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.

Record your Agree: A case study of the Arabic complementizerʔinn

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARWAN JARRAH
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Interface Condition ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Jordanian Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Complementary Distribution ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Lebanese Arabic ◽  
Modern Standard

This research investigates the morpho-syntactic behaviour of the Arabic complementizerʔinnin a range of Arabic varieties (Modern Standard Arabic, Jordanian Arabic, and Lebanese Arabic). It essentially argues that this complementizershares(notdonatesorkeeps,paceOuali 2008, 2011) its unvalued$\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-features with its complement$\text{T}^{0}$, something that makesʔinnand$\text{T}^{0}$separate agreeing heads. An inflectional suffix attached toʔinnis treated as a PF reflex (i.e. an overt morphological realization) of valuation ofʔinn’s unvalued$\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-features or lack thereof. This research also argues that the occurrence of such an inflectional suffix is ruled by the postulatedAgree Chain Record, an interface condition that demands an Agree relation to have a PF reflex, called aRecord(i.e. an overt Case marking on the goal or, if not, a$\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-affix on the probe). This way, we account for the complementary distribution of overt Case and$\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-Agree in Arabic. We also show how a host of other phenomena, including word order agreement asymmetries in Modern Standard Arabic and lack of such asymmetries in Arabic vernaculars, fares well with this view.

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.

Word Order in Old and Middle English

Diachronica ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Extended Version ◽  
Major Parameter ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mixed Systems

In the history of English one finds a mixture of V2 and non-V2 word order in declaratives for several hundred years, with frequencies suggesting a relatively gradual development in the direction of non-V2. Within an extended version of a cue-based approach to acquisition and change, this paper argues that there are many possible V2 grammars, differing from each other with respect to clause types, information structure, and the behavior of specific lexical elements. This variation may be formulated in terms of micro-cues. Child language data from present-day mixed systems show that such grammars are acquired early. The apparent optionality of V2 in the history of English may thus be considered to represent several different V2 grammars in succession, and it is not necessary to refer to competition between two major parameter settings. Diachronic language development can thus be argued to occur in small steps, reflecting the loss of micro-cues, and giving the impression that change is gradual.

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.

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.

Comprehension of competing argument marking systems in two Australian mixed languages

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARMEL O'SHANNESSY ◽  
FELICITY MEAKINS
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Comprehension Task ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
Mixed Languages

Crosslinguistic influence has been seen in bilingual adult and child learners when compared to monolingual learners. For speakers of Light Warlpiri and Gurindji Kriol there is no monolingual group for comparison, yet crosslinguistic influence can be seen in how the speakers resolve competition between case-marking and word order systems in each language. Light Warlpiri and Gurindji Kriol are two new Australian mixed languages, spoken in similar, yet slightly different, sociolinguistic contexts, and with similar, yet slightly different, argument marking systems. The different sociolinguistic situations and systems of argument marking lead to a difference in how speakers of each language interpret simple transitive sentences in a comprehension task. Light Warlpiri speakers rely on ergative case-marking as an indicator of agents more often than Gurindji Kriol speakers do. Conversely, Gurindji Kriol speakers rely on word order more often than Light Warlpiri speakers do.

scholarly journals The role of case marking and word order in cross-linguistic structural priming in late L2 acquisition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merel Muylle ◽  
Bernolet Sarah ◽  
Robert Hartsuiker
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Learning Paradigm ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Case Marking

Several studies found cross-linguistic structural priming with various language combinations. Here, we investigated the role of two important domains of language variation: case marking and word order. We varied these features in an artificial language (AL) learning paradigm, using three different AL versions in a between-subjects design. Priming was assessed between Dutch (no case marking, SVO word order) and a) a baseline version with SVO word order, b) a case marking version, and c) a version with SOV word order. Similar within- language and cross-linguistic priming was found in all versions for transitive sentences, indicating that cross-linguistic structural priming was not hindered. In contrast, for ditransitive sentences we found similar within-language priming for all versions, but no cross-linguistic priming. The finding that cross-linguistic priming is possible between languages that vary in morphological marking or word order, is compatible with studies showing cross-linguistic priming between natural languages that differ on these dimensions.

Constructional change in Germanic

2021 ◽  
pp. 197-224
Author(s):  
Peter W. Culicover
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
West Germanic ◽  
German Word ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Verb Clusters

This chapter tracks several of the major changes in English and German word order and accounts for them in terms of constructional change as formulated in Chapter 3. It argues that the changes are relatively simple in constructional terms, although the superficial results are quite dramatic. Topics include clause-initial position, V2, VP-initial and VP-final verb position, the loss of V2 and case marking in English, and verb clusters in Continental West Germanic.

Mapping meaning to argument structure

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-60
Author(s):  
James N. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Nominal Arguments

This chapter investigates the phenomenon of morphological case in so-called ‘ergative-absolutive aligned’ languages, with a detailed case study of the Polynesian language Samoan. The focus is on the interaction of morphological case marking and the lexical semantics of verbs, proposing that the case marking pattern on a verb’s arguments are closely linked to the verb’s entailments, especially those relating to how the participants denoted by the verb’s nominal arguments participate in the event being described. Through empirical investigation of novel Samoan data, the chapter argues that ergative morphological case marking is linked to the agent argument’s status as a ‘self directed initiator’ of the event. In providing an analysis of this phenomenon, this chapter proposes a formal model of how a verb’s lexical semantics interacts with the morphological case component of grammar, employing insights from Optimality Theory.

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