Eric Potsdam
Biographic Data
| ID | 737564 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eric Potsdam |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eric |
| FAMILY NAME | Potsdam |
| SIGNATURE | POTSDAM E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7455-2479 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 184 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Malagasy framing demonstratives and the syntax of doubling
Malagasy demonstratives appear simultaneously initially and finally within the DP and must be identical: ity boky ity ‘DEM book DEM’ “this book”. We argue that the unusual doubling pattern arises from multiple pronunciation of a single demonstrative formative and not from base-generation of two independent formatives. The primary goal is to show that doubling, which has been amply discussed in the verbal domain, particularly in the literature on …
The Malagasy phrasal comparative
There is no consensus in the literature on the analysis of phrasal comparatives. Both reduced clause analyses, in which the standard phrase contains elided clausal structure, and direct analyses, in which the standard of comparison is a direct complement to the standard marker, have been proposed. This paper argues for a direct analysis of the phrasal comparative in Malagasy, an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Madagascar. Evidence f…
Malagasy extraposition: Evidence for PF movement
Control Phenomena
Control phenomena have been at the center of syntactic theorizing almost since the inception of generative grammar. To first approximation, control is an interpretive dependency between two arguments: a lexicalized noun phrase (the controller) and a null argument in a dependent clause (the controllee), as in Sandy hopes [ ∅ to succeed] . The primary concerns of syntactic theories have been accounting for various characteristics of the null contro…
Left edge topics in Russian and the processing of anaphoric dependencies
This paper investigates the cost of processing syntactic versus extra-syntactic dependencies. The results support the hypothesis that syntactic dependencies require less processing effort than discourse-derived dependencies do (Reuland 2001, 2011; Koornneef 2008). The point is made through the analysis of a novel paradigm in Russian in which a preposed nominal stranding a numeral can show number connectivity ( paucal ) with a gap following the nu…
CP-Negation and the Domain of Quantifier Raising
It is widely stated that the scope of quantifiers is clause-bound (Chomsky 1977, May 1977, Farkas 1981, 1997, Fodor and Sag 1982, Aoun and Hornstein 1985, Beghelli 1993, Abusch 1994, Hornstein 1995, Fox and Sauerland 1997, and numerous others). This claim is based on the observation that (1a) has no reading in which reviewers covary with plays, while (2a) does. Current theories capture the contrast by making Quantifier Raising (QR), the covert sy…
Sluicing without wh-movement in Malagasy
The standard analysis of sluicing, in which wh-movement is followed by clausal deletion, predicts that sluicing should not be found in languages that do not have wh-movement. Such a conclusion has already been shown to be incorrect for a number of wh-in-situ languages, and it is also incorrect for the Austronesian language Malagasy, which exhibits a construction that has all the hallmarks of sluicing, despite the language being wh-in-situ. The ch…
Backward Raising
This paper documents and analyzes an instance of covert A-movement, specifically covert subject-to-subject raising, in the Northwest Caucasian language Adyghe. We argue that Adyghe has a subject-to-subject raising construction in which the subject of an unaccusative verb's complement clause undergoes A-movement into the matrix clause, but it does so covertly. We refer to this phenomenon asbackward raising. True backward raising is distinguished f…
Expressing exclamatives in Malagasy
This paper explores the syntax and semantics of the exclamative clause type in the Austronesian language Malagasy. Cross-linguistic considerations, distributional facts, and language-internal morphosyntax provide evidence that Malagasy exclamatives are syntactically nominal. All exclamatives are noun phrases, as in the English The things that he says! Unlike English, Malagasy has no clausal exclamatives. Based on the Malagasy data, the paper prop…
Against Covert A-Movement in Russian Unaccusatives
April 01 2011 Against Covert A-Movement in Russian Unaccusatives In Special Collection: CogNet Eric Potsdam, Eric Potsdam University of Florida Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Maria Polinsky Maria Polinsky Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Eric Potsdam University of Florida Maria Polinsky Harvard University Online Issn: 1530-9150 …
