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"Clause"
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De la transcatégorisation de CE en français médiéval : une histoire de vases communicants ?
The study describes a set of configurations in which CE (translated variously « this », « that » or « it ») is absent or present in the testimonials of the ancient language and compares them to the achievements of the contemporary language in order to draw the history of these constructions and to show the changes in the CE status. At the end of the study, the invariant CE appears as a perfect example of the transcategorisation phenomenon.
Journal Article
Investigating clausal wh-constructions in Romanian
Romanian has an articulated system of (non-)interrogative wh-clauses that look morphosyntactically similar or even identical to each other on the surface, while exhibiting striking differences in distribution and interpretation. Using a minimal set of criteria, tests and distinctions, this article presents the first systematic comparative overview of all clausal wh-constructions attested in Romanian. We show that none of these constructions can be reduced to any of the others and flesh out some of the challenges arising for a unified analysis of wh-constructions and wh-expressions.
Journal Article
Focus Construction with kî ʾim in Biblical Hebrew
This study uses modern linguistic theory to analyze a frequently recurring syntactic phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible that has thus far resisted explanation: כי אם.
The combination of the two particles כי and אם produces a construction that is notoriously difficult to describe, analyze syntactically, and translate. Dictionaries of Biblical Hebrew offer a dizzying variety of translations for this construction, including “that if,” “except,” “unless,” “but,” “but only,” and “surely,” among other possibilities. In this book, Grace J. Park provides a new approach that strives for greater precision and consistency in translation. Park argues that כי אם is used in three patterns: the “full focus” pattern, the “reduced focus” pattern, and the less common “non-focus” pattern. Her syntactic analysis of all 156 occurrences of the כי אם construction in the Bible lends greater clarity to the contested passages.
Drawing on recent linguistic research into the typology of clausal nominalization as well as previous work on contrastive focus, this innovative project provides important new insight into the syntax of Biblical Hebrew. It will be especially valuable for scholars seeking to translate כי אם more consistently and accurately.
eBook
Lexical P or functional Mood? Grammatical categories and mechanisms of clausal adjunction
The paper discusses mechanisms of clausal adjunction, that is, transforming a clause into a modifier with a specific interpretation (purpose, temporal, causal, etc.). It focuses on infinitival rationale clauses in Mari (Uralic), which can be headed simultaneously by a marker identical to the dative postposition (lan) and a complementizer (manən). Although in line with the popular P- approach to clausal adjunction (e.g., Landau 2021), analyzing lan as a P head is problematic because its distributional properties are atypical for an adposition and align closely with those of a clausal functional head, which prompts a question about its actual categorial status. I examine several ways to reconcile the P-approach with the Mari data, demonstrate that all these options face problems, and outline an alternative Mood-account. I propose that rationale clauses contain a MoodP with a teleological modal inserted as its head (spelled out as lan), which determines the semantic type and distribution of these clausal adjuncts—the presence of the modal allows rationale clauses to be used as modifiers predicated of the matrix TP. The paper contributes to the discussion of modifying clauses by showing that they can be regulated from within and offering a dual-strategy view that captures cross-linguistic variation; it further touches upon the issue of reanalyzing and grammaticalizing adpositions and ‘shifting’ grammatical categories.
Journal Article
Adverbial causal clauses as relative clauses
This paper investigates to what extent adverbial causal clauses and relative clauses can be reduced as one and the same phenomenon. Whereas causal clauses have always posed a challenge for a unified account of relativization and adverbial subordination in theoretical studies, typological research has long demonstrated that causal clauses are diachronically connected to relative clauses as well as to adverbial subordinates that have been theoretically analysed as relative clauses. We argue that at least some causal clauses are underlyingly relative clauses over situations (see Arsenijević 2021). Our claim is supported by the diachronic development of the Italian subordinator siccome ‘because/since’, an univerbated form morphologically composed of two items, the comparative-similative wh-pronoun come ‘how’ and the demonstrative adverbial pronoun sì ‘so’. We demonstrate that the causal subordinator is derived from the comparative-similative one via a three-stage diachronic change which is formally captured in terms of type of movement and null elements (Kayne 2005, Cinque 2020b). In so doing, our paper extends a relative clause analysis to causal clauses and adds a novel path to the diachronic development of causal clauses.
