Spell-out, spans, and the syntactic definition of word

Il prossimo 𝟯𝟬 𝗴𝗶𝘂𝗴𝗻𝗼 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮, il prof. Peter Svenonius (UiT Norges arktiske universitet / CASTL, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway) terrà un seminario dal titolo:

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗹-𝗼𝘂𝘁, 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱

 Aula Co-Working, Palazzo di Lingue h. 17.00-19.00

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁: It has proven so difficult to come up with a satisfying 𝗻𝗼𝗻-𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 ‘𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱’ that some linguists have taken to denying its very existence. Yet it seems obvious to everyone else that there are words, even if we find it difficult to define them precisely in a way that is relevant to syntax. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, according to which a word can be defined as a maximal X0 (i.e., an X0 which is not dominated by any other X0). However, syntactic head movement is theoretically problematic for a number of reasons. Some people have therefore suggested that head-movement is not syntactic, in which case it gets us no closer to a syntactic definition of word. It is therefore important to explore alternatives. One such alternative to head movement is based on the notion of 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀, 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. They are combined by External Merge, not Internal Merge. From the perspective of a span-based theory of spell-out, what we intuitively call 𝗮 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗻 that is spelled out in a single cycle. I show how this way of thinking about words is useful, compared to various alternatives.

Sarà possibile seguire anche tramite Zoom -> https://univr.zoom.us/j/8811202252