Pied-piping in cognition

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD HUDSON
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Special Relation ◽  
Dependency Grammar ◽  
Full Power

The paper offers an analysis of pied-piping within the theoretical framework of Word Grammar. This framework combines cognitive linguistics with dependency grammar, so it assumes that the full power of domain-general cognition is available for syntax, and that syntactic structure can be conceived as a network of relations between individual words. In this network, words are related by at least two kinds of link: dependencies and ‘landmark’ links that determine word order. To handle the special characteristics of pied-piping, the analysis also includes a single special relation, ‘pipee’, which links the ‘piper’ (the wh-type word) to the word which replaces it in the landmark structure. The analysis is applied in detail to English, and then compared with previous analyses and extended to accommodate both the pied-piping with inversion found in Meso-American languages, and the boundary markers found in other languages.

Attention and Structural Choice in Sentence Production

2018 ◽  
pp. 526-546
Author(s):  
Andriy Myachykov ◽  
Mikhail Pokhoday ◽  
Russell Tomlin
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Regular Mapping ◽  
Structural Choice ◽  
Mapping Mechanism ◽  
Production Mechanisms

This chapter offers a review of experimental evidence about the role of the speaker’s attention in the choice of syntactic structure and the corresponding word order during sentence production. Here, we describe how the speaker’s syntactic choices reflect the regular mapping mechanism that reflects the features of the described event in the produced sentence. One of the most important event parameters that the speaker considers is the changing salience status of the event’s referents. This chapter summarizes current theoretical debate about the interplay between attention and sentence production mechanisms. Finally, it reviews the corresponding experimental evidence from languages with both restricted and flexible word orders.

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.

scholarly journals Syntactic and Semantic Modulation of Neural Activity during Auditory Sentence Comprehension

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 665-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Humphries ◽  
Jeffrey R. Binder ◽  
David A. Medler ◽  
Einat Liebenthal
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Word Lists

In previous functional neuroimaging studies, left anterior temporal and temporal-parietal areas responded more strongly to sentences than to randomly ordered lists of words. The smaller response for word lists could be explained by either (1) less activation of syntactic processes due to the absence of syntactic structure in the random word lists or (2) less activation of semantic processes resulting from failure to combine the content words into a global meaning. To test these two explanations, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which word order and combinatorial word meaning were independently manipulated during auditory comprehension. Subjects heard six different stimuli: normal sentences, semantically incongruent sentences in which content words were randomly replaced with other content words, pseudoword sentences, and versions of these three sentence types in which word order was randomized to remove syntactic structure. Effects of syntactic structure (greater activation to sentences than to word lists) were observed in the left anterior superior temporal sulcus and left angular gyrus. Semantic effects (greater activation to semantically congruent stimuli than either incongruent or pseudoword stimuli) were seen in widespread, bilateral temporal lobe areas and the angular gyrus. Of the two regions that responded to syntactic structure, the angular gyrus showed a greater response to semantic structure, suggesting that reduced activation for word lists in this area is related to a disruption in semantic processing. The anterior temporal lobe, on the other hand, was relatively insensitive to manipulations of semantic structure, suggesting that syntactic information plays a greater role in driving activation in this area.

First Language Acquisition

2016 ◽  
pp. 269-288
Author(s):  
Maria-Teresa Guasti
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
First Language ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics

Humans acquire language naturally, namely without specific instruction, by being exposed to it and by interacting with other human beings. According to the generativist enterprise, humans are endowed with a system of knowledge on the form of possible human languages (Universal Grammar). Evidence consistent with this assumption is provided in the chapter, by illustrating crucial phenomena ranging from the acquisition of phonology, to morphosyntax, syntax, formal semantics, and pragmatics. Infants’ brain organization is tuned to speech stimuli and presents left hemisphere specialization, from the first days of life, if not already in the mother’s womb. Infants set apart languages at two days of age, based on durational or rhythmic properties. Toddlers combine words by respecting the basic word order and are very sensitive to the hierarchical organization of sentences, both when it comes to the syntactic structure and when it comes to the interpretation of sentences.

