Gary Thoms
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 792000 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Gary Thoms |
| PRENOMES | Gary |
| SOBRENOME | Thoms |
| ASSINATURA | THOMS G |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Glasgow |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5790-675X |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 14 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 43 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 14 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2010 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
‘When intuitions (don't) fail’
A perennial problem for sociolinguists interested in morphosyntactic variation is that such forms are often low frequency, making quantitative analysis difficult or impossible. However, sociolinguists have been generally reluctant to adopt methodologies from syntax, such as acceptability data gleaned from speaker intuition, due to the belief that these judgments are not necessarily reliable. In this article we present data from the Scots Syntax A…
Explaining microvariation using the Tolerance Principle
In this article, we describe and explain patterns of variation in acceptance of amn’t in varieties of Scots, drawing upon data from the Scots Syntax Atlas. Partly in line with findings from Bresnan (2001), we show that amn’t is much more widely accepted in inversion environments ( amn’t I ?) than in declaratives ( I amn’t ), but nevertheless, amn’t in declaratives is still accepted in certain regions of Scotland. We combine the productivity-based…
Inverse Linking and Extraposition
This squib makes the observation that inverse linking readings are dependent on extraposition of the embedded quantifier to a higher position within the nominal. Evidence comes from cases where there is an additional modifier in the nominal, which indicates whether or not extraposition has taken place; when the PP containing the second quantifier is not extraposed, it does not take wide scope of the embedding quantifier
Modals, negation and movement
This article addresses the question of how root necessity modals are able to take scope over negative operators. Previous work has argued that wide scope readings are derived by syntactic movement of the modal over negation. We argue against this view. Reviewing facts from a number of different languages, we show that the availability of wide scope readings is not conditioned by the clause structure in which the modal is embedded, and we show tha…
English contracted negation revisited
This article is concerned with the syntactic position of negation and how that connects to negation's morphological realization and semantic and pragmatic effects. We focus on the case of contracted negation in English, which may appear both before and after the grammatical subject, and which has been classically analyzed as involving a single syntactic element placed by syntactic rule into distinct linear positions. We argue that this analysis i…
Syntactic Variation and Auxiliary Contraction
This article is concerned with the distribution of contracted auxiliaries in English, in particular the re- striction against their occurrence in the immediate context of a gap created by movement or ellipsis. We document apparent exceptions to this restriction in varieties of Scots, all occurring in what we call the LOCATIVE DISCOVERY EXPRESSION. We analyse these as mirative constructions, and using new data from the Scots Syntax Atlas we descri…
Syntactic variation and auxiliary contraction
This article is concerned with the distribution of contracted auxiliaries in English, in particular the restriction against their occurrence in the immediate context of a gap created by movement or ellipsis. We document apparent exceptions to this restriction in varieties of Scots, all occurring in what we call the locative discovery expression. We analyze these as mirative constructions, and using new data from the Scots Syntax Atlas, we describ…
V P-fronting with and without remnant movement
In this paper, we consider two kinds of v P-fronting constructions in English and argue that they receive quite different analyses. First, we show that English v P-preposing does not have the properties that would be expected of a movement-derived dependency. Evidence for this conclusion is adduced from the licensing conditions on its occurrence, from the availability of morphological mismatches, and from reconstruction facts. By contrast, we sho…
Short answers in Scottish Gaelic and their theoretical implications
Ellipsis, Economy, and the (Non)uniformity of Traces
A number of works have attempted to account for the interaction between movement and ellipsis in terms of an economy condition Max- Elide. We show that the elimination of MaxElide leads to an empirically superior account of these interactions. We show that a number of the core effects attributed to MaxElide can be accounted for with a parallelism condition on ellipsis. The remaining cases are then treated with a generalized economy condition that…
Pseudogapping, Parallelism, and the Scope of Focus
In this paper I defend a particular analysis of pseudogapping in which the focused remnant is moved by leftward A′-movement (Jayaseelan, Gengel). Noting the superficial similarity between pseudogapping and stripping, I show that pseudogapping is much more restricted than we would expect if it were just another version of stripping, failing to apply across clause boundaries and allowing a much narrower range of remnants. I provide an analysis of t…
