Parsing Complex Noun Phrases: Effects of Hierarchical Structure and Sentence Position on Memory Load

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Mota ◽  
José Manuel Igoa
Keyword(s):  
Memory Load ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Processing Demands ◽  
Lexical Content

AbstractIn this paper, we report two experiments in Spanish designed to find out what kind of processes underlie the online parsing of complex noun phrases (NPs). To that end, we used a ‘click detection’ paradigm coupled with an oral comprehension task with sentences made up of complex NPs comprising embedded prepositional phrases PPs or coordinate NPs. The critical NPs consisted of words or pseudowords, and were inserted either at subject position (Experiment 1) or at object position (Experiment 2) in the sentence. Results show an opposite pattern of RTs to clicks when the complex NP is located at subject (vs. object) position, with the former case showing heavier processing demands as the parser delves deeper into the complex NP, regardless of the internal constituency of the target NP and its lexical content, and the latter yielding the opposite pattern. These results suggest that structural complexity by itself does not determine an increase in processing costs during sentence parsing, which is only apparent in cases involving deferred operations like subject-verb agreement.

Secondary predicates

2021 ◽  
pp. 777-825
Author(s):  
Harm Pinkster
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Semantic Relationship ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Case Number

Chapter 21 deals with secondary predicates (also called ‘praedicativa’), with quantifiers, and with the pronouns ipse and idem. The function of secondary predicate can be fulfilled by various categories of nominal expressions, such as adjectives, nouns, and participles which agree with the constituent to which they belong in case, number, and/or gender, but also by noun phrases in multiple case forms and prepositional phrases. The semantic relationship between the secondary predicate and the constituent it belongs to is usually implicit. A clause can contain more than one secondary predicate.

Possessor Raising in Nuu-chah-nulth

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 167-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Ravinski
Keyword(s):  
Main Clause ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Possessor Raising ◽  
Subject Agreement ◽  
Minimal Link Condition ◽  
Syntactic Dependency

AbstractNuu-chah-nulth possessor raising is semantically unrestricted and affects only subjects: subject agreement matches the person and number of the possessor (rather than the possessed subject), and the possessive-marking clitic attaches to the head of the clause (rather than to the possessum). Nuu-chah-nulth possessor raising is analyzed as a syntactic dependency between the possessive clitic in the main clause and the base-generated possessor position within DP. A Possessive Phrase can appear in either the DP or the clausal domain, and the possessive clitic may be generated in either position. When the possessive clitic is generated in the main clause, a possessor may raise out of subject position via feature-driven movement; the Minimal Link Condition prevents such movement from occurring out of object position.

scholarly journals Re-examining the relationship between the subject agreement morpheme and (in)definiteness in Northern Sotho

Literator ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mampaka L. Mojapelo
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Northern Sotho ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement

The grammatical position of the subject noun phrase in Northern Sotho is to the left of the predicate. The subject agreement morpheme is a compulsory link between the subject noun phrase and the predicate. Scholars have examined the role of this morpheme from various perspectives. It is also extensively documented that the morpheme has dual functions. Its primary function is to mark agreement between the subject and the predicate. Its secondary function is pronominal, whereby it is co-referenced to some antecedent. This article reexamined the primary role of the subject agreement morpheme in Northern Sotho in relation to the interpretation of a subject noun phrase as definite or indefinite. This was accomplished by (1) revisiting existing works that are directly or indirectly linked to (in)definiteness and subject agreement, (2) analysing texts that may facilitate discussion on the issue, and (3) relating the findings from previous works to current analyses. The first hypothesis in this article was that when some class 9 subject noun phrases, denoting persons, agree with the verb stem by a class 1 agreement morpheme, the noun phrases are interpreted as definite. The second hypothesis was that although the subject position is considered predominantly topical and definite it may not categorically exclude indefinite noun phrases. Therefore some indefinite noun phrases may also agree with predicates by means of this morpheme.

Measuring the alternation strength of causative verbs

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 219-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Romain
Keyword(s):  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Causative Alternation ◽  
Low Degree ◽  
Central Elements ◽  
Causative Construction ◽  
Qualitative Analyses ◽  
Causative Verbs

Abstract This paper presents a method for quantitative and qualitative analyses of the causative alternation in English, where verbs may alternate between a transitive (causative) construction (Santa crinkled his eyes) and an intransitive (non-causative) construction (His eyes crinkled).1 The aim of this paper is to present a method designed to measure the alternation strength of causative verbs, i.e. the extent to which they alternate between the two constructions. One of the central elements this paper investigates is the Theme, i.e. the participant that is in subject position in the intransitive construction and object position in the transitive construction. A distinctive collostructional analysis (Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004) shows that certain verbs are significantly attracted to one of either two constructions while others are equivalently distributed in the two constructions. However, after careful analysis it appears that very few Themes actually overlap between the two constructions (Lemmens forthcoming) which indicates that each construction seems to be rather restrictive regarding which Themes they recruit. The low degree of alternation of the Themes leads us to ask ourselves the extent to which the alternation is part of a speaker’s knowledge of their language.

Clitics as input to the acquisition of verbal transitivity in French

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-133
Author(s):  
Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux ◽  
Mihaela Pirvulescu ◽  
Yves Roberge ◽  
Nelleke Strik
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Verb Learning ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Direct Objects ◽  
Object Pronouns

Abstract We investigate the effect of French clitic construction on verb learning. In French, object pronouns precede the verb, and the canonical direct object position remains empty. We test whether children treat such contexts as input for transitivity (since a direct object is morphologically identified) or optional transitivity (due to the empty direct object position). Forty-eight monolingual French preschoolers heard verb input with clitics and noun phrases as direct objects, in two input conditions: obligatory transitivity, and mixed optional transitivity. Results show that children are sensitive to the input, but produce more sentences with null implicit objects in the clitic conditions. This provides evidence that specific properties of a language (e.g. clitic constructions), affect the acquisition of verbal classes.

