Copular Sentences

Bibliographic Data

ID23707141
AuthorsAndrea Moro (0000-0002-6602-5871, Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia, corresponding author)
Year2017
Pages1-23
Publication date2017-11-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeOTHER
VenueThe Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition (JOURNAL)
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781118358733.wbsyncom043
OpenAlexW4240080177
ISBN9781118358733
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

After a short theoretical and historical introduction to the notion of existential sentence, there ‐sentences are introduced and their peculiar syntactic properties are illustrated in detail. Two symmetrical accounts are presented as competing to explain these properties: the standard account; and an alternative one, which appears to capture the empirical data in a new, comprehensive fashion, by regarding there ‐sentences as inverse copular sentences. A discussion of the so‐called “definiteness effect” is finally introduced showing how there‐ sentences still challenge dramatically some major issues of theoretical syntax, including the existence of semantic parameters.

Definiteness · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Semantic property · Sentence · Syntax · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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