Some quantitative aspects of written and spoken French based on syntactically annotated corpora

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-380
Author(s):  
Rafaël Poiret ◽  
Haitao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Dependency Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Relations ◽  
Annotated Corpora

ABSTRACTBased on two syntactically annotated corpora, and within the theoretical tradition of dependency grammar, the current study investigates the quantitative differences and similarities between written and spoken French. Our findings support the assumption that spoken and written French are two realizations of one language that do not differ in the syntactic categories, but in the frequency of these categories, and also in their organization in sentence. The subjects in spoken French are mostly pronouns, whereas in written French the subjects are mostly nouns and pronouns. Spoken and written French share many syntactic relations, but with different frequencies. For instance, dislocations are more diverse and frequent in spoken French. Spoken French and written French differ in the word order of vocative nominal phrases. Finally, written French is slightly more difficult to process than spoken French.

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.

scholarly journals The nature of V2 in Old French: Evidence from subject inversion in embedded clauses

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Zaring
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Old French ◽  
Structure Change ◽  
Embedded Clauses ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Annotated Corpora

AbstractOld French (OF) is often characterized as a Germanic-style asymmetric V2 language, although this characterization is often questioned. The present study evaluates the nature of OF V2 from a quantitative perspective. An extensive set of data provided by syntactically annotated corpora shows that both IP and CP structure change over the OF period. Focusing on Germanic inversion – XVS word order – I argue that most of the attested inversion in OF occurs within an elaborated IP structure and that this type of subject inversion dwindles over time due to the decreasing use of null expletives. True Germanic-style embedded V2 does not appear until the late 12thcentury, and is only rarely used throughout the 13thcentury. Thus, OF is an asymmetric V2 language, but with a difference, namely in having an IP field that allows for apparent V2 orders and a CP field that is only marginally employed.

scholarly journals Syntactic Relations Reflected by Word Order in "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger and "Fates and Furies" by L. Groff

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1078-1085
Author(s):  
R. R. Ganieva
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Word Order ◽  
English Language ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Adverbial Modifiers ◽  
Syntactic Relations ◽  
Auxiliary Verb

The research features syntactic structure in the twentieth century "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger and the twenty first century "Fates and Furies" by L. Groff. The research objective was to study the nature of syntactic relations expressed by word order in speech of narrators and characters. The paper outlines the rules of word order in the English sentence and reviews related studies in the field of syntax. The author analyzed the syntactic structure of sentences in the speech of narrators and characters in the two novels. The analysis was based on the descriptive method and techniques of observation, interpretation, comparison, and generalization. There were numerous examples of omission of auxiliary verbs in interrogative sentences in characters' speech, as well as interrogative sentences with affirmative structure. In "The Catcher in the Rye", affirmative sentences obecame interrogative with the help of interjections eh and ah. Both novels contained sentences where adverbial modifiers, objects, or attributes preceded the main parts – in the narrators' speech. A lot of one-member and contextually incomplete sentences were used to describe events and personages in both novels. In "The Catcher in the Rye", the narrator's speech revealed few cases of violations of word order rules, mostly in sentences with direct word order. The characters' speech appeared to contain much more cases of word order violations, since the novel features colloquial speech of twentieth century American teenagers. The speech of adult personages was characterized by correct word order. In "Fates and Furies", the narrator's speech demonstrated a significant number of elliptical sentences where auxiliary verb to be was omitted in simple verbal predicate with the verb in Present Continuous, as well as in compound nominal predicate and in passive voice. A comparative study of syntactic structure contributed to a deeper understanding of the nature of syntactic relations reflected by word order in the English sentence, grammatical structure of the English language, and popular types of sentences. In addition, the study showed the way native speakers express their ideas and thoughts by linguistic means and violate linguistic norms. The results can be used in various grammar courses and compiling textbooks.

scholarly journals The nature of syntactic relations reflected by word order in sentences in the novels

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (Extra-A) ◽  
pp. 148-156
Author(s):  
Liliya Radikovna Sakaeva ◽  
Rina R. Ganieva ◽  
Roman Evgenievich Shkilev
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Syntactic Relations

The topicality of the problem investigated is caused by necessity of studying the syntactic system of languages which is in line with main trends in modern linguistics. The aim of the research is to study the nature of syntactic relations expressed by word order in sentences in speech of authors and characters in the work of the 20th century American writer J.D. Salinger ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ and the work of the 21st century American writer L. Groff ‘Fates and Furies’. The following objectives of the study contribute to the achievement of the aim: to consider the rules of word order in a sentence in English; to study the works devoted to the study of syntax of a sentence; to analyze the syntactic structure of sentences in authors’ and characters’ speech in the novels «The Catcher in the Rye» by J.D. Salinger and «Fates and Furies» by L. Groff.      

scholarly journals Dependency length minimization and its limits: a possible role for a probabilistic version of the Final-Over-Final Condition (to appear in Language)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingqi Jing ◽  
Damián Ezequiel Blasi ◽  
Balthasar Bickel
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Parallel Structures ◽  
Detailed Interpretation ◽  
Hierarchical Dependency ◽  
Dependency Structures ◽  
Probabilistic Version ◽  
Annotated Corpora

