order and scope found in Thai does not mean any kind of variation between linear order and scope of aspectual operators is possible. What one finds in Thai is exactly what is predicted to be possible if function composition of the kind found in Combinatory Categorial Grammar (Steedman, 2000) and HPSG is part of the inventory of possible syntactic/semantic operations.
WHEN:	4/18/2003 4:00:00 PM
WHERE:	Meliora 269

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