Evidence for a DP-projection in West Greenlandic Inuit

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Manlove
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Semantic Feature ◽  
Functional Projection ◽  
Syntactic Features

AbstractEvidence for a DP-projection in West Greenlandic Inuit Abstract The goal of this paper is to argue in favor of a DP-layer in West Greenlandic Inuit noun phrases and in doing so contribute to the argument that the absence of overt D-elements is not directly indicative of the absence of a DP-layer. Inuit is a polysynthetic, ergative language with no overt articles; for this reason it has been argued that a D-head is unnecessary. Others have argued contrastively that a functional projection KP (Case) is necessary (often assuming DP). This paper differs from both camps in the sense that it considers syntactic features specific to D. I present three primary arguments in support of a D-head in West Greenlandic: (i) the D-head acts as the locus of agreement features in possessive DPs, (ii) the D-head is the locus of the syntactic/semantic feature of definiteness; and (iii) a DP-layer is needed to provide a landing site for movement in DP-internal word order variations.

OV versus VO in Old High German

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Petrova ◽  
Helmut Weiß
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Functional Projection ◽  
Functional Head ◽  
Word Order Variation ◽  
Order Variation ◽  
The Right

This chapter surveys the word order variation in the right periphery of the clause in OHG. The investigation is based on a corpus including all dependent clauses introduced by the complementizer thaz ‘that’ in the minor OHG documents, a collection of up to forty smaller texts of various genres. The analysis shows that the majority of the data can be explained within a standard OV grammar, assuming additional extraposition of heavy XPs to the right. But apart from these cases, there is evidence supporting the assumption of leftward movement of the verb to an intermediate functional projection vP which is optional with basic OV but obligatory with basic VO. In addition, the chapter presents patterns which evidently involve verb movement to a higher functional head, above vP, and discusses the nature of the landing site of the verb in these cases.

Typological overview of Estonian syntax

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mati Erelt
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Concise Overview ◽  
Verb Categories

AbstractThe paper presents a concise overview of the main syntactic features of Estonian. It deals with basic clause patterns, case marking of arguments, verbs and verb categories, non-verbal predication, word order, expression of speech acts and negation, noun phrases, p-phrases, subordinate clauses, and coordination.

scholarly journals Typological Shift in Bilinguals’ L1: Word Order and Case Marking in Two Varieties of Child Quechua

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Kalt ◽  
Jonathan A. Geary
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
New Information ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Case Morphology ◽  
Grammatical Roles

We compare speech production and find morphosyntactic change among children and adolescents speaking two closely related varieties of Quechua in Cuzco, Peru, and Chuquisaca, Bolivia. Quechua languages traditionally employ Object-Verb (OV) word order in main clauses, but robust case marking permits other orders, especially to focalize new information through constituent fronting. In Chuquisaca, but not Cuzco, we find that schoolchildren often omit the accusative suffix -ta from direct objects while retaining a prosodic trace of -ta. In other varieties, loss of accusative marking is associated with a shift towards Verb-Object (VO) word order, as in Spanish. However, we find that Chuquisaqueños use more canonical OV and possessor-possessed order in declarative sentences than do Cuzqueños, who employ a wide range of word orders at the sentence level and deviate from the possessor-possessed norm for Quechua noun phrases. Our finding of more rigid word order in Chuquisaca highlights the complex factors contributing to typological shift in word order and morphology: Omission of case morphology places a greater burden on word order to identify grammatical roles. Further, we find that Chuquisaqueño schoolchildren alone have begun to use huk, “one,” to mark indefiniteness, perhaps to replace determiner-like functions ascribed to -ta and to obsolescent markers such as evidentials.

scholarly journals Possessive Construction in Russian and Indonesian Noun Phrases: Contrastive Analysis and Translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Tri Yulianty Karyaningsih
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Possessive Constructions ◽  
Translation Analysis ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Descriptive Method ◽  
National Corpus

This paper aims to discuss the comparison between possessive constructions in Russian and Indonesian noun phrases. Since both of the languages have different grammatical systems, their possessive constructions may also be different. The differences are discussed using a contrastive analysis approach. However, the similarities between them are also taken into consideration following one of the practical purposes of contrastive analysis, namely, to aid the translation process. The theory employed in this research is eclectic. The research method employed in this research is descriptive method with contrastive analysis model. In addition, for translation analysis, word-for-word and literal methods are used here. The data in this research are collected from the Russian National Corpus and some selected literary works in Russian and Indonesian. The result suggests that there are some structural differences and similarities between Russian and Indonesian in terms of word order, attributive categories, and grammatical categories of the elements constituting noun phrases. The results of this comparison can be referred to in the translation of possessive construction of both languages so that the closest equivalent is found following the rules of each language. 