Setting the Stage for Automatic Syntax Processing: The Mismatch Negativity as an Indicator of Syntactic Priming

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna S. Hasting ◽  
Sonja A. Kotz ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Mismatch Negativity ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Early Event ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Word Category ◽  
Topographical Distribution ◽  
Auditory Change Detection ◽  
The Impact

The present study investigated the automaticity of morphosyntactic processes and processes of syntactic structure building using event-related brain potentials. Two experiments were conducted, which contrasted the impact of local subject-verb agreement violations (Experiment 1) and word category violations (Experiment 2) on the mismatch negativity, an early event-related brain potential component reflecting automatic auditory change detection. The two violation types were realized in two-word utterances comparable with regard to acoustic parameters and structural complexity. The grammaticality of the utterances modulated the mismatch negativity response in both experiments, suggesting that both types of syntactic violations were detected automatically within 200 msec after the violation point. However, the topographical distribution of the grammaticality effect varied as a function of violation type, which indicates that the brain mechanisms underlying the processing of subject-verb agreement and word category information may be functionally distinct even at this earliest stage of syntactic analysis. The findings are discussed against the background of studies investigating syntax processing beyond the level of two-word utterances.

A bidirectional study on the acquisition of plural noun phrase interpretation in English and Spanish

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
TANIA IONIN ◽  
SILVINA MONTRUL ◽  
MÓNICA CRIVOS
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
First Language ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
First Language Transfer ◽  
Bare Plurals

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates how learners interpret definite plural noun phrases (e.g., the tigers) and bare (article-less) plural noun phrases (e.g., tigers) in their second language. Whereas Spanish allows definite plurals to have both generic and specific readings, English requires definite plurals to have specific, nongeneric readings. Generic readings in English are expressed with bare plurals, which are ungrammatical in Spanish in preverbal subject position. Two studies were conducted in order to investigate the role of first language transfer in this domain in both English → Spanish and Spanish → English directions. Study 1 used a meaning-focused task to probe learners’ interpretation of definite plural nour phrases, whereas Study 2 used a form-focused task to examine learners’ judgments of the acceptability of definite and bare plurals in generic versus specific contexts. First language transfer was attested in both directions, at lower proficiency levels, whereas more targetlike performance was attested at higher proficiency levels. Furthermore, learners were found to be more successful in learning about the (un)grammaticality of bare plurals in the target language than in assigning the target interpretation to definite versus bare plurals. This finding is shown to be consistent with other studies’ findings of plural noun phrase interpretation in monolingual and bilingual children.

Here's Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist*

1994 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 556-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary D. Garrard
Keyword(s):  
Women Artists ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sofonisba Anguissola ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Art And Society

An Unusual Portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola has gained new prominence from its illustration in color in a recent publication. In her Women, Art, and Society (1990), Whitney Chadwick claims of the portrait in question, Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola (fig. 1), that in presenting herself in the guise of a portrait being painted by her teacher, Anguissola produced “the first historical example of the woman artist consciously collapsing the subject-object position.” Chadwick's succinct observation opens up the possibility of understanding the painting in a new way, for she points to the peculiar conflation of subject and object that uniquely befell women artists in the Renaissance and complicates their art, especially their self-portraits. From this starting point, I will here explore the form of self-presentation offered by Anguissola in the Siena portrait and several other works in the context of what was a fundamental problem for the Renaissance female artist: the differentiation of herself as artist (the subject position) from her self as trope and theme for the male artist (the object position).

A quantifier used on many occasions

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Dichtel
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Relative Affinity ◽  
Core Meaning

Prescriptive grammarians advise against the use of the quantifier many in informal positive sentences, unless it is modified by too, so, or as. However, because these grammarians may not have conducted a thorough corpus-based analysis, such advice may be unsound. This is why this article attempts to identify the actual constraints on the use of many, by searching corpora for data for many and its competitor a lot of, with plural count nouns in positive sentences. Conducted within the conceptual framework of cognitive linguistics, the analysis suggests that quantities denoted by many are construed as heterogeneous and discrete, hence the relative affinity of many for nouns of place and time, as part of adverbial phrases. This core meaning may also account for many’s relative affinity for personal nouns in subject position. Unlike a lot of, many seems to associate awkwardly with homogeneous substances, which may be why it is rarely found in object noun phrases.

scholarly journals Complexity in the Noun Phrase Structure of the Nigerian EFCC Act

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63
Author(s):  
Usman Muhammed Bello ◽  
Rachel Afegbua Zainab
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
The Times ◽  
Post Modification

This research examines the noun phrase structure in the EFCC Act. Other English phrases (verb, adjectival, adverbial, and prepositional phrases) are unimportant to this study except, of course, when they relate to noun phrase. The design for the research is qualitative/content analysis. The EFCC Act provides the data for the study. Noun phrases of different realisations are randomly selected from the text in order to establish the extent of their complexity or otherwise by categorizing the kinds of structure that pre-modify or post-modify the head word. These are further examined in order to establish the extent of their complexity or otherwise by categorizing the kinds of structure that pre-modify or post-modify the head word. The analysis is based on the MHQ models. Findings show that the Act is populated with complex noun phrases, and this complexity, most of the times, lies in post-modification and, at other times, in pre-modification. Sometimes, both pre-modification and post-modification are responsible for this complexity. However, complexity is more realized through post-modification than pre-modification. This complexity is a result of an attempt to restrict or limit the sense of the headword or an attempt to reduce meaning to possible exactitude or clarity.

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