Hittite correlatives are paratactic

Hittite correlatives are paratactic

Blog Article

This paper argues that correlative constructions in Hittite are paratactically structured.The relative clause is essentially a clausal hanging topic, sitting at the left edge of the main clause in linear juxtaposition depileve easy clean without actually being an integrated part of it, syntactically speaking.I defend this claim in two stages.

First, I argue that correlatives in Hittite are base-generated in their left-edge position rather than derived through movement (as advocated for Hindi by, e.g., Bhatt 2003).

I adduce as evidence the fact that the main clause correlate appears to be simply a discourse anaphor and need not even be present in the construction; these observations are incompatible with a movement-based derivation that generates the relative clause as a modifier of the correlate.There is also evidence for a lack of locality effects.The second part of my claim, that Hittite correlatives are not syntactically integrated, differs click here from most base-generation accounts of correlatives, which take correlatives to be clausal adjuncts.

I support my position with parallels to hanging topics and peripheral adverbials (Haegeman 2012) and with examples of intervening non-subordinate clauses, and I offer some comments on why syntactic adjunction is less well suited to the Hittite situation.I also show that Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (Asher & Lascarides 2003) accommodates these structures, including some notably non- canonical ones, in a simple and principled way.