Between derivation and multifunctionality: In search of evidence for conversion

UvA-DARE (

UvA-DARE (

UvA-DARE (

The Topicalization Comparative Construction—Evidence from Sinitic and Beyond

In this paper, we discuss topicalization comparatives, an underrecognized subtype within the Heinean event-schema framework. Drawing on data from Nyanja, Malay, and Sinitic languages, the analysis corroborates the existence of a construction marked by a fronted topic with an obligatory standard of comparison and an opt...

The Development of Relative Clauses in Modern Ukrainian: Lexical Variation over Syntactic Change

The paper argues that developments and changes in relative-clause formation in Ukrainian since the end of the 18th c. are due to lexical variation between a relative particle, typically ščo ‘that’, with or without a resumptive pronoun, and the relative pronouns jakyj and kotryj ‘which’. This repertory of relativisers i...

Lexical learning and language change: raising in English from the perspective of acquisition and diachrony

Raising and control structures in Present-day English are surface-identical, yet differ in crucial ways both syntactically and semantically. We study the difference between the two from a diachronic and acquisitional perspective. Historically, raising has been argued to have emerged out of control (Higgins 1990). S...