Copular Sentences
Andrea Moro,
Andrea Moro
Institute for Advanced Studies of Pavia, Center for Neurocognition, Epistemology and Theoretical Syntax, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorAndrea Moro,
Andrea Moro
Institute for Advanced Studies of Pavia, Center for Neurocognition, Epistemology and Theoretical Syntax, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
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.
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Citing Literature
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition
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