The emergence of creole subject–verb agreement and the licensing of null subjects

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Meyerhoff
Keyword(s):  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Person Features ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Finite Clause ◽  
Consistent Support

A corpus of conversational Bislama (a Melanesian creole spoken in Vanuatu, related to Tok Pisin and Solomon Islands Pijin) suggests that during the 20th century the creole has developed a set of regular inflectional morphemes on the verb that agree in person and number with the subject of the finite clause. It is shown that, where the agreement paradigm is referentially richest, the language is also beginning to grammaticize a tendency towards phonetically null subjects (pro-drop). Three possible analyses of the Bislama verb phrase are evaluated; consistent support for only one is found in the spoken Bislama corpus. The resulting paradigm of subject–verb agreement (i, oli, and Ø) is analyzed in terms of the historical development of Bislama. It is argued that the synchronic agreement marking reflects properties derived from (i) the lexifier (English), (ii) the substrate languages, and (iii) universal grammar. No one component fully accounts for the patterns of agreement marking observed. Instead, a synthesis of all three is required, as previously observed by, for example, G. Sankoff (1984) and Mufwene (1996). Substrate languages provide a model for subject agreement prefixing on the verb; the person features associated with the lexifier ‘he’ continue to be reflected in the distribution of Bislama i; and phonetically null subjects are emerging as the norm where the agreement paradigm best serves to identify the subject referent. This is consonant with generative accounts of null subject systems. Parallels with other languages (e.g., Italian, Franco-Provençal, Hebrew, Finnish) are examined.

Null Subject in Lubukusu and the Extended Projection Principle

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Lonyangapuo Mary
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Content ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Argument Position ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Extended Projection ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Negative Implication

<p class="1"><span lang="X-NONE">This paper analyses the null subject phenomenon in Lubukusu with special reference to the extended projection principle (EPP). The paper looks at conditions under which null subjects are allowed in this language. Lubukusu data is self-generated and the analysis is based on the principles and parameters approach (P&amp;P) and the Minimalist program (MP). From the analysis of the data generated, it is shown that null subjects in Lubukusu are syntactically active categories. Though covert, they are Arguments that carry semantic content, hence satisfying the EPP requirements. Null subjects occur in this language because of its rich morphology; that is, whenever the subject agreement features are marked on the verb or any of the determiners, then the overt subject can be dropped without any negative implication on the grammaticality of the structure. Being an Argument position, it is theta-marked and as such the unpronounced null subject is pro (a pronoun). This being the case, it is argued that Lubukusu is a consistent null subject language and that in null subject constructions, the EPP is observed.</span></p>

Reflexive constructions in German, Spanish, and French as a product of cyclic interaction

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-164
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Maddox ◽  
Jonathan E. MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Old French ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Reflexive Pronoun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Categorial Status

German sich and Spanish se can have reflexive or anticausative interpretations but only Spanish se can have a passive interpretation. We argue that Spanish Passse is the result of interaction between the subject agreement cycle and the reflexive object cycle. We make two claims: i) pro merges in Spec-Voice in Passse, due to the subject agreement cycle; and ii) se heads Voice due to the reflexive cycle. The types of reflexive constructions a language has depends on the presence/absence of pro and the categorial status of the reflexive pronoun (head or DP). French appears problematic since it has Passse but lacks subject pro. However, Passse existed in Old French (Cennamo 1993), which was a null subject language (Vance 1997). Thus, French is consistent with this claim; i.e., it developed Passse when it had subject pro and se as a head. Passse survived into Modern French as a historical remnant.

Multiple constraints and the resolution of Korean null subject anaphor

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sook Whan Cho ◽  
Hyun Jin Hwangbo
Keyword(s):  
First Person ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Processing Load ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Person Features ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Syntactic Cues ◽  
Discourse Topic ◽  
Better Than

This study investigates how Korean adults interpret and identify the referent of a null subject in a narrative text, given different types of topic continuity and person features. We have found that the first-person feature was most accessible in the weak topicality condition in resolving the null subjects, and that the target sentences ending with the first-person modal suffix ‘-lay’ were read and responded to faster, and interpreted more correctly than other types of stimuli involving a third-person modal (‘-tay’) and a person-neutral modal (‘-e’). Furthermore, of the two first-person-specific featured types, the null subjects in the topically weak contexts were processed significantly better than those in the topically strong conditions. It was argued that anaphoric dependency would be formed more discursively than morpho-syntactically in the strong discourse continuity contexts involving no extra processing load due to the shift among multiple eligible candidates. It was also argued that, in the absence of discourse topic assigned strongly to more than one eligible referent in advance, morpho-syntactic cues involved in verb modality are likely to become prominent in the mind of the processor. It is concluded that these main findings support a constraint-based approach, but not the Centering-inspired work.

