Dana Ott
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 313788 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Dana Ott |
| PRENOMES | Dana |
| SOBRENOME | Ott |
| ASSINATURA | OTT D |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Ottawa |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9573-2348 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 19 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 70 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 19 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1998 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Rethinking Right-node Raising
Despite decades of research on Right-node Raising (RNR), the phenomenon has remained elusive, seemingly defying the laws of syntax as we know it. This paper argues that this is so because RNR is not a bona fide syntactic phenomenon at all, but rather a paratactic configuration composed in discourse. RNR configurations consist of an unbounded sequence of potentially incomplete expressions whose prosodic realization provokes the expectation of a co…
Nominal appositives in grammar and discourse
In this article, we develop a theory of the form and interpretation of nonrestrictive nominal appositives (NAPs) by combining two recent syntactic and pragmatic approaches. Following Ott (2016), we assume that NAPs are independent elliptical speech acts, which are linearly interpolated into their host sentences in production. Building on insights in Onea 2016, we argue that NAPs make their pragmatic contribution as short answers to discourse-stru…
Recomplementation as a paratactic phenomenon
We provide a variety of empirical arguments in favor of a paratactic account of recomplementation constructions, in which a left-dislocated element appears in between two complementizers. Contrary to integrated analyses assuming Complementizer Phrase (CP) recursion or Rizzi’s split periphery, we assume that the dislocated phrase is structurally independent from the embedded clause it precedes, which in turn is an elliptical sentence fragment. The…
Swiping in a variety of Ontario French
This paper documents the existence of swiping – that is, inversion of a wh -phrase and its associated preposition under sluicing – in a non-Germanic language. We discuss swiping in a variety of Ontario French (Lafontaine French, LFF), which shares some of the characteristics of its extensively-studied English counterpart (Ross 1969, Merchant 2002, among others). We offer a preliminary description of swiping in LFF and consider some implications o…
Dislocations
Dislocation is a kind of construction in which a phrasal constituent (the dislocate) appears at the outer left or right edge of a gap-less clause (its host) that contains a pronominal correlate of the dislocate. Dislocations are widely attested and presumably universally available across languages. The construction raises a number of problems for core assumptions of syntactic theory, in that these assumptions appear to thwart any coherent resolut…
VP-fronting
While VP-fronting in English has various properties that are generally taken to be hallmarks of $$\overline A $$ -movement, other properties of the construction militate against an analysis in terms of displacement of VP to the clausal periphery. Such an analysis falls short of providing principled answers to the questions of why the trace of VP-fronting must be nominal, why certain kinds of morphological mismatches between the fronted VP and its…
Particles and Deletion
Much current theorizing analyzes ellipsis as a PF operation silencing designated syntactic domains from which focal constituents are extracted prior to deletion.1In many cases, this requires exceptional evacuation movements that are not observed-and often altogether illicit-in corresponding nonelliptical forms. We introduce a novel set of data involving modal particles in German that militates strongly against obligatory movement of ellipsis remn…
Contiguity theory by Norvin Richards
Reviewed by: Contiguity theory by Norvin Richards Dennis Ott Contiguity theory. By Norvin Richards. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016. Pp. 400. ISBN 9780262034425. $38. This book can only be described as a tour de force. In Contiguity theory, Norvin Richards juggles a mind-boggling amount of data from a diverse variety of languages and develops a complex theoretical framework with far-reaching implications for the theory of grammar. The result is by…
Strong Generative Capacity and the Empirical Base of Linguistic Theory
This Perspective traces the evolution of certain central notions in the theory of Generative Grammar (GG). The founding documents of the field suggested a relation between the grammar, construed as recursively enumerating an infinite set of sentences, and the idealized native speaker that was essentially equivalent to the relation between a formal language (a set of well-formed formulas) and an automaton that recognizes strings as belonging to th…
Right-dislocation as deletion
Fragment Anchors Do Not Support the Syntactic Integration of Appositive Relative Clauses
Connectivity in left-dislocation and the composition of the left periphery
