On a difference between English and Greek and its theoretical significance

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This paper tries to rethink the properties of two types of coordination
in English and Greek. It argues that the different behaviour of "and" and "with"
coordination in English are the result of the fact that while "and" does not
provide a syntactic label "with" does. In Greek, however, neither does resulting in different behaviours. If this is correct we have to accept two
higher level conclusions. First, that the (non)-labelling nature of a category
can capture linguistic variation and perhaps it is a parametric property.
Given that this is not an inflectional category, if I am correct then there
is evidence for variation that, although ultimately located in the lexicon if
we assume that there is a feature [LABEL], it concerns the only thing that is
determined internally to the computational system. The second conclusion,
connected directly to the first, is that labelling is a process necessary for the
syntactic computation and is neither determined by nor determines interface
properties.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFestschrift....
PublisherLanguage Science Press
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2019

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