Agreement and null subjects in German L2 development: new evidence from reaction-time experiments

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Clahsen ◽  
Upyong Hong
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Parameter Resetting ◽  
L1 Acquisition ◽  
Korean Learners

In L1 acquisition research, developmental correlations between superfi cially unrelated linguistic phenomena are analysed in terms of clustering effects, resulting from the setting of a particular parameter of Universal Grammar (UG). In German L1 acquisition, there is evidence for a cluster ing of the acquisition of subject-verb agreement and the decrease of (incor rect) null subjects. The developmental connection between these two phenomena in L1 acquisition has been interpreted in terms of parameter setting. Vainikka and Young-Scholten (1994) have claimed that the acqui sition of subject-verb agreement and non-pro-drop in adult L2 learners developmentally coincides in the same way as it does in child L1 learners. This is taken to indicate that UG parameters are fully accessible to adult L2 learners. In this article we will report on reaction-time (RT) experi ments investigating subject-verb agreement and null subjects in 33 Korean learners of German and a control group of 20 German native speakers. Our main finding is that the two phenomena do not covary in the Korean learners indicating that (contra Vainikka and Young-Scholten) properties of agreement and null subjects are acquired separately from one another, rather than through parameter resetting.

A minimalist approach to null subjects and objects in second language acquisition

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyeson Park
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Feature Learning ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Korean Type

Studies of the second language acquisition of pronominal arguments have observed that: (1) L1 speakers of null subject languages of the Spanish type drop more subjects in their second language (L2) English than first language (L1) speakers of null subject languages of the Korean type and (2) speakers of Korean-type languages drop more objects than subjects in their L2 English. An analysis of these two asymmetries is conducted within the Minimalist Program framework (MP), which hypothesizes that language acquisition involves the learning of formal features of a target language.I propose, based on Alexiadou and Anagnostopoulou (1998), that the licensing of null subjects is conditioned by the interpretability of agreement features. When a language has [+interpretable] agreement features, raising of the verb to T (X-movement) satisfies the EPP requirement: hence, a null subject is allowed. On the other hand, in a language with [-interpretable] agreement features, the subject is obligatory since merger of the subject in the specifier of TP (XP-merge) is required to check the EPP feature. Learning of the obligatory status of English subjects is easier for Korean learners than for Spanish speakers since syntactically both English and Korean have the same feature value [-interpretable] (although null subjects are allowed in Korean for pragmatic reasons). Spanish has the opposite syntactic feature value [+interpretable] and resetting of this is more difficult. Licensing of null objects is hypothesized to be related to the strength of theta-features. Languages with strong theta-features, such as English and Spanish, do not allow null objects, whereas languages with weak theta-features like Korean allow null objects. It takes time for Korean speakers to learn the different value of English theta-features, resulting in the extended null object period in L2 English of Korean L1 speakers.

scholarly journals Agreement and Null Subjects

Nordlyd ◽  
10.7557/12.7 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christer Platzack
Keyword(s):  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Theta Role

This paper argues that agreement is a theta-role bearer, either directly, when agreement is externally merged in a theta position, or indirectly, when it is internally merged, heading an argument chain. Like true clitics, agreement is either pronominal or anaphoric in nature, hence either locally free or locally bound. This distinction accounts for the fact that some languages with rich subject verb agreement are null subject languages (Italian, Spanish, Arabic etc.), whereas others are not (German, Icelandic). The paper also discuss pre- and postverbal subjects in null subject languages, alternate agreement languages and the occurrence of oblique subjects in Icelandic.

scholarly journals Body as subject

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
IRIT MEIR ◽  
CAROL A. PADDEN ◽  
MARK ARONOFF ◽  
WENDY SANDLER
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Human Language ◽  
States Of Affairs ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Lexical Structure ◽  
Privileged Status ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Iconic Signs

