Cristina Schmitt

Cross-linguistic variation and the Present Perfect: The case of Portuguese

The Present Perfect in Portuguese has the curious property of forcing iteration of the eventuality described. This paper proposes an account of the iterativity in terms of selectional restrictions of the Present Tense and independent properties of the Perfect and argues against the account of Giorgi and Pianesi (1997) in which the Portuguese Present Perfect is treated as a complex of two main verbs.The Present Perfect in Portuguese has the curious property of forcing iteration of the eventuality described. This paper proposes an account of the iterativity in terms of selectional restrictions of the Present Tense and independent properties of the Perfect and argues against the account of Giorgi and Pianesi (1997) in which the Portuguese Present Perfect is treated as a complex of two main verbs.

The effects of scrambling on Spanish and Korean agrammatic interpretation: Why linear models fail and structural models survive

Several models of comprehension deficits in agrammatic aphasia rely heavily on linear considerations in the assignment of thematic roles to structural positions (e.g., the Trace-Deletion Hypothesis, the Mapping Hypothesis, and the Argument-Linking Hypothesis). These accounts predict that constructions in languages with rules that affect syntactic structure but preserve relative linear order should be unimpaired. Other models [e.g., the Double-Dependency Hypothesis, (DDH)] do not resort to linearity but are purely structural in conception and therefore should be immune to word-order effects. We tested linear and nonlinear accounts with scrambling structures in Korean and topicalization structures in Spanish. The results are very clear. The (nonlinear) DDH is entirely compatible with the evidence, but the linear accounts are not.

Variable Input and the Acquisition of Plural Morphology

The present article examines the effect of variable input on the acquisition of plural morphology in two varieties of Spanish: Chilean Spanish, where the plural marker is sometimes omitted due to a phonological process of syllable final /s/ lenition, and Mexican Spanish (of Mexico City), with no such lenition process. The goal of the study is to determine whether variable input for grammatical morphology affects the acquisition process. Does the ambiguous nature (sometimes present and sometimes absent) of a form affect acquisition? To address this question, Experiment 1 examines the production of the plural marker in Chilean- and Mexican Spanish-speaking children, and Experiments 2 and 3 examine childrens use of plural and singular indefinite noun phrases in comprehension. The results indicate that variable input affects acquisition, with Chilean children taking longer to acquire the plural marker than Mexican children.

Lack of iteration: Accusative clitic doubling, participial absolutes and have + agreeing participles

The goal ofthis paper is to present an analysis ofaccusative clitic doubling that can account for some of its traditional problems and also for a new problem related to its aspectual properties. The analysis I will be proposing is based on the assumption that the syntax of direct arguments crucially affects the aspect of a predicate since it crucially affects what is atAgrO by the time the terminativity of the VP is calculated.

An Experimental Study on Child Comprehension of Spanish Indefinites and Bare Singulars

Since the work of Carlson (1977), it is impossible to treat the bare plural dogs in English as the counterpart of the indefinite singular a dog. Whereas the indefinite singular in object position allows both wideand narrow-scope readings with respect to operators such as negation, bare plurals are always under the scope of negation. As is well known, Spanish has an indefinite singular that is identical in form to the number one (un auto ‘a/one car’). Moreover, in a more restricted but productive set of contexts, many dialects of Spanish allow bare singulars in object position. Much like bare plurals in English, Spanish bare singulars under negation (and other operators) only allow a narrow-scope interpretation, as illustrated in (1a). In (1a) the bare singular is within the scope of negation, and this sentence can only mean that the boy didn’t buy any dogs. The indefinite singular in (1b), on the other hand, has three possible interpretations: the indefinite can have a narrow scope (the boy didn’t buy any dogs), a wide scope (there is a particular dog the boy didn’t buy), or a number reading (the boy didn’t buy one dog, he bought more, two or three). In English, the latter reading is not possible with the indefinite a.

The Interpretation of Plural Morphology and (Non-)Obligatory Number Marking: an Argument from Artificial Language Learning

ABSTRACT We present an artificial language experiment investigating (i) how speakers of languages such as English with two-way obligatory distinctions between singular and plural learn a system where singular and plural are only optionally marked, and (ii) how learners extend their knowledge of the plural morpheme when under the scope of negation without explicit training. Production and comprehension results suggest that speakers of English did learn a system with only optional marking of number. Additionally, subjects did not accept an inclusive (“one or more than one”) interpretation of the plural when under the scope of negation, as in their native language, but rather assigned it an exclusive (“more than one”) interpretation. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the meaning assigned to plural morphology is sensitive to the architecture of the system. In a binary number system with obligatory number marking, plural morphology can sometimes receive an inclusive interpretation. However, in a system where plural marking is never obligatory, plural morphology has an exclusive interpretation.