scholarly journals Not-negation revisited: variation between a and any in verb complements in contemporary spoken American English

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-535
Author(s):  
GUNNEL TOTTIE
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Abstract Nouns

In not-negated English sentences with indefinite expressions following the verb, there is variation between the indefinite article and any as determiners of nouns. The standard view is that singular count nouns take the indefinite article and singular non-count and plural nouns take any. However, it is possible to encounter examples like it isn't any threat, there isn't any lock or I don't have any problem.The article studies variation between the indefinite article and any as post-verbal determiners of singular nouns in 21,084 not-negated sentences in the spoken component of The Corpus of Contemporary American English, COCA SPOK. The indefinite article is dominant with 90 per cent of the tokens. Variation is extremely rare in sentences with copular be and much more frequent in sentences with existential be and have. Among the reasons for variation between verb types is the use of do-support with have (but not with be). Expressions such as have a job/car/home or there's not a/an with uncontracted not may also prevent the use of any. Variation occurs mostly with abstract nouns such as problem, choice, way, place, reason. This finding is surprising as abstract nouns have rarely been discussed in the literature on varying countability of nouns.

scholarly journals Difficulties in The Acquisition and Use of English Articles among Adult Pashto Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalil Ahmad ◽  
Addul Qadir Khan
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Error Rate ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
English Articles

The acquisition of the English articles is one of the most difficult areas for the second language learners particularly when there are no articles in the first language of the learners. The purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulties in acquisition and use of the English articles. The study aims at identifying the errors the EFL learners make in using the English articles. Two theoretical approaches regarding noun classification for articles choice were adopted in this study. The data were collected in the form of a gap-fill task from seventy five (75) adult Pashto learners of English. The results showed the students used the definite article ‘the’ and the indefinite article ‘a/an’ more often than the zero article Ø. In noun types, a few subjects made errors in using articles before count nouns. In the noun phrase environments, the lowest error rate was in referential indefinite while the highest error rate was in generics. The reasons for difficulties in acquiring and using the English articles were found to be mainly the identification of noun types, NPs environments, and language transfer.

Do the meanings of abstract nouns correlate with the meanings of their complementation patterns?

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Vergaro ◽  
Hans-Jörg Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
American English ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Grammatical Analysis ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Existential Constructions ◽  
Comparative Description

Abstract There is a widespread assumption in Construction Grammar (but also before and elsewhere) that the meanings of verbs correlate with or even determine their complementation forms and patterns. There is much less research on noun complementation, however, although this category is even more interesting for a number of reasons such as the potential for valency reduction, nominal topicalization constructions, and additional complementation options, e.g. of-PPs and existential constructions. In this paper we focus on the class of nouns reporting commissive illocutionary acts (promise, offer, pledge, refusal, bet, threat, etc.), and address the question of whether there is a correlation (i) between the meaning of these nouns and their preferred complementation patterns, and (ii) between their semantic similarity and their similarity in the distribution of complementation patterns. We report the results of a study of a set of 17 commissive nouns chosen from a wider collection of illocutionary nouns. Two types of analysis were carried out in order to compare the semantic and grammatical characteristics of these nouns. The semantic analysis was based on insights from speech act theory and the philosophy of language. We developed a framework for a systematic comparative description of the nouns in our word field. The results were tallied with a corpus-based grammatical analysis. Two hundred tokens of each noun type were randomly sampled from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Using these data, the 17 nouns were subjected to an analysis of the relative frequencies of their complementation patterns. Results indicate a general match between noun meanings and complementation patterns. More specifically, however, they indicate that the closeness of this match depends on the prototypicality of nouns as members of the class of commissives. The study, then, contributes to our understanding of the relation between lexis and syntax. At the same time, it confirms the need for a close semantic analysis to account for the great extent to which item-specific information, i.e. properties of individual nouns, have to be taken into consideration at the expense of large-scale generalizations.

scholarly journals English Indefinite Ordinals: A First Explanation

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Leszek Berezowski
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Published Research

English ordinals are commonly preceded by the definite article but the pattern is not universal. There are quite a few well attested instances of English ordinals preceded by the indefinite article, which, strangely enough, have not been discussed in published research so far. The paper thus breaks new ground by documenting the pattern and offering an explanation of indefinite ordinal usages. In doing so, the paper draws on data culled from the Corpus of Contemporary American English and, in the absence of publications specifically focused on indefinite English ordinals, relies on broader accounts of the indefinite article. The paper shows that indefinite ordinal usages are well rooted in the meaning of the indefinite article and serve to express the speaker’s viewpoint.

The variable use of determiners in Old French and the argument DP hypothesis

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique Dufresne ◽  
Mireille Tremblay ◽  
Rose-Marie Déchaine
Keyword(s):  
Old French ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Semantic Class ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Gradual Disappearance ◽  
Syntactic Function ◽  
Function Number

Abstract The argument DP hypothesis, adopted by many syntactic analyses, claims that nominal arguments are introduced by a determiner (D), which may be covert or overt. While overt D is obligatory in Modern French (consistent with the argument DP hypothesis), it was not obligatory in earlier stages of French. We explore the factors that contributed to this change – including semantic class, syntactic function, number, and definiteness – focusing on a shift that occurred in the D-paradigm in two Anglo-Norman texts of the 12th century. Quantitative analysis (Goldvarb) yields two major findings. First, the effect of syntactic function remains constant: subject position favours overt D, but object position inhibits it. Second, there is a change in the effect of semantic class: count nouns increasingly favour overt D, but non-count (mass and abstract) nouns increasingly inhibit it. More generally, the gradual disappearance of bare Ns in French reflects the emergence of paradigmatically conditioned D.

