David Pesetsky
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 751059 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | David Pesetsky |
| NOMBRES | David |
| APELLIDO | Pesetsky |
| FIRMA | PESETSKY D |
| AFILIACIONES | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1530-9230 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 17 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 58 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 17 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1982 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2023 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
Wh-which relatives and the existence of pied-piping
This paper describes and offers an analysis of a kind of relative clause acceptable to some English speakers that we call a wh-which relative, e.g. the snowmen whom (of) which the children loved. We propose that these relatives involve the movement of a phrase headed by an element that we call R, analogous to the Q posited by Cable (2010a, 2010b) for interrogatives — the optional of in the example above being an overt form of a special variant of…
Complementizer‐Trace Effects
Perlmutter observed that English wh ‐movement obeys a puzzling constraint: an asymmetry between subject extraction and non‐subject extraction that interacts with the complementizer system. While wh ‐extraction of a non‐subject from a finite embedded clause is compatible with the presence or absence of the word that introducing the clause, extraction of the subject is possible only when that is omitted: a. ✓ Who do you think that Sue met ____?/ ✓ …
Recursive misrepresentations
Levinson 2013 (L13) argues against the idea that ‘recursion, and especially recursive center-embedding, might be the core domain-specific property of language’ (p. 159), citing crosslinguistic grammatical data and specific corpus studies. L13 offers an alternative: language inherits its recursive properties ‘from the action domain’ (p. 159). We argue that L13’s claims are at best un-warranted and can in many instances be shown to be false. L13’s …
Russian Case Morphology and the Syntactic Categories
A proposal for a radical new view of case morphology, supported by a detailed investigation of some of the thorniest topics in Russian grammar. In this book, David Pesetsky argues that the peculiarities of Russian nominal phrases provide significant clues concerning the syntactic side of morphological case. Pesetsky argues against the traditional view that case categories such as nominative or genitive have a special status in the grammar of huma…
Evidence and Argumentation
Evidence and argumentation:A reply to Everett (2009) Andrew Nevins, David Pesetsky, and Cilene Rodrigues This discussion note is a brief response to Everett (2009, E09), which was a reply to our assessment (Nevins, Pesetsky, & Rodrigues 2009, NP&R) of Everett's (2005, CA) earlier claims about the Amazonian language Pirahã. An important (and somewhat hidden) feature of E09 is a set of new empirical assertions presented in defense of CA's hypothesi…
Pirahã Exceptionality
Everett (2005) has claimed that the grammar of Pirahã is exceptional in displaying 'inexplicable gaps', that these gaps follow from a cultural principle restricting communication to 'immediate experience', and that this principle has 'severe' consequences for work on universal grammar. We argue against each of these claims. Relying on the available documentation and descriptions of the language, especially the rich material in Everett 1986, 1987b…
The syntax of valuation and the interpretability of features
We present a proposal about the nature of agreement processes and the syntax of its output, and demonstrate that this proposal not only advances the overall understanding of agreement, but also contributes to a simpler view of various syntactic phenomena. At the heart of our proposal is a conception of agreement that draws on various traditions that view it as “feature sharing”. We combine this conception with a proposal that valuation and interp…
Property Delay (Remarks on “Phase Extension” by Marcel den Dikken)
1. Truth in unpackaging In his paper, den Dikken argues that several syntactic and semantic phenomena provide evidence for a package of proposals that includes the following four claims: (1) Phase Extension “Syntactic movement of the head H of a phase α up to the head X of the node β dominating α extends the phase up from α to β; α loses its phasehood in the process, and any constituent on the edge of α ends up in the domain of the derived phase …
Cyclic Linearization of Syntactic Structure
This paper proposes an architecture for the mapping between syntax and phonology – in particular, that aspect of phonology that determines the linear ordering of words. We propose that linearization is restricted in two key ways. (1) the relative ordering of words is fixed at the end of each phase, or ‘‘Spell-out domain’’; and (2) ordering established in an earlier phase may not be revised or contradicted in a later phase. As a consequence, overt…
Cyclic Linearization and its interaction with other aspects of grammar
Our proposal is concerned with the relation between an aspect of phonology (linearization) and syntax. In the picture that we had in mind, the syntax is autonomous – ‘‘it does what it does’’ – but sometimes the result maps to an unusable phonological representation. In this sense, linearization acts logically as a filter on derivations. We know of no evidence that the syntax can predict which syntactic objects will be usable by the phonology, and…
How Psychological Science Informs the Teaching of Reading
