implicit prototypes in syntax analysis

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Stirling Bartholomew
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implicit prototypes in syntax analysis

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

I was reading S. E. Porters Idioms (p 113) where he was discussing the idiom ὁ μὲν ... ὁ δὲ and he said that at times one or the other might be omitted. This was same sort of reasoning I found in Guy Cooper's treatment of this idiom. My question isn't about the idiom but about the assumption that ὁ μὲν ... ὁ δὲ is a prototype from which we find variations with missing components. The traditional grammars seem to be full of examples where there are implicit prototypes in syntax analysis but it isn't anything that is questioned or examined. I am vaguely familiar with prototypes being used in lexical semantics but I an not aware of it being applied to syntax. Has anyone written on this relative to ancient greek?
C. Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: implicit prototypes in syntax analysis

Post by MAubrey »

Stirling Bartholomew wrote:I am vaguely familiar with prototypes being used in lexical semantics but I an not aware of it being applied to syntax. Has anyone written on this relative to ancient greek?
Prototype theory has been applied centrally to lexical semantics, yes. But the approach is more broadly grounded in the nature of human cognition generally, rather than any particular subdomain. Lexical semantics is probably where it's most easily discussed, but anywhere human categorize things, prototype theory is relevant.

In terms of linguistics, all cognitive-oriented frameworks include prototype theory in their approach to semantics, grammatical structure, pragmatics, language typology, grammaticalization, everything.

There isn't a lot on Greek that deals with the approach, though one of the points of my thesis is that prototypes should be included in how we understand tense and aspect and also in terms of how we even approach the task of writing grammars.
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Stephen Carlson
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Re: implicit prototypes in syntax analysis

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Stirling Bartholomew wrote:Has anyone written on this relative to ancient greek?
It's a good idea but there's almost no work done on it. It's fairly marginal even in work on English syntax, much less ancient Greek.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
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Re: implicit prototypes in syntax analysis

Post by MAubrey »

Stephen Carlson wrote:
Stirling Bartholomew wrote:Has anyone written on this relative to ancient greek?
It's a good idea but there's almost no work done on it. It's fairly marginal even in work on English syntax, much less ancient Greek.
Well, it isn't dominant, but I think "marginal" might be a little strong...

Everything on English grammar by Ronald Lanacker assumes prototype theory (e.g. [url=ttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804738513/re ... 6VWQ473NAU]The Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Volume I: Theoretical Prerequisites[/url])

The same is true of accounts of English syntax in construction grammar (e.g. Goldberg's work on argument structure)

There's an excellent monograph on noun phrase syntax based on the prototype theory, too: The English Noun Phrase: The Nature of Linguistic Categorization
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Stephen Carlson
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Re: implicit prototypes in syntax analysis

Post by Stephen Carlson »

MAubrey wrote:
Stephen Carlson wrote:
Stirling Bartholomew wrote:Has anyone written on this relative to ancient greek?
It's a good idea but there's almost no work done on it. It's fairly marginal even in work on English syntax, much less ancient Greek.
Well, it isn't dominant, but I think "marginal" might be a little strong...
I appreciate the links (snipped -- and Joan Bybee is doing some related good stuff, with her usage-based grammar, but it's still just at the beginning stages and she's now emerita), but these "minimalist" generative syntacticians get the lion's share of the new students and dissertations. Heck, we've just had one on Koine word order, even--it's not just MIT churning these out. Perhaps the Chomskyan stranglehold on the field may come to end soon, if the dust-up over Vyvyan Evans' latest book is any sign.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
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Re: implicit prototypes in syntax analysis

Post by MAubrey »

Stephen Carlson wrote:I appreciate the links (snipped -- and Joan Bybee is doing some related good stuff, with her usage-based grammar, but it's still just at the beginning stages and she's now emerita), but these "minimalist" generative syntacticians get the lion's share of the new students and dissertations. Heck, we've just had one on Koine word order, even--it's not just MIT churning these out. Perhaps the Chomskyan stranglehold on the field may come to end soon, if the dust-up over Vyvyan Evans' latest book is any sign.
We'll get there.

Is the Koine word order dissertation available anywhere? I'd be interested.
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Stephen Carlson
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Re: implicit prototypes in syntax analysis

Post by Stephen Carlson »

MAubrey wrote:
Stephen Carlson wrote:I appreciate the links (snipped -- and Joan Bybee is doing some related good stuff, with her usage-based grammar, but it's still just at the beginning stages and she's now emerita), but these "minimalist" generative syntacticians get the lion's share of the new students and dissertations. Heck, we've just had one on Koine word order, even--it's not just MIT churning these out. Perhaps the Chomskyan stranglehold on the field may come to end soon, if the dust-up over Vyvyan Evans' latest book is any sign.
We'll get there.

Is the Koine word order dissertation available anywhere? I'd be interested.
I think we sort of discussed this on the forum already, but the word order diss is here: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/20157

Looking at the position papers for an upcoming seminar on the future of generative syntax (https://castl.uit.no/index.php/conferences/road-ahead), it does not look like there's a lot of love from them for it.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
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