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All there is to know about the alls-construction

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Abstract

This paper pursues a minimalist analysis of the s-inflection that appears as an enclitic on the all in certain dialects of Midwestern American English; a construction called the alls -construction by Putnam & van Koppen (2009). Following Putnam & van Koppen, we demonstrate that the inter-clausal aspects of the alls-construction can be accounted for via Probe-Goal (Agree) relations similar in many respects to the generative treatment of C(omplementizer)-agreement in West Germanic languages and dialects. Regarding the intra-clausal dimension of this construction, based on the discussion of Den Dikken et al. (2000), we demonstrate that the alls-construction is most accurately described as a Type-A specificational pseudocleft. The analysis of the alls-construction developed here unites both the inter- and intra-clausal aspects of this construction in a parsimonious way.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Germanic & Slavic, Languages & Literatures, The Pennsylvania State University, 427 Burrowes Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Michael T. Putnam

  2. Department of Dutch Language & Culture, Utrecht University-Uil-OTS, Korte Nieuwstraat 2, Room 1.47, 3512JK, Utrecht, Netherlands

    Marjo van Koppen

Authors
  1. Michael T. Putnam
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  2. Marjo van Koppen
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Correspondence to Michael T. Putnam.

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Putnam, M.T., van Koppen, M. All there is to know about the alls-construction. J Comp German Linguistics 14, 81–109 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-011-9044-1

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