Sinclair, pattern grammar and the question of hatred

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Teubert
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Dependency Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Local Grammar

The view of pattern grammar is that syntactic structures and lexical items are co-selected and that grammatical categories begin to align very closely with semantic distinctions. While this is certainly a valid position when analysing the phenomenon of collocation, it does not really solve the problem for open choice issues. Not all language use can be subsumed under the idiom principle. The noun hatred, for instance, can co-occur with any discourse object for which hatred can be expressed. It can also co-occur with other lexical items standing for various circumstantial aspects. The grammatical structure itself often does not tell us whether we find expressed the object of hatred or some circumstantial aspect, as these structures tend to have more than one reading. Lexicogrammar, or local grammar, is more than equating a syntactic structure with a semantic pattern. We have to be aware of the different functions or readings a given grammatical structure can have. The framework of valency/dependency grammar can help us to make the necessary distinctions.

scholarly journals Constructionist basis of composing and translating political speeches: A case study of President Trump’s inaugural address

2021 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 03006
Author(s):  
Nataliia Talavira
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Inaugural Address ◽  
American President ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
Linguistic Material

Application of the principles and tenets of cognitive linguistics to translation studies rests on the assumption that both of them employ the same meaning process while working with a text. Procedures implemented to translate the inaugural address of American President Trump have been regarded from the point of view of Construction Grammar. The construction is viewed as the main translation unit representing source linguistic material below the level of the text. The paper singles out from the translation of President Trump’s inaugural address equivalent constructions with identical form and meaning and non-equivalent pairings indicating transformations of structure or semantics in the original constructions. Syntactical modifications include the change of word order, grammar tenses or omission of construction component, while lexical transformations result in generalization, carried out by words with more abstract meaning than those in the source construction; simplification, representing separate objects or features from the array of denoted in the source pairing; and specification accentuating and detailing particular entities.

scholarly journals An Analysis on Syntactic Derivation of “Patient + Agent + Ergative Verb”

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1600
Author(s):  
Dan Du ◽  
Chunxiang Wu
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Light Verbs ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Split Ergativity ◽  
Syntactic Derivation

“Patient + Agent + Ergative verb”, in fact, it is a kind of absolutive structure, in which word order and case marking contribute to its formation. It assumes that “Patient + Ergative verb” is the basis syntactic structure, which generates “Patient + Agent + Ergative verb”. And it verifies the hypothesis by checking of light verbs, the characteristics of split-ergativity and Case Hierarchy.

Reflexivized motion verbs in Old Saxon: Semantics, syntax and semiotics

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-148
Author(s):  
Laura Dale Clopton
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Old Saxon ◽  
Verbs Of Motion ◽  
Reflexive Verbs ◽  
Peircean Semiotics

ABSTRACTThis paper examines four dative reflexive verbs of motion in Old Saxon:faran, gangan, kuman and giuuitan. The linguistic universals of GB syntax and the universal phenomenological categories of Peircean semiotics provide the theoretical framework for this paper. Various syntactic and semantic aspects of the dative reflexive verbs are targeted in the analysis: binding of the reflexive, word order patterns and subject types. The article suggests that a link exists between subject types, V1 syntactic configurations and the appearance of the dative reflexive — only human, animate subjects can license a dative reflexive and the reflexivized verbs exhibit a strong tendency to appear in the narratively visible V1 structure.

Priming semantic structure in Brazilian Portuguese

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayden Ziegler ◽  
Rodrigo Morato ◽  
Jesse Snedeker
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Locative Alternation ◽  
Change Of State

Structural priming, the tendency for speakers to reuse previously encountered sentence structures, provides some of the strongest evidence for the existence of abstract structural representations in language. In the present research, we investigate the priming of semantic structure in Brazilian Portuguese using the locative alternation: A menina lustrou a mesa com o verniz “The girl rubbed the table with the polish” vs. A menina lustrou o verniz na mesa “The girl rubbed the polish on the table.” On the surface, both locative variants have the same syntactic structure: NP-V-NP-PP. However, location-theme locatives (“rub table with polish” describe a caused-change-of-state event, while theme-location locatives (“rub polish on table”) describe a caused-change-of-location event. We find robust priming on the basis of these semantic differences. This work extends our knowledge by demonstrating that semantic structural priming is not isolated to languages like English (e.g., satellite-framed with strict word order and limited inflection) but is present in a language with very different typological characteristics (e.g., verb-framed and richly inflected with subject dropping).

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