Relative clause structure, relative clause perception, and the change from SOV to SVO

Cognition ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Antinucci ◽  
Alessandro Duranti ◽  
Lucyna Gebert
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Clause Structure

Haitian Creole Syntax

1988 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Lefebvre ◽  
Diane Massam
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Major Category ◽  
Recent Proposal ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Maximal Projection ◽  
Question Formation ◽  
A Minor

In this paper we examine several aspects of Haitian Creole syntax in light of the recent proposal that a determiner can be the head of a minor maximal projection. We argue that an incorporation of this proposal into the analysis of several aspects of Haitian Creole syntax, including clause structure, question formation, and relative-clause formation, can resolve several puzzling problems. In addition, the paper adds to the theory of minor heads in that it shows that such heads must be considered to inherit major category features from their complements.

scholarly journals When Structure Competes with Semantics: Reading Chinese Relative Clauses

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peiyun Zhou ◽  
Yun Yao ◽  
Kiel Christianson
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Role Reversal ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Reading Chinese ◽  
Semantic Plausibility ◽  
Object Relative

An ongoing debate in Chinese psycholinguistics is whether subject-relative clauses or object-relative clauses are more difficult to process. The current study asks what happens when structure and plausibility are pitted against each other in Chinese relative clause processing. Chinese relative clause structures and semantic plausibility were manipulated to create both plausible and implausible versions of subject- and object-relative clauses. This method has been used in other languages (e.g., English) to elicit thematic role reversal comprehension errors. Importantly, these errors—as well as online processing difficulties—are especially frequent in implausible versions of dispreferred (noncanoncial) structures. If one relative clause structure in Chinese is highly dispreferred, the structural factor and plausibility factor should interact additively. If, however, the structures are relatively equally difficult to process, then there should be only a main effect of plausibility. Sentence reading times as well as analyses on lexical interest areas revealed that Chinese readers used plausibility information almost exclusively when reading the sentences. Relative clause structure had no online effect and small but consistent offline effects. Taken together, the results support a slight preference in offline comprehension for Chinese subject-relative clauses, as well as a central role for semantic plausibility, which appears to be the dominant factor in online processing and a strong determinant of offline comprehension.

Teaching invented languages to the undergraduate major

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Angela C. Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Original Source ◽  
Critical Reasoning ◽  
Undergraduate Major ◽  
Order Case ◽  
Source Materials

This chapter discusses how creating an invented language allows students to master critical reasoning skills and apply their linguistic knowledge to a creative language project by using the various strands of linguistic training they have received during their undergraduate years to produce their own invented language. The structure of the course, which includes weekly discussions and presentations, along with a grammar workshop that focuses on each of the elements needed to build the language, starting with phonetics and phonology and then continuing through various syntactic elements such as word order, case, and relative clause structure are detailed and discussed. Pedagogically, the course builds on four pillars: peer-to-peer learning, close and critical engagement with original source materials, problem-solving, and creative engagement with linguistic theory.

scholarly journals Relativization strategies in temporal adjunct clauses

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 65-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anikó Lipták
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Free Relatives ◽  
Free Relative ◽  
Temporal Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Temporal Adverbial

This article takes a close look at the internal structure of temporal adverbial clauses in a number of unrelated languages, with a goal of uncovering the syntactic variation in these. The focus of discussion will be on temporal clauses that take the form offree relatives. It will be shown that there are minimally two different free relative strategies that can be found in temporal adverbial clauses: anordinary free relativestrategy with a gap in the position of a temporal modifier inside the relative clause and anIP-relativizationstrategy that involves relativization of the whole IP of the temporal clause. It will be shown that the latter strategy is awh-relativization strategy as well and it shows similarity to clausal relativization (sentences of the typeTom arrived, after which Susan left). The language in which the IP-relativization strategy will be isolated and fully analyzed is Hungarian. In this languagebefore/after-clauses (among some other temporal clauses) clearly exhibit a relative clause structure that is different from ordinary relatives. The evidence found in Hungarian will prove useful for the analysis of some temporal clauses in other languages as well. It will be shown that IP-relativization most probably underliesafter-clauses in German and Serbian, too. Further, a brief comparison of Hungarian temporal clauses to temporal clauses in other postpositional languages (Hindi and Basque) will suggest that the IP-relativization strategy inbefore/after-clauses can be thought of as a syntactic alternative tonominalization.

scholarly journals ARGUMENT BAR MOVEMENT IN RELATIVE CLAUSES PRODUCED BY BIPA STUDENTS: AN ANALYSIS OF NOAM CHOMSKY’S GENERATIVE TRANSFORMATION

2022 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-214
Author(s):  
Arti Prihatini ◽  
Fauzan Fauzan ◽  
Fida Pangesti
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Theta Theory ◽  
The University

This study was intended to describe (1) the characteristics of the argument bar movement in relative clauses, (2) the characteristics of the relative clause structure, and (3) the suitability of the relative clause structure produced by BIPA students. This research was a qualitative descriptive case study. This research data were relative clauses sourced from BIPA students' speeches at the beginner and intermediate levels at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang. The data collection method used was the listening method with tapping, recording, note-taking, and hidden fishing techniques. Data analysis was carried out by identifying the predication-argument relationship with theta theory, identifying the deep structure and surface structure, analyzing movement objectives, movement traces, and movement consequences by utilizing the subjacency condition theory. The results showed that the characteristics of the argument bar movement in the relative clauses generated by 92% of BIPA students were in the form of short movements and did not exceed one bounding node. Based on the Indonesian language rules, most of the relative clauses produced by BIPA students were appropriate (75%). It shows that BIPA students have fully understood the relative clause structure.