Syntactic identity, Parallelism and accommodated antecedents
MaxElide and Clause Structure in Scottish Gaelic
The Goidelic languages (Scottish Gaelic, Irish) have basic VSOX word order in finite clauses, and many authors have proposed that this order is derived by moving the finite verb to T, as in Romance, but leaving the subject in situ in Spec,vP (see McCloskey 1983, 1991, 1996, Ramchand 1997). The most compelling evidence for this structure—in particular, the proposal that the verb moves to T—is that the verb only moves in finite clauses; in nonfinit…
‘Verb floating’ and VP-ellipsis
In this paper I propose that ellipsis is licensed by overt movement. Examining variation in VP-ellipsis across English dialects, I show that movement is crucially implicated in whether or not a given element can license ellipsis. I discuss well-known restrictions on VP-ellipsis and present new data that shows that a movement-based account of these restrictions is superior to previous ones. I show that the proposed account can be extended to other…
Syntactic identity, Parallelism and accommodated antecedents
Ellipsis, Economy, and the (Non)uniformity of Traces
A number of works have attempted to account for the interaction between movement and ellipsis in terms of an economy condition Max- Elide. We show that the elimination of MaxElide leads to an empirically superior account of these interactions. We show that a number of the core effects attributed to MaxElide can be accounted for with a parallelism condition on ellipsis. The remaining cases are then treated with a generalized economy condition that…
V P-fronting with and without remnant movement
In this paper, we consider two kinds of v P-fronting constructions in English and argue that they receive quite different analyses. First, we show that English v P-preposing does not have the properties that would be expected of a movement-derived dependency. Evidence for this conclusion is adduced from the licensing conditions on its occurrence, from the availability of morphological mismatches, and from reconstruction facts. By contrast, we sho…
Pseudogapping, Parallelism, and the Scope of Focus
In this paper I defend a particular analysis of pseudogapping in which the focused remnant is moved by leftward A′-movement (Jayaseelan, Gengel). Noting the superficial similarity between pseudogapping and stripping, I show that pseudogapping is much more restricted than we would expect if it were just another version of stripping, failing to apply across clause boundaries and allowing a much narrower range of remnants. I provide an analysis of t…
English contracted negation revisited
This article is concerned with the syntactic position of negation and how that connects to negation's morphological realization and semantic and pragmatic effects. We focus on the case of contracted negation in English, which may appear both before and after the grammatical subject, and which has been classically analyzed as involving a single syntactic element placed by syntactic rule into distinct linear positions. We argue that this analysis i…
Syntactic variation and auxiliary contraction
This article is concerned with the distribution of contracted auxiliaries in English, in particular the restriction against their occurrence in the immediate context of a gap created by movement or ellipsis. We document apparent exceptions to this restriction in varieties of Scots, all occurring in what we call the locative discovery expression. We analyze these as mirative constructions, and using new data from the Scots Syntax Atlas, we describ…
Short answers in Scottish Gaelic and their theoretical implications
MaxElide and Clause Structure in Scottish Gaelic
The Goidelic languages (Scottish Gaelic, Irish) have basic VSOX word order in finite clauses, and many authors have proposed that this order is derived by moving the finite verb to T, as in Romance, but leaving the subject in situ in Spec,vP (see McCloskey 1983, 1991, 1996, Ramchand 1997). The most compelling evidence for this structure—in particular, the proposal that the verb moves to T—is that the verb only moves in finite clauses; in nonfinit…
Inverse Linking and Extraposition
This squib makes the observation that inverse linking readings are dependent on extraposition of the embedded quantifier to a higher position within the nominal. Evidence comes from cases where there is an additional modifier in the nominal, which indicates whether or not extraposition has taken place; when the PP containing the second quantifier is not extraposed, it does not take wide scope of the embedding quantifier
‘Verb floating’ and VP-ellipsis
In this paper I propose that ellipsis is licensed by overt movement. Examining variation in VP-ellipsis across English dialects, I show that movement is crucially implicated in whether or not a given element can license ellipsis. I discuss well-known restrictions on VP-ellipsis and present new data that shows that a movement-based account of these restrictions is superior to previous ones. I show that the proposed account can be extended to other…
MaxElide and Clause Structure in Scottish Gaelic
The Goidelic languages (Scottish Gaelic, Irish) have basic VSOX word order in finite clauses, and many authors have proposed that this order is derived by moving the finite verb to T, as in Romance, but leaving the subject in situ in Spec,vP (see McCloskey 1983, 1991, 1996, Ramchand 1997). The most compelling evidence for this structure—in particular, the proposal that the verb moves to T—is that the verb only moves in finite clauses; in nonfinit…
