Focus identification in child Mandarin

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 965-1005 ◽  
Author(s):  
PENG ZHOU ◽  
STEPHEN CRAIN
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Child Mandarin ◽  
Language Learnability

ABSTRACTIn this study, we investigated how Mandarin-speaking children and adults interpret focus structures like Zhiyou Yuehan chi-le pingguo ‘Only John ate an apple’ and Shi Yuehan chi-de pingguo ‘It is John who ate an apple’. We found that children tended to associate focus operators zhiyou ‘only’ and shi ‘be’ with the verb phrase (VP), whereas adults uniquely associated them with the subject noun phrase (NP). To account for this difference, we propose that children initially treat focus operators as adverbials, thus ending up associating them with the VP. In order to assess our proposal, we examined children's understanding of zhiyou-constructions with negation, like Zhiyou Yuehan meiyou chi pingguo ‘Only John didn't eat an apple’. It was found that children, like adults, consistently associated the focus operator with the subject NP in this construction. The findings have an important bearing on language learnability, since negation assists children in reaching the adult-like interpretation.

A Code Mixing Analysis of Javanese Community at Karang Anyar

Metahumaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Merina Devira
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Syntactic Pattern ◽  
The Subject

ABSTRAKTujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menggambarkan tentang faktor-faktor yangmempengaruhi penggunaan code mixing pada komunitas suku Jawa di desa Karang Anyar,Langsa, serta untuk menjelaskan pola sintaks yang terbentuk pada percakapan code mixingtersebut melalui diagaram pohon. Untuk mengumpulkan data, penelitian ini menggunakantiga metode: observasi, rekaman, dan wawancara. Subjek penelitian ini adalah 15 orangbersuku Jawa yang berumur 20-60 tahun. Data dalam penelitian ini adalah rekaman wawancarapara subjek dan rekaman percakapan para subjek yang terdapat tuturan code mixing. Hasildari penelitian ini menunjukkan tentang faktor yang mempengaruhi code mixing di desatersebut dan pola sintaks pada percakapan komunitas Jawa yang mengandung code mixingdalam hal penggunaan fase kata kerja, kata benda, kata bantu, dan kata seru.Kata kunci: code mixing, analisis, komunitas suku Jawa, pola sintaksABSTRACTThe aims of this research are to describe the factors influencing the use of code mixingin the Javanese community at Karang Anyar Village, Langsa, then to describe the syntacticpatterns in the code mixing of conversations uttered in that community by using a treediagram. To collect data, this study used three methods: observation, recording, and interviewmethod. The subjects of this study are 15 people of Javanese community aged 20-60 yearsold. The data in this research are the subject interview recordings and the subjects speechJavanese community at Karang Anyar Village Langsa in which code mixing are found. Theresult of this study showed two findings about the factors influencing the use of code mixing inthe Javanese community and the syntactic pattern in the conversation of Javanese communityin terms of the use of verb phrase (VP), noun phrase (NP), auxiliary, and interjection.Keywords: A Code Mixing, Analysis, Javanese Community, Syntactic Pattern

scholarly journals Re-examining the relationship between the subject agreement morpheme and (in)definiteness in Northern Sotho

Literator ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mampaka L. Mojapelo
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Northern Sotho ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement

The grammatical position of the subject noun phrase in Northern Sotho is to the left of the predicate. The subject agreement morpheme is a compulsory link between the subject noun phrase and the predicate. Scholars have examined the role of this morpheme from various perspectives. It is also extensively documented that the morpheme has dual functions. Its primary function is to mark agreement between the subject and the predicate. Its secondary function is pronominal, whereby it is co-referenced to some antecedent. This article reexamined the primary role of the subject agreement morpheme in Northern Sotho in relation to the interpretation of a subject noun phrase as definite or indefinite. This was accomplished by (1) revisiting existing works that are directly or indirectly linked to (in)definiteness and subject agreement, (2) analysing texts that may facilitate discussion on the issue, and (3) relating the findings from previous works to current analyses. The first hypothesis in this article was that when some class 9 subject noun phrases, denoting persons, agree with the verb stem by a class 1 agreement morpheme, the noun phrases are interpreted as definite. The second hypothesis was that although the subject position is considered predominantly topical and definite it may not categorically exclude indefinite noun phrases. Therefore some indefinite noun phrases may also agree with predicates by means of this morpheme.