This paper proposes a crosslinguistically uniform analysis of Left-dislocation constructions, according to which left-dislocated XPs are elliptical sentence fragments surfacing in linear juxtaposition to their host clause. The analysis is shown to provide a principled solution toCinque's Paradox: dislocated XPs are extra-sentential constituents akin to parentheticals while behaving in certain respects as having moved to their surface position fro…
Symmetric Merge and Local Instability
In this paper, I argue against the standard analysis of so-called split topics in German as discontinuous noun phrases (van Riemsdijk 1989). Building in part on Fanselow 1988, I show that the construction rather involves two morphosyntactically autonomous nominal constituents that are predicatively related in underlying form. This predication is syntactically unstable, however. Merge of twoXPs within a single argument or adjunct position yields a…
An Ellipsis Approach to Contrastive Left-Dislocation
This article proposes a novel analysis of contrastive left-dislocation (CLD), according to which the left-dislocated XP is a remnant of clausal ellipsis. This analysis makes sense of the otherwise paradoxical fact that the dislocated XP shows connectivity into the clause it precedes, while other properties betray its clause-external status. The paradox is resolved by analyzing CLD as a juxtaposition of two parallel clauses, the first of which is …
Local Instability
This monograph argues for a novel approach to split topicalization and quantifier float in German, based on the premise that syntactic structure-building proceeds solely via free application of Merge. Following recent developments in the pursuit of a more principled theory of syntax, it is argued that the stipulative notion of 'projection' ought to be dispensed with: syntactic objects created by Merge are not headed, and endocentricity arises due…
Thinking in the right direction
We propose to analyze right-dislocation constructions in terms of clausal coordination, coupled with ellipsis. While neither rightward movement nor base-generation of backgrounded and afterthought phrases is descriptively accurate, we show that the facts follow straightforwardly on an analysis that takes the dislocated phrase to be the surface remnant of a second clause that is underlyingly parallel to the host clause and reduced by ellipsis at P…
A Note on Free Relative Clauses in the Theory of Phases
January 01 2011 A Note on Free Relative Clauses in the Theory of Phases In Special Collection: CogNet Dennis Ott Dennis Ott Harvard University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Dennis Ott Harvard University. Online ISSN: 1530-9150 Print ISSN: 0024-3892 © 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2011 Linguistic Inquiry (2011) 42 (1): 183–192. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00036 Cit…
The electronic republic? The role of the Internet in promoting democracy in Africa
2000). The electronic republic? The role of the Internet in promoting democracy in Africa. Democratization: Vol. 7, The Internet, Democracy and Democratization, pp. 137-156
Power to the people
This paper presents an analysis of the role of electronic media in promoting the formation of democratic political regimes in Africa. With the dramatic expansion of various forms of electronic interchange, including electronic mail and the Internet, opportunities for communication across national boundaries, and cross-fertilization of ideas are greater than ever before. This article argues that access to electronic information can have a positive…
An Ellipsis Approach to Contrastive Left-Dislocation
This article proposes a novel analysis of contrastive left-dislocation (CLD), according to which the left-dislocated XP is a remnant of clausal ellipsis. This analysis makes sense of the otherwise paradoxical fact that the dislocated XP shows connectivity into the clause it precedes, while other properties betray its clause-external status. The paradox is resolved by analyzing CLD as a juxtaposition of two parallel clauses, the first of which is …
A Note on Free Relative Clauses in the Theory of Phases
January 01 2011 A Note on Free Relative Clauses in the Theory of Phases In Special Collection: CogNet Dennis Ott Dennis Ott Harvard University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Dennis Ott Harvard University. Online ISSN: 1530-9150 Print ISSN: 0024-3892 © 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2011 Linguistic Inquiry (2011) 42 (1): 183–192. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00036 Cit…
The electronic republic? The role of the Internet in promoting democracy in Africa
2000). The electronic republic? The role of the Internet in promoting democracy in Africa. Democratization: Vol. 7, The Internet, Democracy and Democratization, pp. 137-156
Right-dislocation as deletion
Connectivity in left-dislocation and the composition of the left periphery
This paper proposes a crosslinguistically uniform analysis of Left-dislocation constructions, according to which left-dislocated XPs are elliptical sentence fragments surfacing in linear juxtaposition to their host clause. The analysis is shown to provide a principled solution toCinque's Paradox: dislocated XPs are extra-sentential constituents akin to parentheticals while behaving in certain respects as having moved to their surface position fro…
