The time course of long-distance anaphor processing in Korean

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chung-hye Han ◽  
Dennis Ryan Storoshenko ◽  
Betty Hei Man Leung ◽  
Kyeong-min Kim
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Anaphor Resolution ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Null Pronoun ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Matrix Subject

While early studies on the Korean long distance anaphor caki describe it to be subject-oriented in that it can only take subject antecedents, similarly to long distance anaphors in many other languages, more recent studies observe that it can take non-subject antecedents as well, especially in the context of certain verbs. This paper presents a visual-world eye-tracking study that tested whether the antecedent potential of caki in an embedded subject position is a function of the matrix subject, the matrix verb, or both, and whether the subject and the verb effects constrain the interpretation of caki in the same way as null pronouns, a commonly used pronominal form in Korean. These questions were addressed through an investigation of how the subject effect and the verb effect were manifested in processing these pronouns. We found that when caki, but not null pronouns, was first processed, there were more fixations to the images representing the matrix subject than the images representing the matrix object regardless of the matrix verb. We further found that the proportions of fixations to the images in both caki and null trials changed after the processing of some sentential verbs. These findings demonstrate that while null pronoun interpretation is a function of the verb effect only, caki-interpretation is a function of both the subject and the verb effect, supporting a multiple-constraints approach to anaphor resolution.

Apparent raising in Tongan and its implications for multiple case valuation

2021 ◽  
pp. 192-215
Author(s):  
Yuko Otsuka
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Embedded Clause ◽  
Parametric Adjustment ◽  
Matrix Subject ◽  
Case Feature ◽  
Activity Condition

Apparent raising (AR) constructions in Tongan resemble raising constructions in that the thematic subject of the embedded clause seems to occur in the matrix subject position. Unlike regular raising, however, Tongan AR shows characteristics of A-bar movement such as long-distance dependency, sensitivity to islands, and syntactic ergativity. This chapter argues that Tongan AR involves three operations: (a) topic movement of a DP to the embedded [Spec, C], (b) cancelation of the previous valuation of the case feature on the DP in [Spec, C], and (c) subsequent case valuation under Agree with the matrix v. The proposed analysis calls for a parametric adjustment to the activity condition to allow for multiple case valuation: in languages like Tongan, a DP located at the edge of a phase not only remains active, but the valuation of its case feature gets undone upon completion of the CP phase.

Conditions on prominent internal possessors in Turkish

2019 ◽  
pp. 163-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asli Göksel ◽  
Balkiz Öztürk
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Adverbial Clause ◽  
Matrix Subject ◽  
Psych Verb

This chapter investigates the syntactic properties of the prominent possessor constructions in Turkish. Possessors of possessive phrases become prominent only in a set of well-defined constructions, namely, from within an adverbial clause, typically containing a body part idiom. These idioms have the structure NP-POSS V, where N is a noun of inalienable possession, V is an unaccusative verb, and the idiom itself is paraphraseable as a psych-verb. The chapter analyses the syntactic structure of these idioms and proposes that the subject position in the adverbial clause is occupied by PRO. PRO is in the c-command domain of the matrix subject and is the locus of the experiencer of the unaccusative verb. The possessor is coindexed with this experiencer via its morphosyntactic features.

On the loss of copy-raising and the development of infinitive complements

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-109
Author(s):  
Łukasz Jędrzejowski
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Old High German ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Embedded Clause ◽  
Copy Raising ◽  
Matrix Subject ◽  
Dependent Clause

This article deals with (non‑)finite complement clauses embedded under the inceptive phase predicate beginnen ‘begin’ in the history of German and illustrates how infinitives replaced finite clauses headed by the complementizer dass ‘that’. The main objective is to show that it was possible in Old High German (750–1050) to raise the subject from the embedded clause into the matrix subject position, crossing a CP boundary and leaving a pronominal copy in the dependent clause (copy-raising). Moreover, it is claimed that beginnen in its function as a subject control verb instantiates a recent development in the history of German and that this use developed out of a raising structure.

scholarly journals Empty operator raising in Kitharaka

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-130
Author(s):  
Carolyn Harford
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Embedded Clause ◽  
Matrix Subject ◽  
Operator Movement

The Kenyan Bantu language Kitharaka (E.54) has a biclausal construction in which a verb with an athematic subject takes a finite complement. A referential NP in the matrix subject position may acquire its thematic role through linkage with an argument at a lower level of embedding. The paper presents evidence that this construction, referred to as Empty Operator Raising, involves empty operator movement, although it is also semantically similar to Raising-to-Subject. If the matrix subject is distinct from the subject of the nearest embedded clause, this clause must contain a clefted NP. The author proposes that this clefting is a distancing strategy to prevent an empty operator in SPEC/CP from binding the embedded subject position, to avoid forming an illicit chain with the matrix subject.