Austronesian verb-initial languages and wh-question strategies
Malagasy backward object control
Backward control is an obligatory interpretational dependency between an overt controller and a nonovert controllee in which the controllee is structurally superior to the controller: Meg persuaded Δ i [ Ron i to give up ]. It contrasts with ordinary forward control, in which the controller is structurally higher: Meg persuaded Ron i [Δ i to give up ]. Although backward control has been previously documented (Polinsky & Potsdam 2002a), clear case…
The syntax and semantics of wanting in Indonesian
Malagasy sluicing and its consequences for the identity requirement on ellipsis
Expanding the Scope of Control and Raising
This paper presents unusual patterns in raising and control and offers a syntactic account which would validate such patterns. On the empirical side, we present evidence for backward control (data from several languages), backward raising (in Adyghe), copy control (Zapotec, Assamese, Tongan) and copy raising (data from a number of languages). All the unusual cases of raising and control seem to involve an A-movement chain in which the lower, not …
More concealed pseudoclefts in Malagasy and the Clausal Typing Hypothesis
Wh-questions in Malagasy
Wh-questions in Malagasy consist of a clause-initial wh-phrase followed by an invariant particle and then the remainder of the clause. This paper considers the structural analysis of Malagasy wh-questions and argues for a biclausal cleft analysis in which the initial wh-phrase is a predicate and the remaining material is a headless relative in subject position. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces some basic facts about Malagas…
Malagasy Control and Its Theoretical Implications
Backward Control
This article documents and analyzes a pattern of backward subject control in the Nakh-Daghestanian language Tsez. In backward control two subject arguments are coindexed but it is the higher subject that is unpronounced: δitried [Johni to leave]. The principles-and-parameters framework (Chomsky and Lasnik 1993) explicitly rules out backward control. In contrast, recent minimalist analyses of control (e.g., Hornstein 1999) permit backward control …
Long-Distance Agreement And Topic In Tsez
Adverb Placement: A Case Study in Antisymmetric Syntax
This monograph investigates a number of central issues in the Syntax of Adverbs with special reference to Greek in the light of Kayne's (1994) Antisymmetry Hypothesis. It examines the conditions on the placement of the various adverb types, their licensing requirements, and their relation to adjectives. The author advances an analysis according to which adverbs are licensed as Specifiers of functional projections in the clausal domain. As such, t…
Word Order Patterns in Early Modern English
English Syntax and Argumentation
Long-Distance Agreement And Topic In Tsez
Backward Control
This article documents and analyzes a pattern of backward subject control in the Nakh-Daghestanian language Tsez. In backward control two subject arguments are coindexed but it is the higher subject that is unpronounced: δitried [Johni to leave]. The principles-and-parameters framework (Chomsky and Lasnik 1993) explicitly rules out backward control. In contrast, recent minimalist analyses of control (e.g., Hornstein 1999) permit backward control …
More concealed pseudoclefts in Malagasy and the Clausal Typing Hypothesis
Expanding the Scope of Control and Raising
This paper presents unusual patterns in raising and control and offers a syntactic account which would validate such patterns. On the empirical side, we present evidence for backward control (data from several languages), backward raising (in Adyghe), copy control (Zapotec, Assamese, Tongan) and copy raising (data from a number of languages). All the unusual cases of raising and control seem to involve an A-movement chain in which the lower, not …
Malagasy sluicing and its consequences for the identity requirement on ellipsis
Austronesian verb-initial languages and wh-question strategies
Backward Raising
This paper documents and analyzes an instance of covert A-movement, specifically covert subject-to-subject raising, in the Northwest Caucasian language Adyghe. We argue that Adyghe has a subject-to-subject raising construction in which the subject of an unaccusative verb's complement clause undergoes A-movement into the matrix clause, but it does so covertly. We refer to this phenomenon asbackward raising. True backward raising is distinguished f…
Left edge topics in Russian and the processing of anaphoric dependencies
