satzstrukturen

• generative linguistics
• functional syntax, information structure
• sentence syntax (intra- and inter-clausal)
• syntax-information structure/discourse interface
• cartographic approach to syntax
• finiteness
• sentence typology, sentence mood (force)

I'm going to conduct my PhD project at the graduate school "Satzarten: Variation und Interpretation" ("Sentence types: variation and interpretation") at the University of Frankfurt, supervised by Günther Grewendorf. I intend to examine the syntactic structure of the C-domain, in particular with respect to the syntactic representation of finiteness, taking up some loose ends of my MA thesis.

A still preliminary and already outdated sketch can be found here. I've come to realise, though, that my project's in constant fluctuation...

My MA thesis is about a certain type of cross-linguistically attested root infinitives, so-called adult root infinitives (ARIs; cf. Grohmann & Etxepare 2003). These represent an interesting linguistic phenomenon since they constitute non-finite matrix structures, i.e. approx. main clauses, commonly (and insufficiently, in my view) labelled as discourse fragments or rhetoric figures (or as constructions in the constructionist sense). The following is a typical example to be read with final rising intonation signalling a pragmatic value of incredulity towards the previous utterance's propositional content (phew...).

Look! He's reading a book. – What!? Him read a book?! Never! He only reads linguistic journals.

In my thesis, I have tried to show that a principle-based syntactic description of ARIs employing the theorems available in the minimalist syntax framework is not only feasible (contra Akmajian 1984, Lambrecht 1990, Progovac 2006; to a lesser degree also contra Etxepare & Grohmann 2003 et seq.), but moreover desireable in the light of their finiteness and sentence mood properties. Thus, a relativised cartographic approach (CP = ForceP > FinP) and a functional category Fin° encoding the finiteness status of clauses enables an analysis of ARIs as CPs (i.e. ForcePs).

A revised version of my MA thesis is downloadable as PDF.

[NB: My views on the syntax of ARIs have somewhat changed since the completion of my MA thesis. My updated opinion can soon be found in the PAPERS/TALKS section...]