Nonfinite Inquiries: Materials for a Comparative Study of Nonfinite Predicative Domains

This study aims to develop a unified perspective on nonfiniteness, encompassing its morphological, syntactic, and semantic aspects, and takes advantage of the most recent developments in syntactic theory to provide tighter and more elegant analyses than previous accounts.

Format: Hardback
Length: 482 pages
Publication date: 06 March 2023
Publisher: De Gruyter

This comprehensive study seeks to establish a unified understanding of nonfiniteness, encompassing its multifaceted morphological, syntactic, and semantic dimensions. It particularly focuses on clause types that deviate from conventional infinitives, such as gerund clauses, Celtic verbo-nominal structures, Portuguese inflected infinitives, and Latin dominant participle constructions. By leveraging the latest advancements in syntactic theory, this research aims to provide fresh insights and more refined analyses. The concepts of defectiveness and completeness, the inheritance hypothesis, the labeling requirement, the syntactic definition of lexical categories, when combined together, offer a powerful framework for exploring nonfiniteness in greater detail and elegance.

The study investigates the nature and characteristics of nonfiniteness, exploring its various manifestations across languages and contexts. It examines the syntactic and semantic properties of nonfinitives, including their roles in sentence structure, information structure, and argument realization. The research also investigates the relationship between nonfiniteness and other linguistic phenomena such as aspect, modality, and tense/aspect systems.

By analyzing a diverse range of data from different languages, the study aims to develop a comprehensive theory of nonfiniteness that accounts for its diverse manifestations and interactions with other linguistic elements. The theory will be grounded in contemporary syntactic theory and will incorporate insights from other fields such as morphology, semantics, and cognitive linguistics.

The findings of this study will have significant implications for language research, language teaching, and language processing. They will provide a deeper understanding of the nature and functions of nonfiniteness, which is a crucial aspect of language structure and usage. The theory will also have practical applications in areas such as natural language processing, translation, and language acquisition, where a better understanding of nonfiniteness is essential for effective communication and language processing.

Weight: 902g
Dimension: 163 x 242 x 37 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783110769159