Stirling Lesley. Switch-reference and discourse representation

Cambridge University Press, 2002. — xvi, 354 pages. — (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics). — ISBN: 0-521-40229-8.The subject of this book is switch-reference and closely related constructions. The aim was to see how far it was possible to give a compositional morphosyntactic/semantic account for the phenomena, but at the same time take seriously the range of data to be explained, both for the particular languages examined in detail and crosslinguistically, in a way rarely found in formal treatments. The book can thus be seen as a case study in marrying the concerns of linguistic description and formal theory.Of particular concern both for the crosslinguistic survey and the discourse-semantic account was the functional basis for certain prototypical characteristics of switch-reference marking. Wilkins (1988: 172) says: 'Notions such as "sameness" and "difference" through which switch-reference has been defined, have themselves been left virtually unexplored.' In this book I begin to explore them. In so doing my main purpose is to encourage a substantially different way of thinking about switch-reference phenomena.Along the way arguments are presented which bear on a number of other current issues, including the relation between the locus of morphologisation and its function, the nature of linguistically marked referential relations, the analysis of logophoric phenomena, and the semantic analysis of eventualities in particular with respect to their aspectual characteristics.Switch-reference phenomenaThe canonical conception of switch-reference
Violation of categorial iconicity
The formal complexity of switch-reference systems
The functional complexity of switch-reference systems
Logophoricity and obviationFunctional extensions of switch-reference systemsUnexpected SS marking and impersonal constructions
Unexpected DS marking and discontinuities between clauses
Switch-reference and the rhetorical structure of discourseTheoretical conceptions of switch-referenceSwitch-reference as topic maintenance
Switch-reference as gapping
Categorial iconicity revisited
Transitivity
Switch-reference as agreement between eventualitiesDiscourse Representation Theory and Unification Categorial GrammarDiscourse Representation Theory
Unification Categorial GrammarA Discourse Representation Theory account of switch-referenceAmele
The syntax of switch-reference in Amele
The semantics of switch-reference in Amele
Switch-reference with impersonal constructions
Generality of the accountLogophoricityLoeoohoric phenomena
Accounting for logophoricity within Discourse Representation Theory
An alternative Discourse Representation Theory account for logophoric phenomena
Generality of the account
Logophoricity and switch-reference