A prominent principle in explaining a range of word order regularities is dependency locality, i.e. a principle that minimizes the linear distances (dependency lengths) between the head and its dependents. However, it remains unclear to what extent language users in fact observe locality when producing sentences under diverse conditions of cross-categorical harmony (such as the placement of verbal and nominal heads on the same vs different sides of their dependents), dependency direction (head-final vs head-initial) and parallel vs. hierarchical dependency structures (e.g. multiple adjectives dependent on the same head vs nested genitive dependents). Using 45 dependency-annotated corpora of diverse languages, we find that after controlling for harmony and conditioning on dependency types, dependency length minimization (DLM) is inversely correlated with the overall presence of head-final dependencies. This anti-DLM effect in sentences with more head-final dependencies is specifically associated with an accumulation of dependents in parallel structures and with disharmonic orders in hierarchical structures. We propose a detailed interpretation of these results and tentatively suggest a role for a probabilistic principle that favors embedding head-initial (e.g. VO) structures inside equally head-initial and thereby length-minimizing structures (e.g. relative clauses after the head noun) while head-final (OV) structures have a less pronounced preference for harmony and DLM. This is in line with earlier findings in research on the Greenbergian word order universals and with a probabilistic version of what has been suggested as the Final-Over-Final Condition more recently.

Morphology and word order in Slavic languages: Insights from annotated corpora

2021 ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Jianwei Yan
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Quantitative Metrics ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Efficient Communication ◽  
Corpus Size ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Annotated Corpora

Slavic languages are generally assumed to possess rich morphological features with free syntactic word order. Exploring this complexity trade-off can help us better understand the relationship between morphology and syntax within natural languages. However, few quantitative investigations have been carried out into this relationship within Slavic languages. Based on 34 annotated corpora from Universal Dependencies, this paper paid special attention to the correlations between morphology and syntax within Slavic languages by applying two metrics of morphological richness and two of word order freedom, respectively. Our findings are as follows. First, the quantitative metrics adopted can well capture the distributions of morphological richness and word order freedom of languages. Second, the metrics can corroborate the correlation between morphological richness and word order freedom. Within Slavic languages, this correlation is moderate and statistically significant. Precisely, the richer the morphology, the less strict the word order. Third, Slavic languages can be clustered into three subgroups based on classification models. Most importantly, ancient Slavic languages are characterized by richer morphology and more flexible word order than modern ones. Fourth, as two possible disturbing factors, corpus size does not greatly affect the results of the metrics, whereas corpus genre does play an important part in the measurements of word order freedom. Specifically, the word order of formal written genres tends to be more rigid than that of informal written and spoken ones. Overall, based on annotated corpora, the results verify the negative correlation between morphological richness and word order rigidity within Slavic languages, which might shed light on the dynamic relations between morphology and syntax of natural languages and provide quantitative instantiations of how languages encode lexical and syntactic information for the purpose of efficient communication.

Sentences with uncoordinated attributes: their perception and understanding

2021 ◽  
pp. 269-282
Author(s):  
B. Ju. Norman ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Syntactic Relations ◽  
Dynamic Syntax ◽  
General Semantic ◽  
The Russian Language

This paper aims at describing a fragment of the “dynamic syntax” of the Russian language, namely the function of the adverb and the case form with a preposition in the structure of the utterance. They often function as uncoordinated attributes resulting from the word form pass-ing from the sphere of direct verb submission to the noun phrase. Constructions of the type “okno naprotiv” (window opposite something) are differently evaluated by linguists and pro-voke discussion. However, in terms of cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics, it is more important that utterances appear with a syntactic homonymy – the possibility of a double (al-ternative) syntactic division. The general semantic interpretation of the utterance depends on the listener’s choice of one of the options. For example, the phrase “On ne nashel brauninga v rukave” (He did not find the browning in the sleeve) can be interpreted by establishing the connections “ne nashel – v rukave” (did not find – in the sleeve) or “brauninga – v rukave” (browning – in the sleeve). The author provides the actual examples from Russian fiction and journalism. The prerequisites affecting the perception and understanding of such patterns are investigated. It is shown that the choice of one of the variants of analysis is influenced by: a) common sense, that is, the cognitive and verbal experience of the listener, b) linguistic fac-tors, including the rules of combinatorics, word order, etc. A connection is established be-tween the internal structural transformations taking place in the speaker’s and the listener’s consciousness and general trends in the development of Russian syntax. Among these, consideration is given to the tendency to weaken syntactic relations, the activation of constructions based on lexical-semantic associations, centripetal and centrifugal tendencies in syntax, etc.

Processing cost and its consequences

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O'Grady
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Proximity Effects ◽  
Processing Cost

AbstractI focus on two challenges that processing-based theories of language must confront: the need to explain why language has the particular properties that it does, and the need to explain why processing pressures are manifested in the particular way that they are. I discuss these matters with reference to two illustrative phenomena: proximity effects in word order and a constraint on contraction.

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