Particles and Deletion
Much current theorizing analyzes ellipsis as a PF operation silencing designated syntactic domains from which focal constituents are extracted prior to deletion.1In many cases, this requires exceptional evacuation movements that are not observed-and often altogether illicit-in corresponding nonelliptical forms. We introduce a novel set of data involving modal particles in German that militates strongly against obligatory movement of ellipsis remn…
Symmetric Merge and Local Instability
In this paper, I argue against the standard analysis of so-called split topics in German as discontinuous noun phrases (van Riemsdijk 1989). Building in part on Fanselow 1988, I show that the construction rather involves two morphosyntactically autonomous nominal constituents that are predicatively related in underlying form. This predication is syntactically unstable, however. Merge of twoXPs within a single argument or adjunct position yields a…
Recomplementation as a paratactic phenomenon
We provide a variety of empirical arguments in favor of a paratactic account of recomplementation constructions, in which a left-dislocated element appears in between two complementizers. Contrary to integrated analyses assuming Complementizer Phrase (CP) recursion or Rizzi’s split periphery, we assume that the dislocated phrase is structurally independent from the embedded clause it precedes, which in turn is an elliptical sentence fragment. The…
Fragment Anchors Do Not Support the Syntactic Integration of Appositive Relative Clauses
Dislocations
Dislocation is a kind of construction in which a phrasal constituent (the dislocate) appears at the outer left or right edge of a gap-less clause (its host) that contains a pronominal correlate of the dislocate. Dislocations are widely attested and presumably universally available across languages. The construction raises a number of problems for core assumptions of syntactic theory, in that these assumptions appear to thwart any coherent resolut…
Power to the people
This paper presents an analysis of the role of electronic media in promoting the formation of democratic political regimes in Africa. With the dramatic expansion of various forms of electronic interchange, including electronic mail and the Internet, opportunities for communication across national boundaries, and cross-fertilization of ideas are greater than ever before. This article argues that access to electronic information can have a positive…
The electronic republic? The role of the Internet in promoting democracy in Africa
2000). The electronic republic? The role of the Internet in promoting democracy in Africa. Democratization: Vol. 7, The Internet, Democracy and Democratization, pp. 137-156
A Note on Free Relative Clauses in the Theory of Phases
January 01 2011 A Note on Free Relative Clauses in the Theory of Phases In Special Collection: CogNet Dennis Ott Dennis Ott Harvard University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Dennis Ott Harvard University. Online ISSN: 1530-9150 Print ISSN: 0024-3892 © 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2011 Linguistic Inquiry (2011) 42 (1): 183–192. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00036 Cit…
Local Instability
This monograph argues for a novel approach to split topicalization and quantifier float in German, based on the premise that syntactic structure-building proceeds solely via free application of Merge. Following recent developments in the pursuit of a more principled theory of syntax, it is argued that the stipulative notion of 'projection' ought to be dispensed with: syntactic objects created by Merge are not headed, and endocentricity arises due…
Thinking in the right direction
We propose to analyze right-dislocation constructions in terms of clausal coordination, coupled with ellipsis. While neither rightward movement nor base-generation of backgrounded and afterthought phrases is descriptively accurate, we show that the facts follow straightforwardly on an analysis that takes the dislocated phrase to be the surface remnant of a second clause that is underlyingly parallel to the host clause and reduced by ellipsis at P…
An Ellipsis Approach to Contrastive Left-Dislocation
This article proposes a novel analysis of contrastive left-dislocation (CLD), according to which the left-dislocated XP is a remnant of clausal ellipsis. This analysis makes sense of the otherwise paradoxical fact that the dislocated XP shows connectivity into the clause it precedes, while other properties betray its clause-external status. The paradox is resolved by analyzing CLD as a juxtaposition of two parallel clauses, the first of which is …
Connectivity in left-dislocation and the composition of the left periphery
This paper proposes a crosslinguistically uniform analysis of Left-dislocation constructions, according to which left-dislocated XPs are elliptical sentence fragments surfacing in linear juxtaposition to their host clause. The analysis is shown to provide a principled solution toCinque's Paradox: dislocated XPs are extra-sentential constituents akin to parentheticals while behaving in certain respects as having moved to their surface position fro…
Symmetric Merge and Local Instability
