Persian complex predicates and the limits of inheritance-based analyses

Bibliographic Data

ID10139806
AuthorsStefan Müller (0000-0002-6315-4125, Freie Universität Berlin, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume46
Issue3
Pages601-655
Publication date2009-11-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2267 • E-ISSN: 1469-7742
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022226709990284
OpenAlexW2032862690
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited52

Persian complex predicates pose an interesting challenge for theoretical linguistics since they have both word-like and phrase-like properties. For example, they can feed derivational processes, but they are also separable by the future auxiliary or the negation prefix. Various proposals have been made in the literature to capture the nature of Persian complex predicates, among them analyses that treat them as purely phrasal or purely lexical combinations. Mixed analyses that analyze them as words by default and as phrases in the non-default case have also been suggested. In this paper, I show that theories that rely exclusively on the classification of patterns in inheritance hierarchies cannot account for the facts in an insightful way unless they are augmented by transformations or some similar device. I then show that a lexical account together with appropriate grammar rules and an argument composition analysis of the future auxiliary has none of the shortcomings that classification-based analyses have and that it can account for both the phrasal and the word-like properties of Persian complex predicates

Argument (complex analysis · Grammar · Inheritance (genetic algorithm · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Negation · Noun · Persian · Phrase · Prefix · Word (group theory · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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