The notion of subject in human language has a privileged status relative to other arguments. This special status is manifested in the behavior of subjects at the morphological, syntactic, semantic and discourse levels. Here we present evidence that subjects have a privileged status at the lexical level as well, by analyzing lexicalization patterns of verbs in three different sign languages. Our analysis shows that the sub-lexical structure of iconic signs denoting states of affairs in these languages manifests an inherent pattern of form–meaning correspondence: the signer's body consistently represents one argument of the verb, the subject. The hands, moving in relation to the body, represent all other components of the event – including all other arguments. This analysis shows that sign languages provide novel evidence in support of the centrality of the notion of subject in human language. It also solves a typological puzzle about the apparent primacy of object in sign language verb agreement, a primacy not usually found in spoken languages, in which subject agreement generally ranks higher. Our analysis suggests that the subject argument is represented by the body and is part of the lexical structure of the verb. Because it is always inherently represented in the structure of the sign, the subject is more basic than the object, and tolerates the omission of agreement morphology.

scholarly journals Aurelia Mallya: Locative-subject alternation constructions in Kiwoso

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Aurelia Mallya
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement

Locative subject alternation constructions show variation within and across languages in terms of subject agreement pattern and the type of predicates involved. In Kiwoso, the preverbal locative DPs with and without locative morphology are best analysed as canonical subjects, as evidenced by the subject diagnostics, such as subject-verb agreement and its occurrence as a subject of passive verb and relative verb clauses. The examined examples demonstrate that the postverbal subject neither behaves like canonical subject nor shows features of canonical object in that it cannot passivize in alternation constructions or appear on the verb as an object marker (i.e., cannot be object marked). However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the preverbal locative (subject) DP in Kiwoso locative-subject alternation constructions is a grammatical subject. As in most languages, locative-subject constructions in Kiwoso serve a pragmatic-discourse function of presentational focus. The locative subject argument of the locative-subject alternation constructions is interpreted as a topic, whereas the postverbal thematic subject of these sentences is understood as focus. The postverbal subject provides information which is usually discourse new in relation to preverbal locative DPs. The data examined from Kiwoso challenges the view that formal and semantic locative inversions cannot co-exist in a single language.

L1/L2 parametric directionality matters

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 165-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Judy
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Syntactic Property ◽  
Overt Pronoun ◽  
Null Subject Parameter ◽  
Shed Light

Assuming transfer of the L1 grammar, in the present study the question of whether all parameters can be reset even with access to UG is examined in light of the subset/superset relationship. Specifically, the resetting of the Null Subject Parameter (NSP) in L2 learners of English (L1 Spanish) is investigated by means of examining the application of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (Montalbetti 1984), a property that clusters with the null subject setting only, as well as acceptance/rejection of null subjects in English. Since English does not syntactically license empty subjects, but Spanish does, the two languages are in a subset/superset relationship such that Spanish is the superset grammar. Therefore, the results stand to shed light on the validity of the Subset Principle (Berwick 1982; Manzini and Wexler 1987; Wexler and Manzini 1987) and its learnability constraints applied to second language acquisition (SLA) where transfer might impede convergence on the narrow syntactic property despite full access to Universal Grammar.

Agreement syncretization and the loss of null subjects: quantificational models for Medieval French

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Simonenko ◽  
Benoit Crabbé ◽  
Sophie Prévost
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Model ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Variational Learning

AbstractThis paper examines the nature of the dependency between the availability of null subjects and the “richness” of verbal subject agreement, known as Taraldsen's Generalisation (Adams, 1987; Rizzi, 1986; Roberts, 2014; Taraldsen, 1980). We present a corpus-based quantitative model of the syncretization of verbal subject agreement spanning the Medieval French period and evaluate two hypotheses relating agreement and null subjects: one relating the two as reflexes of the same grammatical property and a variational learning-based hypothesis whereby phonology-driven syncretization of agreement marking creates a learning bias against the null subject grammar. We show that only the latter approach has the potential to reconcile the intuition behind Taraldsen's Generalisation with the fact that it has proven nontrivial to formulate the notion of agreement richness in a way that would unequivocally predict whether a language has null subjects.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document