In this paper, I argue against the standard analysis of so-called split topics in German as discontinuous noun phrases (van Riemsdijk 1989). Building in part on Fanselow 1988, I show that the construction rather involves two morphosyntactically autonomous nominal constituents that are predicatively related in underlying form. This predication is syntactically unstable, however. Merge of twoXPs within a single argument or adjunct position yields a…
Right-dislocation as deletion
Fragment Anchors Do Not Support the Syntactic Integration of Appositive Relative Clauses
Contiguity theory by Norvin Richards
Reviewed by: Contiguity theory by Norvin Richards Dennis Ott Contiguity theory. By Norvin Richards. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016. Pp. 400. ISBN 9780262034425. $38. This book can only be described as a tour de force. In Contiguity theory, Norvin Richards juggles a mind-boggling amount of data from a diverse variety of languages and develops a complex theoretical framework with far-reaching implications for the theory of grammar. The result is by…
Strong Generative Capacity and the Empirical Base of Linguistic Theory
This Perspective traces the evolution of certain central notions in the theory of Generative Grammar (GG). The founding documents of the field suggested a relation between the grammar, construed as recursively enumerating an infinite set of sentences, and the idealized native speaker that was essentially equivalent to the relation between a formal language (a set of well-formed formulas) and an automaton that recognizes strings as belonging to th…
VP-fronting
While VP-fronting in English has various properties that are generally taken to be hallmarks of $$\overline A $$ -movement, other properties of the construction militate against an analysis in terms of displacement of VP to the clausal periphery. Such an analysis falls short of providing principled answers to the questions of why the trace of VP-fronting must be nominal, why certain kinds of morphological mismatches between the fronted VP and its…
Particles and Deletion
Much current theorizing analyzes ellipsis as a PF operation silencing designated syntactic domains from which focal constituents are extracted prior to deletion.1In many cases, this requires exceptional evacuation movements that are not observed-and often altogether illicit-in corresponding nonelliptical forms. We introduce a novel set of data involving modal particles in German that militates strongly against obligatory movement of ellipsis remn…
Swiping in a variety of Ontario French
This paper documents the existence of swiping – that is, inversion of a wh -phrase and its associated preposition under sluicing – in a non-Germanic language. We discuss swiping in a variety of Ontario French (Lafontaine French, LFF), which shares some of the characteristics of its extensively-studied English counterpart (Ross 1969, Merchant 2002, among others). We offer a preliminary description of swiping in LFF and consider some implications o…
Dislocations
Dislocation is a kind of construction in which a phrasal constituent (the dislocate) appears at the outer left or right edge of a gap-less clause (its host) that contains a pronominal correlate of the dislocate. Dislocations are widely attested and presumably universally available across languages. The construction raises a number of problems for core assumptions of syntactic theory, in that these assumptions appear to thwart any coherent resolut…
Nominal appositives in grammar and discourse
In this article, we develop a theory of the form and interpretation of nonrestrictive nominal appositives (NAPs) by combining two recent syntactic and pragmatic approaches. Following Ott (2016), we assume that NAPs are independent elliptical speech acts, which are linearly interpolated into their host sentences in production. Building on insights in Onea 2016, we argue that NAPs make their pragmatic contribution as short answers to discourse-stru…
Recomplementation as a paratactic phenomenon
We provide a variety of empirical arguments in favor of a paratactic account of recomplementation constructions, in which a left-dislocated element appears in between two complementizers. Contrary to integrated analyses assuming Complementizer Phrase (CP) recursion or Rizzi’s split periphery, we assume that the dislocated phrase is structurally independent from the embedded clause it precedes, which in turn is an elliptical sentence fragment. The…
Rethinking Right-node Raising
Despite decades of research on Right-node Raising (RNR), the phenomenon has remained elusive, seemingly defying the laws of syntax as we know it. This paper argues that this is so because RNR is not a bona fide syntactic phenomenon at all, but rather a paratactic configuration composed in discourse. RNR configurations consist of an unbounded sequence of potentially incomplete expressions whose prosodic realization provokes the expectation of a co…
Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (17 obras) · Computer Science (13 obras) · Linguistics (13 obras) · Philosophy (13 obras) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (9 obras) · Physics (7 obras) · Dislocation (6 obras) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (6 obras) · Artificial Intelligence (5 obras) · Grammar (5 obras)