Re-analyzing ‘say’ complementation: Implications for case theory and beyond

• Published in: Natural language and linguistic theory Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 1125 - 1190
• Main Author: Major, Travis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.08.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Clauses; Grammatical case; Linguistics; Natural Language Processing (NLP); Philosophy of Language; Predicate; Social Sciences; Theoretical linguistics; Turkic languages; Verbs; Agreement; Adjunction; Case assignment; Uyghur; Turkic languages; Sakha; Complementation; Say

This paper argues based on data from Uyghur (Turkic) that clausal complementation structures involving a special form of the verb ‘say’ are actually adjunct clauses headed by the verb ‘say’ that merge at two heights: VP or TP. I demonstrate that properties unique to ‘say’ as a main verb extend to ‘s...