Syntax & Information Structure: The Grammar of English Inversions
Abstract
This dissertation examines the relationship between form and function in VP-initial word orders in English. While the questions at its core are old (questions of the interaction between syntactic form and discourse context), they are addressed here with the aid of tools only recently made available. Those tools are in the first place theoretical -- the Minimalist framework for syntax and a Question Under Discussion framework for formal pragmatics, but in the second place also methodological. The ability to search large electronic corpora for naturally produced data in full discourse context massively expands our ability to explore subtle interactions between syntactic form and discourse context. The goal of this dissertation is to exploit these new opportunities and in so doing to combine a technically sophisticated syntax with an equally sophisticated pragmatics in a way that gives serious consideration to both components of the grammar and, especially, to the often subtle ways in which they interact. The empirical focus is on Participle Preposing, as in (0.1a), and on VP Preposing, as in (0.1b):
(0.1) a. Topping the list for least affordable communities were Laredo, San Francisco and Manhattan.
b. ...but criticize him they did.
Much existing work on these constructions incorporates a more or less sophisticated elaboration of the Minimalist model of syntax, but is largely silent on the important question of what effect such complex syntactic mechanisms have on an unfolding discourse. The analyses developrd here aim to be serious about the syntax, but equally serious about developing a pragmatic (and semantic) analysis that is not tailored to the problem at hand but that rather has some independent grounding. The analysis is in turn built on a close examination of patterns which are instantiated across hundreds of inversions in hundreds of contexts. The combined approach leads to several important insights into the relationship between syntax and pragmatics and the overall picture that emerges is one in which the syntax makes both direct and indirect reference to discourse context.