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Chapter 3 - The Connectors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2022

Yafei Li
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

Categorially obscure words of relations, sometimes accompanied by semantic obscurity too, characteristically occur between the connected constituents regardless of the specific word-order setting of a language. This chapter investigates two kinds of such connectors, the conjunctions and the linkers. It is argued that the functional void of UG responsible for the grammatical behaviors of connectors is that UG cannot project any lexical item without a categorial specification. If a lexical item does not acquire a category for some independent reason, its consequential lack of syntactic representation leads to unique grammatical behavior dependent on the specific semantic relation it encodes. In the case of conjunctions, the symmetric nature of ‘and’ and ‘or’, triggering linear iconicity while restricted by the isomorphic implementation of the USM, results in representing conjuncts on parallel planes of which one is the “default” due to computational cost. It is this simultaneous symmetry–asymmetry enforced by the UG-iconicity interface that explains a large set of apparently self-contradictory traits of coordination. Linkers from Mandarin Chinese, Chamorro and Cantonese are analyzed in a similar manner.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • The Connectors
  • Yafei Li, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Book: Universal Grammar and Iconicity
  • Online publication: 03 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108885935.004
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  • The Connectors
  • Yafei Li, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Book: Universal Grammar and Iconicity
  • Online publication: 03 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108885935.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Connectors
  • Yafei Li, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Book: Universal Grammar and Iconicity
  • Online publication: 03 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108885935.004
Available formats
×