scholarly journals Hearing Loss and Cognitive Effort in Older Adults' Report Accuracy for Verbal Materials

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (02) ◽  
pp. 147-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj Stewart ◽  
Arthur Wingfield
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Hearing Acuity ◽  
Report Accuracy ◽  
Memory Resources

Background: In addition to declines in auditory acuity, adult aging is often also accompanied by reduced cognitive efficiency, most notably in working memory resources and a general slowing in a number of perceptual and cognitive domains. Effectiveness of speech comprehension by older adults reflects a balance between these declines and the relative preservation in healthy aging of linguistic knowledge and the procedural rules for its application. Purpose: To examine effects of hearing acuity in older adults on intelligibility functions for sentences that varied in two degrees of syntactic complexity, with their concomitant demands on older adults' working memory resources. Research Design: Stimuli consisted of monosyllabic words presented in isolation, and nine-word sentences that varied in syntactic complexity. Two sentence types were employed: sentences with a subject-relative clause structure, and more syntactically complex sentences in which meaning was expressed with an object-relative clause structure. The stimuli were presented initially below the level of audibility and then increased in loudness in 2 dB increments until the single-word stimuli and all nine words of the sentence stimuli could be correctly reported. Study Sample: Participants were 16 older adults with good hearing acuity for their ages, 16 age-matched adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, and 16 young adults with age-normal hearing. Results: Along with confirming better report accuracy for the words of meaningful sentences than for words heard in isolation, performance curves for the sentence stimuli showed a significant effect of syntactic complexity. This took the form of older adults having poorer report accuracy at any given loudness level for sentences with greater syntactic complexity. This general effect of syntactic complexity on perceptual report accuracy was further exacerbated by age and hearing loss. Conclusions: Age-limited working memory resources are impacted both by the resource demands required for comprehension of syntactically complex sentences and by effortful listening attendant to hearing loss.

Discontinuous noun phrases and remnant-internal relativization in the diachrony of Portuguese

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Cardoso
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Internal Position

This chapter investigates syntactic change regarding the availability of split noun phrases in relative clauses in the diachrony of Portuguese. In earlier stages of the language an element that is thematically dependent on the head noun (either as a complement or as a modifier) may not appear adjacent to it but in a relative clause internal position. In Contemporary European Portuguese, noun phrase discontinuity also arises in relative clauses, but only with the modifier/complement in the rightmost position. The word order with the modifier/complement at the left periphery of the relative clause is not allowed. The change is explained as being due to the loss of a left-peripheral position for contrastive focus within relative clauses (and possibly other types of subordinate clauses). Hence, the contraction of clause structure and the concomitant loss of movement are taken to constrain the possibilities of phrasal discontinuity found in earlier periods.

scholarly journals How to be Brief: Children’s and Adults’ Application of Grice’s Brevity Maxim in Production

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kazuko Yatsushiro ◽  
Uli Sauerland
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Follow Up Studies ◽  
Gricean Pragmatics ◽  
Effect Of Age ◽  
Object Relative

The brevity maxim of Gricean pragmatics states that unnecessary prolixity should be avoided. We report a case in which 5-year-old children’s performance conforms better to Grice’s maxim than adults’ behavior. Our data come from a semi-spontaneous German relative clause production study that we carried out with 5- and 7-year-old children as well as adults. In particular, we focus on the pragmatics of the passive predicates that were produced. These constituted about a third of both child and adult productions in items that targeted an object relative clause structure. Since the expression of the agent is syntactically optional with passive predicates, the brevity maxim predicts that the agent should only be expressed when it is informative. We compare two conditions to test this prediction: one where the agent is informative and one where it is not. We find that 5-year-old children display significantly greater sensitivity to the brevity maxim than adults do. In two follow-up studies, we show that adults’ violations of brevity cannot be explained by priming of by-phrases expressing the agent and that there is an effect of age within children as well.

scholarly journals On the nature of escapable relative islands

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Ramshøj Christensen ◽  
Anne Mette Nyvad
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Small Clause ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Island Constraints ◽  
Structural Contrast

It is generally assumed that universal island constraints block extraction from relative clauses. However, it is well-known that such extractions can be acceptable in the Scandinavian languages. Kush & Lindahl (2011) argue that the acceptability in Swedish is illusory; relative clauses that allow extraction have a different structure (small clause structure) from those that block extraction (true relatives, CPs). We present data from an acceptability survey of relative clause extraction in Danish. In the survey, extraction significantly decreased acceptability but we found no statistically significant effect of the ability of the verb to take a small-clause complement. We also found no difference betweensom‘that/who/which’ andder‘that/who/which’, both of which can head a relative clause while onlysomcan head a small clause. We argue that our results do not warrant the stipulation of a structural contrast between acceptable and unacceptable extractions, and that variation in acceptability stems from processing.

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