Romanian auxiliary verbs exhibit certain peculiar properties that set them aside from other Romance counterparts. It will be suggested that the di erences between Romanian auxiliaries and French and Italian auxiliaries can be accounted for in terms of di erent syntactic structures. While in French and in Italian the auxiliary verb, the non nite one and the complements combine in a at structure,...

In this paper we apply some recent work of Angluin (1982) to the induction of the English auxiliary verb system. In general, the induction of finite automata is computationally intractable. However, Angluin shows that restricted finite automata, the kreversible automata, can he learned by efficient (polynomial time) algorithms. We present an explicit computer model demonstrating that the Englis...

In this paper I look at light verb, serial verb and auxiliary constructions crosslinguistically and try to set up criteria to distinguish these constructions. I argue that while a coherent set of properties can be found to distinguish light verbs from auxiliaries, it is more difficult to find crosslinguistic criteria which set serial verbs apart from light verbs and auxiliaries. This is because...

meaning. As Lehmann (1995[1982]:129) puts it, “[g]rammaticalization rips off the lexical features until only the grammatical features are left”. The original meaning of a grammaticalizing item plays an important role in its further development (Hopper & Traugott 1993:3). That is, the etymology of a grammaticalizing item constrains its subsequent grammatical functions. This property is called pe...

The BPS framework has, at face value, a number of shortcomings in dealing with phemona associated with the notion of V-raising. One is that it is not obvious that the characteristic subject-verb-adverb order (SVA) in French main clauses can be derived. The assumptions and mechanisms of BPS seem to allow only subject-adverb-verb (SAV), the pattern characteristic of English main clauses where the...

In the study of language acquisition following early brain damage, results have been divergent. On one hand, some studies claim that language eventually resumes to normal, whereas, on the other hand, studies show lasting deficits throughout development. Discrepancies in the results could arise from different etiologies and tests used. This study attempts to determine the extent to which the dev...

Langendoen (1977) advanced an argument against English being a context-free language involving cross-serial subject-verb agreement in respectively constructions such as (1). (1) The man and the women dances and sing, respectively. As noted by Pullum and Gazdar (1982), however, and acknowledged subsequently by Langendoen (personal communication), such examples are unacceptable, and the argument ...