Knowledge of English verb phrase ellipsis by speakers of Arabic and Chinese

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Verb Phrase Ellipsis ◽  
Persistent Problem ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
English Verb

English verb phrase ellipsis (VPE) involves both syntactic and discourse information. The present study investigates knowledge of these properties by L1 speakers of Arabic and Mandarin Chinese. Three issues are addressed. Can the participants acquire syntactic properties of VPE that differ from their L1s and are under-determined by positive evidence? Can they acquire all of the syntactic properties of VPE that differ from their L1s? Can they successfully integrate their knowledge of the syntax of VPE with discourse information determining felicity? Results from a sentence completion judgement task are broadly consistent with the L2 participants having Universal Grammar (UG)-constrained grammars for VPE, and with their being able to successfully integrate syntactic representations with discourse information. A persistent problem with an uninterpretable feature is discussed, as are the implications of the findings for the claim that VPE involves gradient grammaticality.

Processing verb-phrase ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence against the syntactic account

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 810-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenguang G. Cai ◽  
Martin J. Pickering ◽  
Patrick Sturt
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Verb Phrase Ellipsis ◽  
Verb Phrase

Selective vulnerability in very advanced L2 grammars: Evidence from VPE constraints

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-252
Author(s):  
Kholoud A Al-Thubaiti
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Selective Vulnerability ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Verb Phrase Ellipsis ◽  
Saudi Arabic ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
English Verb ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

This study examines whether the second language acquisition (L2A) of syntactic properties at the interfaces is problematic for L2 learners. English verb phrase ellipsis (VPE) was tested as an interface property which involves feature interpretability. Two subtle contrasts of VPE at different grammar-internal interfaces were examined: (a) copula be and lexical verb ellipsis at the syntax–lexicon interface (*John is here, and Mary will too vs. John slept, and Mary will too), and (b) progressive be and perfective have stranding at the syntax–semantics interface (*John slept, and Mary was too vs. Peter saw your parents last week, but he hasn’t since). Unlike (a), the contrast in (b) requires identifying (un)interpretable features on -ing and -en to recover the semantics of the elided material. Since Saudi Arabic does not license VPE, (very-)advanced English L2 speakers whose first language (L1) is Saudi Arabic were tested. The results from a bimodal timed acceptability judgment task showed they were more target-like on the contrast at the syntax–lexicon interface than they were on the syntax–semantics interface. They particularly deviated from target-like judgments on have stranding which requires recognizing the perfective uninterpretable feature on - en. These results suggest selective vulnerability at grammar-internal interfaces whenever uninterpretable features are involved.

Stop Laryngeal Distinctions Driven by Contrastive Effects of Neighboring Tones

2020 ◽  
pp. 002383092092289
Author(s):  
Sang-Im Lee-Kim
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Target Tone ◽  
High Tone ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Linguistic Experience ◽  
Tonal Context

This study examined contrastive effects of neighboring tones that give rise to a systematic asymmetry in stop perception. Korean-speaking learners of Mandarin Chinese and naïve listeners labeled voiceless unaspirated stops preceded or followed by low or high extrinsic tonal context (e.g., maLO.pa vs. maHI.pa) either as lenis (associated with a low F0 at the vowel onset) or as fortis stops (with a high F0). Further, the target tone itself varied between level and rising (e.g., maLO.paLEV vs. maLO.paRIS). Both groups of listeners showed significant contrastive effects of extrinsic context. Specifically, more lenis responses were elicited in a high tone context than in a low one, and vice versa. This indicates that the onset F0 of a stop is perceived lower in a high tone context, which, in turn, provides positive evidence for lenis stops. This effect was more clearly pronounced for the level than for the contour tone target and also for the preceding than for the following context irrespective of linguistic experience. Despite qualitative similarities, learners showed larger effects for all F0 variables, indicating that the degree of context effects may be enhanced by one’s phonetic knowledge, namely sensitivity to F0 cues along with the processing of consecutive tones acquired through learning a tone language.

On the syntactic status of sentential adverbs and modal particles

2010 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvio Cruschina
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Role ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Syntactic Status ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Modal Adverbs

AbstractThis paper sets out a number of reasons for establishing a distinction between sentential (modal) adverbs and modal particles. Adverbs and particles are generally difficult to define as two distinct and independent word classes in terms of unitary criteria and distinctive properties. The traditional role of an adverb is that of modifying a verb or a verb phrase. In reality, adverbs also modify adjectives, sentences, and other adverbs. Particles also serve a sort of ‘modification’ function. Modal particles, for example, take the whole sentence as their object and fit its content to the context of speech. This ‘vague’ similarity, though, should not be interpreted as a motivation for assimilating the two categories, especially when other syntactic properties, such as the sentential position, the distribution, and the sensitivity to sentence types, together with their correlated semantic interpretations, are taken into consideration.

The partitive construction in Mandarin Chinese

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Jin
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Small Clause ◽  
Parametric Variation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Syntactic Derivation

This paper investigates the semantic and syntactic properties of [N(oun)+de+Q(uantifier)] in Mandarin Chinese. Based on a comparison with the quantitive construction [Q+N], the paper advocates that [N+de+Q] is the Chinese partitive construction. Adopting a clausal approach to the syntactic derivation of partitives, it is hypothesized that Chinese partitives are formed via applying Predicate Inversion to a small clause that features a BELONG-type possession relationship. The difference between Chinese partitives and English-type partitives in terms of the surface word order is a result of a parametric variation with respect to whether the remnant of Predication Inversion undergoes further raising or not.

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