Journal Article
Escape from Noun Complement Clauses in Avatime
This paper discusses the status of island phenomena in Avatime, an endangered Kwa language of Ghana. We focus on clausal adjuncts, specifically noun complement clauses (NCCs). We show that while standard adjuncts are strong islands in Avatime, NCCs allow argument extraction. We suggest that this is related to the fact that NCCs in Avatime are not a type of relative clause. Instead, NCCs involve a kind of serial verb construction, which independently allows for extraction.
Journal Article
Should We Use Characteristics of Conversation to Measure Grammatical Complexity in L2 Writing Development?
Studies of L2 writing development usually measure T‐units and clausal subordination to assess grammatical complexity, assuming that increased subordination is typical of advanced writing. In this article we challenge this practice by showing that these measures are much more characteristic of conversation than academic writing. The article begins with a critical evaluation of T‐units and clausal subordination as measures of writing development, arguing that they have not proven to be effective discriminators of language proficiency differences. These shortcomings lead to the question of whether these measures actually capture the complexities of professional academic writing, and if not, what alternative measures are better suited? Corpus‐based analyses are undertaken to answer these questions, investigating 28 grammatical features in research articles contrasted with conversation. The results are surprising, showing that most clausal subordination measures are actually more common in conversation than academic writing. In contrast, fundamentally different kinds of grammatical complexity are common in academic writing: complex noun phrase constituents (rather than clause constituents) and complex phrases (rather than clauses). Based on these findings, we hypothesize a sequence of developmental stages for student writing, proposing a radically new approach for the study of complexity in student writing development.
Journal Article
The Structure and Functioning of Clauses in Upper Kuskokwim Conversational Discourse
Upper Kuskokwim (Athabaskan, Alaska) is a polysynthetic language with morphologically complex verbs involving pronominal affixes denoting clause arguments. One goal of this paper is to see how clauses in this kind of language are organized and operate in conversational discourse. This study is based on a dataset of transcribed conversations, arranged as sequences of elementary discourse units. The issues explored in this article include the structure of clauses, their functioning in discourse, the composition and expression of clause arguments and other participants, as well as an assessment of more and less typical clauses. I find that clauses are strongly aligned with elementary discourse units; that there is a preference for verb-centered, independent, and one-place clauses; and that lexically expressed arguments are rare. Overall, the clause is a viable notion for the description of Upper Kuskokwim conversational discourse. The specifics of clause structure and clause functioning in Upper Kuskokwim can be explained by a combination of general principles of discourse production and the typological features of the language.
Journal Article
Do State Bans of Most-Favored-Nation Contract Clauses Restrain Price Growth? Evidence From Hospital Prices
Policy Points Looking for a way to curtail market power abuses in health care and rein in prices, 20 states have restricted most‐favored‐nation (MFN) clauses in some health care contracts. Little is known as to whether restrictions on MFN clauses slow health care price growth. Banning MFN clauses between insurers and hospitals in highly concentrated insurer markets seems to improve competition and lead to lower hospital prices. Context Most‐favored‐nation (MFN) contract clauses have recently garnered attention from both Congress and state legislatures looking for ways to curtail market power abuses in health care and rein in prices. In health care, a typical MFN contract clause is stipulated by the insurer and requires a health care provider to grant the insurer the lowest (i.e., the most‐favored) price among the insurers it contracts with. As of August 2020, 20 states restrict the use of MFN clauses in health care contracts (19 states ban their use in at least some health care contracts), with 8 states prohibiting their use between 2010 and 2016. Methods Using event study and difference‐in‐differences research designs, we compared prices for a standardized hospital admission in states that banned MFN clauses between 2010 and 2016 with standardized hospital admission prices in states without MFN bans. Findings Our results show that bans on MFN clauses reduced hospital price growth in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with highly concentrated insurer markets. Specifically, we found that mean hospital prices in MSAs with highly concentrated insurer markets would have been$472 (2.8%) lower in 2016 had the MSAs been in states that banned MFN clauses in 2010. In 2016, the population in our sample that resided in MSAs with highly concentrated insurer markets was just under 75 million (23% of the US population). Hence, banning MFN clauses in all MSAs in our sample with highly concentrated insurer markets in 2010 would have generated savings on hospital expenditures in the range of $ 2.4 billion per year. Conclusions Our empirical findings suggest banning MFN clauses between insurers and providers in highly concentrated insurer markets would improve competition and lead to lower prices and expenditures.
Journal Article