scholarly journals Possessive and transitive in Eskimo

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Mey
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Surface Structures ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Indirect Confirmation ◽  
Relative Case ◽  
Grammatical Tradition ◽  
Natural Way

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to give an account of some hitherto unexplained phenomena connected with the use of the Eskimo ‘relative case’. A deep structure is proposed that not only will account for the occurrence of certain surface morphemes, but also, and in a natural way, for the semantic affinities that exist between certain types of noun phrases and the transitive sentence in Eskimo. In particular, it is shown that in phrases of the type ‘the man's house’, there exists evidence for considering ‘man’ as the subject noun phrase, ‘house’ as the object noun phrase of some deep structure. The transformational machinery involved in deriving the correct surface structures is shown in some detail. A discussion of older terminology in Eskimo grammatical tradition provides additional, indirect confirmation of the naturalness of the proposed explanation.

A Code Mixing Analysis of Javanese Community at Karang Anyar

Metahumaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Merina Devira
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Syntactic Pattern ◽  
The Subject

ABSTRAKTujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menggambarkan tentang faktor-faktor yangmempengaruhi penggunaan code mixing pada komunitas suku Jawa di desa Karang Anyar,Langsa, serta untuk menjelaskan pola sintaks yang terbentuk pada percakapan code mixingtersebut melalui diagaram pohon. Untuk mengumpulkan data, penelitian ini menggunakantiga metode: observasi, rekaman, dan wawancara. Subjek penelitian ini adalah 15 orangbersuku Jawa yang berumur 20-60 tahun. Data dalam penelitian ini adalah rekaman wawancarapara subjek dan rekaman percakapan para subjek yang terdapat tuturan code mixing. Hasildari penelitian ini menunjukkan tentang faktor yang mempengaruhi code mixing di desatersebut dan pola sintaks pada percakapan komunitas Jawa yang mengandung code mixingdalam hal penggunaan fase kata kerja, kata benda, kata bantu, dan kata seru.Kata kunci: code mixing, analisis, komunitas suku Jawa, pola sintaksABSTRACTThe aims of this research are to describe the factors influencing the use of code mixingin the Javanese community at Karang Anyar Village, Langsa, then to describe the syntacticpatterns in the code mixing of conversations uttered in that community by using a treediagram. To collect data, this study used three methods: observation, recording, and interviewmethod. The subjects of this study are 15 people of Javanese community aged 20-60 yearsold. The data in this research are the subject interview recordings and the subjects speechJavanese community at Karang Anyar Village Langsa in which code mixing are found. Theresult of this study showed two findings about the factors influencing the use of code mixing inthe Javanese community and the syntactic pattern in the conversation of Javanese communityin terms of the use of verb phrase (VP), noun phrase (NP), auxiliary, and interjection.Keywords: A Code Mixing, Analysis, Javanese Community, Syntactic Pattern

Discontinuous noun phrases in existential sentences in English and German

1977 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. W. Kirkwood
Keyword(s):  
Surface Structure ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Existential Sentences ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject

In Kirkwood (1970) I noted that in the passivization of a sentence such as: (i) They issued a report on recent developments. i.e. (2) A report was issued on recent developments. a prepositional phrase on recent developments, which appears in some way to be attached to the subject noun phrase a report, may be detached from it in surface structure and placed after the verb. A similar phenomenon was observed in equivalent German sentences. Compare:

scholarly journals LOGICS FOR THE RELATIONAL SYLLOGISTIC

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
IAN PRATT-HARTMANN ◽  
LAWRENCE S. MOSS
Keyword(s):  
Computational Complexity ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Proof Systems ◽  
Reductio Ad Absurdum ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject

The Aristotelian syllogistic cannot account for the validity of certain inferences involving relational facts. In this paper, we investigate the prospects for providing a relational syllogistic. We identify several fragments based on (a) whether negation is permitted on all nouns, including those in the subject of a sentence; and (b) whether the subject noun phrase may contain a relative clause. The logics we present are extensions of the classical syllogistic, and we pay special attention to the question of whether reductio ad absurdum is needed. Thus our main goal is to derive results on the existence (or nonexistence) of syllogistic proof systems for relational fragments. We also determine the computational complexity of all our fragments.