This monograph discusses research, theory, and practice relevant to how children learn to read English. After an initial overview of writing systems, the discussion summarizes research from developmental psychology on children's language competency when they enter school and on the nature of early reading development. Subsequent sections review theories of learning to read, the characteristics of children who do not learn to read (i.e., who have …
T-to-C Movement
The research of the last four decades suggests strongly that abstract laws of significant generality underlie much of the superficial complexity of human language. Evidence in favor of this conjecture comes from two different types of facts. First, there are cross-linguistic facts. Investigation of unfamiliar and typologically diverse languages is regularly illuminated by what we already know about other
The Maturation of Grammatical Principles
This article tests the hypothesis that young children have a maturational difficulty with A-chain formation that makes them unable to represent unaccusative verbs in an adultlike fashion. We report the results of a test of children's performance on the genitive-of-negation construction in Russian, which, for adults, is an "unaccusativity diagnostic," since genitive case is allowed to appear on the underlying direct object argument of unaccusative…
Phrasal Movement and Its Kin
This study investigates the types of movement and movement-like relations that link positions in syntactic structure. David Pesetsky argues that there are three such relations. Besides overt phasal movement, there are two distinct types of movement without phonological effect: covert phrasal movement and feature movement. Focusing on wh-questions, he shows how his classification of movement-like relations allows us to understand the story behind …
Zero Syntax
The lexicon - preliminaries, zero syntax linking problems with experiencer predicates - linking, an unaccusative solution to the experiencer-object problem, verbal passivization, athematic subjects - other discussion, the relation between subject and object position U(T)AH and the zero morpheme CAUS - causer versus target causer versus subject matter, a new problem - the target/subject matter restriction, zero morphemes a meteorology of emotions …
Topic … comment
Complementizer - Trace Phenomena and the Nominative Island Condition
Pirahã Exceptionality
Everett (2005) has claimed that the grammar of Pirahã is exceptional in displaying 'inexplicable gaps', that these gaps follow from a cultural principle restricting communication to 'immediate experience', and that this principle has 'severe' consequences for work on universal grammar. We argue against each of these claims. Relying on the available documentation and descriptions of the language, especially the rich material in Everett 1986, 1987b…
The Maturation of Grammatical Principles
This article tests the hypothesis that young children have a maturational difficulty with A-chain formation that makes them unable to represent unaccusative verbs in an adultlike fashion. We report the results of a test of children's performance on the genitive-of-negation construction in Russian, which, for adults, is an "unaccusativity diagnostic," since genitive case is allowed to appear on the underlying direct object argument of unaccusative…
Recursive misrepresentations
Levinson 2013 (L13) argues against the idea that ‘recursion, and especially recursive center-embedding, might be the core domain-specific property of language’ (p. 159), citing crosslinguistic grammatical data and specific corpus studies. L13 offers an alternative: language inherits its recursive properties ‘from the action domain’ (p. 159). We argue that L13’s claims are at best un-warranted and can in many instances be shown to be false. L13’s …
Complementizer - Trace Phenomena and the Nominative Island Condition
Topic … comment
Zero Syntax
The lexicon - preliminaries, zero syntax linking problems with experiencer predicates - linking, an unaccusative solution to the experiencer-object problem, verbal passivization, athematic subjects - other discussion, the relation between subject and object position U(T)AH and the zero morpheme CAUS - causer versus target causer versus subject matter, a new problem - the target/subject matter restriction, zero morphemes a meteorology of emotions …
Phrasal Movement and Its Kin
This study investigates the types of movement and movement-like relations that link positions in syntactic structure. David Pesetsky argues that there are three such relations. Besides overt phasal movement, there are two distinct types of movement without phonological effect: covert phrasal movement and feature movement. Focusing on wh-questions, he shows how his classification of movement-like relations allows us to understand the story behind …
How Psychological Science Informs the Teaching of Reading
This monograph discusses research, theory, and practice relevant to how children learn to read English. After an initial overview of writing systems, the discussion summarizes research from developmental psychology on children's language competency when they enter school and on the nature of early reading development. Subsequent sections review theories of learning to read, the characteristics of children who do not learn to read (i.e., who have …
T-to-C Movement
The research of the last four decades suggests strongly that abstract laws of significant generality underlie much of the superficial complexity of human language. Evidence in favor of this conjecture comes from two different types of facts. First, there are cross-linguistic facts. Investigation of unfamiliar and typologically diverse languages is regularly illuminated by what we already know about other
