scholarly journals The use of pronominal case in English sentence interpretation

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUKI YOSHIMURA ◽  
BRIAN MacWHINNEY
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Reliability Measures ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Cue Reliability ◽  
Sentence Interpretation

ABSTRACTThis study examined adult English native speakers' processing of sentences in which pronominal case marking conflicts with word order. Previous research has shown that English speakers rely heavily on word order for assigning case roles during sentence interpretation. However, in terms of cue reliability measures, we should expect English pronominal case to be nearly as strong a cue as word order. The current study examined this issue by asking subjects to interpret grammatical and ungrammatical sentences in which case competes with word order. The results indicated that word order remains the strongest cue in English, even when the case-marking cue is available. However, for noncanonical word orders, the case-marking cue had a strong effect on sentence interpretation.

scholarly journals Honorifics: A sociocultural verb agreement cue in Japanese sentence processing

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUKI YOSHIMURA ◽  
BRIAN MACWHINNEY
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
New Type

ABSTRACTCase marking is the major cue to sentence interpretation in Japanese, whereas animacy and word order are much weaker. However, when subjects and their cases markers are omitted, Japanese honorific and humble verbs can provide information that compensates for the missing case role markers. This study examined the usage of honorific and humble verbs as cues to case role assignment by Japanese native speakers and second-language learners of Japanese. The results for native speakers replicated earlier findings regarding the predominant strength of case marking. However, when case marking was missing, native speakers relied more on honorific marking than word order. In these sentences, the processing that relied on the honorific cue was delayed by about 100 ms in comparison to processing that relied on the case-marking cue. Learners made extensive use of the honorific agreement cue, but their use of the cue was much less accurate than that of native speakers. In particular, they failed to systematically invoke the agreement cue when case marking was missing. Overall, the findings support the predictions of the model and extend its coverage to a new type of culturally determined cue.

scholarly journals Thematic role assignment in non-default verb classes: A cross-linguistic comparison of English and German

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Kyriaki ◽  
Matthias Schlesewsky ◽  
Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Question Type ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Verb Classes ◽  
Task Focus

The influence of sentential cues (such as animacy and word order) on thematic role interpretation differs as a function of language (MacWhinney et al. 1984). However, existing cross-linguistic research has typically focused on transitive sentences involving agents, and interpretation of non-default verb classes is less well understood. Here, we compared the way in which English and German native speakers – languages known to differ in the cue prominence of animacy and word order – assign thematic roles. We compared their interpretation of sentences containing either default (agent-subject) or non-default (experiencer-subject) verb classes. Animacy of the two noun phrases in a sentence was either animate-inanimate and plausible (e.g. “The men will devour the meals...”) or inanimate-animate and implausible in English (e.g. “The meals will devour the men…”). We examined role assignment by probing for either the actor or undergoer of the sentence. Mixed effects modelling revealed that role assignment was significantly influenced by noun animacy, verb class, question type, and language. Results are interpreted within the Competition Model framework (Bates et al. 1982; MacWhinney et al. 1984), and show that English speakers predominantly relied on word order for thematic role assignment. German speakers relied on word order to a comparatively lesser degree, with animacy a prominent cue. Non-default verbs (experiencer-subject) promoted a non-default comprehension strategy regarding the prominence of sentential cues, particularly in German. Intriguingly, responses were modulated by the probe task, with undergoer probes promoting object-initial interpretations, particularly for German speakers. This suggests that task focus may retroactively influence sentence interpretation.

The syntax–discourse interface in near-native L2 acquisition: Off-line and on-line performance

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
HOLGER HOPP
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
On Line ◽  
Discourse Interface ◽  
Ultimate Attainment ◽  
L1 English

This study investigates ultimate attainment at the syntax–discourse interface in adult second-language (L2) acquisition. In total, 91 L1 (first-language) English, L1 Dutch and L1 Russian advanced-to-near-native speakers of German and 63 native controls are tested on an acceptability judgement task and an on-line self-paced reading task. These centre on discourse-related word order optionality in German. Results indicate that convergence at the syntax–discourse interface is in principle possible in adult L2 acquisition, both in off-line knowledge and on-line processing, even for L1 English speakers, whose L1 does not correspond to L2 German in discourse-to-syntax mappings. At the same time, non-convergence of the L1 Dutch groups and differences in the L2 groups' performance between tasks suggest that asymmetries in L1–L2 discourse configurations and computational difficulties in mapping discourse onto syntax constrain L2 performance.

The utilization of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic cues in the assignment of subject role in Arabic

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan A. Taman
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Cue Validity ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Subject Role ◽  
Similar Processing

AbstractThe role of four cues in the assignment of actor role in Arabic was studied. These cues included animacy, case marking, gender agreement, and word order. The cues were set-in-a competing/converging fashion following the framework of the Competition Model of Bates and MacWhinney (1981, 1982, 1987). Fifty-four sentences representing all possible permutations of the cues were presented to 100 native speakers of Arabic, who were asked to identify the actor in each sentence. Subjects relied mainly on gender agreement and case marking in the assignment of the actor role. The results suggested that cue validity is very highly correlated with cue strength. It was also found that cues do not exhibit an additive nature, and that cross-linguistic formal similarities do not warrant similar processing strategies. Order of nouns tended to represent a “latent strategy” to be utilized only when other relevant cues were not available.

scholarly journals Changing alignments in the Greek of southern Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-60
Author(s):  
Adam Ledgeway ◽  
Norma Schifano ◽  
Giuseppina Silvestri
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Structural Principles ◽  
Auxiliary Selection ◽  
Written Sources

