Talk by Philipp Weisser (University of Potsdam)

by Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Philipp Weisser (University of Potsdam) in the Syntax Colloquium. The talk will take place on campus in IG 4.301. Title: The Limits of Umlaut in Sinhala: Matching domains across the syntax, morphology, and phonology (joint work with Paula Fenger, Leipzig University) Date: May 16 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Abstract: In this talk we study the patterns of verbal umlaut in the Indo-Aryan language Sinhala (spoken in Sri Lanka), which seems to be constrained by an intricate combination of (i) lexical, (ii) morphosyntactic, and (iii) phonological factors. We study this phenomenon and show that it can be used as a window into the morphological makeup of complex words. In particular, we defend  the following claims: 1. Contrary to some claims in the literature (see e.g. Garland 2005), we argue that the limits of umlaut show that Sinhala verb morphology is, underlyingly, concatenative and in order to describe where umlaut appears and where it doesn’t, we need to refer to the notion of the morpheme. 2....
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Talk by Imke Driemel (Humboldt University Berlin)

by Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Imke Driemel (Humboldt University Berlin) in the Syntax Colloquium. The talk will take place on campus in IG 4.301. Title:Implicit arguments and their morpho-syntactic effects Date: May 9 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Abstract: Implicit arguments are covert elements whose syntactic representations questioned in some way or another (Bhatt and Pancheva 2017). While much of the literature of implicit arguments is focused on thematic arguments such as PRO, pro, or the agent of passives, this talk will present two case studies on implicit non-thematic arguments: i) the perspectival center of the come/go alternation in the Northwest Caucasian language Adyghe, and ii) the speaker/hearer representation in allocutive marking languages of East Asia and South America. For i), it will be shown that the licensing of the perspectival center matches the language's strategy to signal PCC effects. For ii), we will investigate an interaction of gender and honorific marking which runs parallel to DOM effects. Not only will the case...
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Talk by Johannes Mursell (Goethe University Frankfurt)

by Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Johannes Mursell (Goethe University) in the Syntax Colloquium. The talk will take place in person. Title: Evidentials in German Date: April 25 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Room: IG 4.301 Abstract: In this talk, I discuss various properties of elements in German that have been argued to encode evidential meaning, i.e. meaning related to information source, such as the discourse particle wohl and modals sollen/wollen. Starting with the discourse particle wohl, various authors (Modicom, 2012; Göbel, 2018; Eckardt and Beltrama, 2019) argue that it serves as inferential evidential, suggesting that the source of the information expressed is based on reasoning from one’s knowledge. ✓ You’re asked where your keys are. You hear the noise of keys inside your bag. ✗ You’re asked where your keys are. You usually leave them in your bag but you can’t quite remember if you did this time. (1) Sie sind wohl in meiner Tasche.      they are WOHL in my bag     ‘They’re in my bag (I...
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Joint syntax and phonology colloquium (31.05.21 – 4-6pm)

by Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
Dear all, We are happy to announce a joint syntax and phonology colloquium with two WOCAL talks (http://2021.wocal.net/): Date: Monday,  31.05.2021 Time: 16-18 Location: Zoom:  Please register beforehand (k.hartmann@lingua.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom. Daniel Aremu & Frank Kügler: On the suspension of downstep – the case of Yoruba polar question intonation Abstract: In this talk, we present an analysis of tonal downstep in Yoruba declaratives and polar questions. Polar questions are formed in two different ways, either with sentence-initial question particles, or string-identical to statements. We show that downstep is not suspended in question intonation, which holds for all polar question formation strategies. This finding is contrary to claims made on downstep in questions (Hyman 2001).  Johannes Mursell & Katharina Hartmann: Selecting Alternatives in Eton Abstract: In this talk,  we provide a novel analysis of the augment in the Bantu language Eton, based on original fieldwork. We argue that in contrast to previous analyses, the augmentin Eton not only marks local modification of the noun but does...
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Syntax Colloquium 08.02.2021 – Nina Adam

by Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are very happy to announce the next talk in our syntax colloquium this term. Nina Adam (Göttingen) will talk about "Where do Czech clitics go, and why? A constraint-based analysis”. The talk will take place online, please see the information below on how to participate. Title: "Where do Czech clitics go, and why? A constraint-based analysis” Time : 08.02.2021, 4 pm Place: Zoom (If you are not a regular member of the syntax colloquium and if you would like to listen to this talk, please contact Katharina Hartmann. You will be sent a link / ID to Zoom.) Please find the abstract below. You are all, as always, cordially invited! ================== Where do Czech clitics go, and why? A constraint-based analysis In this talk, I will present the current status of my dissertation project on Czech clitic placement. I will give a short introduction into the properties of Czech second-position clitics and the challenges they provide for syntactic analyses. I will then argue that Czech clitics should...
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