This paper investigates the cost of processing syntactic versus extra-syntactic dependencies. The results support the hypothesis that syntactic dependencies require less processing effort than discourse-derived dependencies do (Reuland 2001, 2011; Koornneef 2008). The point is made through the analysis of a novel paradigm in Russian in which a preposed nominal stranding a numeral can show number connectivity ( paucal ) with a gap following the nu…
Malagasy backward object control
Backward control is an obligatory interpretational dependency between an overt controller and a nonovert controllee in which the controllee is structurally superior to the controller: Meg persuaded Δ i [ Ron i to give up ]. It contrasts with ordinary forward control, in which the controller is structurally higher: Meg persuaded Ron i [Δ i to give up ]. Although backward control has been previously documented (Polinsky & Potsdam 2002a), clear case…
Against Covert A-Movement in Russian Unaccusatives
April 01 2011 Against Covert A-Movement in Russian Unaccusatives In Special Collection: CogNet Eric Potsdam, Eric Potsdam University of Florida Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Maria Polinsky Maria Polinsky Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Eric Potsdam University of Florida Maria Polinsky Harvard University Online Issn: 1530-9150 …
The syntax and semantics of wanting in Indonesian
Malagasy Control and Its Theoretical Implications
Malagasy extraposition: Evidence for PF movement
CP-Negation and the Domain of Quantifier Raising
It is widely stated that the scope of quantifiers is clause-bound (Chomsky 1977, May 1977, Farkas 1981, 1997, Fodor and Sag 1982, Aoun and Hornstein 1985, Beghelli 1993, Abusch 1994, Hornstein 1995, Fox and Sauerland 1997, and numerous others). This claim is based on the observation that (1a) has no reading in which reviewers covary with plays, while (2a) does. Current theories capture the contrast by making Quantifier Raising (QR), the covert sy…
English Syntax and Argumentation
Adverb Placement: A Case Study in Antisymmetric Syntax
This monograph investigates a number of central issues in the Syntax of Adverbs with special reference to Greek in the light of Kayne's (1994) Antisymmetry Hypothesis. It examines the conditions on the placement of the various adverb types, their licensing requirements, and their relation to adjectives. The author advances an analysis according to which adverbs are licensed as Specifiers of functional projections in the clausal domain. As such, t…
Word Order Patterns in Early Modern English
Long-Distance Agreement And Topic In Tsez
Backward Control
This article documents and analyzes a pattern of backward subject control in the Nakh-Daghestanian language Tsez. In backward control two subject arguments are coindexed but it is the higher subject that is unpronounced: δitried [Johni to leave]. The principles-and-parameters framework (Chomsky and Lasnik 1993) explicitly rules out backward control. In contrast, recent minimalist analyses of control (e.g., Hornstein 1999) permit backward control …
Wh-questions in Malagasy
Wh-questions in Malagasy consist of a clause-initial wh-phrase followed by an invariant particle and then the remainder of the clause. This paper considers the structural analysis of Malagasy wh-questions and argues for a biclausal cleft analysis in which the initial wh-phrase is a predicate and the remaining material is a headless relative in subject position. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces some basic facts about Malagas…
Malagasy Control and Its Theoretical Implications
Expanding the Scope of Control and Raising
This paper presents unusual patterns in raising and control and offers a syntactic account which would validate such patterns. On the empirical side, we present evidence for backward control (data from several languages), backward raising (in Adyghe), copy control (Zapotec, Assamese, Tongan) and copy raising (data from a number of languages). All the unusual cases of raising and control seem to involve an A-movement chain in which the lower, not …
More concealed pseudoclefts in Malagasy and the Clausal Typing Hypothesis
Malagasy sluicing and its consequences for the identity requirement on ellipsis
The syntax and semantics of wanting in Indonesian
Austronesian verb-initial languages and wh-question strategies
Malagasy backward object control
Backward control is an obligatory interpretational dependency between an overt controller and a nonovert controllee in which the controllee is structurally superior to the controller: Meg persuaded Δ i [ Ron i to give up ]. It contrasts with ordinary forward control, in which the controller is structurally higher: Meg persuaded Ron i [Δ i to give up ]. Although backward control has been previously documented (Polinsky & Potsdam 2002a), clear case…