Abstract This article investigates a peculiar pattern of subject case-marking in the Greek of southern Italy. Recent fieldwork with native speakers, coupled with the consultation of some written sources, reveals that, alongside prototypical nominative subjects, Italo-Greek also licenses accusative subjects, despite displaying a predominantly nominative-accusative alignment. Far from being random replacements within a highly attrited grammar, the distribution of these accusative subjects obeys specific structural principles, revealing similarities with historical attestations of the so-called “extended accusative” in early Indo-European. On the basis of these data, Italo-Greek is argued to be undergoing a progressive shift towards an active-stative alignment, a claim supported by additional evidence from auxiliary selection, adverb agreement and sentential word order.

scholarly journals Thematic role assignment in non-default verb classes: A cross-linguistic comparison of English and German

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Kyriaki ◽  
Matthias Schlesewsky ◽  
Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Question Type ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Verb Classes ◽  
Task Focus

The influence of sentential cues (such as animacy and word order) on thematic role interpretation differs as a function of language (MacWhinney et al. 1984). However, existing cross-linguistic research has typically focused on transitive sentences involving agents, and interpretation of non-default verb classes is less well understood. Here, we compared the way in which English and German native speakers – languages known to differ in the cue prominence of animacy and word order – assign thematic roles. We compared their interpretation of sentences containing either default (agent-subject) or non-default (experiencer-subject) verb classes. Animacy of the two noun phrases in a sentence was either animate-inanimate and plausible (e.g. “The men will devour the meals...”) or inanimate-animate and implausible in English (e.g. “The meals will devour the men…”). We examined role assignment by probing for either the actor or undergoer of the sentence. Mixed effects modelling revealed that role assignment was significantly influenced by noun animacy, verb class, question type, and language. Results are interpreted within the Competition Model framework (Bates et al. 1982; MacWhinney et al. 1984), and show that English speakers predominantly relied on word order for thematic role assignment. German speakers relied on word order to a comparatively lesser degree, with animacy a prominent cue. Non-default verbs (experiencer-subject) promoted a non-default comprehension strategy regarding the prominence of sentential cues, particularly in German. Intriguingly, responses were modulated by the probe task, with undergoer probes promoting object-initial interpretations, particularly for German speakers. This suggests that task focus may retroactively influence sentence interpretation.

Competition between word order and case-marking in interpreting grammatical relations: a case study in multilingual acquisition

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARMEL O'SHANNESSY
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Sentence Interpretation ◽  
Linguistic Influences ◽  
Mixed Systems

ABSTRACTThe study examines strategies multilingual children use to interpret grammatical relations, focusing on their two primary languages, Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri. Both languages use mixed systems for indicating grammatical relations. In both languages ergative–absolutive case-marking indicates core arguments, but to different extents in each language. In Lajamanu Warlpiri, pronominal clitics in a nominative–accusative pattern also indicate core arguments, and in Light Warlpiri word order in a nominative–accusative pattern partially does so. The study asks which sentence interpretation strategies children rely on most, when they learn to rely on them and whether cross-linguistic influences are seen. Children aged 5 ; 0, 7 ; 0 and 9 ; 0 and adults saw paired, animated events simultaneously on video and heard a transitive sentence spoken. The participants pointed to the event depicted by the sentence heard. Adults used a case-marking strategy consistently in both languages. Children initially used both case-marking and word order strategies, but used case-marking more often as age increased.

The cognitive saliency of word associations of verbs of speech in English as a Lingua Franca interactions

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-443
Author(s):  
Yang Pang
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Word Associations ◽  
Similar Word ◽  
Speech Communities

AbstractBuilding on the theoretical insights into the socio-cognitive approach to the study of interactions in which English is used as a lingua franca (ELF)), this paper reports on the idiosyncratic phenomenon that ELF speakers do not adhere to the norms of native speakers, but instead create their own particular word associations during the course of the interaction. Taking the verbs of speech talk, say, speak, and tell as examples, this study compares word associations from three corpora of native and non-native speakers. The findings of this study reveal that similar word associative patterns are produced and shared by ELF speech communities from different sociocultural backgrounds, and these differ substantially from those used by native English speakers. Idiom-like constructions such as say like, how to say, and speakin are developed and utilized by Asian and European ELF speakers. Based on these findings, this paper concludes that ELF speakers use the prefabricated expressions in the target language system only as references, and try to develop their own word associative patterns in ELF interactions. Moreover, the analysis of the non-literalness/metaphorical word associations of the verbs of speech in the Asian ELF corpus suggests that ELF speakers dynamically co-construct their shared common ground to derive non-literal/metaphorical meaning in actual situational context.

scholarly journals Isomorphism and language-specific devices in comprehension of Korean suffixal passive construction by Mandarin-speaking learners of Korean

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyu-Ho Shin ◽  
Sun Hee Park
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
The Other ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Case Marking

Abstract Across languages, a passive construction is known to manifest a misalignment between the typical order of event composition (agent-before-theme) and the actual order of arguments in the constructions (theme-before-agent), dubbed non-isomorphic mapping. This study investigates comprehension of a suffixal passive construction in Korean by Mandarin-speaking learners of Korean, focusing on isomorphism and language-specific devices in the passive. We measured learners’ judgment of the acceptability of canonical and scrambled suffixal passives as well as their reaction times (relative to a canonical active transitive). Our analysis generated three major findings. First, learners uniformly preferred the canonical passive to the scrambled passive. Second, as proficiency increased, the judgment gap between the canonical active transitive and the canonical suffixal passive narrowed, but the gap between the canonical active transitive and the scrambled suffixal passive did not. Third, learners (and even native speakers) spent more time in judging the acceptability of the canonical suffixal passive than they did in the other two construction types. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the mapping nature involving a passive voice, indicated by language-specific devices (i.e., case-marking and verbal morphology dedicated to Korean passives), in L2 acquisition.

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