scholarly journals On the givenness of OV word order: a (re)examination of OV/VO variation in Old English

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
TARA STRUIK ◽  
ANS VAN KEMENADE
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Linear Mixed Model ◽  
Multinomial Regression ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Given ◽  
New Hypothesis ◽  
Multinomial Regression Analysis

OV/VO variation in the history of English has been a long-debated issue. Where earlier approaches were concerned with the grammatical status of the variation (see van Kemenade 1987; Pintzuk 1999 and many others), the debate has shifted more recently to explaining the variation from a pragmatic perspective (see Bech 2001; Taylor & Pintzuk 2012a), focusing on the given-before-new hypothesis (Gundel 1988) and its consequences for OV/VO. While the work by Taylor & Pintzuk (2012a) focuses specifically on the newness of VO orders, the present study is particularly concerned with the givenness of OV word order. It is hypothesized that OV orders are the result of leftward movement from VO orders, triggered by givenness. A corpus study on a database of subclauses with two verbs and a direct object, collected from the YCOE (Taylor et al.2003) corpus, and subsequent multinomial regression analysis within a generalized linear mixed model shows that OV word order is reserved for given objects, while VO objects are much more mixed in terms of information structure. We argue that these results are more in line with an analysis which derives all occurring word orders from a VO base than an analysis which proposes the opposite.

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 Word order in Latin locative constructions: a corpus study in Caesar’s De bello gallico

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stavros Skopeteas
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Structural Domains ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
First Order ◽  
Order Language ◽  
Free Word

AbstractClassical Latin is a free word order language, i.e., the order of the constituents is determined by information structure rather than by syntactic rules. This article presents a corpus study on the word order of locative constructions and shows that the choice between a Theme-first and a Locative-first order is influenced by the discourse status of the referents. Furthermore, the corpus findings reveal a striking impact of the syntactic construction: complements of motion verbs do not have the same ordering preferences with complements of static verbs and adjuncts. This finding supports the view that the influence of discourse status on word order is indirect, i.e., it is mediated by information structural domains.

Syntactic variation in the history of Norwegian and the decline of XV word order

Diachronica ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Sundquist
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Case Morphology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Exogenous Factors ◽  
Subsequent Loss

This essay examines syntactic variation between Complement–Verb (XV) and Verb–Complement (VX) order in a corpus of Middle Norwegian texts written between 1250 and 1525. In comparison to traditional studies which relate word order variation and the subsequent loss of XV word order to overt case morphology, this analysis proposes that information structure and variation in the underlying structure of the VP play a significant role. Empirical data point to the interaction of endogenous and exogenous factors, including language contact between Norwegian and Danish, which ultimately brings about the decline of XV word order in 15th-century Norwegian.

scholarly journals Fatigue-Induced Alterations of Static and Dynamic Postural Control in Athletes With a History of Ankle Sprain

2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Steib ◽  
Astrid Zech ◽  
Christian Hentschke ◽  
Klaus Pfeifer
Keyword(s):  
Postural Control ◽  
Ankle Sprain ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Linear Mixed Model ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
Sport Activity ◽  
Sensorimotor Control ◽  
Treadmill Running ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anterior Posterior

Context: Sensorimotor control is impaired after ankle injury and in fatigued conditions. However, little is known about fatigue-induced alterations of postural control in athletes who have experienced an ankle sprain in the past. Objective: To investigate the effect of fatiguing exercise on static and dynamic balance abilities in athletes who have successfully returned to preinjury levels of sport activity after an ankle sprain. Design: Cohort study. Setting: University sport science research laboratory. Patients or Other Participants: 30 active athletes, 14 with a previous severe ankle sprain (return to sport activity 6–36 months before study entry; no residual symptoms or subjective instability) and 16 uninjured controls. Intervention(s): Fatiguing treadmill running in 2 experimental sessions to assess dependent measures. Main Outcome Measure(s): Center-of-pressure sway velocity in single-legged stance and time to stabilization (TTS) after a unilateral jump-landing task (session 1) and maximum reach distance in the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) (session 2) were assessed before and immediately after a fatiguing treadmill exercise. A 2-factorial linear mixed model was specified for each of the main outcomes, and effect sizes (ESs) were calculated as Cohen d. Results: In the unfatigued condition, between-groups differences existed only for the anterior-posterior TTS (P = .05, ES = 0.39). Group-by-fatigue interactions were found for mean SEBT (P = .03, ES = 0.43) and anterior-posterior TTS (P = .02, ES = 0.48). Prefatigue versus postfatigue SEBT and TTS differences were greater in previously injured athletes, whereas static sway velocity increased similarly in both groups. Conclusions: Fatiguing running significantly affected static and dynamic postural control in participants with a history of ankle sprain. Fatigue-induced alterations of dynamic postural control were greater in athletes with a previous ankle sprain. Thus, even after successful return to competition, ongoing deficits in sensorimotor control may contribute to the enhanced ankle reinjury risk.