Children’s and adults’ eye movements and the extraction of number information from redundant markings

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Maximiliano Gomez ◽  
Carolina Holtheuer ◽  
Karen Miller ◽  
Cristina Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Chilean Spanish ◽  
Require Information

We present an eye tracking study comparing 3.5- to 7.5-year-old children and adults’ use of number information on the verb and/or the determiner of the subject noun phrase in Chilean Spanish, a dialect of Spanish with variable realization of plural morphology in the noun phrase (due to phonological weakening) and categorical realization of number on the verb. Our results suggest that, while adults can determine whether the subject refers to a plurality or a singleton set based on the morphology of the verb alone, even 5- to 7-year-old children do not and, instead, require information from the noun phrase determiner to make a decision. Children younger than 5 years cannot use number on the verb and on the determiner to make a decision, which supports Miller and Schmitt’s (2010, 2012) hypothesis that number morphology is not always mapped into syntactic and semantic features by younger children in varieties of Spanish where number is subject to variation.

Descriptions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Neale
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Singular Term ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theory Of Descriptions

‘Definite descriptions’ are noun phrases of the form ‘the’ + noun complex (for example, ‘the finest Greek poet’, ‘the cube of five’) or of the form possessive + noun complex (for example, ‘Sparta’s defeat of Athens’). As Russell realized, it is important to philosophy to be clear about the semantics of such expressions. In the sentence ‘Aeschylus fought at Marathon’, the function of the subject, ‘Aeschylus’, is to refer to something; it is a referential noun phrase (or ‘singular term’). By contrast, in the sentence ‘Every Athenian remembers Marathon’, the subject noun phrase, ‘every Athenian’, is not referential but quantificational. Definite descriptions appear at first sight to be referential. Frege treated them referentially, but Russell held that they should be treated quantificationally in accordance with his theory of descriptions, and argued that certain philosophical puzzles were thereby solved.

Subject and agent in emerging grammars: evidence for a change in children's biases

1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward H. Matthei
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Second Graders ◽  
Structural Basis ◽  
Grammar School ◽  
Structural System ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject

ABSTRACTThis paper presents the results of two experiments which appear to show that children's linguistic generalizational biases change from a semantically based system to a syntactic-structural system. The experiments use the constituent repetition paradigm of Read & Schreiber (1982). Subjects were trained to repeat the subject noun phrase in orally presented sentences. Preschoolers, but not second-graders, displayed a tendency to repeat the agentive noun phrase (contained in the by-phrase) in semantically irreversible passive sentences. It is argued that the results provide more evidence for a semantic-relational bias in children's early grammars, and that the results also provide support for the notion that children's generalizational biases shift from a semantic relational basis to a syntactic-structural basis some time between the preschool and early grammar school years.

Verwacht het onverwachte : Over hoe Nederlanders er anders gebruiken dan Vlamingen

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-211
Author(s):  
Stefan Grondelaers
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
Language User ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Dutch Language

Abstract Expect the unexpected. About the different ways in which the Dutch and the Flemish use erIn this paper I report experimental data I have ignored for almost ten years because I did not know what to do with them. I still don’t know exactly, but the 25th anniversary of this journal is a key occasion to share them, if only because they fittingly illustrate that the syntax of Netherlandic and Belgian Dutch are diverging. The new data demonstrate that contrary to categorical Netherlandic intuitions that er is ungrammatical in sentences with a fronted locative (such as Op de envelop zat een postzegel), er is not only grammatical, but also beneficial to the Dutch language user. Compared to Belgian Dutch, however, the principal beneficiary of er’s processing advantage no longer is the subject noun phrase, but anything that follows.

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