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Linguistics Department University
of Florida |
contact info
| research interests
| selected papers | projects | courses
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Linguistics Department |
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office: (352) 294-7456
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4121 Turlington |
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Selected Publications and Manuscripts |
Austronesian Wh-Questions
Potsdam, Eric. 2009. Austronesian Verb-Initial Languages and Wh-Question Strategies. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 27, 737-771.
Potsdam, Eric. 2007. Malagasy Sluicing and Its Consequences for the Identity Requirement on Ellipsis. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25, 577-613.
Potsdam, Eric. 2006. More
Concealed Pseudoclefts and the Clausal Typing Hypothesis.
Lingua 116, 2154-2182.
Potsdam, Eric. 2006. The Cleft Structure of Malagasy Wh-Questions. In Hans-Martin Gärtner, Paul Law, and
Joachim Sabel (eds.). Clause Structure and Adjuncts in
Austronesian Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 195-232.
Polynesian Syntax
Potsdam, Eric and Maria Polinsky. 2012. The Syntax of the Tahitian Actor Emphatic Construction. Oceanic Linguistics 51, 58-85
Potsdam, Eric and Maria Polinsky. 2011. Questions and Word Order in Polynesian. In Claire Moyse-Faurie and Joachim Sabel (eds.). Topics in Oceanic Morphosyntax. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 83-109.
(Backward) Control and Raising
Haddad, Youssef A. and Eric Potsdam. 2013. Linearizing the Control Relation: A Typology. In Theresa Biberauer and Ian Roberts (eds.). Principles of Linearization. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Potsdam, Eric, and Maria Polinsky. 2012. Backward Raising. Syntax, 75-108.
Potsdam, Eric and Maria Polinsky. 2011. Against Covert A-Movement in Russian Unaccusatives. Linguistic Inquiry 42, 345-355.
Potsdam, Eric. 2009. Malagasy Backward Object Control. Language 85, 754-784.
Polinsky, Maria and Eric Potsdam. 2008. The Syntax and Semantics of Wanting in Indonesian. Lingua 118, 1617-1639.
Potsdam, Eric and Maria Polinsky. 2007. Missing Complement Clause Subjects in Malagasy. Oceanic Linguistics 46, 277-308.
Polinsky, Maria and Eric
Potsdam. 2006. Expanding the Scope of Control and Raising. Syntax 9, 171-192.
Polinsky, Maria and Eric
Potsdam.
2002. Backward Control: Evidence from Malagasy. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 44, 257-272.
Polinsky, Maria and Eric
Potsdam.
2002. Backward Control. Linguistic Inquiry 33, 24-282.
English Syntax
Potsdam, Eric. 2013. CP Negation and the Domain of Quantifier Raising. Linguistic Inquiry 44.
Potsdam, Eric. 2007. Analysing Word Order in the English Imperative. In Wim van der Wurff (ed.). Imperative Clauses in Generative Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 251-272.
Potsdam, Eric. 1997. NegP
and
Subjunctive Complements in English. Linguistic Inquiry 28, 533-541.
Potsdam, Eric. 1997. English
Verbal Morphology and VP Ellipsis. In The Proceedings of the 27th
Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society.Amherst, Ma.: GLSA, University of
Massachusetts at Amherst,
353-368.
Potsdam, Eric. 1995. Phrase Structure of the English Imperative. In The Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Formal Linguistics Society of Midamerica. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club Publications, 143-154.
Potsdam, Eric. 1998. Syntactic Issues in the English Imperative. New York: Garland Publishing Co.
Projects
"Collaborative Research: Variation in Control Structures". This National Science Foundation-funded project was joint work with Maria Polinsky at Harvard University. The project time period was March 2002 to August 2006.
Control constructions
have been at
the fore of syntactic and semantic theorizing for the last thirty
years, and
the research into the syntax and semantics of Control constructions has
led to
important results in the domain of clausal complementation. Most
theoretical
research on Control has built heavily on the facts of English and a
small
number of other well-studied, typologically similar languages. Such
theories of
Control account for the canonical English Control pattern, Sandy
tried _ to
remain calm.The
core
property of this construction is a Forward Control relation: an
obligatory
interpretational dependency between an overt argument NP and a lower
unpronounced argument in the complement clause. In the proposed study,
we will
investigate variation in the structural realization of this Control
relation
which we believe is cross-linguistically attested and which we also
believe has
important implications for syntactic theory. A Backward Control
relation is a
similar, obligatory interpretational dependency in which the overt
argument NP
is in the lower position and the higher argument is unpronounced.
Backward
Control has been proposed in the literature for constructions in
Japanese,
Brazilian Portuguese, Tsez (Nakh-Dagestanian), Korean, Malagasy, and
other
languages.
The goal of this project is to explore the empirical and theoretical issues surrounding Backward Control phenomena. In the empirical domain, we will further document Backward Control constructions cross-linguistically. We will carry out in-depth investigations of attested Backward Control structures across several selected languages and, with the aid of graduate and undergraduate research assistants, we will seek out additional examples and simultaneously develop a database of control patterns in selected language families. In the theoretical domain, we will examine the implications of our empirical findings for existing theories of Control and for syntactic theory more generally. Theoretical work will center on whether or not current theories permit the structures that we document and, if they do not, what modifications are necessary to permit the range of observed variation while still maintaining restrictiveness. Overall, the proposed project will contribute to an understanding of the range of variation in Control structures that are attested in natural language.
Courses
Fall 2013
LIN 4500/6501 Introduction to Syntax
LIN 4930/6165 Field Methods
course websites on Sakai
PREVIOUS COURSES
LIN 3010 Introduction to Linguistics
LIN 3460 Structure of Human Language
LIN 4400/6402 Introduction to Morphology
LIN 6165 Field Methods
LIN 6520 Issues in Syntax
LIN
6932 Seminar in Syntax
Last Revised: October 1, 2013
