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Phrase structure and verb movement in Hebrew and English imperatives Strauss, Uri Neill
Abstract
This thesis investigates two questions about imperatives. The first is whether their phrase structure is similar to or different from the phrase structure of declaratives. The second is what the movement properties of imperative verbs are, and whether they are the same as the movement properties of other verb types. Both of these questions are investigated in English and Hebrew. It is shown that Hebrew has three distinct types of syntactic imperatives, each corresponding to a different morphological paradigm - one uniquely imperative, one identical to the future tense, and one identical to the infinitive. A variety of tests in the two languages, including licensing of negative polarity items, occurrence of VP ellipsis, and the presence of a subject/object asymmetry in embedded negatives, provide evidence that imperative phrase structure is essentially the same as the basic phrase structure of declarative clauses familiar from the syntactic literature. To test the extent of verb movement, a three-way distinction in adverb types is proposed, and the position of the verb is determined by its placement relative to each type of adverb. This test shows that in English, imperative verbs move to the same extent that other nonfinite verbs do, while in Hebrew, imperatives have unique movement properties, and are forced to raise higher than finite or infinitive verbs are.
Item Metadata
Title |
Phrase structure and verb movement in Hebrew and English imperatives
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2000
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Description |
This thesis investigates two questions about imperatives. The
first is whether their phrase structure is similar to or different
from the phrase structure of declaratives. The second is what the
movement properties of imperative verbs are, and whether they
are the same as the movement properties of other verb types.
Both of these questions are investigated in English and Hebrew.
It is shown that Hebrew has three distinct types of syntactic
imperatives, each corresponding to a different morphological
paradigm - one uniquely imperative, one identical to the future
tense, and one identical to the infinitive. A variety of tests in the
two languages, including licensing of negative polarity items,
occurrence of VP ellipsis, and the presence of a subject/object
asymmetry in embedded negatives, provide evidence that
imperative phrase structure is essentially the same as the basic
phrase structure of declarative clauses familiar from the syntactic
literature. To test the extent of verb movement, a three-way
distinction in adverb types is proposed, and the position of the
verb is determined by its placement relative to each type of
adverb. This test shows that in English, imperative verbs move to
the same extent that other nonfinite verbs do, while in Hebrew,
imperatives have unique movement properties, and are forced to
raise higher than finite or infinitive verbs are.
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Extent |
3800441 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-07-07
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0089419
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2000-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.