Speaker: Phoevos Panagiotidis (University of Cyprus)
Title: Lexical categories: roots and domains of interpretation
Time: 15:15 – 16:30
Venue: Eyckhof 3/005
Abstract
In this talk I will make three claims:
a. That roots in isolation, i.e. outside grammatical structure, are pure lexical indices, devoid of any interpretation, semantic or phonological (Borer 2009, Acquaviva & Panagiotidis 2012, Harley 2012). This claim, leading us to Late insertion for roots and to the structural base of all meaning, will be backed by a wealth of cross-linguistic evidence.
b. That what we call nouns and verbs are not necessarily word categories. However, as evidence from Greek, Farsi and Jingulu suggests, they are necessarily syntactic structures built around an n or a v (Marantz 1997, 2000, Panagiotidis 2014).
c. That the domain for the so-called lexical interpretation can hardly be made to coincide with the first phase — despite our best hopes and expectations. In this I have to side with Borer (2009) and Acquaviva & Panagiotidis (2012), contra ideas in Marantz (2012).