Adjectives, hierarchies and cognition

lecture at the Filološki fakultet Banja Luka, 27. 2. 2019

Abstract

In this talk we will focus on the universal hierarchy of functional projections that host specific types of adjectives and the source of this hierarchy. To achieve this, the talk will consist from two parts. In the first part, the relevant background on the cartographic approach and the order of attributive adjectives will be given. In the second part of the talk, the focus will be on experiments which were conducted to establish if cognition can be taken as a source of the universal hierarchy of functional projections. Specifically, we will first consider the cartographic approach to syntax. Cartography suggests that phrases consist from lexical heads which are dominated by hierarchies of functional projections. Crucially, these hierarchies are argued to be universal, see a. o. Cinque & Rizzi (2008) for an overview of the cartographic program. This also holds for the noun phrase in which functional projections host, among other material, adjectives. This view then gives a natural explanation for the order of attributive adjectives which was said to be universal as well, see for example Hetzron (1978), Cinque (1994), Scott (2002). That is, the order of adjectives is universal because adjectives are hosted by functional projections which appear in a universal hierarchy. The second part of the talk will focus on the source of the universal word order and the functional hierarchy that dictates it. Following Cinque & Rizzi (2008) and Ramchand & Svenonius (2014), we will consider general cognition as one possible source of the universal hierarchy of functional projections. Specifically, I will report on a series of experiments which are a result of joint work with Rok Žaucer and Franc Marušič and are a part of an ongoing project "Probing the cognitive basis of the cartographic hierarchy of functional projections in the noun phrase" financed by the Slovenian Research Agency and conducted at the University of Nova Gorica. Crucially, these experiments are conducted to test the hypothesis that if the universal hierarchy is dictated by general-cognition restrictions, then the order of projections hosting adjectives should be reflected in various non-linguistic cognitive processes. To test this prediction, we are focusing on adjectives for size, color, and shape which seem to universally come in the order size > shape > color. In the talk, I will report on the results of the experiments as well as our future plans.

Keywords

adjectives;cartography;functional hierarchy;cognition;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2019
Typology:	3.14 - Invited Lecture at Foreign University
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	81'1
COBISS:	5335035
Views:	2730
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Average score:	0 (0 votes)
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