A contrastive analysis of absolute constructions in French, German and Norwegian

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Hobæk Haff
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
General Question ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The One ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Matrix Subject

This paper is an exploration of similarities and differences concerning absolute constructions in French, German and Norwegian. In the first part, I have examined a more general question raised by these constructions: the connections between these types of absolute constructions and the matrix subject. I have shown that the means by which the absolute constructions are related to the subject can be morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmatic. The second part contains a purely contrastive analysis. Two issues have been examined: on the one hand, the absolute constructions and their congruent and non-congruent correspondences, on the other, the use of determiners. Essentially, French is different from the two Germanic languages, but similarities also exist between French and German, which are the center of a European Sprachbund.

scholarly journals Slow local movements of collagen fibers by fibroblasts drive the rapid global self-organization of collagen gels

2002 ◽  
Vol 157 (6) ◽  
pp. 1083-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravi K. Sawhney ◽  
Jonathon Howard
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Tensile Axis ◽  
Mouse Skin ◽  
Collagen Matrix ◽  
Collagen Gels ◽  
Periodontal Ligament Fibroblasts ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Primary Mouse ◽  
The Matrix

Aclassic model for tissue morphogenesis is the formation of ligament-like straps between explants of fibroblasts placed in collagen gels. The patterns arise from mechanical forces exerted by cells on their substrates (Harris et al., 1981). However, where do such straps come from, and how are slow local movements of cells transduced into dramatic long-distance redistributions of collagen? We embedded primary mouse skin and human periodontal ligament fibroblasts in collagen gels and measured the time course of patterning by using a novel computer algorithm to calculate anisotropy, and by tracking glass beads dispersed in the gel. As fibroblasts began to spread into their immediate environments, a coordinated rearrangement of collagen commenced throughout the gel, producing a strap on a time scale of minutes. Killing of cells afterwards resulted in a partial relaxation of the matrix strain. Surprisingly, relatively small movements of collagen molecules on the tensile axis between two pulling explants induced a much larger concomitant compression of the gel perpendicular to the axis, organizing and aligning fibers into a strap. We propose that this amplification is due to the geometry of the collagen matrix, and that analogous amplified movements may drive morphological changes in other biological meshes, both outside and inside the cell.

Off-Line Reflexive Resolution in Parsing Japanese Logophoric Sentences: An Extension

1995 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Nagata
Keyword(s):  
External Validity ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Matrix Subject

This study examined the external validity of Nagata's 1995 finding on off-line resolution of a Japanese reflexive. jibun, for logophoric and nonlogophoric sentences. The subject marker, - ga, was attached to both a matrix-subject and a subordinate-subject as contrasted with the previous study in which the matrix-subject received a topic marker, - wa. Analysis again showed no effect of sentence type, thus making invalid Kuroda's (1973) thesis and Chomsky's (1981) binding principle as applied to parsing logophoric and nonlogophoric sentences.

Reflexive Resolution in Parsing Japanese Logophoric and Nonlogophoric Sentences

1995 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 943-953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hlroshi Nagata
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Type ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Final Interpretation ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Matrix Subject

This study addresses online resolution of the Japanese reflexive, jibun, for logophoric and nonlogophoric sentences in which the reflexive was manipulated to relate more often with a subject of a subordinate sentence (subordinate-subject) than with that of a matrix sentence (matrix-subject). 48 students were administered an antecedent identification task on which they were required to identify quickly and accurately the antecedent of the reflexive with a marker given to them either immediately after the end of a sentence following a matrix-verb or 4 sec. later. Despite the manipulation, the matrix-subject was predominantly judged to be the antecedent of the reflexive regardless of the sentence type. However, the subordinate-subject as the judged antecedent of the reflexive increased on the average from around 30.6% immediately after the end of the sentence to 50.1% 4 sec. later. Findings indicate that Japanese speakers are insensitive to the logophoricity involved in the reflexive sentences and a certain length of time is needed for the final interpretation of the sentences to be well established.

On the habitual verb pflegen in German. Its use, origin, and development

Linguistics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Jędrzejowski
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Middle High German ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Distributional Properties ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Matrix Subject ◽  
Subject Raising

Abstract In this article, I examine the distributional properties, emergence conditions, and development of the habitual verbal head pflegen ‘use(d) to’ in the history of German. Synchronically, I argue that Present-day German possesses subject to subject raising verbs and that they can all be brought down to a common denominator: They allow promotion of the embedded subject into the matrix subject position (= A-movement). However, at the same time I argue that German subject to subject raising verbs differ and that their heterogeneity follows from their semantics. What all this boils down to is that German subject to subject raising verbs do not form a uniform class, neither semantically nor syntactically. As for pflegen, I account for its syntactic peculiarities referring to its functional status, i.e., the status of being a habitual head. Diachronically, I show that pflegen grammaticalized into an AspHAB-head in the transition from Old High German (750–1050) to Middle High German (1050–1350) and that this grammaticalization process restricted the way it behaves in Present-day German.

scholarly journals Similarity in linguistic categorization: The importance of necessary properties

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siva Kalyan,
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Relevant Aspect ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Categorization Task ◽  
Complement Clause ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Linguistic Categorization ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Structure Properties

AbstractUsage-based models of language propose that the acceptability of an element in a constructional slot is determined by its similarity to attested fillers of that slot (Bybee 2010, ch. 4). However, Ambridge and Goldberg (2008) find that the acceptability of a long-distance-dependency (LDD) question does not correlate with the judged similarity of the matrix verb to think and say, which are by far the most frequently attested fillers of this slot. They propose instead that the acceptability of LDD questions is determined by the degree of fit between the information-structure properties of the matrix verb and those specified by the construction—specifically, the degree to which the matrix verb foregrounds its complement clause. This paper explores the possibility of reconciling this explanation with one based on similarity by suggesting that in this case the relevant aspect of similarity is precisely the verb’s foregrounding of its complement. Evidence for this suggestion comes from psychological research showing that in a categorization task, the similarity of an item to the exemplars of a category is judged primarily with respect to the features common to all category members, as well as from the observation that virtually all attested matrix verbs in LDD questions strongly tend to foreground their complements.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document