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Preview of Existential Constructions Across Languages: A Crosslinguistic Perspective
🔗 Source: italian-journal-linguistics.com
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📄 Pages: 14 pages
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Summary

Key points include:

Structure:

Existentials typically consist of a pivot (a noun phrase following the copula), optionally followed by a coda (an addition like a locative phrase).
Linear order varies across languages; codas can appear in initial position.
The pivot usually takes the focus or direct object position, not the typical topic position.

Theoretical Perspectives:

Impersonal Construction View: Pivots are indefinite and treated as objects (Milsark 1974).
Locative Structure View: Existentials are derived from locative constructions, with definite pivots moving to pre-copular position (Freeze 1992).

Definiteness Effects (DEs):

Both impersonal and locative views struggle to explain DEs where the pivot's definiteness doesn't align with its syntactic position.
Sardinian dialects offer a counterexample: definite and indefinite pivots can co-occur with different copulas, challenging a strict link between position and definiteness.

Open Questions:

The paper highlights ongoing debates:

Copula Selection: Why are some definite pivots paired with the reflexive copula "essere" (be) while indefinite pivots pair with "avere" (have)?
* Universal vs. Language-Specific Features: Are there universal patterns in existential construction or do they vary widely across languages?

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Description

Existential constructions are non-canonical constructions that express existence or presence in a context, typically consisting of an expletive, proform, copula, and optional coda. The pivot, a noun phrase in the immediately post-copular position, is universally available and obligatory.

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