The Even Yearbook 16 (2024)

Yue Xing and Marcel den Dikken
Ā-dependencies in conditionals: The view from Mandarin
The Even Yearbook 16: 1–13 ⟨#119⟩
⟨abstract⟩ Mandarin Chinese conditional ‘if’-clauses are introduced by ru, optionally combined with guo. The two versions differ concerning their tolerance of focus and topic fronting: ‘bare’ ru is compatible with focus on the subject but allows focus fronting of non-subjects only marginally, and strongly resists topic fronting; ru guo conditionals, by contrast, are consistently tolerant of focus, and enable topic fronting to the same extent that topicalization is permitted in clauses that serve as complements of matrix factive predicates. The paper proposes an explanatory syntactic analysis of the restriction imposed on focus and topic fronting on Mandarin conditional clauses, embedded within a principled syntax of conditionals, focus fronting, and topic fronting.
⟨keywords⟩ Mandarin conditionals, Ā-dependency, ‘even’ focalization, topic fronting
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Rami Al-Wardat
Object marking in Jordanian Arabic
The Even Yearbook 16: 14–31 ⟨#120⟩
⟨abstract⟩ This paper aims to investigate object marking in Jordanian Arabic (henceforth, JA). Object marking is more distant from the stem than subject marking. The latter is arguably inflectional: it exhibits a sensitivity to tense characteristic of inflectional morphology. Object marking, by contrast, is tense invariant, a property typical of clitics. Together, their peripherality to subject marking and their tense-invariance make a case for object marking in JA involving cliticisation. The argument is based on predictions from binding facts and theories of agreement versus clitic doubling, with evidence drawn from the morphophonological form of the object marker, its lack of interaction with Case, its distribution and grammaticalisation. The paper also examines apparent instances of clitic doubling in JA. In JA, an object clitic can accompany a full DP associate at the right sentence periphery, showing agreement in gender, person, and number. The clitic pronoun may also appear without the full DP. The optionality of using the preposition lə- in JA indicates that JA does not conform to what is known in the literature as Kayne’s Generalization, which specifies that clitic doubling is licit only when an object DP is preceded by a preposition (Anagnostopoulou 2003: 16). The data show that the full coreferring DP requires the preposition lə-, indicating non-doubling while the DP is dislocated. This is reinforced by the possibility of inserting an adverbial between the verb and the PP, consistent with PP dislocation.
⟨keywords⟩ Jordanian Arabic, object marking, inflectional morphology, tense invariant, grammaticalisation
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Attila Starčević
A note on Common Germanic enhancement and Vaux’s Law
The Even Yearbook 16: 32–54 ⟨#121⟩
⟨abstract⟩ We discuss Verner’s Law, an Early Germanic regularity from the point of view of the glottal dimensions of GW ‘glottal width’ and GT ‘glottal tension’ starting from Iverson & Salmons (2003) analysis. Contrary to their claim that enhancement with GW can only be found in languages with an opposition in the fricatives rooted in GT vs ∅, we show that it was also found in Old English and Early Germanic, two languages in which (initially at least) only a single (lenis) series of fricatives existed.
⟨keywords⟩ Early Germanic, Verner’s Law, enhancement with GW, strong vs weak positions
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Mohamad Ali Khalil
On the biconsonantal roots of Lebanese Arabic
The Even Yearbook 16: 55–73 ⟨#122⟩
⟨abstract⟩ This paper examines biconsonantal roots in Lebanese Arabic as a core part of the morphosyntactic paradigm in the language. A better understanding of the templates and patterns by which this type of root manifests allows for a precise description of their behavior and status within the system. Biconsonantal roots show a geminated C2 as well as a glide preceding the inflectional suffixes for the 1st and 2nd persons in form I, typical of final-weak roots, e.g. maddayte ‘you.fem extended’ (biconsonantal) and sallayte ‘you.fem entertained’ (final-weak). Final-weak roots are triconsonantal roots wherein the third and last consonant is either the palatal glide /y/ or the labiovelar /w/. The data shows that the glide in biconsonantal roots (maddayte above) is a byproduct of Arabic morphophonology as dictated by phonotactics, unlike final-weak glides (sallayte above), which are a part of the root. The biconsonantal glide appears after a diphthongization process of a long vowel, which in turn is the result of lengthening an epenthetic vowel. The conclusion reached in this paper thus enables biconsonantal roots to be analyzed systemically and classified properly, morphologically and semantically as well, because the templatic morphology of Lebanese Arabic is closely related to its semantics (being a nonconcatenative language, a process as simple as vowel ablaut can yield different meanings), paving the way for a more comprehensive and complete picture of the Lebanese Arabic verbal system. More specifically, the analysis allows for a rigorous distinction between what is finalweak and what is biconsonantal with an additional glide.
⟨keywords⟩ biconsonantal/biliteral roots, final-weak roots, Lebanese Arabic, glides, morphophonology, weak verbs in Arabic
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Mark Newson
‘What do you get if you cross ergative with accusative?’ The Hungarian Causative
The Even Yearbook 16: 74-85 ⟨#123⟩
⟨abstract⟩ The Hungarian causative construction is remarkably similar to that of Sakha in that the base subject shows a distinct ‘ergative’ style of case marking where a special case is assigned to the transitive subject (dative in Sakha and instrumental in Hungarian). However, unlike the real ergative system, the subject of the intransitive and the object show up in accusative, which is a dependent case in both languages. Baker’s (2015) analysis of Sakha can handle this on the assumption that the accusative elements move out of the VP into the same domain as the causer subject. This analysis is not available for Hungarian as is shows no sign of such a movement. The paper argues that a better analysis can be given under the assumption that unmarked case assignment is delayed in the VP until the evaluation of the clause. This enables the dependent case to be assigned to the VP internal DP as this will remain active into the clause domain.The Hungarian causative construction is remarkably similar to that of Sakha in that the base subject shows a distinct ‘ergative’ style of case marking where a special case is assigned to the transitive subject (dative in Sakha and instrumental in Hungarian). However, unlike the real ergative system, the subject of the intransitive and the object show up in accusative, which is a dependent case in both languages. Baker’s (2015) analysis of Sakha can handle this on the assumption that the accusative elements move out of the VP into the same domain as the causer subject. This analysis is not available for Hungarian as is shows no sign of such a movement. The paper argues that a better analysis can be given under the assumption that unmarked case assignment is delayed in the VP until the evaluation of the clause. This enables the dependent case to be assigned to the VP internal DP as this will remain active into the clause domain.
⟨keywords⟩ causative construction, dependent case theory, unmarked case, delayed case assignment
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