scholarly journals Bhadarwahi: A Typological Sketch

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-148
Author(s):  
Amitabh Vikram DWIVEDI
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Main Verb

This paper is a summary of some phonological and morphosyntactice features of the Bhadarwahi language of Indo-Aryan family. Bhadarwahi is a lesser known and less documented language spoken in district of Doda of Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir State in India. Typologically it is a subject dominant language with an SOV word order (SV if without object) and its verb agrees with a noun phrase which is not followed by an overt post-position. These noun phrases can move freely in the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence. The indirect object generally precedes the direct object. Aspiration, like any other Indo-Aryan languages, is a prominent feature of Bhadarwahi. Nasalization is a distinctive feature, and vowel and consonant contrasts are commonly observed. Infinitive and participle forms are formed by suffixation while infixation is also found in causative formation. Tense is carried by auxiliary and aspect and mood is marked by the main verb.

Word order and parameter change in Romanian

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Alexandru Nicolae
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Parameter Change ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Methodological Difficulties

This chapter introduces the phenomena to be studied in detail in the monograph (verb–auxiliary inversion; pronominal enclisis; scrambling; interpolation; the low definite article; changes in the position and linearization of adjectives; hyperbaton; demonstrative specialization; emergence of the freestanding determiner cel) and the theoretical framework adopted; presents the methodology and methodological difficulties, the periodization of Romanian, and the corpus; and discusses the issue of ‘foreign’ syntactic features in the syntax of old Romanian.

Discontinuous noun phrases in Ngkolmpu

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 700-721
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
General Information ◽  
The Other ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
The Right

Abstract It has been claimed that Ngkolmpu (Yam, Papuan) displays discontinuous noun phrases (Donohue 2011). However, careful textual analysis of a corpus of naturalistic language reveals that, in practice, this is highly restricted. The data shows two relatively rare constructions which give rise to limited discontinuous structures. The first is an afterthought construction involving a full co-referential nominal constituent adjacent to the clause. This co-referential constituent is both syntactically and phonetically distinct from the main utterance. The other involves a topic marking demonstrative encliticised to verbs at the right edge of the clause interacting with general information-structural conditions on word order. This is the only true discontinuity found in the corpus and is restricted to demonstratives only. This paper clarifies a claim in the literature about the empirical facts of a specific language, Ngkolmpu, and adds a nuanced discussion of nominal discontinuity in a language of New Guinea.

Language Mixing in a French-Dutch Bilingual Child

1996 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 89-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aafke Hulk ◽  
Elisabeth van der Linden
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Combined System ◽  
Bilingual Child ◽  
Early Child ◽  
Functional Projection ◽  
Small Clauses

Child bilingualism has been a domain of growing interest in the last few years. A central question in research concerns the differentiation of the two languages in the developmen-tal process: do children develop two separate language systems from the very beginning or do they start with a combined system? In this discussion, aspects of word order play an essential role. Radford (1986) has compared early child utterances with so called "small clauses". In small clauses, word order would be relatively free due to the fact that children have not yet acquired the concept of case marking which puts constraints on word order. In this assumption, word order would not be expected to be differen-tiated in the first stages of the two languages of the bilingual child. Others however (Meisel, 1989, Frijn & de Haan 1994) have suggested that word order from the two-word stage on is almost invariably correct and in line with parameter settings in the adult language. At first sight, the utterances of the French-Dutch bilingual child that we study do not support one or the other of these two views unambiguously. Despite the fact that French is a head initial, SVO language and that the majority of the utterances of the child are in accordance with this parameter setting, utterances with SOV order and other Dutch-like word orders do appear in her French with a certain frequency. In our discussion we will show that, while the early (S)OV patterns can probably be explained by the absence of a fully fledged functional projection IP in the child's grammar, this cannot account for these patterns in later phases. The persistent presence of OV patterns in the French utterances - that are (although very rarely) encountered in French monolingual children as well - seems to be caused, then, by the continuing Dutch input that may very well be the factor that "pushes up" the production of [XP V] patterns in the child's French.

Muskogean Languages

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack B. Martin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Verbal Aspect ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Family

The Muskogean languages are a family of languages indigenous to the southeastern United States. Members of the family include Chickasaw, Choctaw, Alabama, Koasati, Apalachee, Hitchiti-Mikasuki, and Muskogee (Creek). The trade language Mobilian Jargon is based on Muskogean vocabulary and grammar. The Muskogean languages all have SOV word order. Noun phrases are marked for subject or non-subject case. Alienable and inalienable possession is marked on possessed nouns. Agreement on verbs for subjects and objects is sensitive to agency. The languages have grammatical tone (used to indicate verbal aspect) and switch reference. Several of the languages have measured tense systems (indicating several degrees of distance in the past).

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