scholarly journals Subject case alternation in negated existential, locative, and possessive clauses in Latvian

Kalbotyra ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 43-64
Author(s):  
Andra Kalnača ◽  
Ilze Lokmane
Keyword(s):  
Full Article ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Semantic Type ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Nominative Case ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Adverbial Modifiers ◽  
Strict Rule ◽  
Negative Form

[full article and abstract in English] The goal of this article is to analyse the alternation between the genitive and nominative cases in Latvian. As the alternation between genitive and nominative cases is possible in all clauses in which the verb būt ‘to be’ is used as an independent verb, this article examines existential, locative, and also possessive clauses, while also demonstrating that distinguishing these clause types is problematic for Latvian utilising the criteria given in the linguistic literature. Clauses containing the negative form of būt ‘to be’, i.e. nebūt, form the foundation of those selected for this study, as only in these sentences the genitive/nominative alternation can be seen for the subject in Latvian. There are only fragmentary descriptions of existential clauses as a unique semantic type, primarily in connection with the function of the verb būt ‘to be’ and the problems associated with distinguishing its independent and auxiliary meanings. Word order in existential, locative, and possessive clauses has, until now, been examined in connection with typical clause expanders – adverbial modifiers and the dative of possession as well as the information structure of the clause. At the same time, case choice for objects in negative existential clauses has traditionally been one of the most studied themes regarding language standardisation. In order to determine which factors affect the choice of either the genitive or nominative case, a corpus study was done analysing 979 examples: 882 with a genitive subject and 97 with a nominative subject. It was found that a connection exists between the definiteness of the subject, word order, and case choice; however, this manifests only as a tendency rather than as a strict rule.

scholarly journals On word order variation and informationstructure in peninsular spanish and italian ‘why’-interrogatives

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. e021025
Author(s):  
Svenja Schmid ◽  
Klaus Von Heusinger ◽  
Georg A. Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Word Order Variation ◽  
High Preference ◽  
Parallel Text ◽  
Peninsular Spanish ◽  
Structural Category ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, we investigate the effect of information structure on word order in Italian and Peninsular Spanish ‘why’-interrogatives, and whether these two languages differ from each other. To this end, we conducted two empirical studies. In a parallel text corpus study, we compared the frequency of the word order patterns ‘why’SV and ‘why’VS, as well as the distribution of focal and non-focal subjects in the two languages. In order to get a deeper understanding of the impact of the information structural categories focus and givenness on word order in ‘why’-interrogatives, we conducted a forced-choice experiment. The results indicate that word order is affected by focus in Italian, while it is not determined by any information structural category in Peninsular Spanish. We show that Italian and Peninsular Spanish ‘why’-interrogatives differ from each other in two ways. First, non-focal subjects occur preverbally in Italian, while they occupy the postverbal position in Peninsular Spanish. Second, Italian reveals a lower level of optionality with respect to word order patterns. Even though we find a high preference for the postverbal position in Peninsular Spanish, we argue that this limitation is related to a higher flexibility regarding word order in Peninsular Spanish than in Italian which does not allows for ‘why’VSO in contrast to Peninsular Spanish.

The development of constructions from the right edge: a multinomial regression analysis of clitic left and right dislocation in child French

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Morgane JOURDAIN ◽  
Karen LAHOUSSE
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Multinomial Regression ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Learning Mechanism ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Multinomial Regression Analysis

Abstract The aim of the present research is to investigate the development of left and right dislocation in child French through a corpus study of three children until age 2;7 from the corpus of Lyon (Demuth & Tremblay, 2008). We extracted a total of 704 dislocations and analysed their syntactic properties. We show that (i) right dislocations are more frequent than left dislocations and (ii) left dislocations are significantly more complete than right dislocations (fewer omissions of verbs or pronouns). We compare these results to the hypothesis of Freudenthal, Pine, Jones & Gobet (2015, 2016) according to which some properties of child language can be explained by a learning mechanism from the right edge of the sentences from the input. We will show that this hypothesis can explain the general trend found in our data, but it is not sufficient to account for the entire development of dislocation in French.

scholarly journals When discourse matches syntax: On meta-informative centering theory and discourse coherence in the recent history of English