The Maturation of Grammatical Principles
This article tests the hypothesis that young children have a maturational difficulty with A-chain formation that makes them unable to represent unaccusative verbs in an adultlike fashion. We report the results of a test of children's performance on the genitive-of-negation construction in Russian, which, for adults, is an "unaccusativity diagnostic," since genitive case is allowed to appear on the underlying direct object argument of unaccusative…
Cyclic Linearization of Syntactic Structure
This paper proposes an architecture for the mapping between syntax and phonology – in particular, that aspect of phonology that determines the linear ordering of words. We propose that linearization is restricted in two key ways. (1) the relative ordering of words is fixed at the end of each phase, or ‘‘Spell-out domain’’; and (2) ordering established in an earlier phase may not be revised or contradicted in a later phase. As a consequence, overt…
Cyclic Linearization and its interaction with other aspects of grammar
Our proposal is concerned with the relation between an aspect of phonology (linearization) and syntax. In the picture that we had in mind, the syntax is autonomous – ‘‘it does what it does’’ – but sometimes the result maps to an unusable phonological representation. In this sense, linearization acts logically as a filter on derivations. We know of no evidence that the syntax can predict which syntactic objects will be usable by the phonology, and…
The syntax of valuation and the interpretability of features
We present a proposal about the nature of agreement processes and the syntax of its output, and demonstrate that this proposal not only advances the overall understanding of agreement, but also contributes to a simpler view of various syntactic phenomena. At the heart of our proposal is a conception of agreement that draws on various traditions that view it as “feature sharing”. We combine this conception with a proposal that valuation and interp…
Property Delay (Remarks on “Phase Extension” by Marcel den Dikken)
1. Truth in unpackaging In his paper, den Dikken argues that several syntactic and semantic phenomena provide evidence for a package of proposals that includes the following four claims: (1) Phase Extension “Syntactic movement of the head H of a phase α up to the head X of the node β dominating α extends the phase up from α to β; α loses its phasehood in the process, and any constituent on the edge of α ends up in the domain of the derived phase …
Evidence and Argumentation
Evidence and argumentation:A reply to Everett (2009) Andrew Nevins, David Pesetsky, and Cilene Rodrigues This discussion note is a brief response to Everett (2009, E09), which was a reply to our assessment (Nevins, Pesetsky, & Rodrigues 2009, NP&R) of Everett's (2005, CA) earlier claims about the Amazonian language Pirahã. An important (and somewhat hidden) feature of E09 is a set of new empirical assertions presented in defense of CA's hypothesi…
Pirahã Exceptionality
Everett (2005) has claimed that the grammar of Pirahã is exceptional in displaying 'inexplicable gaps', that these gaps follow from a cultural principle restricting communication to 'immediate experience', and that this principle has 'severe' consequences for work on universal grammar. We argue against each of these claims. Relying on the available documentation and descriptions of the language, especially the rich material in Everett 1986, 1987b…
Russian Case Morphology and the Syntactic Categories
A proposal for a radical new view of case morphology, supported by a detailed investigation of some of the thorniest topics in Russian grammar. In this book, David Pesetsky argues that the peculiarities of Russian nominal phrases provide significant clues concerning the syntactic side of morphological case. Pesetsky argues against the traditional view that case categories such as nominative or genitive have a special status in the grammar of huma…
Recursive misrepresentations
Levinson 2013 (L13) argues against the idea that ‘recursion, and especially recursive center-embedding, might be the core domain-specific property of language’ (p. 159), citing crosslinguistic grammatical data and specific corpus studies. L13 offers an alternative: language inherits its recursive properties ‘from the action domain’ (p. 159). We argue that L13’s claims are at best un-warranted and can in many instances be shown to be false. L13’s …
Complementizer‐Trace Effects
Perlmutter observed that English wh ‐movement obeys a puzzling constraint: an asymmetry between subject extraction and non‐subject extraction that interacts with the complementizer system. While wh ‐extraction of a non‐subject from a finite embedded clause is compatible with the presence or absence of the word that introducing the clause, extraction of the subject is possible only when that is omitted: a. ✓ Who do you think that Sue met ____?/ ✓ …
Wh-which relatives and the existence of pied-piping
This paper describes and offers an analysis of a kind of relative clause acceptable to some English speakers that we call a wh-which relative, e.g. the snowmen whom (of) which the children loved. We propose that these relatives involve the movement of a phrase headed by an element that we call R, analogous to the Q posited by Cable (2010a, 2010b) for interrogatives — the optional of in the example above being an overt form of a special variant of…
Linguistics (14 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (14 obras) · Philosophy (12 obras) · Computer Science (10 obras) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (8 obras) · Psychology (8 obras) · Syntax (6 obras) · Epistemology (4 obras) · Physics (4 obras) · Grammar (3 obras)