Synthesis Exercise 2
LINC11 Winter 2025
March 14, 2025
Individual Submission due: Wednesday March 19, 23:59 on Quercus
Group Submission due: Thursday April 3, 23:59 on Quercus
The following exercises must be completed by uploading a PDF document onto Quercus.
Below you will find a set of data, some background information, and a set of discussion questions about this data and the topic. Considering the data, answer the questions posed to you in prose format, using diagrams and structure drawing where necessary for you discussion, or where explicitly asked by the questions.
You first attempt at this problem is to be completed individually. The problems in the exercise should be chal- lenging, but possible to work out. For your individual attempt, please use only the data provided below. Your answers will be marked for effort and completion. Your second attempt will be completed in a small group with others. The second attempt should be a more in-depth discussion, taking into account the solutions that each in- dividual group member supplied. This group submission will be marked for depth of discussion and accuracy of the solutions and discussion provided.
1 Welsh i - dirgelwch?
Welsh, the most widely-spoken of the three extant Brittonic Celtic languages, is known for its sophisticated in- flectional, tense and aspectual system. In this exercise, you’ll consider the distribution of the Welsh marker i, a marker that appears clause-initially in some embedded clauses. This marker has been the subject of significant debate because its distribution seems to cross-cut a variety of subordinate clause types.
Welsh is a verb-initial language, and usually appears with VSO word order. A standard Welsh clause might have a pre-verbal particle, followed by the verb, then the subject. Negation-related material appears before objects, and adverbial material appears at the end of the clause. This order is also generally true of tensed complement clauses:
1.1 Dadansoddi 一 Analysis
Considering the data presented here, formulate a descriptive summary of the distribution of i in both its inflected an un-inflected forms. Specifically, in what kind of situations do you observe these elements appearing? What functions do they seem to perform in the clause?
Now, let’s analyse the i marker. What category or categories do you think that it represents in the syntax? Why do you think this to be true? Can your analysis account for the distribution you observed above? Crucially, consider the raising and control constructions: provide a specific analysis of one or more contrasting pairs of sentences that support your conclusions. Draw several simple but clear structures to support your analysis. Additionally, are there any datapoints above that provide a challenge to your account? If so, can you formulate an hypothesis on how to account for them, even if you might need more data to support it?
Lastly, let’s consider the connection to broader syntactic theory. In class, we discussed how there were a variety of different approaches to Control and Raising constructions in English. Is this data in Welsh supportive of a particular type of analysis for these constructions? If so, state specifically how the data above is best analysed using one approach, and the challenges that an alternative analysis might face in accounting for this data.