Workshop : Subordinate Clauses in Generative Linguistics

< id="m_-9214317746315140086yiv5267411227yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1487439020678_20132">From Chomsky’s (1957) generalised transformation approach to the recursive rewrite rules of Chomsky (1965), clausal embedding has played a central role in syntactic theory from the onset of the generative enterprise. < id="m_-9214317746315140086yiv5267411227yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1487439020678_20133">More recently, the theoretical implications of the (non-)availability of clausal embedding in Piraha, regarding core properties of the human language faculty, have been discussed in Everett (2005) and Nevins et al. (2007). < id="m_-9214317746315140086yiv5267411227yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1487439020678_20134">In both the philosophical and linguistic literature, embedded clauses have played a central role in theorising about questions of interpretation and composition. See, for example, Davidson (1968), Hintikka (1962) and more recent work aimed at decomposing embedding verbs initiated by Kratzer (2006). < id="m_-9214317746315140086yiv5267411227yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1487439020678_20135">There has also been an ongoing debate concerning the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic differences between main and subordinate clauses within and across various languages (Corum et al. 1973, Aelbrecht et al. 2012).