Switch-Reference and Discourse Representation

by Lesley Stirling

Overview

In central cases of switch-reference, a marker on the verb of one clause is used to indicate whether its subject has the same or different reference from the subject of an adjacent, syntactically-related clause. In central cases of logophoricity, a special pronoun form is used within a reported speech context to indicate coherence with the source of reported speech. Lesley Stirling argues that these types of anaphoric linkage across clause boundaries cannot be adequately accounted for by Binding Theory. Her detailed examination of the two phenomena, including a case study of the Papuan language Amele, proposes an account for them which is formalized in Discourse Representation Theory, and explores how far it is possible for such an account to be compositional morpho-syntactic/semantic, while at the same time taking seriously the range of linguistic and cross-linguistic data to be explained.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521023436
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/24/2005
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Linguistics , #63
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	372
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; List of Abbreviations; 1. Switch-reference phenomena; 2. Functional extensions of switch-reference systems; 3. Theoretical conceptions of switch-reference; 4. Discourse representation theory and unification categorial grammar; 5. A discourse representation theory account of switch-reference; 6. Logophoricity; Notes; References; Index.