A Letter Concerning Elliding Economy & Functionality: Evidence From Slovene

Inducing Hypothesis

I propose some evidence in favour of economical ellipsis and syntactic functionality that is reflected in Slovene greeting phrases—presupposing other languages share the feature.

The “headed-gradation” in Slovene for “hello,” or “good day” can be said to be as represented in (1):

(1) a dan → b dober dan → c želim dober dan → d želim Vam dober dan

aday (n; msc, sg) → b good (adj; msc, sg) day (n; msc, sg) → c wish (v; 1st prs, sg) good (adj, msc, sg) day (n; msc, sg) → d wish (v; 1st prs, sg) you (pro; 3rd prs, emphatic-polite, sg, dative case) good (adj, msc, sg) day (n; msc, sg)

Applying constituency tests, an interesting observation is in place after seeing (1a—d). Theoretical assumption for (1d) constituents would be:

(2) Želim Vam dober dan
wish (verb;1st sg) you (pro; 3rd prs, emphatic-polite, sg, dative case)) good (adj;msc sg) day (n;msc sg)
“I wish you a good day”

(3) ♣(IP) /…/♣(VP) Želim ♣(NP) ♣(N’) Vam♣ ♣(NP) ♣(N’)♣(AP) dober ♣(NP) dan ♣♣♣♣

The Syntax of a “Hello”

In case of headed-gradation shown in (1), we can see that (1c) grading into (1d) allows pro-drop. The latter, then, can be regarded as a pro-emphatic form as personal properties in Slovene language are embedded within verbal features. Let us now see the structural parse of (1) shown in (4)

(4)

The number of red brackets show the probability of the constituent being elided (more the brackets, greater the probability).

As seen in (4), the constituent heading the entire phrase is the lowest N. Herefrom follows (or may follow!) the generalisation that the local head of a phrase, heading the “supraphrase,” may project its headedness from minimal to maximal projection. The principle is generalised in (5).

(5)

X (local) ♣local phrase → X (global) ♣supra-local phrase

A counterargument could be the spec-fronting, only denoting an emphatic form of (1d), for instance. (6) shows the structural movement of spec-fronting.

(6)

A Darwinian N-climbing

The generality of this evidence from Slovene greetings is the formality language performs in an economical and thoroughly functional way, diminishing the unnecessary, herein proven as periphery, constituents and solely projecting its local head onto a maximal level.

~ by Moreno on April 2, 2008.