Quantitative Derivation in Morphology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianina Iordăchioaia
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Lexical Categories ◽  
Linguistic Description ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Semantic Notion ◽  
Collective Meaning

In linguistics, the study of quantity is concerned with the behavior of expressions that refer to amounts in terms of the internal structure of objects and events, their spatial or temporal extension (as duration and boundedness), their qualifying properties, as well as how these aspects interact with each other and other linguistic phenomena. Quantity is primarily manifest in language for the lexical categories of noun, verb, and adjective/ adverb. For instance, the distinction between mass and count nouns is essentially quantitative: it indicates how nominal denotation is quantized—as substance (e.g., water, sand) or as an atomic individual (e.g., book, boy). Similarly, the aspectual classes of verbs, such as states (know), activities (run), accomplishments (drown), achievements (notice), and semelfactives (knock) represent quantitatively different types of events. Adjectives and adverbs may lexically express quantities in relation to individuals, respectively, events (e.g., little, enough, much, often), and one might argue that numerals (two, twenty) are intrinsic quantitative expressions. Quantitative derivation refers to the use of derivational affixes to encode quantity in language. For instance, the English suffix -ful attaches to a noun N1 to derive another noun N2, such that N2 denotes the quantity that fits in the container denoted by N1. N2 also employs a special use in quantitative constructions: see hand—a handful of berries. The challenge for the linguistic description of quantity is that it often combines with other linguistic notions such as evaluation, intensification, quality, and it does not have a specific unitary realization—it is usually auxiliary on other more established notions. Quantitative affixes either have limited productivity or their primary use is for other semantic notions. For instance, the German suffix ‑schaft typically forms abstract nouns as in Vaterschaft ‘fatherhood’, but has a (quantity-related) collective meaning in Lehrerschaft ‘lecturer staff’; compare English -hood in childhood and the collective neighborhood. This diversity makes quantity difficult to capture systematically, in spite of its pervasiveness as a semantic notion.

Bare singular nouns in Middle Norwegian

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Kari Kinn
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Period ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Nominal Structure

Old Norwegian allowed bare singular count nouns (BSNs) to a greater extent than Modern Norwegian. This chapter discusses BSNs in the transitional period between these two language stages, Middle Norwegian. It is shown that although BSNs are not very frequent in Middle Norwegian, they do occur, especially with indefinite interpretation; their distribution also seems compatible with previous suggestions that the indefinite article went through a stage of marking specificity. On the basis of these findings it is argued that a nominal structure different from that found in Modern Norwegian was retained until quite late, at least in some speakers.

scholarly journals Atomic Structures in the Denotation Of Abstract Nouns

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-74
Author(s):  
Halima Husić
Keyword(s):  
English Abstract ◽  
Atomic Structures ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Binary Division

Countability is a universal lexical category that provides a binary division of nouns into countable and uncountable nouns or is also called count and mass nouns. Usually, count nouns refer to things or objects which can be individuated and thus counted, while mass nouns refer to substances or stuff such as water,wine, blood, or mud for which it is less easy to identify what and how to count. This cognitive division leaves abstract nouns out. Abstract nouns neither refer to things or objects nor to substances or stuff. On the contrary, the reference of abstract nouns is rather heterogeneous comprising different kinds of nouns such as processes, states, events, measure and time terms, and alike. The aim of this paper is to present the challenges abstract nouns pose for theories of countability, and to reflect on possibilities to incorporate abstract nouns in contemporary theories of countability. The research discussed in this paper circles around English abstract nouns but we will also discuss the application of certain semantic phenomena onto Bosnian nouns.

Addressing African American English in Early Literacy Assessment and Instruction

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Patton Terry
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
American English ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
African American English ◽  
Literacy Assessment ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Speech Language Pathologist ◽  
Early Literacy Assessment

Abstract Determining how best to address young children's African American English use in formal literacy assessment and instruction is a challenge. Evidence is not yet available to discern which theory best accounts for the relation between AAE use and literacy skills or to delineate which dialect-informed educational practices are most effective for children in preschool and the primary grades. Nonetheless, consistent observations of an educationally significant relation between AAE use and various early literacy skills suggest that dialect variation should be considered in assessment and instruction practices involving children who are learning to read and write. The speech-language pathologist can play a critical role in instituting such practices in schools.

Zero Marking of Past Tense in Child African American English

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Lee ◽  
Janna B. Oetting
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Grammatical Function

Zero marking of the simple past is often listed as a common feature of child African American English (AAE). In the current paper, we review the literature and present new data to help clinicians better understand zero marking of the simple past in child AAE. Specifically, we provide information to support the following statements: (a) By six years of age, the simple past is infrequently zero marked by typically developing AAE-speaking children; (b) There are important differences between the simple past and participle morphemes that affect AAE-speaking children's marking options; and (c) In addition to a verb's grammatical function, its phonetic properties help determine whether an AAE-speaking child will produce a zero marked form.

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