Le flux de l’information. Une analyse développementale de la Preferred Argument Structure (Du Bois, 1987, 2003)

Spoken Narrative and Preferred Clause Structure

Studies in Language ◽

10.1075/sl.20.1.07sut ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 163-189 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Wendy Sutherland-Smith

Keyword(s):

Information Flow ◽

Argument Structure ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Cognitive Factors ◽

Oral Narrative ◽

Clause Structure ◽

Du Bois

This study examines the spontaneous oral narrative of three native speakers of Hebrew for overall clause structure in terms of number and type of arguments per clause, following DuBois' (1985) theory of Preferred Argument Structure. The results indicate that there exists a preferred shape for narrative clauses in Hebrew and that it strongly parallels that which has been found in the ergative Mayan language, Sacapultec, upon which Du Bois' study is based. As Hebrew is a nominative-accusative language, the results point to the universality of pragmatic-cognitive factors and information flow in discourse.

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Diachronic Aspects of Preferred Argument Structure in English and Broader Implications

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society ◽

10.3765/bls.v28i1.3844 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 289 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Reijirou Shibasaki

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Old French ◽

Gradual Transition ◽

Du Bois ◽

Early Stages ◽

History Of

Building on speculations from preceding studies, this study aims to determine whether Preferred Argument Structure (PAS, Du Bois 1987) holds for early stages of English. As Ashby & Bentivoglio (to appear) concede in their concluding remarks, a simple comparison of PAS, in Old French and Modem French for example, is not sufficient for uncovering and understanding the nature of PAS. Therefore, this study aims to show the gradual transition of PAS in the history of English.

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The discourse motivation for split-ergative alignment in Dutch nominalisations (and elsewhere)

Pragmatics ◽

10.1075/prag.24.2.07vel ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 317-348 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Freek Van de Velde

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Natural Consequence ◽

Du Bois ◽

Discourse Grammar ◽

Grammar Model

Dutch nominalisations of the type het eten van vlees (‘the eating of meat’) have ergative alignment. The alignment is functionally motivated, in that it is a natural consequence of the flow of discourse. The functional account that is put forward here draws on the notion of Preferred Argument Structure (Du Bois 1987) and on the distinction between foregrounded and backgrounded discourse (Hopper & Thompson 1980). Support for this account comes from other domains of ergativity in Dutch, such as causativised predicates and participial constructions and from the observation that the alignment in Dutch nominalisations is in fact split-ergative. The present study adduces corpus evidence to corroborate the claims. In the last section, the analysis is cast in a Functional Discourse Grammar model (Hengeveld & Mackenzie 2008), including its hitherto underdescribed Contextual Component.

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Referential Choices in Narratives of 4-Year-Old Thai-Speaking Children

MANUSYA ◽

10.1163/26659077-01301004 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 44-59

Author(s):

Theeraporn Ratitamkul

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Subject Positions ◽

Du Bois ◽

Children's Narratives ◽

Selection Of

This paper examines how 4-year-old Thaispeaking children made referential choices when referring to animate entities in a story. The aim is to answer two questions. First, do young Thai children’s narratives exhibit Preferred Argument Structure (PAS) patterns (Du Bois 1987)? And, second, do young Thai children differentiate their choice of referential forms based on discourse contexts? It was found that children’s selection of referential forms generally followed the PAS constraints. The only constraint that was not strictly observed was the Non-lexical A constraint. Furthermore, children were found to be influenced by discourse contexts when they expressed arguments in subject positions. The evidence also showed that, at 4 years of age, children showed a preference for lexical forms and were not yet fully capable of using referential forms to create coherence in narratives.

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Overcoming preferred argument structure in written French

Written Language & Literacy ◽

10.1075/wll.18.1.02maz ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 25-55 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Audrey Mazur-Palandre

Keyword(s):

Language Development ◽

Argument Structure ◽

Language Production ◽

Noun Phrases ◽

Spoken Language ◽

Written Language ◽

Text Type ◽

Du Bois ◽

Flow Of Information ◽

Production Part

Spoken and written French contrast in many ways. Our goal here is to show how later language development is profoundly impacted by experience with written language. More than 120 French-speakers/ writers, one group of children (mean age: 10;9) and two groups of adolescents (mean age: 12;7 and 15;2), participated in this study. Our analysis of noun phrases is inspired by the hypothesis of Preferred Argument Structure (Du Bois 1987) and examines referential cohesion in texts produced in contexts differing in modality (spoken – written) and text type (expository – narrative). Our aim is to demonstrate: (a) that spoken language production is governed by discursive constraints which control the flow of information; and (b) these discursive constraints differ for written and spoken production. Part of learning to become a literate user of French involves overcoming the discourse constraints governing spoken language production.

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A reconsideration of the motivations for preferred argument structure

Studies in Language ◽

10.1075/sl.33.1.02eve ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 1-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Caleb Everett

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Du Bois ◽

Cognitive Motivations ◽

Basic Semantic ◽

General Restriction

Previous studies on Preferred Argument Structure have suggested (Du Bois 1987, 2002) and accepted (e.g. Goldberg 2004) specific cognitive motivations for PAS, namely that the general restriction of lexical arguments and new referents to the S and O roles facilitates the conceptually onerous task of referent introduction. In this paper, conversation data from English and Portuguese are analyzed. The data are generally inconsistent with the putative cognitive motivations for PAS presented in the literature. They suggest instead that PAS is most likely epiphenomenal and due to basic semantic and pragmatic factors, for example the correlation between human referents and given/non-lexical arguments, and the correlation between human referents and the A role.

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