Syntactic identity, Parallelism and accommodated antecedents
Short answers in Scottish Gaelic and their theoretical implications
Ellipsis, Economy, and the (Non)uniformity of Traces
A number of works have attempted to account for the interaction between movement and ellipsis in terms of an economy condition Max- Elide. We show that the elimination of MaxElide leads to an empirically superior account of these interactions. We show that a number of the core effects attributed to MaxElide can be accounted for with a parallelism condition on ellipsis. The remaining cases are then treated with a generalized economy condition that…
Pseudogapping, Parallelism, and the Scope of Focus
In this paper I defend a particular analysis of pseudogapping in which the focused remnant is moved by leftward A′-movement (Jayaseelan, Gengel). Noting the superficial similarity between pseudogapping and stripping, I show that pseudogapping is much more restricted than we would expect if it were just another version of stripping, failing to apply across clause boundaries and allowing a much narrower range of remnants. I provide an analysis of t…
V P-fronting with and without remnant movement
In this paper, we consider two kinds of v P-fronting constructions in English and argue that they receive quite different analyses. First, we show that English v P-preposing does not have the properties that would be expected of a movement-derived dependency. Evidence for this conclusion is adduced from the licensing conditions on its occurrence, from the availability of morphological mismatches, and from reconstruction facts. By contrast, we sho…
Syntactic Variation and Auxiliary Contraction
This article is concerned with the distribution of contracted auxiliaries in English, in particular the re- striction against their occurrence in the immediate context of a gap created by movement or ellipsis. We document apparent exceptions to this restriction in varieties of Scots, all occurring in what we call the LOCATIVE DISCOVERY EXPRESSION. We analyse these as mirative constructions, and using new data from the Scots Syntax Atlas we descri…
Syntactic variation and auxiliary contraction
This article is concerned with the distribution of contracted auxiliaries in English, in particular the restriction against their occurrence in the immediate context of a gap created by movement or ellipsis. We document apparent exceptions to this restriction in varieties of Scots, all occurring in what we call the locative discovery expression. We analyze these as mirative constructions, and using new data from the Scots Syntax Atlas, we describ…
Modals, negation and movement
This article addresses the question of how root necessity modals are able to take scope over negative operators. Previous work has argued that wide scope readings are derived by syntactic movement of the modal over negation. We argue against this view. Reviewing facts from a number of different languages, we show that the availability of wide scope readings is not conditioned by the clause structure in which the modal is embedded, and we show tha…
English contracted negation revisited
This article is concerned with the syntactic position of negation and how that connects to negation's morphological realization and semantic and pragmatic effects. We focus on the case of contracted negation in English, which may appear both before and after the grammatical subject, and which has been classically analyzed as involving a single syntactic element placed by syntactic rule into distinct linear positions. We argue that this analysis i…
Explaining microvariation using the Tolerance Principle
In this article, we describe and explain patterns of variation in acceptance of amn’t in varieties of Scots, drawing upon data from the Scots Syntax Atlas. Partly in line with findings from Bresnan (2001), we show that amn’t is much more widely accepted in inversion environments ( amn’t I ?) than in declaratives ( I amn’t ), but nevertheless, amn’t in declaratives is still accepted in certain regions of Scotland. We combine the productivity-based…
Inverse Linking and Extraposition
This squib makes the observation that inverse linking readings are dependent on extraposition of the embedded quantifier to a higher position within the nominal. Evidence comes from cases where there is an additional modifier in the nominal, which indicates whether or not extraposition has taken place; when the PP containing the second quantifier is not extraposed, it does not take wide scope of the embedding quantifier
‘When intuitions (don't) fail’
A perennial problem for sociolinguists interested in morphosyntactic variation is that such forms are often low frequency, making quantitative analysis difficult or impossible. However, sociolinguists have been generally reluctant to adopt methodologies from syntax, such as acceptability data gleaned from speaker intuition, due to the belief that these judgments are not necessarily reliable. In this article we present data from the Scots Syntax A…
Philosophy (13 obras) · Linguistics (12 obras) · Computer Science (11 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (10 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (7 obras) · Natural language processing (7 obras) · Mathematics (5 obras) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (5 obras) · Philosophy (5 obras) · Programming language (5 obras)