Expressing exclamatives in Malagasy
This paper explores the syntax and semantics of the exclamative clause type in the Austronesian language Malagasy. Cross-linguistic considerations, distributional facts, and language-internal morphosyntax provide evidence that Malagasy exclamatives are syntactically nominal. All exclamatives are noun phrases, as in the English The things that he says! Unlike English, Malagasy has no clausal exclamatives. Based on the Malagasy data, the paper prop…
Against Covert A-Movement in Russian Unaccusatives
April 01 2011 Against Covert A-Movement in Russian Unaccusatives In Special Collection: CogNet Eric Potsdam, Eric Potsdam University of Florida Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Maria Polinsky Maria Polinsky Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Eric Potsdam University of Florida Maria Polinsky Harvard University Online Issn: 1530-9150 …
Sluicing without wh-movement in Malagasy
The standard analysis of sluicing, in which wh-movement is followed by clausal deletion, predicts that sluicing should not be found in languages that do not have wh-movement. Such a conclusion has already been shown to be incorrect for a number of wh-in-situ languages, and it is also incorrect for the Austronesian language Malagasy, which exhibits a construction that has all the hallmarks of sluicing, despite the language being wh-in-situ. The ch…
Backward Raising
This paper documents and analyzes an instance of covert A-movement, specifically covert subject-to-subject raising, in the Northwest Caucasian language Adyghe. We argue that Adyghe has a subject-to-subject raising construction in which the subject of an unaccusative verb's complement clause undergoes A-movement into the matrix clause, but it does so covertly. We refer to this phenomenon asbackward raising. True backward raising is distinguished f…
CP-Negation and the Domain of Quantifier Raising
It is widely stated that the scope of quantifiers is clause-bound (Chomsky 1977, May 1977, Farkas 1981, 1997, Fodor and Sag 1982, Aoun and Hornstein 1985, Beghelli 1993, Abusch 1994, Hornstein 1995, Fox and Sauerland 1997, and numerous others). This claim is based on the observation that (1a) has no reading in which reviewers covary with plays, while (2a) does. Current theories capture the contrast by making Quantifier Raising (QR), the covert sy…
Left edge topics in Russian and the processing of anaphoric dependencies
This paper investigates the cost of processing syntactic versus extra-syntactic dependencies. The results support the hypothesis that syntactic dependencies require less processing effort than discourse-derived dependencies do (Reuland 2001, 2011; Koornneef 2008). The point is made through the analysis of a novel paradigm in Russian in which a preposed nominal stranding a numeral can show number connectivity ( paucal ) with a gap following the nu…
Control Phenomena
Control phenomena have been at the center of syntactic theorizing almost since the inception of generative grammar. To first approximation, control is an interpretive dependency between two arguments: a lexicalized noun phrase (the controller) and a null argument in a dependent clause (the controllee), as in Sandy hopes [ ∅ to succeed] . The primary concerns of syntactic theories have been accounting for various characteristics of the null contro…
Malagasy extraposition: Evidence for PF movement
Malagasy framing demonstratives and the syntax of doubling
Malagasy demonstratives appear simultaneously initially and finally within the DP and must be identical: ity boky ity ‘DEM book DEM’ “this book”. We argue that the unusual doubling pattern arises from multiple pronunciation of a single demonstrative formative and not from base-generation of two independent formatives. The primary goal is to show that doubling, which has been amply discussed in the verbal domain, particularly in the literature on …
The Malagasy phrasal comparative
There is no consensus in the literature on the analysis of phrasal comparatives. Both reduced clause analyses, in which the standard phrase contains elided clausal structure, and direct analyses, in which the standard of comparison is a direct complement to the standard marker, have been proposed. This paper argues for a direct analysis of the phrasal comparative in Malagasy, an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Madagascar. Evidence f…
Computer Science (19 works) · Linguistics (18 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (18 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (13 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (7 works) · Artificial Intelligence (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Mathematics (5 works)