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theses

In this dissertation, I investigate specificational copular clauses (Higgins 1973). My aim is to not only propose an analysis for how such specificational copular clauses are derived but also to use such constructions as a testing ground for evaluating and/ or revising different aspects of linguistic theory. The language I primarily use towards these ends is Tamil (Dravidian) although English (among others) plays a significant role. With respect to the analysis of specificational copular clauses, I use subject-verb agreement data from Tamil specificational copular clauses in order to support the claim that specificational copular clauses are inverted predications (Moro 1997, Mikkelsen 2004, den Dikken 2006). However, this is not to negate the claim that specificational copular clauses are equations (Jacobson 1994, Heycock & Kroch 1999, Sharvit 1999, Heller 2004). I propose that syntactic predication can be unified with semantic equation using somewhat standard notions of type-shifting (Partee 1987). I also exploit the fact that specificational copular clauses have a fixed Topic-Focus order (Heycock & Kroch 2002). In this respect, the general idea is similar to Mikkelsen (2004) but differs from her as I propose a semantic account of the facts that is compatible with her syntactic approach. I also investigate the behavior of (relatively neglected) specificational copular clauses with indefinite subjects and propose an analysis which is uniform with the analysis proposed for specificational copular clauses with definite and possessive subjects. In this dissertation, I also investigate what inverted constructions such as specificational copular clauses tell us about the way languages syntactically combine nodes. A recent theoretical advance with respect to this question is the Labeling Algorithm (Chomsky 2013, 2014) and I argue that inversion structures such as specificational copular clauses, and OVS reversals (like that found in Kirundi and Russian). In order to support this, I reanalyze Kirundi OVS reversal (Ura 1996, Ndayiragije 1999) where the richest evidence is found. Perhaps one of the most famous/ important properties of specificational copular clauses is that they exhibit connectivity. Here, I illustrate two different types of Tamil specificational copular clauses. Interestingly, one specificational copular clause exhibits only a proper subset of the connectivity effects exhibited by the other. I propose that this can be attributed to their different syntactic derivations which is independently motivated. I use these facts to investigate reflexive binding and propose that a comparison of English and Tamil reflexive connectivity suggests that the types of interpretations that reflexive pronouns have in English and Tamil differs.

ETD_7560

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Nagarajan Selvanathan

doi:10.7282/T3V40XH4

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.