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Ana Elina Martínez Insua
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Discourse Coherence ◽  
Order Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Centering Theory ◽  
Free Word

This paper is concerned with how <em>there</em>-constructions may have helped to achieve discourse coherence in the recent history of English. From the theoretical framework of Meta-Informative Centering Theory (MIC) the paper explores the possibility to establish a relation between the syntactic structures under analysis and the distinction between 'smooth-shift' and 'rough-shift' transitions from one centre of attention to another (Brennan, Friedman &amp; Pollard, 1987). This will help, ultimately, to investigate the interaction between centering and MIC theories, word order and information structure in a 'non-free' word order language such as English. A corpus- driven analysis of the behaviour of spoken and written <em>there</em>-constructions from late Middle English to Present Day English will show their capacity to function either as highly coherent structures that continue with the same local topic as the previous utterance(s), or as means to shift the local focus of attention.

An Exploration of Pre-Professional Dancers’ Beliefs of the Low Back and Dance-Specific Low Back Movements

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-146
Author(s):  
Danica Hendry ◽  
Leon Straker ◽  
Amity Campbell ◽  
Luke Hopper ◽  
Rhianna Tunks ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Back Pain ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Linear Mixed Model ◽  
Low Back ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Lower Back ◽  
Negative Beliefs ◽  
History Of ◽  
Professional Dancers

OBJECTIVE: Low back pain (LBP) is common in dancers. A biopsychosocial model should be considered in the aetiology of LBP, including a dancer’s general beliefs of the low back and movements of the spine. This study aimed to determine pre-professional dancers’ beliefs about their lower back in general and dance-specific movements of the spine and to explore whether these beliefs were influenced by a history of disabling LBP. METHODS: 52 pre-professional female dancers (mean age 18.3 [1.4] yrs) were recruited and reported whether they had a history of disabling LBP and completed the Back Pain Attitudes Questionnaire (Back-PAQ) and a dance movement beliefs questionnaire. A linear mixed model was applied to determine the effect of a history of disabling LBP on dancers’ beliefs (p<0.05). RESULTS: 20 dancers reported a history of disabling LBP. Regardless of this LBP history, dancers held generally negative beliefs as measured by the Back-PAQ (p=0.130). A history of disabling LBP did not influence dancers’ perceived movement safety of all tasks (p=0.867), and dancers held negative beliefs towards extension activities. These beliefs were linked to the conceptions of perceived risk of damage and the need to protect the lower back. CONCLUSIONS: Dancers hold negative general beliefs around the low back and low back movements, regardless of a history of disabling LBP. Dancers perceive extension activities as more dangerous than flexion activities. These beliefs may reflect a combination of pain experience and beliefs specific to dance.

scholarly journals Utility of 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors in active surveillance for favourable risk prostate cancer

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Chiang ◽  
Andrew Loblaw ◽  
Vibhuti Jethava ◽  
Perakaa Sethukavalan ◽  
Liying Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Surveillance ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Linear Mixed Model ◽  
Specific Antigen ◽  
Reductase Inhibitors ◽  
Risk Prostate Cancer ◽  
History Of ◽  
Psa Nadir ◽  
5 Alpha Reductase Inhibitors

Introduction: This retrospective review compares prostate-specific antigen (PSA) doubling time (DT) prior to the initiation of a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (pre-5-ARI) to after the PSA nadir (post-nadir) has been reached for patients on active surveillance for favourable risk prostate cancer.Methods: Between 1996 and 2010, a total of 100 men with a history of 5-ARI use were captured from our active surveillancedatabase. Twenty-nine patients had a sufficient number of PSA values to determine both pre-5-ARI and post-nadir DTs. PSADT was calculated using the general linear mixed-model method.Results: The median follow-up was 69.5 months. The median pre-5-ARI PSADT was 55.8 (range: 6-556.8) months, while the post-nadir value was 25.2 (range: 6-231) months (p = 0.0081). Six patients were reclassified after an average of 67.7 (range: 59-95) months, due to progression in PSADT (n = 2) or Gleason score (n = 4). The median pre-5-ARI and post-nadir DTs for this group were 42.3 (range: 32.4-91.1) and 21.1 (range: 6-44.3) months, respectively.Conclusion: 5-ARIs significantly decreased PSADT compared to prior to their initiation. This effect may be due to preferential suppression of benign tissue following PSA nadir. The resulting PSADT would then represent a more accurate depiction of the true cancer related DT. If validated with a larger cohort, 5-ARIs may enhance the utility of PSADT as a biomarker of disease progression in active surveillance.

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